Semi-daily tidbits 18/10/2009

Biblical sex row over explicit illustrated Book of Genesis (Telegraph)
The book, which is released this month, carries the warning "adult supervision recommended for minors", and is described as "scandalous satire" by its publishers. It includes graphic illustrations of Bible characters having sexual intercourse, and other scenes depicting naked men and women as well as "gratuitous" depictions of violence.

Hell awaits for illegal file-sharers (Guardian)
In the war against albums being illegally uploaded on to the internet before they are released, David Tibet of the underground band Current 93 may have struck a minor, if resounding, victory. "This is a promotional CD," announces a little girl on the promo copy of Current 93's new album Aleph at Hallucinatory Mountain. "Anyone illegally selling, copying, uploading or downloading this material is condemned to eternal hellfire. Happy listening, God is love." Then Tibet – a devout Christian with strong views about the impending apocalypse – intones "murder" over a guitar riff heavy enough to terrify Satan. It makes you wonder whether a casual upload is really worth being cast into Hades for.
... "The announcement may have a certain dark humour, but it comes from my spiritual and religious convictions," says Tibet. "Ultimately, nothing is free; we pay for everything we do in one way or another. I'll be atoning for various sins at the Judgment Seat, but the illegal downloading of other people's music won't be one of them."

There are no easy answers in interfaith dialogue (Credo - Times Online)
One mistake that inexperienced interfaith dialoguers make is to try to identify the commonalities between various faiths. They might point to what appears to be similarities between Judaism and Islam in, say, the way in which prayer is conducted or fast days are observed.
I have experienced this first-hand because I used to do the same thing. It is attractive because it allows for the scoring of easy points without any serious intellectual or emotional investment. It is also painfully dishonest. To declare similarity between Judaism and Islam on the basis that their practitioners fast or pray is to betray an astonishing superficiality that does not do justice to either faith.
More importantly, the instinctive desire to find commonalities between faiths fundamentally undermines the whole point of interfaith dialogue in the first place, which is to learn how to respect those whose faith is profoundly different from your own.

Tom Honey on God and the tsunami (TED)

Physicists Calculate Number of Universes in the Multiverse (Technology Review)

The Social Psychology of the Origins Debate (An Evangelical Dialogue on Evolution)

Quote of the day:

The physical body certainly exists, the organism exists, but organisms are not selves. I don't deny that there is a self-y feeling. I certainly feel like someone, but there is no such thing. There is neither a non-physical thing in a realm beyond the brain or the physical world that we could call a self, but there's also no thing in the brain that we must necessary call a self.

German philosopher of mind Thomas Metzinger, interviewed by ABC