I must admit, this is not territory I expected Buzzfeed to cover, and yet here we are. The irreverent listicle king of the interwebz delves into theology with its roundup, “The 16 Most Bizarre Moments In The Bible.” [Click headline for more…] Read more
Thanks to a tip from reader Ed, I can present to you the following video clip from an Eternal World Television Network (ETWN) program describing Hell, as best as the Catholic Church currently accepts and understands it. Most of it will be familiar, descriptions of souls suffering from shame, regret, and despair (which sounds like real life so far), but also notes that damned souls are “continually tormented in all their senses, but in priecely what way, we do not know. [Click headline for more…] Read more
The Virginia GOP sure knows how to pick ‘em. Its candidate for Lt. Governor is going out of his way to induce a collective facepalm amongst non-wingers everywhere. (And when’s the last time you had even heard of, let alone were incensed by a candidate for Lt. Governor?) E.W. Jackson, already a circus-on-wheels of wingnuttery, is tired of being, well, quoted. [Click headline for more…] Read more
Five months ago, Papua New Guinean cult leader Steven Tari, who liked to refer to himself as “Black Jesus,” did it again. Every time he’d been caught for his shocking crimes — which included rape, murder, and (according to many) ritual cannibalism — he’d managed to escape. His most mindbending getaway had occurred some eight years ago, when he …escaped prior to his trial with the help of a Lutheran pastor, Logan Sapus, who had been assigned to counsel him but became converted to Tari’s cult instead. [Click headline for more…] Read more
According to NPR, Russell Moore (41) became “the public face of Evangelical Christians” recently when he was appointed to be the leader of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. Southern Baptists, NPR explains, …represent nearly 40,000 churches and missions, claiming nearly 16 million members in the country. As the leader of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, where he succeeds the very influential and prominent Richard Land, Mr. Moore will be at the forefront of some of… Read more
A court in India has reportedly given the OK to an atheist organization to hold a “rationalist festival” in the city of Chennai in September, after being denied permission by local police. The particular organization is unnamed in the media about the event that I’ve seen. [Click headline for more…] Read more
I just came across this Cracked article about how to deal with 419 scammers. Though the whole thing is pretty mirth-inducing, nothing made me laugh harder than the fictional Bible verses that author “John Cheese” quotes at the end of his faux-Christian e-mails to the African shyster. For instance: “He who sees the light of the Lord shall bow to his lightful mercy. And he who sees the dark of the Devil shall dance the dance of the wicked music long.” —Xanadu 1:1:5 [Click headline for more…] Read more
As he handed me the keys to his blog earlier, Hemant kindly plugged my new podcast, which I launched in July, almost entirely for my own amusement. The gist was that I happen to know a lot of interesting and smart people, and gee, might it be neat to interview them, since I want to do a podcast anyway. Therefore, the Obcast was born. When I set out on my project, my intention was to keep the potential topics of discussion as broad as possible, and not be just another skeptic show. [Click headline for more…] Read more
It sometimes surprises me that more folks who study religion full time don’t become atheists. It seems to me that any critically-minded exploration of religion, grappling with the details of faith and myth, would have to lead a person to, at the very least, some very serious questioning. That seems to have been the case for blogger Carly Jurica, whose minor in Biblical and Theological Studies began her journey away from acceptance of Christianity’s claims. “I was ending up with a lot of questions and very few solid answers,” she writes. [Click headline for more…] Read more
