Reading Time: 3 minutes A little-known Old Testament story tells of the healing power of a dead prophet’s bones. The Bible has lots of odd miracle stories. What would it mean for our world if these stories were real?
Miracles and Magic
Posted inGaming
Worldbuilding: How to reject reality and create your own
Reading Time: 13 minutes Long ago, I discovered what it must be like to be a god. I stretched forth my hand and called continents and cultures, animals and cities, sometimes entire worlds into being. I altered the laws of physics and the nature of reality. If that’s not what a god does, then what is?
Posted inReligion
Evangelist recruiters and the omnimax god who needs human help
Reading Time: 9 minutes Christians demonstrate by their actions that they know perfectly well their god couldn’t manage to arrange a visit to the potty without them helping him every step of the way.
Posted inGeneral
When Prayer Fails: COVID Edition
Reading Time: 2 minutes The religious right has trained themselves to deny science as part of their tribal identity, and now they’ve met a case where the consequences of doing so are immediate and dire.
Posted inGeneral
The Strange Sad Story of Olive Heiligenthal
Reading Time: 6 minutes The only fatal error in religion is putting your beliefs to an unambiguous test.
Posted inGeneral
The God Biz, Part 1
Reading Time: 16 minutes By James A. Haught Gospel fervor gleamed in 3,000 faces at the $30 million city arena at Charleston, West Virginia. People around me, arms upraised, jerked in spasms as they loosed the unknown tongue: “Shend-a-la-goosh-a-ma. Dee-dee-dee-dee.” A young woman beside me leaped and squealed. Others wiped tears, swaying and rocking. Evangelist Ernest Angley from Akron, […]
Posted inGeneral
Adventures in the Bible Belt
Reading Time: 4 minutes The snake-handlers and miracle men of evangelical Appalachia.
Posted inGeneral
Repost: “Choose Faith in Spite of the Facts”
Reading Time: 4 minutes I usually don’t think it’s worth beating up on the purveyors of popular evangelical feel-goodism, for the same reason I don’t get in boxing matches with life-size Jell-O sculptures. But I had to make an exception for this tweet from human tooth-whitening strip Joel Osteen: The facts may tell you one thing. But, God is […]
Posted inGeneral
The Rush to Canonize Mother Teresa
Reading Time: 4 minutes The conclusion of this process was decided in advance.
Posted inGeneral
Weekend Coffee: July 5
Reading Time: 2 minutes • Iceland repeals its blasphemy law, which they apparently had until now? • Three cheers for California! The state legislature ends all non-medical exemptions for mandatory vaccination, despite vociferous protests from die-hard anti-vaxers. • In the wake of the Obergefell decision legalizing same-sex marriage, some Christians are writing optimistically about the last-ditch option of retreating […]