Reading Time: 8 minutes There’s a common idea in dogmatic religious circles, that “there are no atheists in foxholes”: that the moment an atheist is in serious peril, they’ll call out for divinity. That hasn’t been true to my experiences as an adult: even when robbed at gunpoint, or unfortunately when violently assaulted, I’ve never magically flipped a switch […]
Religion and Spirituality
Posted inReligion
The old fry cook and the world’s religions
Reading Time: 3 minutes The old fry cook was a man of un-muzzled thoughts. He was ancient and had been around since Noah was a sailor. One day he asked his smoke-choked clientele a question: “Which of ten thousand past, present, and future religions is the true religion?” Four customers in the jangled assembly, having already burnt their cheeks with the […]
Posted inReligion
The evolution of religion and the rise of the nones
Reading Time: 4 minutes The decline of Christianity in the United States does not mean that “religion” is dead or dying. News of the death of religion may excite humanists, but it is unlikely to go extinct. Religion is an adaptable social phenomenon. Religious beliefs and behaviors have always evolved. In a free country, this evolution will continue. Secularism […]
Posted inResearch
A bridge too far: The failure to capture ‘spiritual fitness’ in the US military
Reading Time: 3 minutes After massive resources have been spent trying to assess spiritual fitness in the military, scholars now admit it is not a meaningful concept.
Posted inReligion
Heresy! This Priest’s Magic Baptism Spell Was Worded ALL WRONG!
Reading Time: 8 minutes Today, we see what happens when these rituals don’t get done exactly right. See, a Catholic priest has realized that the magic ritual of baptism was performed incorrectly on him. Come and see the chaos that results when a magic spell gets said all wrong.
Posted inUncategorized
The Power of Good Rituals.
Reading Time: 10 minutes Yesterday I found myself attending to an age-old ritual that actually works, and I was thinking about how different my experience with it was from the ones I performed as a Christian. It starts with bacon, as most wondrous things do in my world.
Posted inReligion
A Little Bit Like Mourning: So Much For Your Happy Ending
Reading Time: 10 minutes Losing one’s faith can feel a lot like mourning the passing of a loved one. There’s so much emotion bound up in a deconversion that it can be hard to unpack exactly what’s happening. I’ve been thinking about the topic lately because we’ve been touching on the topic in comments here and there. Strangely, it was an old song that really crystallized and solidified some of my thoughts.
Posted inGeneral, Psychology, Religion
Evangelical Christianity and Low Self-Esteem
Reading Time: 8 minutes Like most swimmers, I try to get in some laps almost every day, but there is only one health club with a pool within decent driving distance from where I live. It doesn’t call itself a Christian gym, but it plays primarily Christian music overhead, holds prayer meetings and Bible studies, and incidentally it also […]
Posted inReligion
Speaking Out
Reading Time: 10 minutes (Content notice: Religious abuse, and atheists being raging misogynists.) In the wake of the Mark Driscoll fiasco, the Christian policing act has already begun. And I wanted to spend a little time today sharing why I think this policing act needs to stop, and why the fallout of this drama is such an important indicator […]
Posted inReligion
Speaking Out Against Misogyny
Reading Time: 10 minutes In the wake of the Mark Driscoll fiasco, the Christian policing act has already begun. And I wanted to spend a little time today sharing why I think this policing act needs to stop, and why the fallout of this drama is such an important indicator of a group’s health and potential usefulness to humanity. […]