Reading Time: 4 minutes Superstition in all it many forms faced two significant challenges in 1881. This was the year that G W Foote launched his UK atheist magazine, The Freethinker, saying that “it will wage relentless war against Superstition in general, and against Christian Superstition in particular.” Meanwhile, across the pond, bon viveur William Fowler found a different […]
Superstition
Posted inSpirituality & Ritual
Anxiety and fear fuels religion’s enduring power
Reading Time: 5 minutes In my childhood and youth, I was often reminded that Christianity had nothing whatsoever to do with superstition. In the back of my mind, by my teens at least, I went along with the traditions of my Anglican “tribal” community but found difficulty in identifying a borderline between beliefs accepted in my own, or any […]
Posted inPsychology
If the dead visit our dreams, what does it mean?
Reading Time: 4 minutes Of several hypotheses of the genesis of supernatural religion in humankind, ancient interpretation of dreams is a top contender.
Posted inReligion
Dutch teen lauds mother’s love in allowing her to end life
Reading Time: 3 minutes The topic of suicide makes many people uncomfortable, but it’s a fact of human life that can end great misery. Allowing it can be kind.
Posted inGeneral
My atheism: How I became a Christian and then stopped being one
Reading Time: 3 minutes My parents did not appear to be religious, even though I and my brother had been baptised into the Church of England as infants. They never attended a church and I had the impression that my father at least was an atheist. However my brother and I were sent to attend a primary school run […]
Posted inNews
Preacher says he met an angel in 'really tight' ballet pants
Reading Time: 2 minutes Canadian evangelist and faith healer Todd Bentley, 42, has homo-erotic fantasies – and he’s happy to share them with his followers. The founder of Fresh Fire Ministries USA said during a summer “Supernatural Debt Forgiveness Jubilee Service” that in Albany, Oregon – in around 2004 or 2005 when he was aged about 28 – he […]
Posted inNews
Top Hindu: Don't use sacred imagery for 'mercantile greed'
Reading Time: 2 minutes The job of being President of the Universal Society of Hinduism (USofH) entails – among other important things – admonishing companies for messing with Hindu deities. And US-based Rajan Zed, above, who heads the USofH, is a nothing if not a world champion admonisher. Earlier this year he had a right go at Amazon for […]
Posted inNews
'Prophet' tricked family into digging up a dead relative
Reading Time: < 1 minute After swallowing the New Testament myth about Lazarus, and how he was brought back to life by a geezer called Jesus, an Ethiopian family agreed to dig up a relative and allow a ‘prophet’ to revive the corpse. It went badly. Despite being told repeatedly to “get up” by “prophet” Getayawkal Ayele, who lay on […]
Posted inNews
Thai ghostbusters round up 600 lost souls with hell money
Reading Time: < 1 minute Hell money is a form of joss paper printed to resemble legal tender bank notes and are burned in China and across East Asia in various supernatural ceremonies, including the rounding up of ghosts. The latest report of hell money-burning comes from Thailand, where bonfires of the fake banknotes took place this week to attract […]
Posted inUncategorized
Hell: real or fake?
Reading Time: 4 minutes Barry has already reported on the recurring story of “the pope says there is no hell … or does he?” but I want to point out some Profound Theological Questions the issue raises. Let’s start with the Catechism, via the Washington Post: The Catechism of the Catholic Church says, “The teaching of the Church affirms the […]