Jesus Goes to the Dark Carnival: Hell House Gets a Makeover?

Hello my dear readers, and happy Halloween! Here's a nice little treat for you. (No trick, I promise!) It's another article from Religion Dispatches. The timely subject is the phasing-out (or is it?) of those "God-awful" Hell Houses the Evangelical churches used to stage during this Satanic holiday. Let us remind the boys and girls YET AGAIN that Samhain predates Christianity by at least a thousand years, and Satan is a Christian invention. So...even though you may wish with all your heart for this to be a Satanic holiday, it does not compute. Sorry. Anyway...went off on a mini-rant there...here's the article:

http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/religiousright/1976/jesus_goes_to_the_dark_carnival%3A_hell_house_gets_a_makeover/

Not sure these "Judgement Houses" are any different from the Hell Houses that preceded them. It's my opinion that these new incarnations are even more insidious because the message is more subtle.

Decomposing Humanism: Why Replace Religion?

At first glance, I thought I wasn't going to like this article. "Why Replace Religion?" seemed to beg for the answer, "Religion is great; it doesn't need replacing." I am happy to report I was wrong. Austin Dacey beautifully articulates, and argues against, the tendency among the more ardent atheists and humanists to proselytize to the disillusioned masses, hoping to lure away non-church people to some kind of organized, centralized secular humanist...church. It's like a group of anarchists trying to establish a centralized government. So, stop it already. We left church to get away from dogma. Duh...

http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/religionandtheology/1963/decomposing_humanism%3A_why_replace_religion/

By the way, be sure to check out the rest of this e-zine, Religion Dispatches. And check back often. Good stuff abounds.

A senator in a hostile climate: it must be very lonely being the last flat-earther

A Republican Senator from an oil-producing state still clings to the old party line that Global Warming is a hoax perpetrated by the Left? Nahhh.....surely not in this day and age. Once again, Al Gore's use of the Upton Sinclair quote in "An Inconvenient Truth" is terribly appropriate: "It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it." Seriously, people....time to vote this ignorant incompetent out of office. Then again, if we vote one ignorant incompetent out of office, we may as well proceed with the hundreds of others. Time to clean House? (And Senate?)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/27/AR2009102702845.html

On a positive note, even "responsible journalists" at the Washington Post seem to be making a judgment call and are displaying the proper response to Inhofe's shenanigans: ridicule.

"Playing God" and screwing around with bioethics is not a problem. But heaven forbid we grow (and smoke) a little weed...This cartoon would be funny if it didn't so accurately reflect the current rationale behind the "War on Drugs."

Church of Scientology hits rough patch

Finally...an appropriate response to this whack-a-doo cult. Let's just hope the conviction (and fines and prison term) stick.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/ynews_ts956

Faith No More: What I've learned from debating religious people around the world.

Remember the fun times I had in my Christian Ethics class? The professor was one of those "champions of faith" whom Christopher Hitchens (one of my superheros) debated. Here is a recent article written by Hitchens about his debates. It makes for good reading, and gives me hope that ultimately secular humanism will win in this world:

http://www.slate.com/id/2233586/?from=rss

Saw this ad on Facebook:

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Seriously? Look....if you're too busy to update your own damned blog, then....well, leave it until you're not too busy! Geesh! If you need help writing stuff like this, then perhaps you should find a different career/hobby.

I really have nothing to add to this. It pretty much speaks for itself.

Pointed Rant

Today's target is the History Channel. Is anyone else watching that awful new series "The Nostradamus Effect"? I've found it interesting, in that it is basically cotton candy for this historian's brain. I like Nostradamus and his work...as part literary genre part train wreck (as in no matter how horrible I know it's going to be I just can't tear myself away from the spectacle) but I do not believe in any prophetic mumbo jumbo, especially not some glorified court wizard with political ambitions. I do like it as poetry, though. And I love watching the brainless spazoids piss themselves over the coming apocalypse.

Last week's episode of this show takes the prize for irresponsible documentary journalism of the month. The topic of the show was "The Seven Seals" as in the seven seals that were broken by Jesus in the Book of Revelation that set in motion the End Times. NOT ONE "EXPERT" ON THE SHOW WAS A LEGITIMATE, REPUTABLE BIBLICAL SCHOLAR. Not one. Not even close. And if you're going to discuss a book of the Bible that is arguably the book that carries the most emotional baggage, is rife with literary devices and symbology understood in a time long past whose meaning is lost on most today, then you really need at least one person qualified to discuss this as the example of apocalyptic literary genre it actually is. But, no. No experts here. Instead, they assembled the usual suspects: religious radio talk show hosts, Evangelical ministers, pseudo-philosophers, authors of questionable "scholarly" works, and MICHAEL BAIGENT. You know... Michael "Holy Blood, Holy Grail" Baigent. Ugh.

One asshole actually had the audacity to state "most biblical scholars believe the events recounted in the Book of Revelation are imminent." Um....no. Bible THUMPERS believe it. But most BIBLICAL SCHOLARS don't believe that any passage of the Bible represents the literal truth (unless it's a historical account for which we have archaeological evidence), or that any prophetic pronouncements will come true, ever have come true, or that the author meant for anyone to believe they would come true. Biblical prophecies are socio-political commentaries critical of the current state of the world. In the Hebrew Bible the targets were Babylon and the corrupt, blaspheming Israelite kings. In the New Testament, the target was the Roman Empire. Please, people. The "Beast" in Revelation is Nero. O.K.? Not some supernatural spawn of Satan who will rise up and dupe the masses into assembling a 200 million-strong Army of Evil. Please stop setting up your lawn chairs at Tel Meggido in anticipation of the Final Battle.

But, just in case, let's all stay tuned for 12/21/12. You never know...the impossible could happen. I might be proven wrong.

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