Book in progress

Jesus Mortal
notes toward a book on historical and ahistorical Jesus

Best religion articles

Christianity and equality
Jesus: 1st Century Egalitarian

Jesus the relativist
morals and laws

To do unto others or not
Jesus and Confucious face off

Other religion articles

Little popes
Top-ranking Protestant churchmen

Nonchristian Christmas
Unitarian Christmas pageant

Yahweh as bully
trees of knowledge and life

Paul the popularizer
universalizing Jesus' message

Give me back my material world!
concrete and abstract

Human nature as its own opposite
divine and profane

Classic concepts
old-time religion

Hell is vulgar
contemptible display of petty viciousness

Proof that God exists (probably)
error and belief

Catholic doublespeak
irony and doctrine

Benedict says nothing, Protestants protest
limits of ecumenicism

Uncategorizable Jesus
to rub or not to rub, there's the rub

Hell and Sunday school
failed teenage rebellion

Retreat of Bible science
history of capitulation

Thomas Jefferson, the slave-raping hero
moral inconsistency and human identity

I, secular humanist
adopting others' label

Islam, religion of tomorrow?
dominant monotheism of the future

Jesus the wise man
C.S. Lewis's feeble argument

The supreme God, his son, and their foe
an ancient story

Progression of judgship
opportunism and doctrine

God rested
Elohim the semipotent

WWJD and "The Passion of the Christ"
Jesus as moral paragon or divine sacrifice

Condoms for Catholics?
whether the new pope will change course

Slavery and relativism
victory of the Golden Rule over Biblical tradition
     Geoff, JoT

Christ's failure
implications of fire-and-brimstone Christianity
     Sean, JoT

Latter Day Saints
a thoroughly American religion

Atheism and humility
why I don't believe in gods

Damnation wager
logic and insanity

No good reason
why things happen

Boy Scouts at public schools
algebra of discrimination

Religious conservatives in America
a defining element of US politics

Free will
do people "really" have it?

Ninkasi, goddess of beer
divinity then and now

Bad things and good people
why one happens to the other

Ten Commandments
assorted commentary

Law and morality
subjectivity and objectivity

Christ and EU constitution
constitution of the European Union

Reincarnation and oppression
the Brahmins' millennia-long con job

Race, religion, and identity
how race and religion justify in-groups

Irrational atheists
cause, effect, science, and atheism

"Roman Catholic"
why that's a contradiction in terms

The Pope and capital punishment
history, authority, fallibility

Gospel of "John"
reinvention of Jesus

Creationism as anti-theory
whether evolution is "just a theory"

50% chance you're God
omniscience and experience

Treaty of Tripoli
whether the US was founded on Christianity

10% of faith
logic and certainty

Sex during menstruation
neglected sin

Abortion protects an endangered soul
reductio ad absurdum

Islam is a religion of peace yadda yadda yadda
     a Muslim's response

Southern Baptists
the nation's biggest Protestant denomination

Plato's myth of heaven and hell
where we get these ideas

Christian tribe
new wine in old vessels

Cain's sin
what he did to displease God

Andrea Yates did the right thing
a mother's self-sacrifice

Sacraments
one way clerics gained power over the laity

"Christ" and "God"
we-all vs. we-others

Marines in Heaven
slamming on a cartoon

Lao Tzu
my favorite wise man

Three kings at the manger
not

Is it fair to call the terrorists "monotheist extremists"?
call a Wahhabi a Wahhabi

My god-given right to be an atheist

Love and hate
opposites?

Religion in my RPGs
published and unpublished

DragonRaid
Christian RPG from the 80s

Samson as Terrorist
Bible hero revisited

The ether, a vestige of God
the objective judge of physics

Can the West and the Muslim world co-exist?

Are Jews "pigs and monkeys"?
what the Koran says

Jehovah's clones
selfhood and the resurrection of the body

Apocalypse of St, Karl
Communist Manifesto as "end times" lit

St. Paul as Satan's dupe
who was the spirit of light on the road to Damascus?

Angels in Heaven
Plato strikes again

Religion in the News

June 2006

Praying Children Killed by Lightning
In April, five children on a hilltop were killed when the metal cross at which they were praying was struck by lightning. This event proves:
A. The LORD moves in mysterious ways.
B. Roman Catholicism is the
Antichrists's religion and God is wroth.
C. "I don't want to start any blasphemous rumors, but I think that God's got a sick sense of humor, and when I die I expect to find him laughing."
D. It's a mistake to draw spiritual conclusions from natural events.

July 2005

No Creationist Display at Zoo
The Tulsa Park and Recreation Board reversed itself after a public outcry. See below.

June 2005

Creationist Display in Tulsa Zoo
The Tulsa Park and Recreation Board voted to add a display in the zoo that will depict one of the two biblical accounts of creation. They did it to be fair to Christianity, since there are already
Hindu and Native American religious references in the zoo. But if Christianity has the special status of being the only religion that you have to be "fair" to, that's not fair. Fair would be representing every religion on the planet.

Wiccans Not to Teach Son Their Religion
In a divorce decree, Judge Cale J. Bradford has forbidden Wiccans Thomas E. Jones Jr. and his ex-wife, Tammie U. Bristol, from exposing their son to "non-mainstream religious beliefs and rituals." So much for "
justice and liberty for all."

Wiccan Prayers Not Equal
The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled a Virginia county can refuse to let Wiccan practitioner Cynthia Simpson give the invocation at its meetings by limiting the privilege to clergy representing Judeo-Christian monotheism. So much for, well, you know.

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