The two most indelible and widely-known parts of the story of Jesus are certainly the Christmas story, and the Easter story. Even the most casual churchgoer at least gets the basic narratives down. It’s Christmastime at the time of this writing, so I’m in the mood to talk about Christmas. I’ve heard the sermons enough…
Category: Religion
Profile of the Orlando Shooter
Now that the dust has settled, I can slake the still thirsty among you who want more juice on the Orlando nightclub shooting. My contention is that I already wrote about it. Here’s the profile on the killer. Here’s the discussion on guns. The articles could use some clean-up and tweaking, as any product seen…
Risk-Taking and Religion Part 4
Part 1 here. Part 2 here. Part 3 here. Study 4: “We used a more targeted measure assessing the dimension of belief that we predicted to be relevant to the current effect—attachment security. Individuals who are more securely attached to God perceive God as a better source of security and protection (Kirkpatrick & Shaver, 1992)….
Risk-Taking and Religion Part 3
Part 1 here. Part 2 here. Study 3: “Across five studies, priming God increased people’s willingness to take nonmoral risks. In Study 3, we tested our hypothesis that this effect occurs because reminders of God lead individuals to perceive themselves as protected—that is, that the risks present less danger.” For this experiment they went back…
Risk-Taking and Religion Part 2
Part 1 here. “Study 2 was a field experiment in which we posted ads to a social-networking Web site and recorded click-through rates…. We launched six advertisements for 1 day each on a social-networking Web site in a 2 (God vs. no God) × 3 (immoral risk vs. nonmoral risk vs. no risk) design. The…
Risk-Taking and Religion Part 1
Or, Business majors find people willing to risk retinal damage for a fucking quarter He said to them, “Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in, because of the quantity of fish.-John 21:6, ESV…
Musings on Easter
Easter time is here, happiness and cheer… *Vince Guaraldi’s dulcet tones continue to warm the soul. Or something like that. Like Christmas, Easter is a busy time for my church-employed family. As far as pew-filling goes, it can’t hold a candle to Silent Night on Christmas, but it’s the holiday of Christianity from a theological perspective. It’s…
Judas Iscariot the Role Model
‘That upper spirit Who hath worst punishment,’ so spake my guide ‘Is Judas, he that hath his head within And plies the feet without.’ -From Dante’s Inferno, canto 34, lines 55-59 He’s a crucial character in probably the most well-known story in the world. In Sunday school we learn that Judas betrays Jesus to the…
My Analysis of Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta: a Metaphor for Conversion
Saw the opera Iolanta by Tchaikovsy not too terribly long ago. It struck a chord with me in a particular way, and I figure I’d record my two cents on it for posterity. It’s a fairly obscure opera, it seems. As of today, no full-length recording of it with English subtitles exists on Youtube. More…
No, the Pope Is Not Calling For the End of Tax-Exempt Status for Uncharitable Churches
“Pope Francis Calls for Ending Tax-Exempt Status of Churches That Don’t Help the Needy” goes the headline from U.S. Uncut. To be fair, the U.S. Uncut website is one of the really bad clickbait, half-assed research political sites out there, but it’s the most egregious example of the most recent round of misrepresenting the words…