The Bible: Read it again for the first time.
Ayahuasca is a Peruvian vine that has traditionally been used to send visionaries into "the world beyond" for shamanic and spiritual rituals. Although I was in Peru this summer, I didn't have the opportunity to join a ceremony. Imagine my surprise when I returned to my semi-permanent home in Taiwan ...
One of the literary threads I hope to investigate in the future is the tie between vampirism and the ancient tradition of linking death and marriage together; many religions deal with death as an intimate reunion or marriage with a god of the underworld such as Hades or Dionysus. Much ...
An article that caught my attention this summer is suggestively called "In Israel, diggers unearth the Bible's bad guys." The article continues to detail the archaeological discoveries by a team in Southern Israel, of what used to be the Philistines city of Gath. Although fairly objective, the article mentions the ...
Did Jesus Christ really resurrect from the grave after three days? Probably not, it turns out. In 2008 archaeologists found a stone tablet that tells of a Jewish rebel hero who died and came back to life after three days. Jesus? No! His name was Simon, and he lived decades ...
A fragment of the Secret Gospel of Mark, a Gnostic text claimed to have been rediscovered by Prof. Morton Smith in 1958 at the Mar Saba monastery southeast of Jerusalem, describes Jesus performing initiation rituals. Before the discovery of Gnostic writings, our only knowledge of this secret gospel came from ...
Mel Gibson’s classic post-apocalyptic movie Mad Max (1979) is a good model for understanding the situation which gave rise to the Old Testament. According to the Bible (if we had no other historical records) all of history was the formation of the covenant between Israel and God. All other cultures ...
I'm reading "What's a Christian to do with Harry Potter". Overall, considering the subject matter, Connie Neal is great. She argues that Christians can read Harry Potter and use it as a platform from which to reach out to and convert non-Christians. Not something I agree with, but she's fair, ...
A couple of Bible quotes make me think of the three little pigs. There they are, followed with an analysis of the theological meaning. "Blessed is the man who has not walked in the counsel of the ungodly, and has not stood in the way of the sinners, and has not ...
www.biblemap.org is an amazing website; a bible student's dream come true, with cool widgets and history and trivia and facts - all built over a map of Israel and the middle East. You can select any part of the Bible by book and verse number, and all the geographical places ...
I should've been a Patriarch. Although the characters of the Old Testament repulse me, for their lies, tricks, and general lack of character, I like the Old Testament: where else can you find stories about dishonest sex-maniacs like Jacob. Ok - he got screwed by Laban into working for 7 years ...
Kings 1: 25-29: Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, “Choose one bull and prepare it first, for you are the majority; invoke your god by name, but apply no fire.” They took the bull that was given them; they prepared it, and invoked Baal by name from morning until ...
Isaac and Jacob are a real couple of bungling wanderers. They lie, cheat, steal and seem completely without moral character. Isaac is the son of Abraham that was offered up to God in sacrifice - an episode that likely freaked him out and led to perpetual trust issues. He married ...