Heretical musings on religion and culture from a literary scholar
Tim Ferriss and Sam Harris are two people I like. And their names are even pretty similar. But I was still surprised to see - on Sam Harris' website page promoting his new essay "Lying" - a review by Tim Ferriss. Sam is a clever guy popular with atheists who criticizes organized religion. Tim uses his gargantuan ego, along with very smart and innovative marketing strategies, to self-promote his brand and sell a shit load of ...
Rick Perry's political agenda summed up in 30 seconds: no gays in the military, open celebration of Christmas and prayer in schools, end Obama's "War on Religion" and restore America's "Religious Heritage". Shucks, that sounds pretty awesome for Christians. But wait! Good Christians believe we are in the end of times, and should be watching out for a potential Antichrist. Many people mistakenly believe the Antichrist will seem evil or be anti-religious or atheistic. Not True! ...
There are many reasons to love Johnny Depp; his stunning good looks, goofy movie roles or charming bad boy personality. But here's another one: for his outspoken willingness to criticize religion and poke fun in places others dare not tread. Teaming up with the UK band BabyBird (which he's worked with before, and is close with the band's frontman Stephen Jones) Depp sung the lyrics to a new Christmas song release, Jesus Stag Night Club. Admittedly, the music ...
This post is prompted by TWO Yahoo articles concerning Satanism posted within one week of each other. The first, titled "Women Slash Teen 300 Times During Satanic Sex Ritual" (source) is about two Milwaukee roommates accused of slashing and stabbing a teenager 300 times in an apparent satanic sex ritual that lasted for two days. Actually the girls had some books on necromancy and dark magic - which is NOT Satanism. The confusion is that for anybody ...
Branding and marketing has become hugely important in today's and competitive business environment. Companies have to find a way to stick in people's minds, to generate an emotional response, to build trust and rapport. A name and a slogan just isn't enough. Take a look at the following: just a simple image that is internationally recognized anywhere. They have fans and supporters, aka customers. A mascot or image can be boiled down even further, into a very ...
Prepare to be amazed. Today I've been looking for pictures of Satan, and pictures of Garuda, for two separate art projects. What I'd never before realized, however, is that medieval depictions of The Devil are basically direct copies of much earlier (I presume) pictures of Garuda - the hindu flying Deity (half man, half eagle) that the God Vishnu flies around on. I'm guessing Garuda is first because A) Hinduism is older and B) they ...
Take the two most sensitive conversational topics in the world - religion and sexuality - and throw them together. Not an easy topic to discuss, but as Bill Maher pointed out in a recent interview, doesn't the fact that as soon as they caught Libyan dictator Gadhafi, they stuck something up his ass, say something about sexuality in that culture? The other panelists say "Well, they do really violent things to all tyrants" (Mussolini got hung ...
This week a study of the world's surface temperatures led Richard Muller - a long time, conservative skeptic scientists partially bankrolled by a foundation connected to global warming deniers - finally got him to change his mind. It's big news because he was a champion of those who say "There is no such thing as global warming" and "the earth naturally gets hotter and colder, human beings don't have any impact on the environment." For decades, ...
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 and found a couple of different organizations that practice Ayahuasca use. First off, let me be clear that Ayahuasca is not a "recreational drug." The purely ...
In Taiwan, teacher's day was last week on September 28th; but "World Teacher's Day" is on October 5th. In between the two (today, September 30th, 2011) is "Blasphemy Day International." A good teacher, like a good blasphemer, is willing to question assumed notions, admit he doesn't have all the answers, challenge authorities and received knowledge, and teach his students to do the same. sponge bob crucified for teacher's day What is Blasphemy Day International? (From the Facebook page) "Free ...
Apocalyptic fears may decide 2012 presidential election. The New York Times posted an article a few days ago by Matthew Avery Sutton called "Why the Antichrist Matters in Politics" which deserves comment. My liberal, educated, tolerant and open-minded friends and colleagues often don't understand the need to be critical of or cynical about religion. Why not allow everyone to believe what they want? Surely they aren't hurting anyone? The truth is that the religious right in ...
Yesterday I read Graham Hancock's Supernatural: Meetings with the Ancient Teachers of Mankind (2007). Basically, without coming to any conclusion or positing any credible theory, the purpose of the book is to point out some pretty astounding similarities between ancient pre-historic cave drawings, traditional accounts of fairy lore, modern scientific experiments with DMT, and alien abduction testimonies. Shamans from many world cultures have used combinations of plants to communicate with "higher-beings" of some kind who teach them things. ...
If you're interested in religious mythology, astrological symbolism, or supernatural folklore, grab my book Gods of Myth and Man. You can go buy it on Amazon.
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