Heretical musings on religion and culture from a literary scholar
I was excited to take a break from writing my thesis tonight to start Season 3 of Sherlock Holmes, "The Empty Hearse." Since my thesis is focused mainly on Milton, Guy Fawkes and revolutionary terrorism, I was very surprised that the plot of episode one takes place among November 5th events that commemorate the infamous Gunpowder Plot of 1605. The interesting thing about Guy Fawkes - who has become the de facto symbol of revolutionary action ...
Within just the past decade, there has been a rapid shift in the characterization of the Other – from monstrous, to misunderstood; from frightening to friendly. Thus, vampires, werewolves and witches have changed from being evil creatures of the night, to tragically misunderstood victims of judgmental traditionalist organizations who are constantly challenging their right to exist. In 2012 we even had the movie Wreck it Ralph, in which all the classic “evil” characters from video ...
Recently I found this awesome Baphomet sweater and decided to give a few away by having a quick poetry contest. I deleted some comments so that those who spent more time and posted longer poems would win (I hate moderating.... Cameron G - if you get in touch with me I'll send you an Amazon gift card.) Liz Johnson - Sweater Santa Claus I beg of thee Place my presents below the tree So when I wake there I ...
I was looking for something on Alibaba recently and saw a post I thought was funny - a giant inflatable Santa, but they had misspelled it to "Satan." No big deal, but kind of funny. But I looked around some more, and there were several dozen different products making the same mistake. You'd think if they couldn't speak or spell in English, then they would've use a translator and been careful to copy the right letters. Or ...
Christmas isn't a big deal here in Taiwan, so it's hard to get "in the season" or riled up by this "War on Christmas" controversy. But I want to celebrate the meaning of Christmas by giving away two things I really want, rather than buying them for myself. First up is this amazing Christmas "ugly-sweater" with Baphomet on it. Next is this snazzy hoodie (that's not even available outside of Taiwan but I'll ship it to you). ...
Tens of Thousands, if not millions, of Christians have tattoos. Although Christians believe that the Bible is the word of God, many Christians feel that that Old Testament is largely irrelevant since the coming of Jesus Christ. Hence, they aren't too concerned about, for example, Leviticus 19:28: Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I am the LORD. Leviticus 19:28 Is it about Tattoos? Almost definitely. But there are so, ...
"You just gotta have faith," seems to be the motto of Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters (2013). It's repeated several times. Faith in what, we don't know - we're dealing with a pluralistic oligarchy of gods, only one of whom is Percy's father. Sure, Percy is the only son, the chosen one, the hero... Percy is the ONLY human son of all THREE of the main Gods (Poseidon, Zeus and Hades). Kind of like Jesus is the ...
I love Julianne Moore and Chloë Grace Moretz, and I think they were perfect in the roles of Stephen King's "Carrie" and her crazy-religious-freak mother. But there was a lot about the 2013 movie adaption of King's novel that was disturbing. And no, not just all the blood, violence, gore and death. Carrie was a very Christian movie. Of course the original story is already highly religious in nature, with Carrie being forced to pray for forgiveness ...
"Impact Apologetics" sells info products online on how to argue with Atheists. On the product description of one of their main products, "I don't have enough faith to be an atheist" (which comes in book, CD and MP3 formats) they have the following quote, which they claim is a Five Star review on Amazon.com from an Atheist: Having read quite a few Christian apologetics books, I feel I can say that this one is by far the ...
I started this blog about a decade ago, when I was young and bold and idealistic. I believed that everything should be challenged: especially beliefs that we hold dear, because they can be dangerous. Every idea, belief, and concept should be tested and either found strong and valuable, or weak and useless. Nothing should be prioritized over reason, pursuit of knowledge, Truth. But I've mellowed. Or you could say, I've been distracted. I still research and write what ...
Vin Diesel's new Riddick movie (2013) is just the type of movie I don't like: a sequel with no plot where nothing happens. He wakes up on an abandoned planet, and finds a way to get off it. That's it. The whole thing could have been accomplished in 3 minutes, but then the writers would have come up with something else. So it's a 1hr 59minute stall. It's watchable, because there's lots of action and cool stuff happening. ...
One of the reasons I've always loved "True Blood" is that - rather than ignoring the obvious religious associations in vampire and supernatural mythology - it plays them up and includes them into the diverse mix of plot and characters. But it's gotten a little ridiculous now, in Season 6, Episode 9. First there was Lilith, the originator of all vampire, whose sacred blood makes vampires impervious to light (just like Fairy blood does). Bill Compton, who can ...
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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