The Anti-Pumpkin Spice Super Special! (#13)

Hello and welcome to a Roll to Disbelieve Super Special! Goodness, we’re already smack dab in the middle of autumn. I can tell, because every danged foodstuff on the planet has suddenly appeared in Pumpkin Spice flavor. Just looking at it all makes me pumpkin-spiced-out. In honor of the season, I present a small collection of past posts for your enjoyment as you either pumpkin-spice yourself silly or flee in horror from it all! Happy October, everyone!

(Non-)Miracles, miracles explained, and why they’re not actually evidence for Christian claims

Recently, we discussed That One Weird Thing That Happened Once. Miracles often function as the Weird Thing for Christians—and from there become PROOF YES PROOF of their claims. Here’s more about it, in case you’re curious!

• Cat Edition. A whole serious of bizarre coincidences leads Bumble exactly where he needs to be.
• Miracle Maxin’. One of my first posts! Here, we tackle some of my issues with the concept of miracles.
• The Ongoing Problem With Miracles. Why Christians like miracles, why they’re so easy to fake, and why they don’t sell the religion like evangelism-minded Christians think they do.
• The Immorality of Miracles. Miracles actually make Christians’ god look worse, not better.
• Big Christian Miracles, Explained. Resurrections, magical healing, leg lengthening, the works: they all have explanations.
• Common Christian Miracles, Explained. But most miracles Christians claim fall into a far more mundane category.
• The Argument from Miracles. Apologetics in the wild. Why miracle claims do not in any way PROVE YES PROVE that the Christian god is real. The comments heated up bigtime on this one when the apologist’s fans found out we weren’t thrilled with her work.
• Miracles for Sale. Women aching for motherhood prove an easy mark for con artists selling miracles.
• A Christmas Miracle. At a Christmas company party, I learn that speaking in tongues is anything but supernatural.
• Testing a Supposed Miracle. I didn’t understand at all. If speaking in tongues was real, then why did my then-pastor not want to test the holy shlamoley out of it?

Amazing Pulpit Stories, Starring Apostate-Girl!

Sometimes, looking back, it feels like some of my religious exploits came straight out of comic books.

• This Preacher Loved Him Some KJV. The urban legend had to come from somewhere, I guess.
• Anatomy of an Altar Call. If you’ve never been in a really rowdy evangelical church, this might sound absolutely weird.
• Wherein Yr. Loyal Corr. &etc. Accidentally Attends a Pagan Orgy. The 80s were a really different time. That’s all I can really offer as a defense.
• SHARONDA RASHANDA. A primer on how to speak in tongues. Seriously. It’s not hard.
• Prayer Warriors for Jesus. The original! My then-husband Biff wanted to start an on-campus group dedicated to daily prayer for our university. It turned out about as well as anybody here might expect.
• The Doctrinal Yardstick. Why one Christian can’t convince any other Christian about any differences in doctrines or beliefs.
• Jesus Told This Complementarian Dude to Marry Me. Looking back, that should really have clued me in. But then, I could say that about anything in this section.
• That Time Biff Tried to Become a Radio Show Host. His efforts paid off bigtime, just not in the way he expected.

Spooooooooooky Stuff!

• Halloween: It’s That Time Again. Aww, there’s a pic of Teen Cas in there. Also a short retrospective of the freakouts Christians have made around Halloween. Includes a real live Satanic Panic “testimony!”
• Glenn Hobbs, Totally an Ex-Satanist. I worked out what happened to the guy giving that testimony in the previous post. Oh, how the mighty do fall. He never wrote me back, by the way. [2026 note from Cas: He still hasn’t.]
• John Ramirez Wants to Restart the Satanic Panic. His testimony has got it all—except he’s Catholic. What gives?
• Why Evangelicals Love Halloween. The pretendy game’s no fun without an opponent.
• Low Christianity and Halloween. Why the holiday seems to matter most to the rowdier ends of Christianity.
• Call of the Wild. Why Halloween appeals to so many people, and why it apparently always has.
• The Hand in the Mirror. A very spooky situation turns out to have a very earthly potential cause.
• A Lady in White. I encounter a folktale that seems to exist just about everywhere in human culture.
• The Great Husband Hunt. An atmospheric tale of Southern Gothic horror—and it’s one that almost every woman in evangelicalism endures.

BooooOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooo!

Thanks again for joining me on this wild ride. We’ll be doing a few more Halloween-themed post this week, but I wanted to give everyone some reading material for the weekend!

This post is an Off-Topic Wonderland! 🙂 Dressing up this year? Favorite Halloween memory?

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