Analyzing Christianity
The End of a(nother) Church.
Another church is closing–part of an overall trend in America. What does it mean?
Analyzing Christianity
The Cult of Before Stories: Heather Barwick, Sharper Than a Serpent’s Tooth
I wish it could shock me anymore, seeing a family ripped apart by religion. It happens constantly in this modern age–and will probably get worse, really. But this story touched me particularly today because it hit a few all-too-familiar notes in that discordant jangle that is the Cult of Before Stories.
Analyzing Christianity
The Handbook: The first fundamental mistake apologists make
The first fundamental mistake apologists make is that they don’t actually refer to any facts to make their various arguments, making their conclusions highly suspect. Indeed, apologists really can’t do that. It’s almost unfair even to make the request that they do so. After all: There is not one single demonstrable bit of objective evidence about the supernatural to which they actually could refer.
The Games We Play
Defining Moments: Lying for Jesus, Library Edition.
Biff was so proud of himself, but I was so horrified.
Analyzing Christianity
The Cult of Before Stories: Shane Hayes, Part 1
A while ago, Kirk Cameron popularized a fairly-new evangelism technique: claiming that he knows all about atheism because he, himself, was once an (gasp! Shock! OMG!) atheist. He thought it gave him some kind of leg up on authority and credibility to say that he’d once been an atheist, and Read more
From Patreon
Operation Pitchfork and a moment of deconversion crisis
Like so many ex-Christians before me, for just a brief time I dangled on a tightrope between belief and disbelief as I moved from one world to another, from one worldview to another, from one entire working paradigm to another. For some of us that time lasts a good long while, maybe even years. For others of us, that abrupt flash of sudden comprehension, that crystallizing gasp of awareness, that feeling of all the puzzle pieces falling right into place, it happens in a heartbeat.
Analyzing Christianity
Spiritual Warfare: What’s It Good For? (Absolutely Nothing!)
Remember furries? Those are the kids who think that they’re “really” animals in human form. Back in the 90s they were the emerging weirdos of the internet and became our collective punching bags, a low status they bore with varying degrees of grace. You’d see them prancing around town in Read more
The Games We Play
Flexibility, as Measured on Horseback
I wanted to mention one thing that happened during those horse-riding lessons before we draw back the curtain on them for a while, and that is the value of being flexible about your plans. It came to pass, near the end of the lessons, that it was a very hot Read more
The Games We Play
Horses are Bastards
This story is about how I learned to ford a river and finally came to some truths about my old religious indoctrination–and finally figured out that horses are bastards. This was oh, about twelve years ago. I’d just moved to this mountainous state full of ranches and by wild serendipity Read more
The Games We Play
Using the Dirk Gently method of navigation
This is a short story about getting lost and found again. A long time ago, I was driving through Omaha, Nebraska (as opposed to Omaha, Colorado, I guess) for the very first time. I was trying to find a particular Japanese restaurant there that I’d been told was very good, Read more