NPR Gives a Free Pass to Biblical Literalists
“One man, one woman” is not biblical, by the way.
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Pornographic War Gazing: Why We Don’t Look Away
It is easy to blame the war machine or the pornography industry, but the more mundane problem is with our addiction to visual thrills. What some people see as a lack of moral vision (watching a porn video, for example) is perhaps better approached as an amoral astigmatism, a lazy eye, a privileging of the visual over our other evolved senses. The thrill of watching may mingle with compassion for those being harmed, but unless you as a viewer do something to actually alleviate that suffering, you are only a voyeuristic addict, entranced by the power of the gaze.
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Fight the Power: How to Read, and Re-Read, the Book of Revelation
American Christians assume that what prophecy does is predict specific events to happen. And of course that’s the way the Book of Revelation has been read. They read it, as you say, as predicting this means this, or the beast is this. But prophesy, as we know, is a highly interpretative art, and the way this book lives and has lived for two thousand years is by interpretation and reinterpretation.
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The Harlot Shall Be Burned with Fire: Biblical Literalism in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
In The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, religious violence is supposed to be resisted, but it’s also violence that the audience is being asked to look at. Over and over and over again.
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Were Angels Just Lucid Dreams?
Lucid visionary states have been sought by a wide variety of cultures, not just for the euphoria and freedom, but because they were believed capable of transforming and uplifting the individual to a divine level.
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The Bible is a Good Book, But God Didn’t Write It
“Christianity is not supposed to make you secure. Christianity is supposed to give you the courage to walk into an insecure world knowing that you’re not alone and to embrace the radical insecurity. If you’ve got to spend your time proving that you’re better than someone else—males are better than females, whites are better than blacks, heterosexuals are better than homosexuals—you’re always building yourself up by pushing somebody else down. But, you shouldn’t need to build yourself up unless you’re radically insecure. Religion feeds into that radical insecurity with triumphalism—ours is the only religious route you can take to get to God. That’s a really strange idea.”
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The British (Bible) Invasion: KJV 400-Year Anniversary Rolls On
Dumping Satan: It’s Time to Let Go
The history of Christianity, as atheists are fond of reminding us, is one that has been drenched in blood. Whether religious war, inquisition, or colonial violence, there’s been great evil committed in the name of God. What role has the idea of Satan played in the development of this culture?
Read MoreAnita Perry: “God Was Speaking to Me” that Rick Should Run for President
“It’s been a rough month.”
Read MoreDoes Religion Justify the Murder of Troy Davis? [Updated]
Does your conscience, religious or secular, feel outrage? And does your heart cry? These, not dogma, creed, purity or piety, are the signs that your soul is awake.
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