Aside from being the name of a Mars rover, curiosity is a key value in forming and maintaining cross-cutting friendships. These relationships are important to maintain social peace in a diverse community and to build the character of both ourselves and others. But increasingly they seem more elusive than ever.
I ran across this trailer for a new documentary on Discovery, about Hillsong Church. We used to listen to and perform music from them all the time, back when I was religious. One line (taken completely out of context, I’m sure) from the trailer: “There’s a fine line between cult and culture.” I’m not sure… Continue reading A Fine Line between Cult and Culture
Often the Bible presents us with a quid pro quo: worship God, and your life will be good; reject him, and you will suffer. This flies in the face of the idea that God is love, that he “causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous… Continue reading Plausible Deniability
Drew McCoy over at Genetically Modified Skeptic took a free Evangelical course about atheism, which turned out just to be a series of short videos by Greg Koukl repeating some of the same disinformation that we used to disseminate when I was an Evangelical Christian. This is a video that I would so love to… Continue reading The Apologist’s True Mission
I do not react with a sad emoji or respond with angry or dismissive comments when you post stuff on your timeline pushing your religious beliefs. I hope I have never done so, even though I have legitimate reasons to feel both sad and angry about those toxic memes. So when you respond with a… Continue reading Fundie Entitlement
A meme, seen on Facebook: So many folks talk about how they’re being “forced to accept” things that go against their beliefs. You’re not being forced to accept them. If you have a problem with people of color, with gay marriage, with trans people, with immigrants, with women of any race, then you’re still welcome… Continue reading Forced to Accept
In the light of this year’s CPAC, I’m reminded of a post from 2020: The Republican Fundamentalist Cult. I had written this during Trump’s first impeachment trial, and I predicted that the Republican party would justify his misbehavior, even against clear evidence. I was right. I wish I had been wrong. The current Republican party… Continue reading The Republican Fundamentalist Cult, the Sequel
About a month ago, I wrote about A Crisis of Healthy Skepticism. I pointed out that we can often verify or disconfirm information with a 15-second Google search. But when I was a Christian fundamentalist, we never took advantage of that 15 seconds if it could challenge our pre-existing beliefs because we so needed to… Continue reading Disconfirming the Second Coming
From Canadian news, “Republicans face backlash for speaking out against Trump ahead of impeachment trial.” This report made me realize something about cults. Something I’ve been struggling with ever since I was shunned from my old religious community. You see, we didn’t have an explicit shunning policy. But I was shunned anyhow. I was shunned… Continue reading Shunning
Here’s a good example of the religious brainwashing that I had gone through, and the political brainwashing I believe many Republicans have gone through. Seen on Facebook: Atheist: Man wrote the Bible. Me: Man wrote the theory of evolution. Every book you’ve read that attacks the Bible was written by man. Now listen here, knucklehead.… Continue reading Religious and Political Brainwashing