• Stonehenge as sold by by Ikea. (via Mirabilis)
• If gays come out of “the closet” and witches come out of “the broom closet,” what closet do atheists come out of?
• If books had these titles, you would know instantly what they were about. There is this approach too.
Somehow I missed this, but last September an organization of self-proclaimed Canadian skeptics challenged the world to prove that witches exist—along with Bigfoot, voodoo, and the Easter Bunny.
OK, all this fun hinges on the difference between “anthropological witchcraft” and capital-P Pagan religious capital-W Witchcraft.
But still.
Of course, if anyone shows up and says, “I’m a witch,” the professional skeptics will set the bar so high: “Can you fly? Can you turn me into a frog?” You know the drill. And no, metaphor will not be good enough.
And other religiously themed signage from around the world.
Go here and read the third comment (Bella’s). Either it has become a commonplace observation or we, truly, are everywhere.
I, however, am more in agreement with the second (Clay’s): isn’t this what you call a victimless crime?
Peter Begerbal’s headline says it succinctly, so go read his post and follow the links.
We have a best-selling series of romance novels about vampires written by a Mormon.
But we also have a popular, if not so huge, series of romance novels about people in Amish communities, by a writer who grew up around Amish people but is not herself Amish.
Is this a great country or not? That’s one way to learn about religion. Or you can wait for the English translation of Saint Young Men. Jesus and the Buddha, roommates! The “odd couple” formula works in manga too, evidently.
But wait, you say. Vampires? Religion? Consider that NYU Press has published Paranormal America: Ghost Encounters, UFO Sightings, Bigfoot hunts, and Other Curiosities in Religion and Culture.
Jeffrey Kripal, whose book Authors of the Impossible: The Paranormal and the Sacred I am just starting to read, not surprisingly tells the New York Times that scholars of religion should take “the paranormal” seriously.
Is that the “paranormal” as opposed to the “supernatural”?
According to Dr. Kripal, [four famous paranormal researchers’] omission [from scholarly investigation] is evidence of a persistent bias among religion scholars, happy to consider the inexplicable, like miracles, as long as they fit a familiar narrative, like Judaism or Christianity.
Meanwhile, someone needs to write a novel: Ghost-hunting single Amish girl falls in love with a vampire and discovered Buddhism. Quick!
“The Scots invented hypnosis, chloroform and the hypodermic syringe. Wouldn’t it just be easier to talk to a woman?” – Stephen Brown
It is to laugh. A blogger who reads Chinese and Japanese tells tattooed victims people what those Asian characters really say—if, indeed, they say anything.
Such as green vegetable. Or not chi (qi) but rice. Or not “beautiful” but “disaster.”
This must be the revenge of the Orient for our laughing at all those nonsensical Japanese “Engrish” T-shirts.
But you can take off a T-shirt.
The artist also forgot to add blogging.
. . . and load all the guns, because it’s Zombie Awareness Month.
Supporters of Zombie Awareness Month wear a gray ribbon to signify the undead shadows that lurk behind our modern light of day. From May 1 through May 31, concerned citizens take this small step to acknowledge the coming danger.