These things were a somewhat regular fixture in my young life. 
Anyone else? Are these things actually effective? Do people believe them and think they portray any kind of reality? Or are they brilliantly auto-ironic, intended instead to skewer those who believe the world really is so simple? Ah, nevermind. 
Years ago, I read Pinchbeck’s Breaking Open the Head, and found it to be a good and interesting book, even if somewhat inconclusive.
Somehow I missed Rolling Stone’s profile of him over a year ago. It’s a really interesting story - his influences and where they took him. I saw Pinchbeck on the Colbert Report a few months ago talking about his new book, 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl and I was quite confused.
Teacher fired for modifying oath to “non-violently” support the constitution. I guess we need to keep that possibility open with our teachers.
Mitt Romney said today that he “believe[s] that Jesus Christ is the son of God, and the savior of mankind.” Oh is he? Setting aside whether Jesus is doing a very good job at saving mankind, the religious-test angle bugs me.
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Piece in Counterpunch yesterday.
I’m very much looking forward to PopTech 2007, which kicks off later this week. I’ll see some of you there - and those who won’t be there can catch the live webcasts, courtesy of Yahoo!
I’m also excited to meet and learn from Steven Pinker, who I’ve been grooving to recently via his new book, The Stuff Of Thought. He and his partner Rebecca Goldstein are profiled in this cool piece at Salon: Proud Atheists.
Thanks to Chris Locke for digging these up.
Ok… so supplying people with deadly snakes to handle in the name of “God” is cool - but dropping acid in pursuit of same is a 25-to-life felony? Wonder what Alan Watts would say about that.
For someone who doesn’t believe in God, I think about God a lot.
Exploring Texas, where megachurches are more common than oil wells (and probably more profitable), lately it’s made my mind itch a little more than usual. I was raised a Pentecostal Christian, and these places remind me of the intellectual darkness I experienced inside the stifling walls of organized religion. That a hundred million of my fellow Americans believe these buildings are their best gateway to the Ultimate is heartbreaking indeed.
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