The Pokey Finger of God

Following are the assertions I currently use regarding the origin of Christianity. These will likely each be expanded upon over time.
1. Evidence: There is no physical evidence for the existence of a single, rapidly developed mystery cult whose theology or structure singularly informed the post 4th-century Christian church. There is no art, architecture, ritual gear, [...]

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At first, I could never understand the True Believers.
My first encounters with them was in Christian churches. My own, initially pedantic, attempts at Bible study repeatedly failed to illuminate the motivations or goals of True Believers. I could never understand just what was so exciting in the faith as I had ever seen it practiced.
Atheists [...]

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Two famous biographies are here summarized to make a point about a significant problem in the art of archaeology. The question is whether one can even determine if the character of some ancient story actually lived when all you have are the written records that tell the story.
My first subject has defined an entire school [...]

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Dobson and Minnery accused Obama of having minority, if not crackpot, opinions about the Bible. They indicated several times that they felt he was not qualified to interpret the Bible. They wailed and gnashed their teeth at the wonton destruction laid bare by Barack’s unauthorized lay-opining. Oh, will the nation ever repair from this grievous wound? Then they changed the subject and repeated the process.

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When I first started along the pagan path, ere so long ago, much of my motivation was a desire to move away from what I perceived to be the hypocrisy and false origins of Christianity. For some time — indeed, for many years — I prided myself in my paganism, especially in how it wasn’t [...]

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In Japan, a praying Chihuahua is bringing in lots of visitors to his master’s Zen temple.
Yoshikuni said Conan generally goes through his prayer routine at the temple in the capital of Japan’s southern Okinawa prefecture (state) without prompting before his morning and evening meals.
“I think he saw me doing it all the time and got [...]

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The other day, I nearly picked up a package of “Last Supper Mints”, which was a 3″x1″x0.5″ metal tin with 50(!) mints within, covered lovingly with a 18th C. reproduction of daVinci’s Last Supper image without. Briefly, I considered putting a photo of the box in my collection of Last Supper images, but the image [...]

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It seems inappropriate for me to blog my armchair ideas about homeless people, because I don’t know anything about homeless people. I’ve always lived and worked in enclosed structures with utilities, and I rarely consider abandoning it all to sleep under a bridge. It’s not a particular area of study or volunteerism for me, so [...]

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I suppose it was inevitable that I would find some connection between my favorite research topics, but I just realized how Diocletian’s Great Persecution of Christians and Nixon’s War on Drugs were very similar actions on the part of both heads of state.
Both occur during a time of difficult military engagements in which an Agent [...]

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A recent religion post contained something of a broad statement. It was a conclusion I had drawn without the benefit of third-party confirmation. What I had said was that the term “Christian” did not just apply to those who followed the “Jesus Movement”, but also those who followed any of a dozen Hellenized, Asian mystery [...]

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