Steveawiggins

LATEST ARTICLES ( 4522 )

• Future of an Illusion

  

  If anyone’s premature death has been announced more than Mark Twain’s, it is that of higher education. September’s The Atlantic arrived in my mailbox proclaimin... Read more

  Posted on 25 August 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Whether the Psalms

  

  How about that weather? Changeable, isn’t it? I have spent a large part of the last few days going over the proofs for Weathering the Psalms, the book I wrote... Read more

  Posted on 24 August 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Who Do You Say?

  

  DMZ. What acronym inspires more terror? Or did I mean DMV? I can’t keep my acronyms straight. Nothing reveals the layers of bureaucracy in clearer... Read more

  Posted on 23 August 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Secret Religion

  

  Recently I read an article about a religion called Sabbateanism. I’d never heard of it before, so I turned to the collective wisdom of the human race—the... Read more

  Posted on 22 August 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Beyond Redemption?

  

  The Roman emperor Gaius, it is said, was insane. He perpetrated such antics as declaring war on the North Sea, making his horse a senator, and appearing in... Read more

  Posted on 21 August 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• True Literalism

  

  Biblical literalists make strong claims for selectively obeying the Bible. It isn’t so hard to do in the short term, as numerous books on people “living... Read more

  Posted on 20 August 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• A Run-By Fruiting

  

  Photo credit: Eva Rinaldi, Wikimedia CommonReader’s DigestFor this past week I’ve been pondering how one man’s tragic death has jolted a nation into a reflectiv... Read more

  Posted on 19 August 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Clockwork Heavens

  

  In a museum in Athens sits a device chock-full of gears and cogs and dials. Indeed, it looks quite a bit like the movement of a pre-digital clock. Read more

  Posted on 18 August 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Historic Crossing

  

  If Washington crossed the Delaware, I figured, so could I. Of course, I have a car and I was going from New Jersey to Pennsylvania, but history doesn’t always... Read more

  Posted on 17 August 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Diminishing Returns

  

  You know that phenomenon where in movies or on television spinning wheels reach a point where they suddenly shift to spin the opposite direction? Read more

  Posted on 16 August 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Nazis with Bibles

  

  Some years back, when the Internet was young, I had just learned about email. Even today it seems incredible that only twenty years ago we still sent physical... Read more

  Posted on 15 August 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Men Without Hats

  

  Do you want to start an argument? Mention hijab in a Christian environment. Some tempers will likely flair. The idea that a patriarchal religion would tell wome... Read more

  Posted on 14 August 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Daydream Believer

  

  I have finally found a book that will sit next to my copy of Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations. In this disjointed age of angry Fundamentalists and even angrier... Read more

  Posted on 13 August 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Religion Fiction

  

  Children brought up in a religious environment, according to a recent BBC story, are more prone to believe in fictional characters. Read more

  Posted on 12 August 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Just Passing Through

  

  Michael Persinger is a curious and rare scientist. Apart from occasionally making it onto Through the Wormhole episodes, he is also known for his somewhat... Read more

  Posted on 11 August 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Write the Truth

  

  Publication is a tricky business. Just ask my friend, K. Marvin Bruce. Marvin and I have known each other for years as he’s been trying to break into fiction... Read more

  Posted on 10 August 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• God Discount

  

  God is great, despite what Christopher Hitchens wrote, at least, that is, if you want to save 15% without having to talk to a gecko. Read more

  Posted on 09 August 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Sects for You

  

  Oxford University Press has a religion blog. (Well, who doesn’t these days?) Apart from being jealous about their numbers, I find some of the posts fascinating. Read more

  Posted on 08 August 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Evolution’s Snapshots

  

  In America’s political climate any book about Darwin takes on a religious cast. As strange as it may seem, an odd equation exists between Darwin, evolution,... Read more

  Posted on 07 August 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Infernal Religions

  

  The first steampunk novel I read, although some would dispute the classification, was Neal Stephenson’s The Diamond Age. To be sure, I’d noticed other... Read more

  Posted on 06 August 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY