Steveawiggins

LATEST ARTICLES ( 4522 )

• June Bugs

  

  On my way to work yesterday, I came upon an overturned June bug clawing at the air, trying to regain its feet.  I’m always in a hurry getting to or from work,... Read more

  Posted on 27 June 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Trans-Human

  

  “Rapture of the Nerds,” an article in this week’s Time magazine by Jessica Roy, has me scratching my head. Or it would if I had a head. That is, if I were an... Read more

  Posted on 26 June 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Mores the Merrier

  

  The Presbyterian Church (USA) and I go back a long way now. Not that I’ve ever been a member, but one of their institutions gladly accepted four years of my... Read more

  Posted on 25 June 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Elmer Gantry

  

  In recent years a renewed interest has arisen concerning how powerful entities are perceived by others. Academics are asking how the United States is seen by... Read more

  Posted on 24 June 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• What You Pay for

  

  Over four to one. It’s a sad statistic. A friend sent me a story in Slate exposing, once again, the (some would say) criminal inequality of university... Read more

  Posted on 23 June 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• The Truth About Elves

  

  We are nothing if not certain. We know that there are no such things as intelligent non-human entities anywhere in the natural realm. Read more

  Posted on 22 June 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Psalm 151b

  

  I can’t claim to know much about Sinéad O’Connor. When she did her Saturday Night Live act a few years back, I remember the outrage among several Nashotah... Read more

  Posted on 21 June 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• The Call of Madness

  

  Picture this: the wind is howling outside your tent, violently snapping the fabric. The temperature outside is well below freezing, and you are camping at the... Read more

  Posted on 20 June 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Veni Creator Spiritus

  

  Over 100 billion have been made. Not McDonald’s hamburgers, this time, but Crayola crayons. For many of us, Crayola is one of the distinct scents of childhood,... Read more

  Posted on 19 June 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• International Panic Day

  

  Holidays have diverse origins. Some appear to have been made up in a fit of madness, bearing no particular relevance to anything. Read more

  Posted on 18 June 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Medjugorje Matrix

  

  “Expect a miracle,” Oral Roberts used to sign off, “and a miracle is yours today.” Physicists tend to be a bit more hard-nosed about the issue. In a... Read more

  Posted on 17 June 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Inspired. Absolute. Final.

  

  Recently I spent some time in my native Pennsylvania. Doing so sometimes makes me believe in a bizarre kind of predestination. Read more

  Posted on 16 June 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Private Religion

  

  Some things are best left private. I don’t know what possessed me to request a car maintenance visit first thing in the morning on a Saturday. Read more

  Posted on 15 June 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Global Warning

  

  “Sticks and stones,” the childhood wisdom goes, “may break my bones, but words will never harm me.” We were taught that little mantra as a response to being... Read more

  Posted on 14 June 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Missing Apocalypses

  

  Sharknados aside, we seem to be in a lull of apocalypses at the moment. In the run-up to the change of the millennium and 2012, we perhaps had our fill of dire... Read more

  Posted on 13 June 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Programming God

  

  Robots have been part of my world far longer than I ever recognized. Still, growing up in a small town in the 1960s, their impact was fairly minimal—they may... Read more

  Posted on 12 June 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• St. Ghost

  

  Since they combine two of my soft spots—local history and ghost stories—books telling the tales of home-town specters are compelling in a homespun way. Read more

  Posted on 11 June 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Real Reading Rainbow

  

  Libraries rule. According to recent studies libraries rate higher than religious institutions, according to public surveys, in their usefulness to society. Read more

  Posted on 10 June 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Clockwork Universe

  

  In a clockwork universe, time is an essential interpretive factor. Those of us constantly crushed for time hardly realize just how recent of an invention it... Read more

  Posted on 09 June 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Jonahado

  

  Some movies are so bad that they become classics. Some are just plain bad. The jury in my head is still out on Sharknado. The story, obviously tongue-in-cheek,... Read more

  Posted on 08 June 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY