Steveawiggins
MY BLOGS
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Sects and Violence in the Ancient World
http://sawiggins.wordpress.com/
A blog that tries to find intelligent things to say about religion and related subjects.
LATEST ARTICLES ( 4142 )
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Hardsell and Gospel
When I find myself a considerable distance from my point of egress sometimes I have to take the subway to escape New York. Don’t get me wrong—I love New York,... Read more
Posted on 18 January 2013 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY -
Deep Things
Religion concerns itself with the big issues. The biggest. As a child, I remember wondering how anyone could be concerned with less than the ultimate. Read more
Posted on 17 January 2013 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY -
Witnesses All
“Only the bad man. I see. And you know these bad men by sight? You are able to look into their hearts and see this badness?” The words of Eli Lapp in one of... Read more
Posted on 16 January 2013 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY -
2014
New York City, in a public place—I dare not say where—I see this sign. A certain Orwellian chill shivers my mind as I think back to 1984. Posters everywhere; yo... Read more
Posted on 15 January 2013 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY -
The Splice of Life
Although not really scary, and although almost attainable with current technology, Dren is a curious monster. Many movies of the horror genre have explicit... Read more
Posted on 14 January 2013 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY -
Here’s the Church, Here’s the Steeple
Americans seldom seem to fuss much about religion unless they perceive that it is under threat. We’re real believers in religious liberty that way. The threat... Read more
Posted on 13 January 2013 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY -
Soul University
Cambridge, Massachusetts is a likable town. As students at Boston University my friends and I would occasionally take the red line to Harvard Square and... Read more
Posted on 12 January 2013 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY -
None Too Human
Apropos of nones, CNN’s Belief Blog ran an opinion piece about the nones earlier this week. It seems that Rep. Kyrsten Sinema came out of the closet as a none a... Read more
Posted on 11 January 2013 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY -
Leviathan’s Sibling
Formulaic to the point of plagiarism at times, 1950s science fiction movies often follow the deeply worn ruts left by countless forgettable monsters. Read more
Posted on 10 January 2013 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES -
Out with the Old
It’s become a time-honored tradition, as an old, secular year ends and a new one, brimming with potential commences, for various pundits to sum up the past... Read more
Posted on 09 January 2013 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY -
Priests, Queens, Goddesses and Fruit
“And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit... Read more
Posted on 08 January 2013 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY -
Fun Fiction
While I tend to limit my ramblings to once a day, every now and again something prompts another little post once the bus finally gets in and before sleep... Read more
Posted on 08 January 2013 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY -
Mystique-alism
Reading in a public place gives peer pressure an entirely new meaning. Public transit is a place where I spend at least fifteen hours a week. Read more
Posted on 07 January 2013 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY -
Monkey See, Monkey Do
The year was 1972. In the continuing saga of the Planet of the Apes, the fourth installment, Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, addressed the civil rights... Read more
Posted on 06 January 2013 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY -
Robotics FIRST
I knew it! It was right there on the cover of Wired magazine. “The Robots Take Over.” And it is also the very day of the FIRST Robotics kickoff, the day when... Read more
Posted on 05 January 2013 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY -
Without a Hitch
I’m not really afraid of dying. All those years of being taught that “to die is to gain” have obviously done their work. At the same time, it is a poignant... Read more
Posted on 04 January 2013 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY -
Forget This Alamo
A person’s car is a haven of sorts. Very expensive, dangerous and yet necessary, they have made life a fair bit easier than caring for horses when you need to... Read more
Posted on 03 January 2013 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY -
Graveyard Culture
During an Ancient Near Eastern Religions course a few years back, one of my students commented that something was like “in American Gods. Read more
Posted on 02 January 2013 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY -
2012 + 1
I just watched 2012. The conceit that the world will end last year must be getting tired by now, but I’d been curious about the movie since it came out three... Read more
Posted on 01 January 2013 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY -
Alien Religion
Despite my interest in aliens, my viewing of the Alien movies has been tenuous at best. The image of what looked like an egg hatching a green sun over a... Read more
Posted on 31 December 2012 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY