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Trump doesn't like losers
Donald Trump excites a lot of attention well beyond the borders of the USA. I still haven't met a Kiwi of whatever political persuasion who can believe that this man could actually become president of...
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A Presbyterian Xmas, 1943
(Excerpt from Lloyd Geering's 2015 book On Me Bike: Cycling round New Zealand 80 years ago.)December 1943"Three days before Christmas Day I went down to the Kurow railway station and consigned our...
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A new Tanakh
The Israel Bible is a new online resource for reading the Hebrew Bible. You can listen to the Hebrew version of the text and read along in English or Hebrew.The focus of this translation is on the real...
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Religion - a fairly comprehensive guide
When Issac Asimov wanted to get the gist of a subject that was new to him, so the story goes, he headed for the children's section of his local library. If you're writing for kids you have to pare back...
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Mythicists put their case
Raphael LatasterRaphael Lataster (University of Sydney) engages with Richard Carrier on the issue of the Jesus myth theory, recorded recently and sponsored by Mythicist Milwaukee. The audio is...
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The Easter Panacea
The Jehovah's Witnesses dropped their Passover brochure on the front doorstep last week. They're doing their annual Lord's Supper service on Wednesday night. As I understand it, almost nobody actually...
View ArticleRisen
It must be Easter.I saw the movie Risen today. Jesus is a Kiwi.No, really. Actor Cliff Curtis, star of Fear of the Walking Dead (how appropriate is that!) has moved from zombies to the Lord of Life. As...
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The tea towel has been hung out to dry
And the winner is...There'll be a few Aussies in mourning tonight. Our cousins across the Tasman, at least those among them with a sense of independent nationhood, were hoping New Zealand would adopt a...
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Sociology of an American sect
Good news, you no longer need to remortgage the house in order to acquire a copy of David Barrett's study Fragmentation of a Sect: Schism in the Worldwide Church of God. Oxford University press is...
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Did Jesus Really Exist?
Like it or not, the "Jesus myth" is slowly entering mainstream discourse. This article from Canada's McLean's magazine is a case in point.
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The Military-Evangelical Complex
Douglas Becker has reblogged a provocative piece by Paul Rosenberg. While Rosenberg's politics may be somewhat suspect (a self-described "lifestyle capitalist"), he nonetheless makes a good deal of...
View ArticleJihad - the real causes
Every man and his braying ass has an opinion about Islam, based on the gut-wrenchingly evil acts of terrorism perpetrated by ISIS/ISIL/Daesh and kindred extremist groups. Is the underlying problem...
View ArticleFrancesca Stavrakopoulou on the Bible, no holds barred
Here's some direct talking from a major British biblical scholar. Doesn't look like a biblical scholar, doesn't sound like a biblical scholar, but be ye not deceived, she's the real McCoy.The interview...
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Galileo, the Bible and Science
There are those that maintain literalism and fundamentalism are modern importations into Christian belief.That's a hard argument to validate. In a pre-modern world there were few other ways to view the...
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Off topic, but...
click to enlargeTopical nonetheless. Just a few days ago I finally got around to ditching the landline. Unimaginable just a few short years back. A couple of years ago I got the shock of my life to see...
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Siesta time for Otagosh
UPDATED.Keeping two blogs running is a demanding task, at least as far as I'm concerned. Over the years the balance has shifted back and forth between Otagosh and Ambassador Watch. The idea was to post...
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The Plain Truth about Balaam's Ass (from AW)
If you thought you already had a handle on the famous talking donkey tale, you might want to check out Paul Davidson's blog. Things are not as simple as they seem. Paul provides a mixture of...
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The demonic and the depressive (1 of 2) - from AW
City Impact's MortlockThe New Zealand Herald has unmasked the worst demon-spawned sects that create havoc across the country's Christian landscape.Of course, that's not the kind of language the august...
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The demonic and the depressive (2 of 2) - from AW
I drive past the local Anglican parish church several times a week. An oppressive stone building, it sits on a main intersection in town. I've only been inside once, around age ten, when my parents...
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Sentimental Christianity (from AW)
There's an interesting discussion occurring off-blog about Lonnie Hendrix's recent "God and Jane Fonda" posting. Here's a couple of excerpts from that post.I have been saying for several years now that...
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"I Must Go Down to the Sea Again..."
"So where is this bl*%dy sea?"I must go down to the sea again, to the lonely sea and the sky;I left my shoes and socks there - I wonder if they're dry? Spike MilliganI believe there's another earlier...
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The Good Book
James Pate, a biblioblogger with some previous WCG experience behind him, has just reviewed the Book of Mormon. You'll find a link to James' blog in the sidebar. I'm struck with admiration, personally...
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