Tag Archives: second coming

The Ultimate Revenge Fantasy Movie

One of the ironies here is that this is exactly how a lot of Christian fundamentalists imagine Jesus actually returning (a lamb the first time, a lion the second). Another irony is that one could never even make such a … Continue reading

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For Halloween, a Super Freak Comes to the Rescue (of Evolution)?

Sometimes we think that if we could just have a stunning visual demonstration of something we believe in, that it would convince the nonbelievers in our midst. So it is that alien enthusiasts fantasize about UFOs on the White House lawn, and Evangelical … Continue reading

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Promissory Atheism and Promissory Theism

I”ve been thinking about something that the late Nobel Prize winner, Sir John Eccles, said of strict materialism. He called it “promissory materialism”, and said of it: “I regard this theory as being without foundation. The more we discover scientifically about the … Continue reading

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Promissory Materialism and Second Coming Messianism?

This struck me as a provocative way to frame materialism v. dualism. It comes from a 2003 paper in NeuroQuantology, and it was written by Donald Watson and Bernard Wilson: The “psychophysical identity” proposition is today’s most popular model for … Continue reading

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What Do Atheists Like Richard Dawkins and Jerry Coyne Have in Common with Rapture-Ready Fundamentalists Like Tim LaHaye and Mark Driscoll?

Answer: Both sides confidently believe that if all the other guys not already with them would just get the hell out of the way, spectacular human progress could be made. Here’s how John Gray puts it in his excellent book, … Continue reading

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Be Here Now

There’s something eschatalogical about the above clip that I like. It contains within it the seed of the idea that life goes on in a functional way, but when a very particular “presence” arrives on the scene you drop everything and enter … Continue reading

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Eschatology for Beginners

Something’s happening! Whether it’s a dawning Messianic era, the UFO rapture, a technological Singularity, or some soon coming secular utopia (Marxist, neoconservative, or otherwise), the problem of suffering in the world and our intellectual confusions are about to be resolved in the arrival of … Continue reading

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In a Salon.com Article, Wasilla Resident Philip Munger Claims that Sarah Palin Told Him She is a Young Earth Creationist and a Believer in the Imminent Return of Jesus (in Her Lifetime)

According to a report in Salon.com, Philip Munger, a Wasilla resident who has had local political run-ins with Sarah Palin, says that Palin believes in both young earth creationism AND the imminent second coming of Jesus (in her lifetime). Money quote from … Continue reading

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Obomenon: An Image of Barack Obama Juxtaposed with Lines from Shakespeare’s “The Tempest”

    Miranda in “The Tempest”:             O, wonder!  How many goodly creatures are there here!    How beauteous mankind is!   O brave new world,  That has such people in’t!  

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