Coming back to it now, I read Harris’s text with disappointment but even greater disappointment in myself. Harris’s rhetoric is terrible, and though at the time I thought myself a competent critical thinker, I was nevertheless entirely blind to what I can now only call incompetence by way of still feeling too generous towards him to call him a sophist.
Bizarre Bible Stories #2: A Gay Orgy with Jesus
A Biblical scholar, Morton Smith, was doing research in a library Jerusalem in 1958 when he chanced upon a letter that appeared to have been written by one of the 2nd century church fathers, Clement of Alexandria.
You Are Going to Die Soon
It is commonly thought that the Bible details the blissful afterlife of the righteous in Heaven and the torturous existence of the damned in Hell; in fact, the Bible has nothing of the sort to say about Heaven, and has little to say on the topic of the afterlife in general.
Bizarre Bible Stories
Most of my research has focused on stories in the Bible with which I am already familiar. Often I find in the text aspects to these stories of which I was not previously aware (such as Noah’s sacrifice to God after the flood), but I also find stories that I have never heard mentioned before at all. One of these follows after the stories of the Great Flood and the Tower of Babel in Genesis, about which I have already written. This is the story of Abram, who later came to be called Abraham, and his wife Sarai (later Sarah), and their exile in Egypt.
Satanic Thought in Ancient Religion
One of the reasons that I venerate the Hindu religions may be that I find Satanism present even in its earliest sacred texts, which are as well the earliest extant sacred texts that we have access to.
Why You Should Read Books You Disagree With
This week I’m taking some time off from my usual writings on philosophy and religion to talk about something more general: what you should read, and why you should always be reading at least one book that you disagree with.
Paradise Lost as a Sacred Text
Should Paradise Lost, John Milton’s 17th-century epic poem concerning the fall of Satan from Heaven, be considered a sacred text, especially with regard to the Satanist?
What I Mean When I Say That I Am a Satanist, pt. 2
I’ve written this story before, but I’ve also mentioned that I never want anything to be fixed or definitive in this religion that I am creating for myself. Religion is a question that I am seeking to ask as sincerely as anyone ever has. So the above title is not so much a statement but a question that I am asking myself: What exactly do I mean by all of this?
The Divine Hedonism of the Mind
This week I’m taking a break from my usual focus on the sacred texts of the Abrahamic tradition and turning my attention to those of Hinduism. In reading the Text, I’ve come to a new and different understanding of what hedonism might mean for me in the context of this Satanic religion that I’m building…
In Search of the Religion of Jesus
Christianity is not the religion of Jesus. It is not the religion that he followed. It is not the religion that he preached. It was not the religion that he would have had his followers pursue during his life or after his death. What do we know of Jesus and the religion that he promoted?…