This slow-motion video of people getting hit by a powerful jet of air right in the face is remarkable for its demonstration of how flexible the skin on our face is when subjected to powerful winds. I would never have guessed.
Several of the commenters to yesterday’s post on Pentecostal fervor had grown up in that religious tradition and raised an issue that I had not thought about, and that was what the children in attendance at these sessions thought about their parents getting caught up in the action and speaking in tongues and generally carrying on. Those comments are well worth reading. [Read more…]
If you needed more evidence of the blatant double standards and hypocrisy practiced by the US government when it comes to dealing with Israel compared to countries that it does not like, this exchange between Associated Press reporter Matt Lee and State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland should settle any doubts.
They don’t even bother to pretend any more.
Those of us who have argued for a strict separation of church and state warned those who wanted the wall breached that if they were successful they should be prepared to live with Muslim and other minority religious encroachment in public life in those communities where those groups happened to be the majority or had significant influence. [Read more…]
Those who are unfamiliar with the kinds of things that happen at Pentecostal services might be shocked by the extreme nature of the things that the congregation can get whipped up into doing. Babbling incoherently (also known as ‘speaking in tongues’) and wildly gyrating as if they were having a fit are common. This video clip that I received from readers Lisa and Norm gives you some idea of how wild things can get. [Read more…]
I saw recently this news item where a former member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Colorado City, AZ found on his doorstep a tiny kitten that, while still alive, had been encased up to its head in cement. He took this as a warning sign from the members of the cult to leave town. [Read more…]
One sees the word ‘cult’ thrown around quite often and the word has deeply pejorative connotations. People who belong to mainstream religions are comfortable calling some minority religious groups cults but the distinction between a religion and a cult is elusive. Is Scientology and cult or a religion? How about Mormonism? How about the Moonies? How about the Branch Davidians or the Sai Babaists?
I too have tried to find a distinction but failed. The best that I could come up with is that a religion tends to have the properties of being old, having many members, and some political clout while those groups that are called cults tend to lack any or all of those qualities. But since there were no real differences in the nature of the beliefs involved, I concluded that there is no substantive difference between a cult and a religion.
But via Pharyngula I saw this graphic that I think captures the essential difference.
In all the hoopla over the main verdict concerning the individual mandate in the Affordable Care Act and the Chief Justice’s vote on it, two other important features have had less attention paid to them. [Read more…]
The soldiers of Belarus have clearly been putting in a lot of practice to produce a remarkable display.
(Via Gawker)
This video shows what looks like a small bus plowing at high speed into the back of a line of stationary cars waiting at a highway off-ramp. Amazingly, there are said to be no serious injuries, which is what makes the accident watchable, as otherwise it would be too tragic for words. [Read more…]