Jonson takes pictures of The Salton Sea, which is a
strange place, like some kind of huge, perpetual,
Burning Man, but by a
huge, salty, polluted, manmade lake with
distant shores,
dying fish,
has-been resort towns,
Salvation Mountain,
fundie dinos,
fountains of youth, and
nice churches.
[via mefi projects] [previously] [howdy]
posted by brownpau
on Jan 30, 2007 -
36 comments
Gnostic Gospel of Judas, they say! Hot on the heels of
Christ On Ice and the, er,
"newly discovered" Gospel fragment, the news outlets are currently
drooling all over
National Geographic's recent conclusive dating and translation of surviving fragments of the
Apocryphal Gospel of Judas, now dated to about 300 CE. The text is classically
Gnostic, emphasizing a
duality splitting Christ's "spiritual" and "fleshly" natures, as opposed to Christian orthodoxy's belief in the
Incarnation. Looking beyond the wide-eyed "OMG THIS WILL REVOLUTIONIZE CHRISTIANITY AS WE KNOW IT" sensationalism, Internet Monk asks if a
300 year-old apocryphal biography of George Washington would be regarded as authentic were it discovered in 1970.
James F. Robinson, an expert on ancient Egyptian texts,
regards the Judas Gospel as mostly a dud, produced by Cainite Gnostics who took it upon themselves to "rehabilitate" villians of Bible mythos. Even if you don't believe in the
account of Judas, there's no denying his
contributions to the Christian narrative.
Truly a historical icon.
posted by brownpau
on Apr 6, 2006 -
42 comments
Interpreting Revelation's "Millenium." Outside of the all-too-virulent
rapture-crazy pre-tribulational dispensationalist premillenialism permeating JesusLand, some Christians hold to other, more nuanced eschatological alternatives. You've got
historic post-tribulational premillenialism, which places the transformation of the faithful at the final judgment rather than before it;
amillenialism, which regards Christ's "millenial" reign as a symbolic spiritual reign culminating in the last judgment; and
postmillenialism, which sees the millenium as a gradual progression towards goodness and light. Overlapping those, you have the "it's all been fulfilled"
preterists, and their prophecy-party-pooping compatriots, the
hyper-preterists. It's a debate just slightly more fun than
the end of the universe. Meanwhile, the
noncanonical apocalypses sit in a corner, sadly ignored, and
sunny Megiddo is still waiting for some end times
action.
posted by brownpau
on Feb 1, 2006 -
76 comments
Breaking the Science-Atheism Bond. "When I was growing up in Belfast, Northern Ireland, during the 1960s, I came to the view that God was an infantile illusion, suitable for the elderly, the intellectually feeble, and the fraudulently religious."
posted by brownpau
on Jan 24, 2006 -
160 comments
