Our culture is rife with unproductive conversations about God and religion. Donald and I attempt to rectify this by sitting down and talking about our belief and unbelief in God.
Sacred Tension: A Theist and a Nontheist Have a Conversation
Category: Sacred Tension Podcast
Sacred Tension: When Maggie Met Molly
Despite the social taboo against certain psychedelic and psychoactive drugs, the medical world is now experimenting on previously forbidden drugs with promising results. In this episode of Sacred Tension, I speak with Maggie Eli about her clinical trial on MDMA, AKA Molly or Ecstasy.
Continue reading “Sacred Tension: When Maggie Met Molly”Demon Possession
When I was in college, I had a harrowing experience: a friend of mine became demon possessed, and subsequently went through an exorcism officiated by a local minister. It was one of the most terrifying experiences of my life, and reinforced my lifelong Christian belief in the supernatural.
Now, many years later, I have questions. What actually happened to my friend? Supernaturalist explanations now seem overly simplistic – was she mentally ill instead? And what about the rest of us who believed that she was possessed? Were we helping her, or abusing her? And what purpose does possession serve in human societies?
Joseph Laycock, an expert in the experience of spirit possession, new religious movements, and fringe spirituality, sits down with me to explore the history and causes of demon possession.
God and Gay Sex
In this episode of Sacred Tension, Donald and I sit down to answer questions from patrons of the show. We talk about why I went into yoga, what parts of my faith remain intact after going through deconstruction, how straight allies can better serve the LGBT community, what we wish someone had told us about gay sex, and much more.
Continue reading “God and Gay Sex”Gamification and the Singularity
In this episode, I talk to Douglas Lain about his latest novel Bash Bash Revolution: a young adult novel that explores Marxism, revolution, artificial intelligence, and the gamification of human society. We discuss utopia, mental health, the consequences of digitization and gamification on the mind and spirituality, and much more.
Douglas Lain is the publisher of Zero Books, a novelist, a podcaster, and most recently a youtuber.
Lain’s previous novel After the Saucers Landed was nominated for the Philip K Dick Award.
Douglas Lain is also the host of the Zero Books podcast. His first podcast, entitled Diet Soap, ran for over five years.
He lives in Portland, Oregon with his wife and two boys.
You can find Douglas Lain’s work at www.douglaslain.com
Evangelicalism’s Betrayal
In this episode I talk to film-maker Christopher Maloney about his latest documentary, In God We Trump, which explores the confounding relationship between Trump and the evangelical world.
Face the Music and Dance: Responding to Climate Change
Earlier this year, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change dropped a horrifying ultimatum on the world: we have a mere 12 years to to mobilize a World War II level effort to change the effects of climate change to avoid a cataclysmic future.
Continue reading “Face the Music and Dance: Responding to Climate Change”
