FOR WRITERS Today’s writer topic comes from QSFer Scott: Do your future sci-fi stories ever include new variants on existing religions? Writers: This is a writer chat – you are welcome to share your own book/link, as long as it fits the chat, but please do so as part of a discussion about the topic. Chat on FacebookChat on MeWe
As the well-known story in the Gospel of Matthew goes, three Magi, or wise men, followed the Star of Bethlehem to Jerusalem some 2,000 years ago. And after consulting with King Herod of Judea, the men found newborn baby Jesus in the little town of Bethlehem. Whether such an event really happened in history is difficult to prove, but if it did, what was the Star of Bethlehem? This is a question scholars have long pondered, not just from a religious or historical perspective, but from a scientific one, too. Plenty of theories have been proposed, from an astronomical event … Read more
FOR READERS & WRITERS Today’s writer topic comes from QSFer Scott: Let’s talk about religion in queer spec fic (any religion): readers, do you enjoy it when there’s a religious thread in your queer spec fic? Writers, do you use it? Links? Writers: This is a reader/writer chat – you are welcome to share your own book/link, as long as it fits the chat, but please do so as part of a discussion about the topic. Join the chat: FB: http://bit.ly/1MvPABVMeWe: http://bit.ly/2mjg8lf
Have you ever heard the story of a wizard battle that supposedly took place when an early church was constructed? Or how about the story of a border guard who defied King Herod’s orders and spared Jesus’ life? Scholars have now translated these and other “apocryphal” Christian texts (stories not told in the canonical bible) into English for the first time. More than 300 Christian apocryphal texts are known to exist, Tony Burke, a professor of early Christianity at York University in Toronto, Canada, wrote in the book he edited “New Testament Apocrypha More Noncanonical Scriptures (Volume 2)” (Eerdmans, 2020). … Read more
FOR WRITERS Today’s writer topic comes from QSFer Jerome Steuart: If you grew up in a religious household (of any kind), how has your religious background affected your writing practice, or story subjects? Do you find yourself working in opposition to it or working with it, or working in some liminal space between? How does it inform your writing? Writers: This is a writer chat – you are welcome to share your own book/link, as long as it fits the chat, but please do so as part of a discussion about the topic. Join the chat: FB: http://bit.ly/1MvPABVMeWe: http://bit.ly/2mjg8lf
A Catholic theologian says that gender-neutral robot priests could help tackle the sexual abuse crisis within the church. The claim comes from Ilia Delio, chair in theology at Villanova University, Pennsylvania. Speaking to Vox, she said: “Take the Catholic Church. It’s very male, very patriarchal, and we have this whole sexual abuse crisis. So would I want a robot priest? Maybe! “A robot can be gender-neutral. It might be able to transcend some of those divides and be able to enhance community in a way that’s more liberating.” Delio added that it’s possible that robots and priests could work side-by-side … Read more
FOR WRITERS Today’s writer topic comes from QSFer J. Scott Coatsworth: Religion is an integral part of our current world, so there’s a good chance it will be a part of future worlds too. What are some of your favorite uses of religion in spec fic worlds, and why? Or do you prefer religion-free worlds? Our readers discuss. Writers: This is a writer chat – you are welcome to share your own book/link, as long as it fits the chat, but please do so as part of a discussion about the topic. Join the chat
This might make your head spin — officials of the Roman Catholic Church are offering a week-long course in exorcism, and dozens of Catholic priests have flocked to Rome to partake of the Holy See’s demon-banishing tips and strategies. Titled Exorcism and Prayer of Liberation, the course is now in its 13th year, and is presented at The Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum, a Catholic educational institution in Rome, in collaboration with the Group for Socio-religious Research and Information (GRIS), according to the course’s website. An estimated 200 people — lay Catholics as well as priests — attended, Reuters reported. From … Read more
Colin Bedell, a self-described gay Gemini Twin from Long Island, New York, is on a mission to make astrology more inclusive of queer identities. ‘The soul has no gender,’ Bedell recently told Refinery29. ‘We have to move beyond body and sexual identification if we’re going to be integrous with this spiritual system.’ Bedell began studying astrology at age 12. ‘I’ve always had a pull to the metaphysical, mythological, and mystical. And astrology stands at that intersection beautifully,’ he tells GSN. By age 18, Bedell began chart analysis. And at age 27, he opened his own professional astrology practice, QueerCosmos. Bedell … Read more
