Weird Religion

The first Christians were weird. Just how weird is often lost on today's believers. Within Roman society, the earliest Christians stood out for the oddness of their beliefs and practices. They believed unusual things, worshiped God in strange ways, and lived a unique lifestyle. They practiced a whole new way of thinking about and doing religion that would have been seen as bizarre and dangerous when compared to Roman religion and most other religions of the ancient world.

Using academic, comprehensive, logical, and, at times, mathematical approaches, The Science of Weird Shit convincingly debunks ESP, communicating with the dead, and alien abduction claims, among other phenomena. All the while, however, French maintains that our belief in such phenomena is neither ridiculous nor trivial; if anything, such claims can tell us a great deal about the human mind if we pay them the attention they are due.

Being a Catholic hipster is all about an attitude - an attitude grounded in being part of a countercultural community of believers dedicated to something bigger than themselves in a world dominated by self-centeredness. It’s about yearning to learn more about the faith by seeking out “Catholic cool” - overlooked saints, forgotten prayers and feast days, and traditional practices long set aside by mainstream believers. The Catholic Hipster Handbook will help listeners realize the only way to go against what’s normal and accepted in the culture is to be authentically Catholic.

What exactly are the weird and the eerie? In this new essay, Mark Fisher argues that some of the most haunting and anomalous fiction of the 20th century belongs to these two modes. The weird and the eerie are closely related but distinct modes, each possessing its own distinct properties. Both have often been associated with horror, yet this emphasis overlooks the aching fascination that such texts can exercise. The weird and the eerie both fundamentally concern the outside and the unknown, which are not intrinsically horrifying, even if they are always unsettling.

In Weird Earth: Debunking Strange Ideas About Our Planet, Donald R. Prothero demystifies these conspiracies and offers answers to some of humanity's most outlandish questions. Applying his extensive scientific knowledge, Prothero corrects misinformation that con artists and quacks use to hoodwink others about geology - hollow earth, expanding earth, and bizarre earthquakes-and mystical and paranormal happenings - healing crystals, alien landings, and the gates of hell.

From the Silicon Valley tech billionaires currently trying to work out whether or not the universe is one giant video game simulation to the self-proclaimed community of Italian time-travelers who are trying to save the world from destruction; The Theory of Everything Else will act as a handbook for those who want to think differently.

“When people describe my lifestyle or family as weird, I find comfort,” writes author and pastor Craig Groeschel. Journey with Groeschel as he shares a Christ-centered philosophy, on everything from money to scheduling to purity, that will help you break out of the normal rut and live according to the rhythms of God’s grace and truth of his word.

Jesus is different. Go and do likewise. Many Christians have become comfortable letting the world mold them instead of being set apart by God. Many churches have traded in their biblical roots for complacent conventionality. But Jesus and the church are anything but conventional. The hallmark of our faith is that it sees the world differently than the world sees itself. We are called to be eccentric. By the grace of God, we are not only dissatisfied by sin, but increasingly uncompelled by conventionality.

Tom Cruise and John Travolta say the Church of Scientology is a force for good. Others disagree. Award-winning journalist John Sweeney investigated the Church for more than half a decade. During that time he was intimidated, spied on, and followed, and the results were spectacular: Sweeney lost his temper with the Church's spokesman on camera, and his infamous 'exploding tomato' clip was seen by millions around the world.

Weird and unusual true stories of the paranormal, strange sightings, eerie true ghost stories and unexplained phenomena. The exceptional phenomenon of phantom armies is an age-old story. The famous saint St. Augustine documents a case in The City of God. During the civil wars in Rome, two rival groups of evil spirits were seen and heard battling it out on a plain in the hilly Campania region, so realistically that the saint reported strange footprints of horses and men afterwards noticed on the ground.

It's high time you question the myths that have been passed down over the centuries. Are these myths just myths, or is there a possibility of unexplained phenomenon around you? Science could not have possibly covered every bit of this universe, or even the planet for that matter. Are those who have witnessed these events actually crazy? Or have they actually encountered what you do not yet believe? Does science define everything around you? Or are these stories a cover for something bigger?

If the saints have never made you laugh or drop your jaw, they will in this book. Best-selling author Shaun McAfee (Reform Yourself!, Filling Our Father’s House) and guest writers illustrate how the saints were not just stone-faced old men. Some of them had quirky habits and outrageous personalities and did breathtaking deeds...but they all had epic faith.

Mary Katherine Backstrom shares heartbreaking and hilarious stories of how God uses each "mess" in our lives to bring us closer to him. She shows us that it's okay to celebrate exactly where we are right now - holy hot mess and all.

Between robberies, reports of lost people and pets, bar fights, domestic fights, car accidents, and anything else you can imagine, police officers have an incredibly difficult job. Listen to these eyewitness accounts of what members of the police force have had to deal with, and perhaps gain a better understanding - and appreciation - of what they are doing for you.

We live in a world full of mystery, every single aspect of our lives is steeped in it. Even though human civilization and our mastery of science has allowed us to spread to every corner of the physical world, much remains unexplored and unexplained. The realm of science yet has no explanation for these events. Though the small community of paranormal investigators does continue to break new ground, they too remain in the dark. Like the rest of us, waiting in the dark for something to jump out and grab us.

Did you know soap can burn? It can, my pretties. It can and it does. Fortunately, it cleans up so easily! But yes, the house didn’t smell as “wonderful” as it did “wonder what that smell is” for a couple of weeks. In good news, I found out I can literally leave my crockpot turned on low for weeks without it catching fire, so that’s a handy fact to know. Part how-to, part memoir, My Life as a Kitchen Witch was a surprise hit for fiction writer Red Tash.

Approximately 80 percent of Americans admit they haven’t read the Bible. If they did, they’d be pleasantly surprised by its impressive quantity of sex and poop jokes. David danced naked. Noah was basically a moonshining hillbilly. Ezekiel baked poop bread. Herod was eaten by worms. Jesus cursed a fig tree, just to prove he could. Mark went streaking. Hosea married a prostitute. Lot was date-raped by his own daughters. It turns out, there’s a lot of weird stuff in the Bible.

Look down as you buzz across America, and Oklahoma looks like another “flyover state.” A closer inspection, however, reveals one of the most tragic, fascinating, and unpredictable places in the United States In this book, Russell Cobb tells the story of a state rich in natural resources and artistic talent, yet near the bottom in education and social welfare. Raised in Tulsa, Cobb engages Oklahomans across the boundaries of race and class to hear their troubles, anxieties, and aspirations and delves deep to understand their contradictory and often stridently independent attitudes.

In a world where whispers become roars and rumors turn into accepted reality, Dexter Maxx delves deep into the labyrinth of modern myths, guiding listeners through a mesmerizing journey of the most tantalizing conspiracy theories of our age. From dark corners of the internet to the corridors of power, Conspiracies is a gripping exploration of humanity's age-old quest for answers in an increasingly complex world.

For more than two generations, television has been a part of most people’s lives, and few could remember a time when it wasn’t there as a familiar, reliable source of information and entertainment...Weird Television: A Collection of Interrupted Broadcasts, Paranormal Apparitions, and Other Mysteries on TV includes strange stories that will make this familiar medium seem a bit less familiar and far more interesting. You will learn about some of the world’s strangest TV stories like never before.