Nathan Schneider
Nathan Schneider is an editor of Killing the Buddha and writes about religion, reason, and violence for a variety of publications. He is also a founding editor of Waging Nonviolence. His first two books, published by University of California Press in 2013, are God in Proof: The Story of a Search from the Ancients to the Internet and Thank You, Anarchy: Notes from the Occupy Apocalypse. Visit his website at The Row Boat.
Recent Posts by Nathan
Pony Up, KtB!
Powell Holloway wrote to us late last night with some thoughts about my post on anti-cult press releases at the Dallas Morning News religion blog. Best to read that first before proceeding. I’ll bet you have “a soft spot” for the now defunct Wittenburg Door… But wait! Before we have the DMN “pony-up”, let’s talk…
Science & Religion: Still Not Settled
A psychologist, an astrophysicist, and, um, a “neurotheologist” take the stage in a Brooklyn art gallery, alongside donation-priced beer, to talk about science and religion. That should about cover the bases, right? Time for some good, scientific answers for a change? Last night, Brooklyn’s second-favorite online magazine it has never heard of (look out for…
Become Cult-Aware in Dallas
The storied Dallas Morning News religion desk has fallen on hard times. A couple months ago, news came that the last religion reporters were reassigned to cover suburban schools or somesuch. That’s the advantage to the Killing the Buddha religion desk—in this organization, there’s nowhere else to go. It seems that, in lieu of actual…
Converting Vegetarians
First, a soundtrack. Our new friend Videoboy Matt’s song “
Give Up Now, Young Writer
I was 15 when Kurt Vonnegut blew my mind. Good timing. I had never read anything so fantastically alive as Cat’s Cradle, his apocalyptic story of invented religion in a banana republic. At the time, I had just recently converted from being an obsessive TV-watcher to, inexplicably, an in-over-my-head bookworm. Now, with Vonnegut in hand,…
Grrr, Aggressive Christianity
Sick of all that stuff about THE MEEK and THE PEACEMAKERS? The utter tepidity of regular churches got you down? Well have I got the new religious movement for you! Ryan Patrico recently gave me a heads-up about Aggressive Christianity, knowing my appreciation for adventures in religiosity. They’re a New Mexico-based (formerly Sacramento, CA) community…
You Too Can Be a Buddha-killer
Always wanted to kill Buddhas but feel you lack the weapons? Well, you’re not alone. That’s why Buddha-killer Gordon Haber will be running a special fiction workshop this summer. He ha buy cialis online s taught at high-rolling places like NYU and Columbia, but with this workshop you can work with him in a more…
Google as God
Tucker Lieberman just alerted us to a .pdf version of his recent bit in American Atheist, “Google as God: A Theology of Information Technology”: Here we examine the behavior of Googlers in the light of commonly recognized religious practices and review Google’s qualifications as a god in the classical mold. We ask whether Google requires…
Everyone’s a Bad Meditator, It Seems
Despite all our efforts to overcome our name, we can’t seem to help being a really good Buddhist magazine. The letters of appreciation for Ted Weinstein’s “Ways I Have Been a Bad Meditator” keep coming in. Carolyn Haun writes: Thank you Mr Weinstein,you have my eternal regard and affection. chaun Glenn writes: Thanks for this;…
the meaning of life, on this earth, for all of us
“larry hall – ganaraska think tank” (apparently a regular commenter on NYTimes blogs) wrote to us with an important revelation. The subject line was “deadline theology”—one of our rotating taglines on KtB. I guess that sparked something in him. Again another attempt to provide a map to salvation when we have already achieved it. It…
Wonderful
From: elizabeth murray Date: Wed, Jun 3, 2009 at 2:10 PM Subject: why i am a bad meditator [sic] wonderful.
Infrastructure for Souls
Triple Canopy has a great new piece about the convergence between megachurch and corporate architectures, which I heard presented at one of TC’s recent events in New York. Very much worth a look. Infrastructure for Souls – Triple Canopy.
Believer, Beware NYC Launch Party: June 29
Mark your calendars! The New York launch party for the new KtB anthology Believer, Beware will be Monday, June 29th, 6-9 pm, at Le Poisson Rouge. More details to come. Drinks! Readings! Old friends and new ones!
Short Discourse on Cult Terminology
Do you know the difference between a religion and a cult? Salman over at Irtiqa has a very welcome post about the terminology of these things. It’s the subject of a very significant debate in the study of contemporary religion today, especially since it has such real legal ramifications. These days, all eyes are on…
A Symbologist Speaks!
In my Religion Dispatches essay this week about Angels & Demons, I make a crack about the nonexistence of the hero’s stated academic discipline, “symbology.” But maybe I’m wrong. I think I’ve just found a symbologist. Trolling around on the Internet today, I found this Canadian Masonic website which denies the conventional wisdom that the…
KtB Makes the NYT Happy
The New York Times‘s Happy Days blog is featuring us today in their “Worth a Read: Editor’s Picks” section. They’ve picked out Ted Weinstein’s “Ways I Have Been a Bad Meditator” and the letter to the editor on “Indian Pelagianism.” But you probably already knew that Buddha-killing is the one, true way to happiness. Also,…
Indian Pelagianism: Learn to Overpower Death
Among the opponents of Augustine of Hippo in the 4th and 5th centuries were the Pelagians—monks, mostly, who believed that salvation and eternal life could be accomplished by a finely-chiseled personal spirituality. In the process, Augustine set out the view that would come to be held by most Christians as orthodoxy, in one way or…
The (One, True) Way to Go
I stand corrected. Quince Mountain (whose racy memoir “Cowboy for Christ” appears in our forthcoming book Believer, Beware) wrote in with a note about my Memorial Day post from yesterday, in which I had made the mistake of calling biking and hitchiking the eminent forms of travel in the United States. I appreciate the Memorial…