
Holy Watermelon
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A Christian and an atheist talk religion...
Join Katie and Preston as they dive into the world of religion. They use their humour and backgrounds to have the tough and challenging conversations around all the world's religions.
Holy Watermelon
2w ago
Kabbalah isn't just another branch of Judaism--it's more mystical and personal. The idea is hat you really connect with the creator of the universe--but if you fail at that, there's always another shot with the benefits of reincarnation.
Mystical concerns include finding hidden meaning (often in places where it ought not to be) through astrology or gematria (numerology). The Zohar adds depth to the Torah, though not everybody is interested in this newer interpretation of scripture. The Spanish Rabbi who gave us the Zohar is still under investigation for fraud....
The sefirot, and t ..read more
Holy Watermelon
1M ago
Over millennia, countless dietary traditions have formed around the world; many are tied strictly to religious traditions, and have thereby been empowered to stand the test of time (with some scientific speculation).
We examine the details that outline kosher food, and how it's much stricter than halal diets (which are hardly monolithic). We also look at the Christian narrative that discards the Kashrut laws. Some keep it simple and categorically refuse to eat meat of any kind.
Taking proper care of your kitchen is important for a lot of reasons, you shouldn't have to fear religious discipline ..read more
Holy Watermelon
2M ago
Mina Angotti has a Master's degree in theology, focusing her studies on Mary, the Mother of Christ. Mina is a longtime friend of the show, and a devout Catholic. She's here to tell us about the details of the Nativity deduced from history, combined with a fundamentalist understanding of the Biblical source material.
Learn about the shepherds and the magicians, the census and the cave, the faith and the fumbles.
All this and more...
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Learn more great religion factoids ..read more
Holy Watermelon
2M ago
Vatileaks (or Vatican Document Leaks) caused a lot of trouble in Rome in 2012, leading directly (allegedly) to the Pope abdicating his office for the first time in centuries.
Paolo Gabriele (papal butler) snuck documents to GianLuigi Nuzzi (Italian journalist) to expose the corruption of Archbishop Carlo Mario Vigano.
The Holy See was burying sex scandals, bribery, home invasions, and overpriced home improvements and helicopter rides, and so much more. Did you know that canonizing a saint costs about half a million euros?
Vatican Spokesman, Federico Lombardi, coined the term "Vati-Leaks." Sinc ..read more
Holy Watermelon
2M ago
It's time to take another look at religion in popular culture, in particular, cults in film, and why we love telling these stories.
The Wicker Man (Either Christopher Lee's 1973 classic, or Nicolas Cage's 2006 remake) is a fantastic story about a man trying to save a girl who doesn't want to be saved from the cult of her little island town.
The Ritual (2017) takes some liberties with Norse paganism, but so do more popular franchises, telling us a great reason to be careful in the woods, and avoid unfamiliar shortcuts.
The Ninth Gate (1999) is a bold story of a book dealer who gets in dee ..read more
Holy Watermelon
2M ago
The Church of Rome doesn't represent all of Christianity, but it is a major portion of the global population, so it's time for us to look at their foundation, and what makes them distinct from other groups.
We explore the history of the Catholic Church, including the history of apostolic codenames, and the trouble with apostolic succession. The long history of Anti-Popes and "Lucky" Popes is fascinating.
We navigate the spreading chasm between early Christian-Judaism and the non-Christian Rabbinical tradition, coinciding with the development of new heresies with the influx of non-Jewish ..read more
Holy Watermelon
2M ago
The Christian New Testament is a tiny collection of letters, and a small handful of modestly interdependent testimonies of a personal Jesus from a small town in the unnamed northern province (now known as Galilee). The outliers are almost as valuable as the more orthodox materials.
The Bible consists of four biographies, some of which show more interest in symbolic teaching than in historical accuracy. Two of these rely heavily on another for their production, while a much later fourth comes to establish a slightly different path. One of these biographies gets a sequel, but when the hero leave ..read more
Holy Watermelon
2M ago
The Bhagavad Gita is one of the most religiously important pieces of Indian literature, a segment of the longest poem ever written: the Mahabharata has 1.8 million words.
The origin of The Song of God is obscured a little by time, but it certainly predates the Christian scriptures, though its form was finalized after the Biblical Canon.
Vishnu is said to have incarnated partially into the personage known as Krishna Dvaipayana or Vyasa -- the same guy who split the Vedas into their four parts, and authored other variably important scriptures for the people of southern Asia.
Arjuna a ..read more
Holy Watermelon
2M ago
You don't get many holidays that are more Christian than Christmas, right? The celebration of the birth of Jesus on December 25th is second only to Easter as far as Christian holidays go. But what if we told you that a lot of what we do is borrowed?
Did you know that many of the Christmas traditions we know and love have roots in other cultures and "pagan" traditions? In this episode, Katie and Preston chat about some of the most beloved Christmas customs like Christmas trees, caroling, mistletoe, yule logs, Santa Claus himself, and more!
Many of these practices come from the short days, and u ..read more
Holy Watermelon
3M ago
Daoism (formerly called Taosim) is the more prominent indigenous religion of China.
Daoism incorporates philosophical writings from ancient scholars, and mystic divination based on a variety of fascinating methods. The Dao-de-jing (or Tao Te Ching) is one of the most famous classics, along with the Yi Jing (I Ching).
In this episode we explore the mysterious figure of Laozi (Lao Tsu), and the complexities of the Wuxing.
The systems of hexagrams, trigrams, and binary code are significant today to everyone living their best digital life, and the systems of heavenly stems and earthly branch ..read more