Vatican Slams Avatar? HaHaHaHa!

You'd think the Vatican, with its long history of being on the wrong side of the facts (not to mention its reputation as a bastion of illogical thinking), would have the good sense to keep quiet when a SciFi pro-environment movie is rapidly climbing into the all-time number one slot as the highest-grossing movie in history. But then, why should the Roman Catholic Church break its two-thousand-year record of being wrong?

According to a report on Huffington Post, the Vatican news organizations claim Avatar is "flirting with the idea that worship of nature can replace religion – a notion the pope has warned against." Apparently the Pope is pro-environmentalism, but is afraid of it turning into some sort of neo-paganism. You know, where people worship some of the other of the 16,000 to 20,000 gods that humans have invented over the millenia rather than picking the right one. (In case you're confused, the right god to worship is the one called Jehova, Yahweh, Allah, El and a couple other names. Or maybe those were different gods, but we got confused. I don't know, ask the Pope, he's the expert.)

I don't know about you, but I'm not a guy who turns to the Vatican for advice when I'm deciding whether to see a SciFi movie.

In case you haven't seen it yet, Avatar is GREAT. We're going to see it again soon while it's still in 3D theaters. And see it in IMax if you can!

Michael Jackson's Religion: The "You First" Adultery Policy

Michael Jackson's This Is It, the documentary in theaters now, is truly amazing, a towering work of art about a musical genius, brilliant dancer, and true athlete. From the reports of MJ's last days and death, we were sort of expecting to see an aging pop star making a difficult comeback, but instead, were awestruck by the energy, talent and musical genius of a man still at the top of his game. If you haven't seen This Is It, you should make a date to do so!

I knew Jackson was a deeply religious man, but I didn't know the details. My curiosity was piqued, so I investigated, and learned that he was a Jehovah's Witness, which surprised me. And oddly enough, even with the hundreds of books I read while writing The Religion Virus, and the thousands of web sites I'd perused, I never once learned much about this particular branch of Christianity. It seemed like a good time to rectify that...

I find their theology to be an interesting variant on Christianity, particularly the idea that when you die, you're dead and gone, with no soul that survives. However, they interpret the resurrection as meaning those who believe in the JW version of Christianity will be resurrected, recreated as it were.

There's a lot more interesting theology, but one bit really caught my attention. It seems that the Jehovah's Witnesses can only get divorced for adultery. But there's an out: if you're divorced for some other reason (like if you'e a woman, and your husband beats the crap out of you), then it's considered adultery for you to get married again, unless your ex-spouse has sex with someone else first.

So I can just picture it ... you split up with your spouse for some reason, and you're both ready to remarry. "Hey, babe, you first, go ahead and have sex, I don't mind..." "No, you first!" "No, you go first!" Whichever of you goes first is the sinner, the other one is off the hook!

Boy, that really puts the pressure on. And it would really make it worth your while to spy on your ex, to find out if he/she had hooked up with someone yet.