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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

“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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

These are true stories from the highways and byways of America. These first-hand accounts are as varied as the storytellers themselves—some are detailed and filled with the terror and suspense that made people feel they had to share what happened to them with others; others are brief and straightforward retellings of truly chilling events.

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.

I’m fascinated with ancient history because there are continuous new discoveries which push back the dawn of civilization by thousands of years. In the last couple of decades, the discoveries at Gobekli Tepe in eastern Turkey pushed back man-made structures to the time period of 9,000-11,000 BC, thousands of years before the next known civilizations existed.

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.

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.

The myths of giants and demigods goes back for centuries. Even today, we marvel at the idea of men with superhuman abilities with incredible stature. Does the Bible tell us about the origins of these legends? Who are the Nephilim of the Bible? This is a source of great controversy amongst Bible scholars and Bible enthusiasts.

This is a true story of a girl growing up with a spiritual gift she does not fully understand. Written as a guide to her grandchildren, who also exhibit the Gift, this book seeks to help them understand what God had given them and what they are supposed to do with it. It exposes pitfalls and awkward problems involved with the Gift and it tells of the wonderful blessings that go along with it. Designed as a guide, the book also shares a lifetime of paranormal experiences.

Just consider the tale of the family beset upon by a strange gnome-like entity in Southern California. There is no apparent rhyme or reason as to why these strange creatures may enter into our lives, but when they do, the ball is in their court, and they deliver their bizarre narrative strictly on their own terms. We didn't know that hidden realms of microbes, bacteria and viruses existed in direct concert with our daily life, until we invented the microscope. Perhaps something similar could be said about these bizarre intrusions.

Uncover 15 true stories of ghosts, haunted houses, UFOs, Bigfoot, and unexplained otherworldly phenomena. These are not gory or blood-curdling tales of horror, contrived with special effects. Here real people, many former skeptics, share their true experiences of ghosts, haunted houses, UFOs, Bigfoot, and unexplained otherworldly phenomena. Wonder at haunted history, unexplained phenomena, and ghostly visitations from lost loved ones. Listen to the stories based on the Ghosts of Somerville film series.