Why Religious People Are Ashamed of Porn

Last updated on: February 18, 2014 at 2:29 pm By Marc

One of the more exciting statistics used to denigrate religion is the fact that its followers seem to experience higher levels of guilt and shame regarding their sexual actions. Consider a headline from 2011, fairly bursting with its own conclusions: “Atheists have ‘better sex lives than followers of religion who are plagued with guilt.'” This is brilliant stuff, destined for gleeful, bi-annual repetitions by the press, for there are few things more marvelous than sexuality, and few things that so effectively trumpet... Read more

To My Readers in Europe

Last updated on: February 10, 2014 at 3:14 pm By Marc

You have better things to do than read my cranial excretions, such as eating Milka bars, going to Church in the undoubtedly gorgeous cathedral at the center of your city, or watching soccer. But since — by the edict of some strange and masochistic god — you are instead reading this blog, I have a request. I am currently studying in Europe, and I plan to travel quite a bit. Your food is delicious and cheap, but your hotels are... Read more

Beyond Compare

Last updated on: February 7, 2014 at 11:33 am By Marc

I received a message asking, amongst other things: What if Islam is true? What if Buddhism is true? Atheism? How can you be so sure of your Catholicism when there are thousands of religions and world-views you have not even encountered? I am thankful in the extreme that the question seeks the source of my surety and certainty in the Church, and not my factual reasons for being a Catholic. If the latter was emphasized, I would have to give... Read more

Creationism Is Materialism’s Creation

Last updated on: February 5, 2014 at 12:32 pm By Marc

I take Frederich Nietzsche quite seriously when he says, “when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you,” and thus I did not, nor ever will watch the recent debate between Bill Nye The Science Guy and Ken Ham The Creation Man. There are things in this world too depressing for people desperate to maintain some sense of hope regarding humanity, its direction, and capacity for truth. Nevertheless, I want to take this opportunity to point out that, far sooner than any creationist vs. scientist debate amounts... Read more

God and gods

Last updated on: February 4, 2014 at 11:24 am By Marc

It seems apparent to me that, if the atheist wishes to disprove or otherwise snub his empirically verifiable nose at the idea of God, he ought to be sure that knows what the word “God” refers to. David Bentley Hart makes this one of the central propositions of his book “The Experience of God: Being, Consciousness, Bliss,” where he contends that “the more scrutiny one accords [the God Debate] the more evident it becomes that often the contending parties are... Read more

Why Name-calling is Exactly What It Sounds Like

Last updated on: January 29, 2014 at 3:48 pm By Marc

If I could offer a single corrective to our culture, a solitary word to collar-yank us safe from the semi-truck of The Intolerably Boring that daily bears on me and my generation, it would be — “describe.” (Maybe with a “dammit” thrown in for good measure. (Describe, dammit. (There we go.))) Description gives us insight, allowing us to see in, to move through the exterior life to an encounter with a person’s’ interior life. Great works of literature achieve this.... Read more

Too Much Information

Last updated on: January 28, 2014 at 7:39 pm By Marc

Honesty can be dishonest. The over-emotional, tell-all status-update we awkwardly scroll past is a brilliant revelation of this paradox. You know the one. Sandwiched between a crappy meme and a glowing duck-face, listing the miseries of life and the falseness of friends with vague but poignant references to a significant other who has slighted/ignored/left or otherwise hurt the author of the update — it’s a staple of any news feed worthy of its nauseating nature. All of its information may be... Read more

Dirty Secrets of the Gay Male Subculture: A Brief Bolster

Last updated on: January 27, 2014 at 5:05 pm By Marc

I’ve read something brilliant, and I want to tell you about it. It was a long read (the phenomenon of which turned out to be a pleasant exertion. (Pleasant, that is, amidst our thriving inability to process any piece of prose not malformed into a list of 10 and crowned with a desperate, panting headline. (Internet Writing, dear friends, subsists on viewage, on the “like” and the “share.” That’s how bloggers make money. We need to promise an unbelievable, all-previous-experience-defying... Read more

Coming (Hopefully) Soon…

Last updated on: January 21, 2014 at 7:24 pm By Marc

The Harmonium Project

Last updated on: January 6, 2014 at 6:55 pm By Marc

The goal is simple. My friends and I are trying to integrate the impoverished downtown of Steubenville, OH with the student body of Franciscan University, for the mutual benefit of both parties. Our first step is to establish a thriving music scene — giving students a reason to come downtown, to encounter their neighbors and build personal relationships, to patronize local businesses, and to give local business leaders a reason to invest in the downtown area, to open up shop,... Read more