Once, during a long road trip around the Pacific Northwest the summer after high school, we stopped at a gas station somewhere near the Idaho-Montana state line, and there he was, ringing up our pump: Jesus. The flowing beard, the stunning eyes, the calm, warm voice, the Arco name tag reading “Jesus”: he had it [...]

Today, or rather tonight, is the beginning of Hanukkah, and a friend of ours recently asked for advice about what sort of Menorah to get this year: a conventional, slightly drab and humble model, or something fun and playful that might offend more strict sensibilities? Being that we’re all for overthrowing convention and having a [...]

As kids, we attended church very regularly for three years because it was mandatory at our school. Worse still, the church was in the school, so it wasn’t like a field trip or anything, and there also wasn’t a funny sign with nutty messages to lure in unsuspecting saps. Speaking of which, Manofest’s listicle of [...]

We don’t scour Etsy as much as we should because it’s really big and scary, but it’s also full of treasures, and once you find a warm, welcoming place in all the mess it becomes much simpler to find more of what you like. For instance, were you to happen upon the Podkayne Studios, you’d [...]

Advertising tends to be a devil’s advocate sort of device, convincing smart people to buy things they shouldn’t (Coke, candy, over-priced clothes) by appealing to some of their most basic desires. This scenario is made especially literal in the sorts of ads featured in mental_floss’s listicle of 8 Angel Vs. Devil Commercials, our favorite of [...]

What is it about pious religious peons in the movies? It’s as if these very inconspicuous figures from everyday life hit the big screen, and immediately become repositories of cool and vice. Often this includes being drunks, murderers, vigilantes and womanizers. Maybe this is compensation for the tough lives of real religious workers: in exchange [...]

Granted, we’re still celebrating the bicentennial of Charles Darwin’s birth, but who’s to say that in our modern, enlightened age, the controversial clash between science and religion, nature and nuttiness, can’t be resolved? What if we told you that many animals are religiously dedicated to, well, religion? Don’t believe us? We suggest you educate yourselves [...]

As our nutty Christian friends would have it, today is Good Friday (aren’t they always good, though?), which means this weekend is Easter. For some this will involve lots of talk about a Jewish carpenter named Jesus being crucified – ironically enough - on a fairly standard piece of carpentry (the classic T-model). For us, [...]

It’s Passover, it’s Easter, and so it must be time for the much-maligned religious movie to make its annual rentals spike. I know what you’re thinking: “Religious movies? Oh God, kill me now.” But God knows better than that. God knows that there are at least a dozen or so great religious movies, and the [...]

With Easter and Passover upon us, what better time to check on Jeremy Barker’s epic listicle of 101 Last Suppers at Popped Culture (which he started two years ago and completed Wednesday). As one of the most important events on the religious calendar and among Leonardo da Vinci’s most iconic (and frequently parodied) paintings, there’s [...]