Tripp York

If Animals Believed in God . . .

First of all, given my Feuerbachian sensibilities, I imagine lions envision a deity that looks like a lion–while, and I’m only guessing, gazelles would be greatly offended by such an idea. You know, at some predestined future moment in or outside of time the “great gazelle in the sky” is going to pass judgment on […]

Tripp York

South Carolina Woman is Decidely NOT the Next St. Francis

Miriam Fowler Smith, who will not be going down in history as the patron saint of pit bull terriers, hung her nephew’s pit bull and then set the dog on fire. “Why?” you rightly ask. “Was the dog attacking a small child, a calico, or Fox News?” No, the dog bit her bible. Apparently, this […]

Tripp York

The Devil Wears Nada (“Ain’t got no reason to be ‘shamed!”)

What happens when a high-strung Mennonite armed with an overpriced education goes on a search for Satan in order to prove the existence of God? Disappointed parents. “Really, Tripp? Is this why you went to graduate school?” asked the equally high-strung and very southern mother who continues to pronounce my name with two-syllables (think “Tre-yup”). […]

John Totten

Nicolas Cage and the Problem of Evil: Why Do Good Movies Happen to Bad Actors?

Today, as I write this, the world is learning about the death of Ronnie James Dio, who succumbed to stomach cancer at the age of sixty-seven. The heavy-metal singer replaced Ozzy Osbourne in the late ’70s as the front man for Black Sabbath. After several years and records, Dio went on to front Ritchie Blackmore’s […]