Hacker News with Generative AI: Religion

Pastor who saw crypto project in his "dream" indicted for fraud (bleepingcomputer.com)
A pastor at a Pasco, Washington, church has been indicted on 26 counts of fraud for allegedly operating a cryptocurrency scam that defrauded investors of millions between 2021 and 2023.

Cryptocurrency, Fraud, Religion, Law Enforcement

8 points by botanicals6 2 days ago | 5 comments

Introduction to Buddhism (fsi.stanford.edu)
Buddhism, one of the major world religions, began in India around the sixth century, B.C.E. The teachings of Buddhism spread throughout Central and Southeast Asia, through China, Korea, and Japan. Today, there are Buddhists all over the world.

Buddhism, Religion, History, Asia

5 points by wslh 3 days ago | 0 comments

"Project Russia," Unknown in the West, Reveals Putin's Playbook (washingtonspectator.org)
Between 2005 and 2010, a set of books called “Project Russia” was distributed to high-ranking officials in the Russian government and other influential thought leaders. The books offered a detailed program of spiritual warfare against Western democracies culminating in “controlled global collapse” and the establishment of a “supranational” state headed by a Prince-Monk who “best understands the world.” The plan described is ultimately a program for subjugating the world, which would also be united together in a single religion.

Politics, Russia, International Relations, Conspiracy Theories, Religion

41 points by api 5 days ago | 34 comments

Seeing Hell through the Reason and Imagination of C. S. Lewis (discovery.org)
As a semi-retired pastor, having preached on Hell from time to time, I distrust any preacher or writer who seems to enjoy giving his people a steady diet of brimstone. C. S. Lewis reluctantly addressed the subject in his writings. In The Problem of Pain he admitted that there is no Christian doctrine that he’d rather remove more than the doctrine of Hell.

Religion, C.S. Lewis, Theology, Hell

14 points by Michelangelo11 19 days ago | 7 comments

Can LLMs accurately recall the Bible? (benkaiser.dev)
I've often found myself uneasy when LLMs (Large Language Models) are asked to quote the Bible. While they can provide insightful discussions about faith, their tendency to hallucinate responses raises concerns when dealing with scripture, which we regard as the inspired Word of God.

Religion, Bible, Artificial Intelligence

223 points by benkaiser 20 days ago | 153 comments

Does Morality Do Us Any Good? (newyorker.com)
Nothing kills your appetite, they say, like discovering how the sausage is made. In the realm of superhero cinema, origin stories explain our protagonist’s driving motivations. But in the realm of faith and values? I stopped believing everything the tabloids said after I went on a school trip to the offices of my local paper. Others have grown disillusioned once they scrutinized the early history of their religion as historians, not as adherents.

Morality, Philosophy, Religion, Ethics, Culture

11 points by vo2maxer 22 days ago | 11 comments

Ossuaries and the Burials of Jesus and James (jstor.org)

History, Religion, Archaeology

6 points by handfuloflight 24 days ago | 0 comments

Texas school district bans the Bible because of its sexual content (msn.com)

Education, Censorship, Religion, Sexuality

37 points by impish9208 25 days ago | 24 comments

Silicon Valley's Obsession with AI Looks a Lot Like Religion (mitpress.mit.edu)
The tech world’s fixation on artificial intelligence has spawned beliefs and rituals that resemble religion — complete with digital deities, moral codes, and threats of damnation.

Artificial Intelligence, Technology, Culture, Religion

10 points by ____H____ 27 days ago | 2 comments

Khalid Sheldrake: The East Dulwich man who would be King (nationalarchives.gov.uk)
Bertie Sheldrake was a South London pickle manufacturer who converted to Islam and became king of a far-flung Islamic republic before returning to London and settling back into obscurity.

Biography, History, United Kingdom, Religion, Islam

59 points by Geekette 31 days ago | 31 comments

Burial Spot of St. Nicholas, Inspiration for Santa Claus, Discovered in Turkey (livescience.com)

History, Archaeology, Religion, Turkey

10 points by Anon84 42 days ago | 0 comments

Nun arrested over suspected mafia links (news.sky.com)
A nun has been arrested in Italy on suspicion of colluding with the mafia.

Crime, Mafia, Italy, Religion

6 points by austinallegro 44 days ago | 1 comments

Whose Weil? Simone, Patron Saint of Everyone (thedriftmag.com)
In a sordid twist of the kind social media has perfected, Weil has also become a mascot for misguided youths seeking to blend a fetishized Catholic ritualism with aestheticized eating disorders: memes and graphics free-associate Weil’s name and face with half-knowing coquettishness, inane religious references, and anorexia, mirabilis or otherwise.

Social Media, Religion, Culture, Art

47 points by apollinaire 44 days ago | 18 comments

Sales of Bibles Are Booming, Fueled by First-Time Buyers and New Versions (wsj.com)
Hallelujah! Bibles are a bright spot in books this year.

Religion, Books, Sales, Consumer Trends

7 points by paulpauper 46 days ago | 4 comments

Prayer, Placement, and Absolution: Peter Hristoff on Islamic Prayer Rugs (2015) (metmuseum.org)

Islamic Art, Rugs, Museums, Religion, History

127 points by handfuloflight 53 days ago | 77 comments

Pope announces web designer as first millennial saint (politico.eu)
The Catholic Church will soon get its first millennial saint, an Italian teenager who designed websites for the church, Pope Francis announced Wednesday.

Religion, Catholicism, Millennials, Saints

6 points by Tomte 53 days ago | 2 comments

AI Jesus is ready to dispense advice from a booth in historic Swiss church (theregister.com)
If you find yourself in the Swiss tourist destination of Lucerne with a guilty conscience, there's someone waiting at the historic Peterskapelle Catholic Church to hear your prayers - someone who cares, you might say: Your own personal AI Jesus.

Artificial Intelligence, Religion, Switzerland

5 points by beardyw 56 days ago | 0 comments

The Pilgrim as a Historian (historytoday.com)
Growing enthusiasm for the Camino de Santiago over recent decades attests to an increasing desire to undertake this demanding physical expression of medieval Christian devotion, even as church attendance slumps.

History, Religion, Travel

31 points by lermontov 56 days ago | 11 comments

Translating my Grandfather’s biograpy (korny.info)
My grandfather, Dr Kornelis Sietsma was a Dutch Reformed Church minister in wartime Amsterdam. He preached in ways that offended the Nazi occupiers, and they deported him to the Dachau concentration camp, where he died.

Biography, History, Religion

97 points by pavel_lishin 56 days ago | 33 comments

Who Really Wrote the Bible: The Story of the Scribes (historytoday.com)
As sure as chickens come from eggs, books have authors. Knowing the author’s identity gives a book authority; that’s how we know it’s authentic. No wonder that so many people have asked the question in this book’s title. The traditional answer – it was God, obviously – may be theologically satisfying but doesn’t get you very far.

Religion, History, Authorship, Biblical Studies

8 points by diodorus 61 days ago | 4 comments

Buddhist Retreat: Why I gave up on finding my religion (2003) (slate.com)
For a 2,500-year-old religion, Buddhism seems remarkably compatible with our scientifically oriented culture, which may explain its surging popularity here in America.

Buddhism, Religion, Personal Experience, Culture, Science

35 points by whereistimbo 61 days ago | 76 comments

Pakistani religious body declares using VPN is against Islamic law (voanews.com)
Pakistan’s top advisory body on religious affairs on Friday declared that using virtual private networks to access blocked content on the internet is against Shariah, or Islamic law.

Pakistan, Religion, Islam, Internet Censorship, VPNs

40 points by ivewonyoung 62 days ago | 20 comments

E/acc as a religion:A Technologist's Right to Choose (avidfayaz.com)

Technology, Religion, Personal Choice

9 points by Avid_F 63 days ago | 8 comments

Is God a Silverback? Protective, omnipotent, scary and very territorial. (aeon.co)
Protective, omnipotent, scary and very territorial. The monotheistic God is modelled on a harem-keeping alpha male

Religion, Philosophy, Gender Studies

5 points by FrustratedMonky 68 days ago | 2 comments

How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous (2021) (city-journal.org)
A new book explores the religious origins of the West’s divergent political, technological, and cultural development.

History, Culture, Religion, Sociology, Economics

6 points by walterbell 75 days ago | 0 comments

Nikolai Fyodorov wanted to resurrect the dead to live among the stars (kubicki.org)
“He was a searcher for universal salvation. In him the feeling of responsibility of all for all reaches the ultimate and acutest expression... there was no man on earth who felt such sorrow at the death of people and such thirst to return them to life.” —Nikolai Berdyaev<p>Why Common Task? Blame it on a 19th century Russian called Nikolai Fyodorovich Fyodorov.

Philosophy, History, Religion, Russia

62 points by szkosma 76 days ago | 26 comments

The Vatican unveils official anime girl mascot (nichegamer.com)
The Vatican has unveiled a new cute anime girl mascot, hoping to create characters that “can represent the sentiments that resonate in the hearts of the younger generations”.

Religion, Anime, Marketing, Youth Culture

10 points by type0 80 days ago | 6 comments

Oakland's Psychedelic Mushroom Church (oaklandside.org)
Despite a police raid and global pandemic, Zide Door has accumulated members and slowly begun to resume in-person sermons.

Oakland, Religion, Psychedelic Drugs, Churches

25 points by agnosticmantis 83 days ago | 4 comments

Necromanteion of Acheron (wikipedia.org)
The Nekromanteion (Greek: Νεκρομαντεῖον) was an ancient Greek temple of necromancy devoted to Hades and Persephone.

Ancient Greece, Mythology, Religion, History

30 points by drdee 87 days ago | 6 comments

Religion in Space (wikipedia.org)
Astronauts and other spaceflight participants have observed their religions while in space; sometimes publicly, sometimes privately.

Religion, Space Exploration, Culture

9 points by downboots 89 days ago | 0 comments