This week, we tell the strange tale, via Twitter thread, of a man who brings his childhood imaginary friend back to life…through AI. The friend happens to be a microwave, who is also a WWI veteran. What could go wrong? (So many things.) 

Lucas Rizzotto’s Twitter thread: https://twitter.com/_LucasRizzotto/status/1516205625662836739 

The video version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1G5b_2PYj0 

Open AI and GPT-3: https://openai.com/api/ 

A working class supper from the 1800s reenactment video: https://youtu.be/K3DgRm9N3zU 

Star Wars talking to your kids PSA: https://youtu.be/pCjMGOvMghY 

Nazarene congregation vibes: https://bit.ly/39edCVK

Vestel Goodman: https://youtu.be/XxlI1ZRunu0

086 THE AIGOD (bringing an imaginary friend to life through AI, and playing God)

Weird Religion is a podcast for people who think religion is weird but love it anyway. Your hosts, Leah Payne and Brian Doak, are both professors, authors, and pop culture aficionados, whose interests range from archaeology and history and linguistics to LARPing and The Walking Dead. Episodes tackle some piece of media highlighting the wonderful weirdness of religious experience—a documentary, a television show, a Twitter scandal—and use that as a &quot;thread&quot; on which to hang reflections on a wide variety of topics. Cults. The perils of fame within the evangelical world. Church attendance. Atheism. Gamer communities. Millennials and avocado toast. It's all here.

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One of the biggest religious storylines of 2023 has been: the huge number of people leaving their faith communities. Because Christianity is the #1 by volume religion in America, the loss has been felt heaviest there. Why has this been happening? And how many have left? A new book shares the latest research, and the data may shock you (= clickbait)!!! We review and comment and teach. 

The Great Dechurching (new book): https://www.amazon.com/Great-Dechurching-Leaving-Going-Bring/dp/0310147433 

Ryan Burge, PhD: http://ryanburge.net/ 

Ryan Burge substack, “Graphs About Religion”: https://www.graphsaboutreligion.com/ 

“Good Faith” podcast interview with Great Dechurching author Michael Graham: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-great-dechurching-with-david-french-and-michael-graham/id1594454747?i=1000631285992

Peter’s Choi’s book on George Whitefield: https://www.amazon.com/George-Whitefield-Evangelist-Religious-Biography/dp/0802875491 

Buck Williams: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buck_Williams

120 THE DECHURCHING (the stunning story of why people have left church)

Beware, lest ye try to convict others in court, that ye have never sinned! We review some recent weird religious news with an eye toward  non-obvious stories. From dreams of living forever to Taylor Swift promoting witchcraft: while away this thirty minutes with us. 

Lori Vallow statement, opens with “he who is without sin throw the first stone”: https://youtu.be/uJ4nFtSsa3U

On the woman caught in adultery story: https://www.bibleodyssey.org/passages/main-articles/the-woman-caught-in-adultery-john-81-11/ 

Bonus story: Natalee Hollaway’s murderer claims to have changed his ways, to born again Christianity: https://www.christianpost.com/news/joran-van-der-sloot-claims-hes-now-born-again-christian.html 

The man who thinks he can live forever: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11679715/Tech-tycoon-45-spends-2-million-year-team-doctors-regain-teenage-body.html

The longevity industrial complex: https://www.axios.com/2023/09/24/longevity-podcasts-huberman-rogan-science

Pastor locks himself into cage with lions to show divine protection: https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/world-news/pastor-goes-cage-full-lions-31066685 

Historian Mary Beard on men getting obsessed with the Roman Empire: https://time.com/6317735/men-roman-empire-mary-beard-history/ 

Church buildings going empty: https://slate.com/business/2023/07/church-real-estate-development-west-park-presbyterian.html 

Taylor Swift promotes witchcraft: https://www.movieguide.org/news-articles/taylor-swift-promotes-witchcraft-on-tour-in-willow-performance.html 

Religious Group Shinzo Abe assassination: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2023/10/shinzo-abe-assassination-japan-unification-church-moonies/675114/

119 THE FIRSTSTONE (news roundup: Bible quoting courtroom antics and living forever)

We prepare to engage in the yearly ritual of scholars in our field: the annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion (AAR) and Society of Biblical Literature (SBL), abbreviated AAR-SBL…or is it SBL-AAR? The order makes all the difference. Quality tips are shared to survive an academic conference of this type. Brian shares the tale of his first panic attack, and leaks crucial details from one of his conference presentations—about the Puritan leader Cotton Mather and his belief that the bones of biblical giants had been uncovered in America. 

The Society of Biblical Literature (SBL): https://www.sbl-site.org/ 

The American Academy of Religion (AAR): https://aarweb.org/

The annual meeting online program book (you can search presentations by last name and keyword): https://sbl-site.org/meetings/Congresses_ProgramBook.aspx?MeetingId=43 

Cotton Mather: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotton_Mather 

Bozeman, To Live Ancient Lives: https://uncpress.org/book/9780807896273/to-live-ancient-lives 

Bryce Traister: https://fccs.ok.ubc.ca/about/contact/bryce-traister/ 

The text of Cotton Mather’s first letter to the Royal Society about the giant bones: https://www.jstor.org/stable/2936986?origin=crossref&seq=1

118 THE COTTON (academic conference attire, Cotton Mather, and the Bible in America)

Gather ‘round for an episode recorded in front of a LIVE AUDIENCE in Portland, Oregon! We take a piece of listener (e)mail and answer the call: to talk about books that have been deeply impactful for our lives and research—books that anyone could read and learn a lot. From classics in the early history of sociology to ritual to women in the church to child sacrifice, it’s a magic carpet ride of books. 

Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Protestant_Ethic_and_the_Spirit_of_Capitalism 

Émile Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of Religious Life: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elementary_Forms_of_the_Religious_Life 

Gianni Vattimo, ideas in this book about the incarnation Brian mentioned: http://cup.columbia.edu/book/the-future-of-religion/9780231134941 

On the “deep incarnation” idea: https://inters.org/gregersen-incarnation 

Catherine Bell, Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/ritual-theory-ritual-practice-9780199733620

Jon Levenson, The Death and Resurrection of the Beloved Son: https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300065114/the-death-and-resurrection-of-the-beloved-son 

Anthea Butler, Women in the Church of God in Christ: https://uncpress.org/book/9780807858080/women-in-the-church-of-god-in-christ/ 

Brian’s third book that we didn’t have time to talk about! Mark Smith, The Origins of Biblical Monotheism: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-origins-of-biblical-monotheism-9780195134803

117 THE BOOKS (live episode! books that have changed our lives)

The aftermath of the July 2023 Congressional UFO hearing has been fascinating, infuriating, mysterious, and ominous. We get you caught up, and present a chilling conspiracy theory about what has become already one of the most famous airplane disappearances of the past several decades—Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 in 2014.   

The Congressional UFO hearing on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/live/KQ7Dw-739VY?si=7iKLViEo9ZS-iy8_   

Wikipedia page for the whistleblower (David Grusch) claims: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Grusch_UFO_whistleblower_claims

NPR summary of the UFO hearing: https://www.npr.org/2023/07/27/1190390376/ufo-hearing-non-human-biologics-uaps 

The Hill article puts the situation accurately in Brian’s opinion: https://thehill.com/opinion/technology/4134891-a-monumental-ufo-scandal-is-looming/ 

Jesse Michels interview with David Grusch: https://youtu.be/kRO5jOa06Qw?si=lu69_M0SlBdCh9qE

Joe Rogan interview with Jeremy Corbell and George Knapp: https://open.spotify.com/episode/04gQ8km0XhEitU1Vz4lA3j

Malaysian Air (MH370) mystery on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaysia_Airlines_Flight_370 

Netflix show about MH370: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDg0m2Q3H8c 

The orbs video where the orbs take the plane: https://youtu.be/iZPHGJHXNXg?si=45OdsZWDvCA0_Q81 

Reddit threads on the orbs video are wild: https://reddit.com/r/UFOs/s/drEbOTTmDD 

Some have compared this conspiracy to the Netflix show “Manifest”: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8421350/ 

Seems maybe the orbs video has been debunked…but you can always go double conspiracy on it! ​​https://twitter.com/528vibes/status/1693008013278302498?s=20

Article Leah mentioned: “Prophetic Failure and Chiliastic Identity: The Case of Jehovah's Witnesses”: https://www.jstor.org/stable/2776152

086 THE AIGOD (bringing an imaginary friend to life through AI, and playing God)

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