Writer Mark Twain rejected Christianity?

(Famous People's Religion) The Bible is pure fiction: Mark Twain's dark religion satire: Letters from the Earth points out many Judeo-Christian flaws, inconsistencies, and contradictions.

• American writer Mark Twain rejected Christianity?
• Mark Twain, religion, and God (naturalist view vs. theology): "Why does God not relieve suffering?"

Letters from the Earth

Letters from the Earth (Wikipedia)

This is one of the works by Mark Twain published after his passing. These essays were kept secret, having been written by Twain. They may have ruined his career. As it was, he was deep in debt and had lost his wife and one of his daughters.

It consists of a series of short stories, many of which deal with God and Christianity. Twain penned a series of letters from the point of view of a dejected bad angel on Earth.

The title story consists of letters written by the Archangel [Lucifer] Satan to Archangels Gabriel and Michael about his observations on the curious proceedings of earthly life and the nature of mankind's religions.

Letters from the Earth

By analyzing the idea of heaven and God that is widely accepted by those who believe in both, Twain is able to take the silliness that is present and study it with the common sense that is absent. It is not an attack but rather a careful dissection.

Other short stories in the book include a bedtime tale about a family of cats Twain wrote for his daughters and an essay explaining why an anaconda is morally superior to Man.

Twain's writings in Letters from the Earth find him at a quizzical and questioning state, and readers are all the better for it.

'Pornography Wars' in US history (video)

Letters & Politics: The Pornography Wars

Assoc. Professor Kelsy Burke, U of Nebraska

(KPFA Radio) Streamed live from Berkeley, California, on June 23, 2023 (rebroadcast on July 21, 2025, in Los Angeles):

Host Mitch Jeserich with guest Associate Professor of Sociology of Religion Kelsy Burke at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She is the author of The Pornography Wars: The Past, Present, and Future of America’s Obscene Obsession. KPFA.org #kpfa #kpfaradio #MitchJeserich #news

• The Pornography Wars | KPFA

Past, Present, Future of America’s Obscene Obsession

In the 1960s, sex researchers Masters and Johnson declared the end of the fake orgasm. Nearly two decades later, in 1982, evangelical activist Tim LaHaye foretold that the entire pornography industry would soon be driven out of business.

Neither prediction proved true. Instead, with the rise of the internet, pornography saturates the American conscience more than ever and has reshaped our understanding of sexuality, relationships, media, and even the nature of addiction.

American sociologist Dr. Kelsy Burke has spent the last five years researching and interviewing internet pornography's opponents and its sympathizers.

In The Pornography Wars, Prof. Burke does a deep dive into the long history of pornography in America and then turns her gaze on our present society to examine the ways this industry touches on the most intimate parts of American lives.

She offers a complete understanding of the major players in the debates around porn's place in society: everyone from sex workers, activists, therapists, religious leaders, and consumers.

In doing so, she addresses and debunks the myths that surround porn and porn usage while showing how everything from the way we teach children about sex to the legal protections for what can be published is tied up in the deeply complicated battles over pornography.

Sweeping, savvy, and deeply researched, The Pornography Wars is a necessary and comprehensive new look at pornography and American life. More

Something worse than porn?

• Mitch Jeserich, Prof. Kelsy Burke (KPFA.org, June 23, 2023/KPFK.org, July 21, 2025); Psychosos, YouTube; CC Liu (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

A Women's History of Ancient World

Host Mitch Jeserich welcomes British researcher, historian, and critic Daisy Dunn (about), an award-winning classicist and the author of The Missing Thread: A Women’s History of the Ancient World. Her website is daisydunn.co.uk.

• AUDIO: Women in the Ancient World | KPFA

The Missing Thread

Spanning 3,000 years, from the birth of Minoan Crete to the death of the Julio-Claudian dynasty in Rome, a magisterial new history of the ancient world told, for the very first time, through women.

For centuries, men have been writing histories (his story) of antiquity filled with warlords, emperors, and kings. But when it comes to incorporating women, aside from Cleopatra and Boudica, writers have been more comfortable describing mythical heroines than real ones.

While Penelope and Helen of Troy live on in the imagination, their real-life counterparts have been relegated to the margins.

In The Missing Thread, researcher Daisy Dunn inverts this tradition and puts the women of history at the center of the narrative. These pages present Enheduanna, the earliest named author, Telesilla, who defended her city from attack, and the gay poet Sappho.

Here is Artemisia I of Caria, sole female commander in the Graeco-Persian Wars, and Locusta, Rome’s premier toxicologist. Cleopatra may be the more famous, but Fulvia, Mark Antony’s wife in Rome, fought a war on his behalf.

Many other women remain nameless but integral. Through new examination of the sources combined with vivid storytelling, Daisy Dunn shows us the ancient world through fresh eyes and introduces us to an incredible cast of ancient women, weavers of an entire world.

Around 4,000 years ago, the mysterious Minoans sculpted statues of topless women with snakes slithering on their arms. Over 1,000 years later, Sappho wrote great poems of gay longing and desire.

For classicist Daisy Dunn, these women — whether they were simply sitting at their looms knitting at home or participating in the highest echelons of power — were up to something much more interesting than most histories would lead us to believe. Together, these women helped to make antiquity as we know it.

In this monumental work, Dunn reconceives our understanding of the ancient world by emphasizing women's roles within it. The Missing Thread never relegates women to the sidelines. It is populated with well-known names such as Cleopatra and Agrippina, as well as the likes of Achaemenid consort Atossa and Olympias, a force in Macedon.

Spanning 3,000 years, the story moves from Minoan Crete to Mycenaean Greece, from Lesbos to Asia Minor (Anatolia, Turkiye), from the Persian Empire (Achaemenid Empire) to the royal court of Macedonia, and concludes with Rome and its growing empire.

The women of antiquity are undeniably woven throughout the fabric of history (her story), and in The Missing Thread they finally take center stage. More

• PRESS: Daisy Dunn: author, historian, journalist
• The Missing Thread: A Women's History of the Ancient World
• Guest Daisy Dunn, Host Mitch Jeserich, Letters & Politics (KPFA.org), Berkeley, CA, 10:00-11:00 am, April 24, 2025; Dhr. Seven and Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Losing the great comedian Bob Newhart

Remembering Bob Newhart | Letterman

(Letterman) July 18, 2024: Here is a look back at Bob Newhart's appearance with Dave Letterman from 1990 ("Late Night," air date: 7/12/90). Deadpan comedic genius Bob Newhart, 94, passed away in his home city Los Angeles after a brief illness. #bobnewhart #comedian #letterman. One of his funniest moments late in his career came during his appearance on Saturday Night Live, where he reprised his role as a nebbish psychologist dealing with an interesting parade of neurotic people. Unlike the Bob Newhart Show, he finally has an answer, a simple answer, for all of them to be cured for their mental and emotional neuroses.

(HolyTVClips) The best TV series finale in history of American TV:

The joke is that Newhart had a first super successful series. He then
starred in another series for years. When it ended, he woke up in the first
as if the second one had been a dream. It was a big surprise to viewers of both.

The Iliad and Odyssey (author interview)

Guest Prof. Emily Wilson, Host Mitch Jeserich, Letters & Politics, 2/27/24, 10:0 am, KPFA.org; Dhr. Seven, Pat Macpherson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Special: The Odyssey and The Iliad, why these epic verses still matter today

GUEST: Author and translator Emily Wilson is a professor of classical studies at the University of Pennsylvania. She has been named a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome in Renaissance and Early Modern Scholarship, a MacArthur Fellow, and a Guggenheim Fellow.

In addition to Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, she has also translated and published Sophocles, Euripides, and Seneca.

The Epic Verses Pack $320 contains: The Iliad (new translation by Emily Wilson) and The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyam: A New Translation [not to be confused with the Rubber Yacht of Jaimie Cohen] from the Persian by Juan Cole.

The Iliad (new translation) is an epic Greek poem that recounts the ten-year Trojan War and explores themes of pride, honor, and the human condition.

Prof. Wilson’s Iliad gives readers a complete Homer for our generation and the first ever English translation by a woman.

The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyam: A New Translation from the Persian is a manuscript of Persian verses attributed to Omar Khayyam, a 12th-century Persian mathematician and philosopher.

The famous book contains pithy observations on complex subjects such as love, death, and the existence of God and an afterlife.

• LISTEN
• DOWNLOAD
• iTUNES

The Irish Lass (poem)

Dhr. Seven edited by Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly

Wisdom of the Zen master (Angel City Zen)

Excuse me, miss, sorry to bother, but I'm seeking a redheaded suburban Sedona'ite last seen traveling through this neck of the woods or living the cloistered life aloft in a hermitage on the cleft of one of the surrounding hills, by the given name of Rowan Siobhan Fiona Elfinkilt, Gwendolyn Mackenzie Paisley Wigglesbottom, or some such, though for reasons undreamt of by Man she's taken to answering to "Hey you," a dashing figure whose dulcet voice sounds like the mew of a brinded feline, except when she weeps, as it then becomes the whoosh of water cascading in the staccato gulps of a stony brook plunging into a limpid pool lined with verdant moss and fern fringes, and you might know her because you bear a striking resemblance, twins perhaps.

I wish I lived in my own hermitage high in the mountains with no one bothering my peace.

.

You're Irish? - Yeah, what was your first clue?

We were rapt just this evening in meditation in a hollow under a tree large enough to take up residence enveloped in its roots, and I'm keen not to again lose touch though we've scarcely ever had the chance to be in direct touch, yet more than sufficient to stimulate the appetite for more, and losing it should not cause such a sting as it does when for long stretches we are forced to be apart with no hope of again uniting, be it on account of rare inclement weather, general holiday daze, or the sad fact of our benefactor's sudden declining health, and I intend to see to it that we establish a means of communication that shall not soon be rent asunder by the vagaries of a life beset by the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, if only she would assent to such a bold proposal.

Did it work? It worked or seems to have. And now I have nothing higher to live for:

• BOOK: Nothing Higher to Live For by Leonard Price (Ven. Nyanasobhano, Buddhist Publication Society via Access to Insight)
• Nothing Higher to Live For: A Buddhist View of Romance
• The Sinagua ("Without Water") | History of the Sinaguan People of Sedona, AZ

Bewitching sidhe or Celtic devi (amcplus.com)

Which, when you come to think of it, might not be a good thing. Let go. Drop it. Attach not for there is a hidden danger in attachment, in grasping and clinging to the pleasant things we grasp. We can instead enjoy things mindfully while we have them in hand and not become obsessed with "possessing" them as if they could ever really satisfy and fulfill. That is not where fulfillment is. Where is fulfillment? Ultimately, it is to be experienced as nirvana, in the nirodha (cessation) here-and-now, by wisdom, a release of the heart.

How can Wisdom Quarterly show BOOBS?!

Submitted by Jen Bradford (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Ashley Wells (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

OnlyClassics: sexy Sophia Loren caught staring at plain Jayne Mansfield (iconic US pinup)

Here, is that any better now? Wouldn't want to corrupt the viewers with circa 1957 US-smut.

.

Don't be nasty, be nice [like me]

I disagree with Mr. A (George Jackson). I don't mind [phalluses]. But shame on you for showing cleavage!! How dare you? I'm a single mother and [a mammal with ample boobs], and I don't want my son seeing things like that!! That's nasty!! We need to protect the childrens. I come to wisdomquarterly.com as a resource for peace, not nastiness and naughty pix of boobies bigger than mine!! I'm also a feminist and don't want nobody looking at me for objectificationment purposes. That's sick!! Can you imagine if my son could search the Web and find pix of breasts?! No thanks!! Take 'em down right now!! Show nuns doing good, not womens and how mean they are to women...

• Purity Police BLAST Wisdom Quarterly

Renounce the world and stop fighting

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: response

Features Editor Ashley Wells and Wisdom Quarterly Private Donors and Editorial Board

Buddhist Goddess of Wisdom Prajna Paramita, Indonesia

Dear Anonymous: It's true. We should be ashamed. Shame will save the world. The Buddha advocated abashedness and moral dread (hiri-ottappa) as lynchpins keeping the world from spinning out of control. But is it right to feel shame and fear of the female body? As girls we are taught to be ashamed. As women we continue to shame each other and teach our sons to ashamed and shame.

Body image is a big subject for bullies. I hope you were not bullied or a bully. Our minds get colonized (with sexism, racism, and other -isms and become the very monsters that oppressed up). We need to decolonize our minds and hearts.

Penises are real, even if Mr. A will not face it as this truth manifests in Buddhist Bhutan and Thailand, and so are paginas. Let's continue to feel shame and oppression. The Vagina Museum of England be d*mned, as Mr. A suggests.

Sex positive, body positive, free love, these are foreign notions today. We aim to be different and innovative at Wisdom Quarterly: American Buddhist Journal. It's bound to raise some hackles, go against the grain, rub some readers the wrong way. Thank you for giving voice to their concerns as our daily numbers dwindle and spike, rise and fall.

The men at Wisdom Quarterly have much to answer for, submitting such stories. It's not appropriate reading for monastics, particularly celibate monks not yet attained to "right concentration" (samma samadhi, the joy of jhana and its supersensual pleasure or piti that makes the base village practice of sex so uninteresting), to say nothing of Buddhist nuns who must also struggle.

But this outlet is for American Buddhists, who are often jaded, postmodern, blase, and nearly nothing shocks us. From that point of view, we are presenting what is of interest to Americans interested in Buddhism.

We recommend Foundations of Buddhism: The Four Noble Truths by the Buddhist Publication Society. It's amazing what that small book was willing to tackle and discuss when there's so much "spirituality" we could be drowning in. We choose not to drown.

We are interested in tackling and giving our take on modern topics like sex, drugs, and rock 'n roll, not to advocate them but to deal with them maturely.

This is no longer the Sixties. It's a corrupted time, a Kali Yuga waiting for a Golden Age. It's a little recognized fact that with every additional million readers on our tally, boobs are featured on the post the day of that attainment. Boobs are very boring, yet they're so alluring that they are an industry unto themselves. They are used to sell everything, including spirituality (that transcends the sensual). We are not hedonists, atheists, agnostics, or moralists -- well, we're kind of moralists, but only lightly so.

We are not here to shame. We will be shamed, if need be. The world with its cultural norms, religious and pious superiority, beliefs, superstitions, and fears will come around one day. Until then, please take our offering more lightly. There's plenty of Dharma discussed. The rest is just this American life.

Please feel free to submit a story idea to Ms. Jen Bradford. [Anyone is invited to by using the Comments Section below.] Thank you for the suggestion we show nuns doing good things. I have forwarded two story ideas to our Dharma editors to talk more about the Buddha's sister and brother as found in Buddhist sutras. Metta to you.

Purity Police BLAST Wisdom Quarterly

Submitted by Jen Bradford (Dharma Buddhist Meditation)*, Ashley Wells (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

In the name of "moral purity" something has to be done: Let's destroy art (New Statesman)

OK Boomer: Why we need to cancel 'cancel culture' (Farah Ibrahim/cairoscene.com)

.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

This letter comes in from an irate British reader, whom we shall call "Mr. A," although his real name is George Jackson, 32A Milton Avenue, Houndslow, Middlesex, Telelphone 01 246 8047 (Monty Python's "Mouse Problem").

As the self-appointed Morality Police in Charge of Purity and Vice in Western Publications Alleging to be Buddhist, Mr. Jackson has a COMPLAINT:

Hey, this cartoon's inappropriate! Cancel it!

[Feel free to agree, disagree, or add your own comments, complaints, or compliments in the Comments Section below.]

The following are recent titles of articles published by Wisdom Quarterly: American Buddhist Journal (wisdomquarterly.com):

• "Chasing the Phallus," Bhutan (2022 doc)”
• "Penis worship in US and Buddhist Bhutan"
• "The Vagina Museum, England"

Chasing the Phallus video still (Bhutan, 2022)

In the first article, I disagree with the vulgarity of the photo attached. [It shows four Bhutanese Buddhist pieces of penis art, shown here].

In the second, I disagree with the vulgarity of the song [by American singer Kate Leah] it links to:

Vulgar: "10 Things I Hate About You"

TRIGGER WARNING: Ms. Leah utters an unacceptable expletive [F-word] referring to intercourse!

We say [Richard] all day long, but try to say

In the third, the article [about the world's first female-run, body-positive, pro-feminist "Vagina Museum"] references a "Femigani Workshop."

Here are some of the lines from that article: "Femigami specializes in hosting playful and thought-provoking workshops using the art of origami to create unconventional paper creations (including vaginas and penises)."

"Workshop attendees have ranged from 10 to 80 years old (no one is too young or old to enjoy making Femigami!)" I disagree with children being exposed to such [dangerous, vulgar, body-positive] content!

Gendered violence is wrong.

Another article, "10 Things I Hate About You" [new Kate Leah music video] references the Heath Ledger film 10 Things I Hate About You.]

In that film, violence against men and boys is trivialized; as a male victim of female-perpetrated violence, I disagree with the film being given any platform. [As a rom-com for teens, it should be canceled, banned, and removed from critics' Top 10 lists of popular American comedies!]

Banned by Vice Squad (eBay)

If these articles were, for example, simply a matter of disagreement on grounds such as religion (theism vs. atheism), or political persuasion (Democrat vs. Republican), etc. then I would not have an objection to having my own articles published by Wisdom Quarterly. [But I won't allow them the privilege of broadcasting my voice and views unless they take down these three articles. Otherwise, I would never allow them to print my ideas!]

In the examples I have raised, it is my moral objection to the subject matter (and the journal seeing fit to publish them or give them a platform) which has resulted in my firm decision [to never allow them to publish my words].

• *DISCLAIMER: The characters and events depicted are entirely fictitious. Any similarity to names or incidents is entirely coincidental.
• Top 10 Legal Disclaimers (The Hollywood Reporter)

EDITOR'S RESPONSE

National view: Republicans, Democrats agree: cancel "cancel culture" (Duluth News Tribune)

.

What have we done to our good readers?

While we agree with "Mr. A" that these articles, or recent posts, are objectionable, we reason with him not to condemn Wisdom Quarterly for the decision to give these views a voice or platform. Unlike the openminded British, with their topless Page 3 Girls in every publication exposing children and others to titillating nudity, we American Puritans are closeminded about venises, paginas, and violence directed at males by females. But these are hard realities, particularly in a patriarchy and insidiously sexist culture, as we in the West enjoy as our first world problems. We plead with Mr. A not to cancel his subscription or avert his gaze, but rather to look for the good in all. The women of England behind the "V Museum" are feminists attempting to humanize the female body and its procreative components so denigrated by our fatherly and male-centric mentalities, with the male gaze and voice colonizing our minds. As a privileged white male, it is admirable that Mr. A sees fit to speak up for the oppressed and take on the white man's burden of being upright, acting as the self-appointed Purity Police that finds fault with the rest of the world in general and us in particular, wayward post-British Americans on this side of the pond. We further hope that by bringing attention to these matters, a wave of complaint comments can be avoided, and that no other Letters to the Editor (addressed to Ms. Ashley Wells of the Ashley Wells Foundation) be forthcoming. What will Tricycle, Access to Insight, Shambhala, and America's paper of record The New York Times (to say nothing of The New Yorker) think of us now?

David Letterman on Johnny Carson (video)

Johnny Carson, Tonight Show, David Letterman, Late Show; Wisdom Quarterly

Late Show with David Letterman on Johnny Carson for anniversary of his passing, tribute episode, January 31, 2005 recorded from KELO TV in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Whoever was running master control that night kept missing his breaks and cutting into the show. Good job. Some backstory. I was contacted by my friend who lived in New York at the time telling me to tape the program that night. He said NYC was having a big snow storm. He was walking by the theater and there was a sign in the window indicating they needed audience members that night. That's how he got in to see the show.

Indigenous People's Day, LONG BEACH

Chrissie M. Castro (323) 420-6844, Dhr. Seven, Xochitl, Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

LA COUNTY TO VOTE ON INDIGENOUS PEOPLE'S DAY
On Tuesday, October 3, 2017 at 9:30 am, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors will hear public testimony and discuss the historical importance and cultural impact of establishing an Indigenous People's Day as an official Los Angeles County holiday.

Supervisor Hilda L. Solis and Supervisor Sheila Kuehl’s effort to repeal Columbus Day and replace it with Indigenous People's Day (Item 2) in Los Angeles County annually on the second Monday in October.
 
We need help contacting and encouraging the supervisors in vote in favor of it. Please consider sending the following letter to the Executive Office of the Board at:

• ExecutiveOffice@bos.lacounty.gov
• CC the letter to: Kathryn@bos.lacounty.gov; firstdistrict@bos.lacounty.gov; MarkRidley-Thomas@bos.lacounty.gov; Sheila@bos.lacounty.gov; and fourthdistrict@bos.lacounty.gov.

CITY OF LONG BEACH TO VOTE ON INDIGENOUS PEOPLE'S DAY
The Long Beach City Council is considering the establishment of Indigenous People's Day. The Human Relations Commission of Long Beach will be submitting a proposal in support of celebrating Indigenous People's Day, and there will be a short presentation from a local indigenous community member to explain the importance of this day to the City Council. Finally, the City Council will vote and take action.

• Tuesday, October 3, 2017
• TIME: 4:00pm
• LOCATION:
• Long Beach City Hall
• 333 W. Ocean Blvd. 90802
• +Rally before the vote/meeting @4pm!
• +Attend City Council Meeting for the vote @5pm!

Let's come together and make this happen. This is a call to all friends and relatives to come and support! Indigenous People's Day in LA was a success. Now let's get the City of Long Beach to recognize it, too!

- Chrissie M. Castro (edited by Wisdom Quarterly)

Sample Letter
To the Honorable Mark Ridley-Thomas, Chair of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors
To the Honorable Members of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors

I am writing to express my strong support for Supervisor Hilda L. Solis and Supervisor Sheila Kuehl’s effort to repeal Columbus Day and replace it with Indigenous Peoples Day (item 2) in the County of Los Angeles, on the second Monday in October.

Recognizing the contributions, history, and sacrifices made by the original inhabitants of the Los Angeles area is long overdue. In recent years, there is a greater awareness of the well documented history of the Americas from the time Christopher Columbus set foot on the shores of what is historically referred to as Hispaniola in 1492. Indeed, Columbus returned three additional times to the “New World,” setting in motion a genocide that would last centuries, the effects thereof are still felt today.

Later, the Spanish missionaries came to California, decimating Native Tribes to the point of extinction in some cases. It is time for Los Angeles County to reflect on the legacy of these actions and create a permanent tribute to the people who made it possible for the rest of us to make a life for ourselves on the lands that the original inhabitants were so mercilessly removed from.

Thank you for voting in favor of replacing Columbus Day with Indigenous People's Day.

Sincerely,

[NAME]
[ADDRESS]
[PHONE/EMAIL]