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It's the End of the World (At Least At The Movies) Image: Jaap Buitendijk / Paramount Pictures On April 15, the Boston Marathon was rocked by bombings that left three dead and 264 injured. Three days later, in West, Texas, a fertilizer plant exploded, killing fifteen people. The months before were filled with reports of mass, public shootings—including the Sandy Hook Elementary School tragedy—so numerous it's difficult, six months later, to even recall them all. And don't forget all the natural disasters and forest fires and global political unrest. In the middle of that difficult week in April, the parody news site The Onion ran a series of articles with titles like "BREAKING: How's Everyone Doing? ", "Authorities: Sadly, There Are Many People Who Could Have Done This," and "Jesus, This Week.

" Let's be honest: that "lack of control" is not just something some Onion writer dreamed up, just another fake quote from a made-up source played for laughs. It might be the end of the world. Noah Alissa Wilkinson Andreas J. Peter T. Superman Isn't Jesus. Despite what you may have heard, the "man of steel" is no Son of Man. With every new Superman movie, this rumor that fans look to him as the savior of humanity spreads through trailers and interviews.

The directors of the last two Superman flicks found religious symbolism particularly attractive, layering on clunky monologues and heavy-handed parallels between Superman, born as Kal, the "only son" of the House of El, who was "sent to Earth to save it," and Jesus Christ, the only son of God, who was sent to save humanity. "He's a Christlike figure. There's no two ways about it. " I disagree. Even with a complex, longstanding hero like Superman, it's no accident that the Christian imagery comes up so often, from Entertainment Weekly to Fox News.

"Warner Brothers, the studio behind the film that grossed more than $125 million this weekend, hired faith-based public relations firm Grace Hill Media to make sure the Christian market didn't miss the connections," he said. How could we miss them? The Militant Athiest: Hell: Endothermic or Exothermic? The following is supposedly an actual question given on a University of Washington chemistry mid-term. The answer by one student was so "profound" that the professor shared it with colleagues, via the Internet, which is, of course, why we now have the pleasure of enjoying it as well.

Bonus Question: Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic (absorbs heat)? Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle's Law (gas cools when it expands and heats when it is compressed) or some variant. One student, however, wrote the following: First, we need to know how the mass of Hell is changing in time. As for how many souls are entering Hell, let's look at the different Religions that exist in the world today. With birth and death rates as they are, we can expect the number of souls in Hell to increase exponentially. This gives two possibilities: So which is it? The Fitness-Driven Church. It's Monday night at New Hope Community Church in Flora, Indiana, and 40 churchgoers donning T-shirts and sweats are gathering in teams for their weekly weigh-in.

There's no camera to capture their reactions when their numbers are announced, and no one will be booted out of the church. But make no mistake, this is a weight-loss competition. And Michelle Reed is in it to win. "I've lost 16 pounds in a few weeks. It's a lot easier when you hear what God says about it," says Reed. In January 2013, the church started using Losing to Live, a 12-week program that includes a fitness assessment, group aerobics, and counseling created by "antifat pastor" Steve Reynolds. After losing 120 pounds himself in 2007—and then leading 250 members of Capital Baptist Church in northern Virginia to lose 12,000 pounds—Reynolds developed that curriculum followed by Get Off the Couch: 6 Motivators to Help You Lose Weight and Start Living.

Twenty years ago, I did my part to resist that idol. Andreas J. GOP’s 7 most mind-boggling “scientific” theories.