6 March 2023
Have you ever received spam messages from an obscure Christian church on Facebook? I did, and it led me down a rabbit hole into the mysterious world of Eastern Lightning. I started investigating Eastern Lightning, aka the Fellowship, aka The Church of the Almighty God, at the end of January. A cult-like, doomsday Christian church, I joined the religion on the 1st of February. It's been a long and gruelling month. I have lots to share, but for this week I'll try to analyse what I've managed to find out about their local membership.
31 October 2022
This week the social media landscape changed. Elon Musk completed his purchase of Twitter, after a rather interesting historical timeline around the deal:
17 March 2021
We've just had the second anniversary of the horrific Christchurch massacre, and as skeptics it's sad to have seen over the last two years those in our country who have posted content denying that the attack was real, or claiming that it was a "false flag" operation. It's been hard enough over the last 20 years watching high profile conspiracy theorists, such as Alex Jones, engage in denial in the US for events such as the Sandy Hook massacre and the 9/11 attacks. But to see this kind of wrong headed thinking at home somehow feels worse. I guess we've been able to rest on our laurels watching America suffer from a spread of the conspiracy mindset, and at least for me it seemed implausible that the problem would ever reach our fair shores. I guess I was just too naive.
1 November 2002
The full copy of the audited financial accounts for NZCSICOP Inc for the year ending 31 December 2001 is available for viewing by anyone wishing to do so at the AGM. The Society Treasurer is Ian Short; the accounts were audited by Jane Jackman, a chartered accountant of Christchurch.
1 August 1997
IN an article entitled "Unravelling The Indian Rope-trick", in Nature, English researchers Richard Wiseman and Peter Lamont describe their systematic investigation of one of the world's best known paranormal exhibitions. There are many accounts, some first-hand, yet when investigators have searched for performances of the trick, even offering rewards, no one has come forward with a demonstration.
1 February 1992
Fundamentalists suffer contortions in trying to make their assumptions fit Biblical accounts.