religion

If you believe the Pope is God's rep on Earth, you can now get the word from above in 140 characters or less.

Pope Benedict XVI has joined the masses on Twitter, using the microblogging service for the first time yesterday.

"Dear Friends, I just launched News.va. Praised be our Lord Jesus Christ! With my prayers and blessings, Benedictus XVI," the pontiff tweeted.

The new Vatican portal brings together various print and broadcast news streams into one site.

The tweet is part of the Holy See's campaign to proselytize online. Although the Vatican wasn't crazy about a confession app that came out recently, it previously endorsed an iPhone prayer app.

It has also joined Facebook and YouTube in an effort to connect with younger, digitally savvy generations. The Vatican's English-language Twitter feed has nearly 50,000 followers. … Read more

Religion is a touchy subject.

Oddly enough, as I have come to discover in these pages, so is Apple.

Somehow both inspire such extreme levels of devotion that I am amazed there hasn't yet been an Apple-inspired war, with bodies strewn across the malls of America.

Some British neuroscientists chose to investigate whether there may possibly be some scientific similarities between devotees of a Creator and of Cupertino.

You will be stunned into additional homilies in the chapel of your choice when I tell you that, having performed a brain scan, these neuroscientists declared that Apple was a religion. … Read more

Someday in the not-too-distant future, the best tattoo artist could be a robot.

Artist Chris Eckert and programmer Martin Fox have created Auto Ink, a large, three-axis device capable of doodling on human skin. The steampunk-style machine is shown drawing on an arm in a video below, and it looks like something straight out of the "Saw" horror movies.

Strangely enough, Auto Ink was originally inspired by religion. Eckert believes faith "spans borders," but dislikes the arrogance and sense of exclusion he believes often accompanies those who carry religious messages. Since he thinks religion is often assigned depending solely on geography, Auto Ink emulates the creation of a religious identity by randomly drawing a Muslim, Christian, or Jewish symbol on the willing subject.

"Once the main switch is triggered, the operator is assigned a religion and its corresponding symbol is tattooed onto the person's arm," Eckert notes. "The operator does not have control over the assigned symbol. It is assigned either randomly or through divine intervention, depending on your personal beliefs."

Auto Ink, in its current form, uses a felt tip pen to draw and is incapable of truly giving a permanent tattoo. YouTube user Hellbierd notes that a real tattoo artist uses specific techniques during the process, requiring that the "skin must be stretched and the depth of the needle controlled."

So far, Auto Ink has only scribbled on its creators. Would you let a robot draw on you? … Read more

Some may call it the "Jesus Phone," but the Vatican is seeking to remind the faithful that there are limits to mixing the sacraments with technology--even when it comes to the iPhone.

A new application for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch that lists sins to be taken to the confessional earned a cautionary warning from the Vatican today. Actually, it wasn't so much the app getting a rebuke as it was the hype that accompanied it.

When it debuted earlier in the month, the $1.99 application, Confession: A Roman Catholic App, was described as preparation for Catholic confession and the ''perfect aid for every penitent."

Users create password-protected profiles and then go through a series of soul-searching questions related to the Ten Commandments. The app displays sins along with a written act of contrition for the penitent. It also lets users log "custom sins" and create "custom examinations of conscience."

Prayers stored in the app include such classics as the Lord's Prayer, the Apostles' Creed, and Hail Mary.

After Kevin Rhodes of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend in Indiana gave the app an imprimatur, the story turned viral, with some articles referring to the app as a "virtual priest." But in a statement put out by the Vatican, Father Federico Lombardi was quoted reminding Catholics that absolution requires a personal dialogue between penitents and the confessor. … Read more

Get ready for the iPhone spiritual coach. The Catholic Church in the U.S. has approved an app that prepares Catholics for confession.

Confession: A Roman Catholic App is designed to make confession easier for Christians. Developer Little iApps bills it as "the perfect aid for every penitent."

It offers users a step-by-step guide to the Rite of Penance and is meant to be used in a church confessional. It's not a substitute for a priest.

Users create password-protected profiles and then go through a series of soul-searching questions related to the Ten Commandments. For the First … Read more

As the doors to CES swung open, I rushed in looking for a technology that would save me, hopefully, from myself.

I thought I had found it within seconds.

For there was a large image of Jesus Christ who looked like he was gaming. I pushed past the peddlers and the half-naked dancing girls and headed straight to GameChurch.com's booth.

GameChurch's Doug Christensen was quick to anoint me with his pitch. He explained that GameChurch was a place for Christian gamers to get together and be themselves. Then he told me that the site reviews games and … Read more

The lady in the tight shorts clutches the hammer. She runs up to the screen, towards Big Brother's large projected face.

And, in a strident attempt to explain to Big Brother that gay marriage is not a good thing, she tosses the hammer...at Steve Jobs.

Perhaps you have yet to see this 2010 version of Apple's "1984" ad. The version in which Steve Jobs is portrayed as Big Brother.

The ad was made by the National Organization for Marriage. The organization is upset that an app called "The Manhattan Declaration" was first approved by Apple … Read more

The Diocese of London official biography for Peter Broadbent, bishop of Willesden, explains that the man of the cloth is a season-ticket-holding football fan who appreciates good beer, so he sounds like an upstanding gentleman.

But according to a number of U.K. news outlets, Broadbent is treading in some very unholy waters these days after making remarks on Facebook about the impending nuptials of Prince William and fiancee Kate Middleton, in which he referred to the events surrounding their April 2011 wedding as "nauseating tosh," compared the couple to "shallow celebrities," and predicted the marriage … Read more

It seems we can't all get along. It seems that everyone is splitting up these days.

Today, one reads of Eva Longoria filing divorce papers against the San Antonio Spurs' Tony Parker. Indeed, the Huffington Post now has a whole section devoted just to divorce.

Can we possibly blame the Church of Social Networking, Facebook, for these woes? Or at least some of them? Might Facebook be to blame for creating so many desperate housewives and husbands?

One man of God, the Rev. Cedric Miller, believes that all married couples should close their Facebook accounts in order to protect … Read more