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| Articles about Religious |
| Human Rights Quote (69): Religious Liberty | | 2008-06-30 03:23:27 | | “False doctrine should be checked on its first appearance; the civil power should unite with the church in punishing those who dared to attack the established religion, and such only were punished by the Inquisition.” Samuel Johnson, aka Dr Johnson.
“Religiously wrong, a motive of legislation which can never be too earnestly protested against. Deorum injuriae [...] | | By: PAP Blog | | |
| | Religious Touting in Singapore | | 2008-06-23 13:09:22 | | 23 June 2008Baohui's school vacation had ended. Met her after her examinations and helped her with her studies.On the way back home, I took a cab. The ride was smooth and comfortable until I reached my place. After paying for ride, the taxi driver handed me a pamphlet.Darn! Without looking at the pamphlet, I already knew it could only be a religious one. And indeed it was. It was an article distributed by The Glory Presbyterian Church for the Singapore Every Home Crusade Co. Ltd.Singapore is a secular state. It is multiracial and multireligious. Everyone has his or her own freedom and space to practise religion. Nevertheless, I have had encountered more than a handful of religious touting incidents. I shall attempt to recall some interesting ones:On one occasion, a taxi driver started a religious preaching once I boarded his taxi. He started to criticise other religions and pointed that his religion was the only true religion. My family and I were utterly annoyed but kept silent as he | | By: My Encounters, My Life | | |
| | The Daily Buzz: Apartment Managers Fired And Evicted For Being "Too Religious" & Rape Used As A Weapon Of War In Zimbabwe | | 2008-06-23 12:30:00 | | -A Florida couple has been fired from their job running an apartment building and they were evicted from their home for being "too religious".-Yet another article on the reality that there may be a serious shortage of food in the future.-Some Australian men are starting to take the last name of their wives when they get married.-Big credit card problems: $2 trillion credit contraction as consumer debt defaults soar.-The bees are disappearing, and that is really bad news since our survival depends on them.-Lastly, in a very disturbing story, rape is being used as a weapon of war in the African country of Zimbabwe.
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| | Should a President be Religious or Spiritual? | | 2008-06-03 22:22:44 | | By Anthony Stevens-ArroyoIn Washington Post In one sense, I think spirituality is more desirable in a president than religion alone, although I hasten to add that both of them together would be the best of all possible worlds.Evaluating religion and the presidency tempts a contrast of the hardly-ever-in-church Ronald Reagan with the very religious Jimmy Carter. Clearly, Reagan had the “successful” presidency and Carter did not. However, thinking people would recognize that events – not faith – explain most of the differences in popularity of both men than faith. After all, the inflation and hostage-taking that tarnished Carter’s four years are not linked to his Baptist religion I think a more fruitful approach is to examine the dynamics of spirituality and religion. How does a president 'interiorize' commitments? (= spirituality). Does the president actively belong to a community of believers? (= religion).It’s easy to forget the differences between spirituality and religio | | By: Spiritual Village | | |
| | Barack Obama, Religious, Shallow, or Psychopath | | 2008-06-02 22:02:00 | | MY VOTE IS FOR THE LATTER“…Most criminals -- whether psychopathic or not -- are shaped by poverty and often childhood abuse as well. In contrast, corporate psychopaths typically grew up in stable, loving families that were middle class or affluent. But because they're pathological liars, they tell romanticized tales of rising from tough, impoverished backgrounds. Dunlap pretended that he grew up as the son of a laid-off dockworker; in truth, his father worked steadily and raised his family in suburban comfort. The corporate psychopaths whom Babiak studied all went to college, and a couple even had PhDs. Their ... | | By: The Pink Flamingo | | |
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| On the Subject of Religious Reform | | 2008-06-01 09:16:15 | | First of all, I would like to recommend a website I recently came across called Beyond Religion (founded by former Presbyterian Minister John W. Sloat). For anyone who is interested in the subject of religious reform -- or for those who simply like to read first hand accounts of spiritual experiences written by ordinary people, this site is well-worth checking out. Of course, when I say "ordinary people", I mean non-celebrities. Truly, no one is ordinary. In fact, the day everyone realizes how extra-ordinary they truly are, the world will be a much more peaceful and joyful place.Speaking of religious reform, a little more than a year ago I read a book called "The Sins of Scripture" (written by a distinguished former Bishop named John Shelby Spong). Unlike the site of John W. Sloat, while I very much enjoyed Mr. Spong's book, it left me feeling very sad. Mr. Spong has never had any sort of supernatural or miraculous experience in his life, and because of this, while openly promoting the | | By: The Life Intended | | |
| | | Religious Frictions In The Moslem World | | 2008-05-28 03:36:00 | | May 27, 2008: The West, and non-Moslems in general, aren't the only ones suffering from the effects of Islamic extremism. It isn't just the violence of terrorists, it's the threats and harassment. Moslems suffer from this the most, and that has led to a strange revival of Christianity in Moslem nations. In Algeria, for example, the local Christian community has grown from a few hundred, to over 30,000, in the last 25 years. Moslems are looking for a change, and those that cannot get out, try and find solutions closer to home. This in spite of the fact that Islamic extremists are particularly hostile to Moslems who convert to any other religion.During the Lebanese civil war of 1975-1990, Christians and Moslems fought bitterly over political, cultural and, ultimately, religious differences. The capital, Beirut, was divided into Christian and Moslem sections by the Green Line. The name came from the fact that in this ruble filled no man's land, only grass and weeds survived. There have b | | By: Military Enthusiast | | |
| | | How to Tell When the Religious Right Has Lost Its Damn Mind | | 2008-05-06 20:04:00 | | Really? Are you sh*tin' me?Since when has doing a magic TRICK been considered wizardry? Alternately, how far backwards have we gone when someone can be fired for doing something as silly as making a toothpick disappear and reappear? He did a circus trick...who gives a flying fig?So if you can't tell, this is a prime example of why the religious right has completely gone off the deep end. This guy should sue.
| | By: The World in the Satin Bag | | |
| | The Next Religious Awakening | | 2008-05-06 01:43:50 | | By Thomas Barnett, Syndicated columnistThe MetroWest Daily NewsAs our era features globalization's rapid and unprecedented advance, it will logically also feature the greatest single religious awakening the world has ever seen. Religion will become eminently more important because economic conditions will change more dramatically in coming years and decades than at any other time in human history.Hardly the clash of civilizations, this upsurge will reflect the efforts of societies to adapt to an era of widespread abundance as a global middle class emerges. People want an independent code of behavior to help them navigate all these new opportunities - guidelines for a life well led.All of the world's major religions were formed during the Malthusian era of human economics, or before the Industrial Revolution permeated Western societies, shifting people from a just-getting-by paradigm to "how do I deal with abundance?"Survival economies demand a strict code, but with abundance comes a ch | | By: Spiritual Village | | |
| | Religious Destinations New Property hot spots in India for real estate developers | | 2008-04-15 03:45:16 | | India is known as World Religious Centre and people from all over the world come in these places for the piece of mind as world is going more & more professional.Real estate industry in destinations like Vrindavan, Mathura, Haridwar, Ajmer, Amritsar, Tirupati and Nasik - growing at tremendous rate and in very little time they become the emerging hot spots for real estate developers in India.Acc. to Latest Figures , the twin cities of Vrindavan and Mathura, apart 140 km from Delhi, have seen the development of over a dozen townships in less than three years with an estimated investment of Rs 15000 crore ($3.71 billion).Omaxe Developers tells"Religious towns have good growth prospects. They are witnessing more than 45 per cent annual rise in property prices against the average 25-35 per cent in Tier II cities," says Vipin Agarwal, executive director."Increasing demand will push growth further. More number of people are investing in property in these towns that attract a large number | | By: Best Investments in India | | |
| | Religious Persecution in North Korea | | 2008-04-03 10:36:00 | | A religious watchdog group has tracked religious persecution against Christians for years and for the past six years, North Korea is the top offender. They are calling for action as the persecution turns into a huge refugee problem. Carl Moeller, President/CEO of Open Doors USA, says: "It is certainly not a shock that North Korea is No. 1 on the shame list for the sixth year in a row. There is no other country in the world where Christians are being persecuted in such a horrible and systematic manner."Leader Kim Jong Il is said to demand the worship of himself from citizens. It is reported that despite incredible hunger and poverty in the country "nearly 40 percent of the country's budget is spent on Kim-family deification" and "there are some 30,000 monuments to the current leader."Tightly ruled Northern Korea has made Christianity illegal except through the State, a system identical to China's. Its regime has been brutally cracking down on believers, imprisoning them and sending them | | By: Life Consistency | | |
| | Religious Tradition and History of the Amish | | 2008-03-27 08:49:25 | | http://amishwiki.org/tiki-read_article.php?articleId=7 Religion and religious practice are fundamental to the Amish people. Amish faith is not simply about an abstract religious doctrine but rather an entire way of living. Currently, although the Amish people almost exclusively inhabit the mid-western region of the United States, the Amish movement has its historical roots in Europe. Furthermore, nearly all people of Amish faith are born and raised within their community; rarely has outside conversion been demonstrated. Ranging from self proclamation as protestants and Anabaptists, and although similar in both practice and history to the Mennonites, the Amish live under a vastly different lifestyle than their fellow Christian brethren.
The history of the Amish religion shares deeply its roots with the traditions of the Mennonites, both of whom formed in the early 16th century out of a group of Swiss Anabaptist—literally, twice baptized—sects that developed as a backlash against | | By: Amish Furniture Reviews | | |
| | religious fanaticism | veil that keeps people from seeing God | | 2008-03-17 13:14:51 | | Ghazali repeatedly makes the point:One of the main veils that keeps people from seeing God is religious fanaticism. He says, it doesn't matter too much which school of Islamic laws you follow. There are different theological positions that is valid to adopt.Try and be orthodox, in fact its necessary to be orthodox, but whatever you do, don't turn it to some kind of zealot; so that religion just becomes a way of feeling that you are better than everybody else. Thereby veils you to God.- comment by T. J. Winter (also known as Abu Hakim Murad) - Lecturer, Islamic Studies | Cambridge University | from the film Al-Ghazali: The Alchemist of Happiness by Ovidio Salazar.a beautiful film i just watched and do recommend you to watch as well. from the imagery, portrayal of a great enlightened personality in world history to the message in the movie, its purely brilliant. a film where the search of truth and certitude takes a professor and scholar of religion to the path of mystical path and inner | | By: Inspirations and Creative Thoughts | | |
| | Tears in Tibet | stop Chinese imperial repression of Tibet, its cultural and religious identity | | 2008-03-15 15:17:52 | | "Repression continues to increase with numerous, unimaginable and gross violations of human rights, denial of religious freedom and politicisation of religious issues" - Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, speaking from his exiled home Dharamshala in India, on China's heavy handling of recent protest in Lhasa, Tibet.Riots escalate in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa as lay Tibetans join in the protests which began on March 10th, anniversary of the Tibetan uprising of 1959. Unconfirmed reports that soldiers are firing on Tibetans in the streets. 300 monks from Drepung monastery and 100 nuns from Chutsang nunnery marched toward the center of Lhasa, stopped by armed police. Arrest of around 500 students from Tibet University, according to CNN. Chinese authorities sealed off three monasteries in Tibet, shops and vehicles were burned, and deaths were reported as a wave of rare street protests continued in the remote Buddhist region.Violence erupted Friday in a busy market area of the Tibet | | By: Inspirations and Creative Thoughts | | |
| | New Religious City in Israel: Modiin Illit | | 2008-03-15 08:17:00 | | Arutz Sheva -- Modiin Illit, popularly known as Kiryat Sefer, is now a city, having been granted approval by the Interior Minister and IDF Central Commander. The new city is virtually all-hareidi, along the lines of Beitar Illit and Elad. Located some 25 kilometers east of Tel Aviv, it straddles the Green Line border between pre- and post-'67 Israel, though most of it is well within the Samaria (Shomron) area. For this reason, its change in status required the consent of IDF Central Commander Gen. Gadi Shamni.Mayor Rabbi Yaakov Guterman said, "Our city is considered Israel's third-largest Torah center [after Jerusalem and Bnei Brak - ed.], and is a drawing card for Torah institutions. It has long functioned as a city, and now it has received an official stamp of approval... Its great merit lies in its Torah scholars and the Torah and Hassidut insitutions that grace its streets."Kiryat Sefer existed as a flourishing Jewish village during the Second Temple period, 2,000 years ago. It | | By: THE NEW BABYLON TIMES | | |
| | Oh You Silly Religious | | 2008-03-10 10:07:00 | | Apparently you can just make it up now. Yeah, I thought it was surprising to. It's not written in the Bible, but hey, it must be a sin cause the Archbishop said so. Good lord.I proclaim a new sin, since we can just make it up now:Thou shalt not oppress, discriminate, or manipulate people of alternate position due to religious intolerance and thou shalt not profess the name of God in war, nor shalt thou make new sins because of changing times, nor for the sake of man's indiscretions that that thou mayest have Holy Law as a defense for personal disagreement.Welcome to Shaunism, the new religion of the world, where people aren't discriminated against for being slightly different or believing in magic bunnies or whatever else they believe in and neither are people killed, imprisoned, or threatened for believing in magic bunnies or whatever else so long as their beliefs do not cause intentional harm to those of the living.P.S.: Yes, I realize the sins in that link are basically decent i | | By: The World in the Satin Bag | | |
| | Sent by the National Religious Campaign Against Torture | | 2008-02-25 16:22:00 | | Dear Friends:Earlier this month Congress passed H.R. 2082, a bill that would prohibit all U.S. intelligence agencies, including the CIA, from subjecting detainees to waterboarding, stress positions, hypothermia, and other forms of torture. The President’s signature is all this bill needs to become law.Unfortunately, President Bush has said he plans to veto the bill. If he does not change his mind, this important anti-torture legislation will not become law.Please contact the White House and tell President Bush’s staff that you support H.R. 2082 (the Intelligence Authorization bill), and that you think it is essential that the anti-torture provision in the bill becomes law. You can use a sample email that we have prepared to contact the President, or you can call the White House at 202-456-1111. Click here for the sample http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/2162/t/3805/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=21961.Please feel free to personalize the email.We would also like to remind you of two i | | By: Poetry Where You Live | | |
| | | A warning to all religious fundies!! | | 2008-02-13 15:56:00 | | STOP PLAYING POLITICS WITH RELIGION!
I have long wondered whether this law was ever actually enforced, especially after Mike Huckabee made an appearance/campaign stop at Jerry Falwell's church in Lynchburg earlier this week.
Southern Baptist pastor Wiley Drake said Wednesday that he is being investigated by the Internal Revenue Service for endorsing GOP presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee in a press release written on church stationery.
Under federal tax law, church officials can legally discuss politics, but they cannot endorse candidates or parties without risking their tax-exempt status. Most who do so receive a warning.
Drake, a prominent pastor in the Southern Baptist Convention, said he received a 14-page letter from the IRS on Feb. 7.
On Aug. 11, Drake wrote a press release on letterhead from the First Southern Baptist Church in Buena Park that announced his personal endorsement of Huckabee and asked all Southern Baptists to get behind the candidate.
Americans United for t | | By: The Colette | | |
| | | My Religious Journey Part 4 (The Final Chapter) | | 2008-01-28 18:28:41 | | 4. What do you understand to be the meaning of life? Do you believe in life after death? Why are we here? What is the point of life? How do you make sense of life?I believe that there doesn’t necessarily have to be a ‘meaning’ to life. Nevertheless, I’ve wondered about the question for as long as I can remember and while I’ve gone through periods where I thought the answer was probably love (mostly because that’s what everyone else seems to think) and then, somewhat cynically, 42, I’ve now decided that if there is an answer, and assuming that it is an answer that the living can comprehend, and it’s not connected to any religious ideology, it’s probably happiness. At least, that’s as close to an understanding of the meaning of life as I can get at this point. I don’t trust that the answer really is ‘happiness’. With universal happiness there is no growth, which suggests to me that growth could be the meaning. Except that there has to be a point to the growth, a | | By: Oh My, said Miss Milk | | |
| | | My Religious Journey Part 3 | | 2008-01-06 19:19:16 | | 3. What are your responses to these great ‘religious’ questions: why does suffering exist? Why do we have to die? Why does God allow injustice to occur?I don’t think these questions have to have answers. Practically speaking, I think that out of everything that occurs there is a fairly even balance between suffering and happiness, and I’m inclined to think that it has a lot more to do with the probability of something good happening as opposed to something bad happening, rather than some divine interference creating evil in a good world, or vice versa. I think the effect that suffering has on people is probably just incidental. Perhaps suffering doesn’t have to happen, it just does. It also serves a valuable purpose – people wouldn’t function properly if they didn’t or couldn’t feel pain, be it emotional or physical. It is essential for learning and growth. As for death, I think that people dying allows for people to be born, and of course, without death the food chain couldn’t exist. Death is important. I don’t believe that people are chosen to die, or that it’s ever anyone’s ‘time’. I can’t help but think that the theories relating to the reason for death and what happens afterwards are just something people believe to help them deal with grief and loss. It’s all speculation. What I've forgotten to mention is that 'good' and 'bad' can only be defined by your own perception of what is good and bad. What's good for one person could be bad for another, and so on, so that it's impossible to measure whether more good things occur in the world than bad. I'm not sure if that's relevant, but I thought I'd jot it down. | | By: Oh My, said Miss Milk | | |
| | Stop Being So Religious | Hafiz | | 2008-01-03 20:23:53 | | WhatDo sad people have inCommon?It seemsThey have all built a shrineTo the pastAnd often go thereAnd do a strange wail andWorship.What is the beginning ofHappiness?It is to stop beingSo religiousLike That.- "The Gift" - versions of Hafiz by Daniel Ladinskyvia americanistan. image credit . | | By: Inspirations and Creative Thoughts | | |
| | 2008 Candidates: Line Up For Religious Litmus Testing | | 2007-12-08 03:12:00 | | Excuse me, but exactly when did we decide to just start pole vaulting, over 200 years worth of Constitutional basics and start giving our Candidates for the Presidency, or any office for that matter, a religious "explain yourself and your religion" test?I didn't see that nationally broadcast memorandum. The Faxed Litmus test just never arrived at my workstation. I just don't recall that being acceptable, or even necessary for that matter. And as a matter of fact, that kind of questioning is strictly prohibited in the Constitution itself. When did this change?Romney gave a good "speech." Unfortunately, that's all it was, just a speech that pretty much echoed JFK's speech from the 60's when he was getting grilled over his Catholicism. But personally, he should have never had to speak a word. And it didn't ally my thoughts as I wasn't planning to vote for him in the first place, and it had nothing to do with his religion. He's got some good points, but I don't believe his stances | | By: Hoopy Frood Dude | | |
| | Religious Right in Disagreement Over Iraq | | 2007-11-18 12:59:54 | | From the Boston Globe:LYNCHBURG, Va. - On Main Street of this Civil War-vintage city, known in recent years as the birthplace of the religious right, the only political sign bears the name of Ron Paul, the antiwar libertarian who is running for the Republican nomination.At nearby Liberty University, the headquarters of the late founder of the Moral Majority, the Rev. Jerry Falwell, many students say the campus is divided between at least five Republican presidential candidates, including Paul, and some support for Democrats, as well.With just weeks remaining until primary season, leaders and foot soldiers of the religious right have come to a surprising conclusion: Their bloc of voters, considered by many to be the largest single constitu ency in the Republican Party, is not going to break for any one candidate in 2008....On no other issue do opinions vary as widely among social conservatives: Some Christian leaders have been rebuked for defending the war as a religious crusade; others | | By: Republican Renaissance | | |
| | High School Officials Pull the Plug on Valedictorian Because of Religious Content of Her Speech-Truth! | | 2007-11-16 14:32:00 | | Summary of the eRumor: A story of Brittany McComb, a Nevada teen who was valedictorian of her high school graduating class. The text of her speech had been edited by both the school administration and the ACLU and she was told to remove references to the Bible and to Christ that were in her remarks. When the time came for her speech, however, she left them in and the P.A. microphone was cut off just before she said the word "Christ." The Truth: The story is true and the text of the eRumor is from a release by the American Family Association, which asked for names to be added to a petition to protest the action by school officials. The incident took place at Foothill High School in Henderson, Nevada, which is part of the Clark County School District. According to an article in the Las Vegas Review-Journal on June 17, 2006, the school officials felt they were on good ground to kill the microphone. They had reviewed the speech. told McComb that it went across the line, and had warned her what would happen if she disregarded them. They wouldn't object to a reference to religion in McComb's speech, but they said that her text was preaching her religion and amounted to proselytizing. Her speech included scripture references, nine mentions of God, two mentions of the Lord, one mention of Christ, and a phrase, according to the article, that talked about "God's love being so great that he gave his only son to suffer an excruciated death in order to cover everyone's shortcomings and forge a path to heaven." The administration said that if they had allowed the speech as written it would have violated court decisions against school sponsored advocacy of religion. McComb, who is scheduled to attend Biola | | By: Geeks Undercover | | |
| | Sorting out the Religious Right (R) | | 2007-11-14 09:47:00 | | One of the main components of the Republican base is the Christian right. These evangelicals and social conservatives place a premium on addressing the issues of restricting abortion, banning gay marriage, keeping God in the public square, and restricting stem cell research. Despite President Bush's failures (Katrina, managing the war in Iraq, spending) and controversies (the Valerie Plame saga, domestic wiretapping), the Christian right generally gives Bush high marks because of two obscure men: John Roberts and Samuel Alito, Bush's conservative nominees for the Supreme Court.As we enter the twilight of Bush's presidency, the Christian right is now looking for Bush's successor. Given that the next vacancies on the Supreme Court are likely to come from liberal retirements (Justices Ginsburg and Stevens), one would think that Christian Republican voters would pay special attention to the current field of Republican presidential candidates and coalesce behind the candidate that b | | By: The 7-10 | | |
| | Does Religious Law Permit Visiting Egyptian Pyramids? | | 2007-10-09 21:32:00 | | Pyramids are graves of polytheists, and a Muslim is permitted to visit them for the sake of a moral lesson (pertaining to death and the world to come) based on the Prophet's words in the hadith: "Visit tombs, for they remind you of the world to come". Other religious authorities, however, have prohibited visiting the pyramids because they are tombs of infidels.In May 2004, Sheikh Maher Al-Qahtani, which specializes in the traditions of the Prophet, posted a fatwa that forbids visiting Egyptian pyramids on the grounds that they enclose the graves of infidels. "It is forbidden to enter the homes [of infidels] or the ruins of the homes in which they used to dwell, and it is forbidden to visit them if it is known that infidel tyrants [dwelt there]. If a [Muslim] visitor must pass by [such places], he must do so in haste - according to what has been transmitted to us by Bukhari and Muslim through Ibn 'Omar - for when the Prophet passed by the stones [ruins of structures], he said: 'Do not enter the homes of [the infidels] who inflicted iniquity upon themselves [i.e. harmed themselves by failing to embrace Islam], unless you are weeping [from fear] that you will be harmed by that which harmed them.' He then faced forward [without looking right or left] and walked at a quick pace until he left the wadi behind. More... | | By: THE NEW BABYLON TIMES | | |
| | The Religious Faith of the Candidates | | 2007-10-08 02:28:25 | |
It seems many voters apply a religious test to our Presidential candidates. This has been going on for a long time now and I can't help but wonder, what has it brought us? Our national debt has soared, crime and poverty haven't gotten any better, and those who aren't at the top are struggling even harder to survive. One thing it has brought is another tool for helping the politician get elected. I'm sure most of the candidates are sincere about their faith, but I'd be willing to bet there is a small percentage who are faking it. In all the discussion about a candidate's faith there is little or no talk about where they stand on religious freedom. This should be the most important area of concern. Should a candidate's faith really matter as long he or she believes strongly in defending religious freedom. I would rather have a candidate with no faith who truly believes in religious freedom than a candidate with faith who believes everyone should follow his or her religion. I understand that this issue is important for many people, but I feel it is more important that we elect someone who will get America moving in the right direction. | | By: Miscellaneous Reflexions | | |
| | Race and Religious Hatred Law in the UK Comes into Effect | | 2007-10-03 20:06:00 | | The Racial and Religious Hatred Act will, for the first time, make it a specific offence to use threatening words or behaviour towards a religious group.The Government fought tooth and nail in favour of a far more illiberal measure, that would have outlawed remarks deemed likely to stir up hatred. But this was repulsed by a coalition of critics.As a result, the wording was significantly softened in the Lords to exclude statements and actions that were merely abusive or insulting. Peers also introduced a requirement for prosecutors to show that a person intended his words or actions to be threatening, and inserted a provision specifically safeguarding the right to free expression.But free speech in the UK has always had its limits. You are not allowed to say anything you like and hang the consequences. Libel laws offer a civil remedy for defamation, and the criminal law has long made it an offence to use language to foment disorder or riot. In recent years, however, we have become confused about where the boundaries lie. More... | | By: THE NEW BABYLON TIMES | | |
| | Religious Myths & Symbols | | 2007-09-25 03:32:34 | | Myths take many forms depending on the culture in which they are found. But their function is always that of pinpointing vital issues and values in the life of the society in question. They often dramatise those profound issues of life and death, and of how man came into being and of what [...] | | By: Peace Spiritual Inspiration | | |
| | | | The Child in Religious Fundamentalism | | 2007-09-02 20:09:28 | | In this day and age when many of us unwillingly are being drawn into a struggle between good and evil in a manufactured clash of civilizations, it is time to ask ourselves; how could this happen? How could a minority of fundamentalist hijack the future for all of us?
More: continued here | | By: Online Business Alliance & Niches | | |
| | Religious and Cultural event | | 2007-07-13 07:00:00 | | Each summer, Buddhist temples across the Bay Area celebrate Obon - a religious and cultural event commemorating one's ancestors. The festivals and bazaars, many of which have been held for more than 50 years, are also a time to make new acquaintances and reconnect with friends and family.
There will be cultural exhibits, including martial arts and taiko drum exhibitions, bonsai and suiseki (the art of rock arrangement), ikebana (flower arrangements) and Bon Odori (folk dancing). And there are games and food - lots of food: From chicken and beef teriyaki to sushi, udon and, yes, hot dogs... | | By: The Flower Expert - Flowers Encyclopedia | | |
| | | Galungan: The Biggest Religious Celebration In Bali | | 2007-06-23 07:49:00 | | If you come to Bali this week, you will notice that there are ornamented bamboo poles erected in front of every Hindu Bali house in Bali. These bamboo poles are called Penjor and also a sign of the upcoming Galungan and Kuningan Day.
The celebration of Galungan day is to commemorate the victory of Dharma (good) versus Adharma (evil). You can say the victory meant here is a spiritual achievement | | By: Bali Tour Guide Blog | | |
| | Marching as to Religious War | | 2007-06-03 19:16:54 | | Responding to Senator Edwards’ comments that the war on terror is a “bumper sticker slogan”, Tancredo declares a different kind of war.
“If Senator Edwards is saying that the war on terror doesn’t exist, I would agree”, Congressman Tancredo said. “Terror is a tactic used by the enemy with which we are at war. The enemy is radical Islam, and if he does not believe that, then he is delusional. America can’t afford a president that is an ostrich, with his head in the sand on this issue.”
Tancredo Rips Edwards Comments on the War on Terror as “Bumper Sticker” Slogan Refers to Edwards as an “ostrich, with his head in the sand”
It is interesting to me how more and more people are coming to realize that the “war on terror” rhetoric is junk. Terrorism is more like criminal activity than like war. It consequently needs to be fought like any other criminal activity– with the police and the courts, not with tanks and | | By: Hell's Handmaiden | | |
| | No Religious Freedom in Malaysia | | 2007-05-31 03:12:32 | | What is this? You cannot choose your mum and dad, you cannot choose your looks, now you cannot choose your religion.
Woman loses bid to drop ‘Islam’ from IC
Chief Justice says people cannot join and leave a religion as they wish
By Carolyn Hong
PUTRAJAYA - A MALAY woman who converted from Islam to Christianity nine years ago lost her legal battle yesterday to have ‘Islam’ deleted from her identity card.
In a test case for religious freedom in Malaysia, the Federal Court rejected Ms Lina Joy’s appeal in a two-one majority decision.
Chief Justice Tun Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim, who delivered the main judgment, said people cannot join and leave a religion according to their whims and fancies.
‘They have to follow the requirements of their religion,’ he said to a courtroom packed with lawyers and observers from Muslim non-governmental groups.
Islam, he said, has its own jurisprudence on apostasy.
The lawyer for Ms Lina, who was not in court, | | By: Kopitiam.SG | | |
| | Environmental activism is a religious experience | | 2007-05-16 09:47:00 | | Environmental activism is a religious experience. What else can explain the utter pointlessness of trying to "save" a world you believe arose by accident and is ultimately destined for destruction? The majority, or at least a very large number, of environmental activists are atheistic evolutionists who believe that life is the result of an accident that occurred billions of years ago. If life is an accident then so is the sun, and when the sun burns out a few millenia from now, all life will cease to exist. It will be as if nothing ever happened. All the environmentalists' efforts to prolong the inevitable will have been forgotten by...well, there actually won't be anyone left to remember!
Apparently there really is a God-shaped hole that we all need to fill. Many people are filling this void in their lives by dedicating themselves to stopping climate change, an impossible task to accomplish on a planet that has been through several ice ages and periods of warm. At least | | By: Casey's Critical Thinking | | |
| | This just in: Religious Parents = Better Kids | | 2007-04-26 15:19:01 | | Thought I would point out this article about a new study that shows:
The children of parents who regularly attended church services and talked with their child about religion were rated by both parents and teachers as showing better behavior, self-control skills and social skills than children from non-religious families. Children whose parents both attended church regulary were rated as having the best behavior and being the most well-adjusted.
This conclusion seems somewhat obvious - or at least logical - from other studies I've read, but it's nice to see someone study this specifically. My first thought was that religious parents were likely less self-centered, which the author hits on as well:
As well, religious congregations tend to emphasize self-sacrificing, pro-family values, which could be "very, very important in shaping how parents relate to their kids, and then how children develop in response."
So be a good Catholic and your children will be better as well! A win-win | | By: Living Catholicism | | |
| | Spiritual But Not Religious | | 2007-04-04 14:00:00 | | Today I am curious about my need to say that I am spiritual but not religious. For me, I believe that religions are more influenced by man than by God. Each religion has had strong influences by God as defined by man. I am a born-again Christian who doesn’t go to any church, a 65-year female with 29 years of recovery experience, a deep seeker of all spiritual truths. Right now I am studying Buddhism principles. Does my study mean that I no longer believe in Jesus Christ. No, it does not mean that. Does my study mean that I will become a Buddhist? No, it doesn’t mean that nor is it leading to that choice. I was led to my current study by the fact that the believers of Buddha are always smiling. I wanted to know what they were smiling about. I don’t go to church although I have tried several. I was a Presbyterian growing up who sang in the church choir every Sunday. We lived a few blocks from the church and my family was one of the leaders in that community. So I went to church | | By: Changemaker: Healing Mind, Body and Soul | | |
| | | The Religious Roots of Violence: Islam IV | | 2006-09-04 23:28:00 | | not one of the 70 virgins: his niece is cute (Previously on the LHG: The Religious Roots of Violence: Islam I, II, and III)Osama Bin Laden:This is also where Bin Laden comes in: Osama's dad had a flair for palace building and over the years royal favor turned his family business into the largest construction company in Saudi Arabia and one of the largest in the Middle East. The Bin Laden children were raised and educated with Saudi princes and had contact with leaders of Islamic movements all over the Muslim world. Soon after the Soviet invasion of Afganistan Bin Laden started to raise money for the resistance. By 1984 he had established a guest house in Peshawar to house fighters bound for the front. In 1988 he established a database of all the jihadists and other volunteers who had passed through his camps - giving birth to an organizational structure built around a computer file whose Arabic title Al Qaeda (the [data] base) would become famous later. When Bin Laden returned to visit Saudi Arabia he warned the Saudis that Iraq was planning to invade Kuwait. This embarrased the Saudi government which at the time was on good terms with Hussein. When the Iraquis did invade Kuwait in 1990, Bin Laden offered his fighters to defend the Saudi kingdom. Instead of accepting the offer, the Saudi government accepted US military assistance. This convinced Bin Laden that the Saudi's Islamic credentials were a sham. For him, driving out the Americans is the condition for reclaiming Islam in the peninsula. In 1996 he issued a "Declaration of Jihad against the Americans Occupying the Land of the Two Holy Places: Expel the polytheists from the Arabian Peninsula." And on August 7th of 1998, on the anniversery of the arrival of American troops in Saudi Arabia, two huge explosions rocked the US embassies in Nairobi Kenya and Dar es Salaam Tanzania. The rest is well known.(Christianity coming soon) | | By: The Left Hand of God | | |
| | The Religious Roots of Violence: Islam III | | 2006-08-27 23:20:00 | | better than santa claus(Previously on the LHG: The Religious Roots of Violence: Islam I and II)Saudi Arabia: Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab (1703-1791) and the Wahhabi movement.Al-Wahhab regarded the condition of Arabia of his time - land of Muhammad - as corrupt and idolatrous. He and his followers set out to purge Islam of what they considered impure going as far as to destroy the tomb of Muhammad and his Companions in Mecca and Medina.Wahhab combined religious zeal and military might when he allied with Muhammad ibn Saud, a local tribe chief, to form a religious and political movement. Eventually Saudia Arabia was created: the kingdom merged the political and religious; it was and is led by a succession of kings from the House of Saud with the close support of the religious Wahhabi establishment.Today the Saudis export this extreme and militant version of Wahhabi Islam to other countries and communities. They offer development aid, build mosques, fund and distribute religious tracts and commision religious scholars. And provide financial support to extremist groups who follow militant brands of Islam worldwide. Afghanistan:In December of 1979 the Soviet Union invades Afghanistan; and this provides an opening for Saudia Arabia to retake leadership of the radical wing of Islam. Afghanistan allowed the Saudi government to shield the US from radical Islamic activists, making sure that the Soviet Union would replace the US as their main scapegoat.In the training camps around Peshawar - the capital of the Pakistani NW frontier province where three million Afghan refugees were living - thousands of Islamic radical fighters converged from all over the Muslim world. An international group of Islamic militants, willing to fight worldwide for the sake of their radical understanding of Islam, emerged. They were funded by Saudi Arabia, and the US who provided military support and training.Think about it: you've got three million refugees and Islamic radicals converging in Pe | | By: The Left Hand of God | | |
| | The Religious Roots of Violence: Islam II | | 2006-08-23 23:44:00 | | here's looking at you, kid(Previously on the LHG)To uncover the roots of today's mess in the Middle East, you need to look at the interplay between Iran, Saudia Arabia and Afganistan that began with the Iranian Revolution.Iran:In the 50's and 60's many Muslim states were governed by modernizing rulers who tried to suppress Islam and follow what they understood to be the US's and Europe's secular example. They thought that if they could just imitate the "West" their nations would prosper. They were wrong. Economic progress did not follow the closing of mosques and religious schools, the banning of the headscarf and imitation of Western dress. Opposition grew, and no opposition had greater impact than the 1979 Iranian revolution that, led by Ayatollah Khomeini, overthrew the Shah of Iran and set up a theocracy, an Islamic government run by Islamic scholars which he himself led. Most importantly, however, the Iranian revolution also defined itself in opposition to Saudia Arabia. There emerged a struggle for leadership of the Islamic world. Regimes in Muslim countries viewed the Shah's fate as a lesson, and many of them became ostentiously religious in response. The Muslim world had been under Saudi religious domination since the late sixties: Saudi Arabia claimed to be an Islamic state, was guardian of Islam's holiest sites, had oil and thus lots of money to spread its views around the Muslim world. After 1979, however, the new masters in Iran considered themselves the true standard bearers of Islam. As far as they were concerned, the leaders in Saudi Arabia were usurpers who sold oil to the West in exchange for military protection - a US backed monarchy with a facade for ostentatious piety.(to be continued) | | By: The Left Hand of God | | |
| | The Religious Roots of Violence: Islam | | 2006-08-10 09:40:00 | | somos los piratasExile is the second key story line in Western religion that shapes violent images of God. Notice that the Exodus story is a story about God's liberating violence. But what if instead of defeating your enemies you are always getting your ass kicked? What if instead of living in the Promised Land you are always living under foreign rule? How do you make sense of that? While Exodus is a story in which God uses superior violence to free an oppressed people; exile, on the other hand, is a story where God uses violence to punish the chosen people for their sins. If Exodus was a story of God's liberating violence; then the exile is a story of God's punishing violence. Obey God and prosper. Disobey God and suffer. This theme of exile is key to fundamentalist interpretations of Islam today. Islam was once a great empire, far superior in wealth and culture than Western Europe. How then does one explain why the Islamic empire declined and gave way to domination by imperial, capitalistic, and mostly "Christian" nations? The logic is simple: if fidelity to God leads to historical prominence, then historical decline is caused by lack of fidelity to God, Muhammad, and the Qur'an. As the charter of Hamas states: Hamas "found itself at a time when Islam disapeared from life. Thus, rules were broken, concepts were vilified, values changed, and evil people took control; oppression and darkness prevailed, cowards became tigers; homelands were invaded, people were scattered…When Islam is absent from the arena, everything changes." From this perspective, Israel's occupation is seen as punishment from God for deviations from Islam. Thus independence, development, dignity will be achieved only by a return to Islam, the re-Islamization of societies that have become lax and therefore weak.(to be continued) | | By: The Left Hand of God | | |
| | The Religious Roots of Violence: Judaism III | | 2006-08-08 00:10:00 | | Wishing he was an only child(Previously on the LHG)In 1979 a small group of Jewish women and children from Kiryat Arba crawled through the window of an abandoned hospital in Hebron, occupying it illegally and establishing a a Jewish settlement on the site, Beit Hadassah. In time the settlement grew to more than fifty families with some 450 Jews sequestered in what amounted to an armed fortress in a city of more than 100,000 Muslims. The land is sacred, it is Jewish sacred land, and the Jews must take what is theirs by divine right. A Jewish text records the debate of sages 1800 years ago on why Cain murdered Abel. By naming what drove Cain to kill, each sage meant to identify the source of human violence. According to one, a twin sister was born with Abel and the brothers fought over who'd possess the only available woman. Another sage argued that the brothers agreed to divide everything in the world between them. One claimed the shirt on his brother's back and ordered him to strip; the other claimed the ground under his brother's feet and shouted, "fly." Blows followed, then blood. The third sage, a Rabbi Levi, also said the brothers agreed to split the world. But then, he said, one claimed the land where Israel would reside, the other insisted it was his, and "Cain rose up against his brother Abel, and slew him." The history of fratricide began, said Rabbi Levi, with a fight over the Holy Land.Sources:Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer, Is Religion Killing Us?Gershom Gorenberg, The End of Days | | By: The Left Hand of God | | |
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