RELIGION - Including faith in ATHEISM
	See also Breaking Out of the box | Expelled! No Intelligence Allowed UNESCO's Declaration on the Role of Religion in a Culture of Peace Dalai Lama Celebrating the Medicine Buddha | Islam  Mysticism | Templeton: Merging Religion & Science The Changing Church |The Postmodern Church | Apostasy   Home

February 2012

Lectio Divina: What it is, What it is Not, and Why It is a Dangerous Practice: "Lectio divina always includes taking a passage of Scripture... then working your way down until you have just a word or small phrase from the passage that you are meditating on (repeating over and over). Basically, you are coming up with a mantra-like word or phrase that has been extracted from a passage of Scripture, which, according to contemplatives, if repeated for several minutes will help you get rid of thoughts and distractions, so then, they say, you can hear the voice of God and feel His presence.... It is not traditional Bible study, not reading the Scriptures for understanding and edification, and not praying the Scriptures."

      See video: Concerns About Reiki: Things You Should Know: "It's not just a healing process." See Reiki Power

'Father' and 'Son' Ousted from the Trinity in New Bible Translations: "Wycliffe Bible Translators, Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) and Frontiers are under fire for 'producing Bibles that remove 'Father,' 'Son' and 'Son of God' because these terms are offensive to Muslims.' 'Concerned Christian missionaries, Bible translators, pastors, and national church leaders have come together with a public petition to stop these organizations.....

     "Wycliffe and SIL have produced...an Arabic Bible that uses an Arabic equivalent of 'Lord' instead of 'Father' and 'Messiah' instead of 'Son.' Second, Frontiers and SIL have produced Meaning of the Gospel of Christ , an Arabic translation which removes 'Father' in reference to God and replaces it with 'Allah,' and removes or redefines 'Son.'...

     "Matthew 28:19 reads, 'Cleanse them by water in the name of Allah, his Messiah and his Holy Spirit' instead of 'baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.'... Third, Frontiers and SIL have produced a new Turkish translation of the Gospel of Matthew that uses Turkish equivalents of 'guardian' for 'Father' and 'representative' or 'proxy' for 'Son.' ...'This translation is 'an all-American idea' with absolutely no respect for the 'sacredness' of Scripture..." See Discernment

October 2011

Pope Benedict's Interfaith Outreach: "In [Assisi, Italy] 25 years ago, Buddhists chanted to the accompaniment of gongs and drums, Zoroastrians tended a sacred fire, and an American Indian medicine man in traditional headdress smoked a peace pipe and called down the blessings of the 'Great Spirit.' ...The World Day of Prayer for Peace on Oct. 27, 1986, was of one of the most remarkable events in the...reign of Pope John Paul II. It epitomized that pontiff's historic opening to other faiths....

      "On Thursday, some 300 religious leaders returned to the city of St. Francis....Cardinal Ratzinger [a critic of the 1986 celebration] is now Pope Benedict.... Benedict's decision to include agnostics...was the choice most revealing of his priorities ....the day itself was rechristened one of 'reflection, dialogue and prayer.'...[They were] united not by faith but by the desire for peace and justice. ...As he told a European ambassador last week, social justice is based on norms accessible to all, derived not from divine revelation but from 'reason and nature'..." See UNESCO's Declaration on the Role of Religion in a Culture of Peace

How women are the driving force behind polygamous marriage: "...it is actually the women instigating polygamous marriage in Mormon communities. ...'In this community it's actually the women who dictate who they're going to marry....The Church of Latter Day Saints teaches that Jesus was a polygamist, and many people living in Mormon communities, which typically shun media attention, know life no other way. As Marlene said on Our America: 'I believe that this is the way God lives. And I believe that this is a superior way to live.'"

Wall Street Occupiers Urged to Target Churches: "Franky Schaeffer is the son of the late...Francis Schaeffer.... The son boasts he was himself a co-founder of the Religious Right. But he since has denounced Christianity as 'stupid.'... A blogger for The Huffington Post, young Schaeffer is now faulting religious conservatives for facilitating Wall Street greed. ...For Schaeffer, the next logical step is to demonstrate 'outside mega churches, Evangelical publishing houses, [and] religious organizations that lead the ‘moral’ crusades against women and gays and all the rest.'...

     "In 2008, he endorsed Barack Obama.... All the energy he once channeled into what he derides as 'fundamentalist' Christianity is now furiously focused against all the perceived representatives of his parents’ faith.... Schaeffer also faults these aspiring theocrats for supporting Israel...And he compares American 'fundamentalists' to Iran’s mullahs....Deranged by contempt for his parents’ faith, Schaeffer, at age 59, seems seduced by his own demons of paranoia and hatred." See Purging the Memory of our Christian Roots

August 2011

Dalai Lama hands power to Harvard graduate Lobsang Sangay: "Lobsang Sangay, a 43-year-old Harvard scholar, took office yesterday as the Dalai Lama's political successor, vowing to free his homeland from Chinese 'colonialism'. After being sworn in as head of the Tibetan government in exile at a ceremony in the Indian hill town of Dharamsala, Mr Sangay warned China that the Tibet movement was 'here to stay'.... He took up residency in the US..." See Dalai Lama Celebrating the Medicine Buddha

June 2011

The Dalai Lama, Marxist? "Earlier this month, the Dalai Lama told a group of Chinese students at the University of Minnesota, 'I consider myself a Marxist... but not a Leninist.... Students in the audience looked puzzled. ...But those who have followed His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, know that he regularly trots out a Marxist banner.

     "...last year, he announced 'Still I am a Marxist' even while thanking his good friends in the Chinese Communist Party for bringing capitalist freedoms to their land.... Isn't he the 50-year exile whose fellow Tibetans suffered genocide, after some 20% of them died at the hands of Chinese forces or from starvation?

     "The Dalai Lama explained his youthful enthusiasm in a 1999 essay for Time, mentioning that he even considered joining the Communist Party... 'Marxism talked about an equal and just distribution of wealth. I was very much in favor of this.'"

April 2011

The UN and One World Worship: "One would suppose the UN would be committed to cultural and religious diversity, eschewing the establishment of a global religion, given the fact it has representatives from countries around the world. But as it turns out, the UN has long had an interest in a global government and universal religion.

     "...the prominent globalist theologian Hans Kung...was commissioned by UNESCO in 1991 to create a 'Declaration of Global Ethic.' Kung obliged, further declaring in his opus Global Responsibility: In Search of a World Ethic that: ''traditional religions have an ethical obligation to cease to exist...there will be no room for religious diversity because if ethics is to function for the wellbeing of all, it must be indivisible.'

     "The Marxist concept of an international, unified brotherhood and new world order is now united with a pantheistic religion perfectly suited to redistributionist ends on the bases of core pantheistic beliefs....The divine Mother Earth's treasures are limited and distributed unequally. Therefore, her resources should be divided equally to all by a new UN priesthood....While all nations are guilty of sinning against Mother Earth, the chief sinner among nations is the wicked capitalist United States..."  See UNESCO's Intolerant "Tolerance"

January 2011

Surge in Britons converting to Islam: "White women lead a wave of Britons embracing Islam, with a 50 per cent rise in converts....A study...found 5,200 people converted to Islam in the UK last year....[They] felt their own lives had been 'lost' and were 'lacking in purpose' before conversion, and feared that there was a 'normalisation' of ''immoral' behaviour amongst an increasingly less religious British public."

December 2010

Many Americans Say Other Faiths Can Lead to Eternal Life: "A majority of all American Christians (52%) think that at least some non-Christian faiths can lead to eternal life. Indeed, among Christians who believe many religions can lead to eternal life, 80% name at least one non-Christian faith that can do so.... The survey is designed as a follow-up to the Pew Forum's U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, conducted in 2007, which reported that most Americans who claim a religious affiliation take a non-exclusivist view of salvation, with seven-in-ten saying that many religions can lead to eternal life while less than one-quarter say theirs is the one, true faith leading to eternal life....

     "When asked to describe in their own words what determines whether a person will attain eternal life, nearly three-in-ten (29%) say that a person's actions are most important. A similar number (30%) says that belief is the key factor in achieving everlasting life. One-in-ten refer to a combination of belief and actions."

Many Americans Say Other Faiths Can Lead to Eternal Life (December 18, 2008): "A majority of all American Christians (52%) think that at least some non-Christian faiths can lead to eternal life. Indeed, among Christians who believe many religions can lead to eternal life, 80% name at least one non-Christian faith that can do so.....

     "The survey is designed as a follow-up to the Pew Forum's U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, conducted in 2007, which reported that most Americans who claim a religious affiliation take a non-exclusivist view of salvation, with seven-in-ten saying that many religions can lead to eternal life while less than one-quarter say theirs is the one, true faith leading to eternal life....

     "When asked to describe in their own words what determines whether a person will attain eternal life, nearly three-in-ten (29%) say that a person's actions are most important. A similar number (30%) says that belief is the key factor in achieving everlasting life. One-in-ten refer to a combination of belief and actions."

Christian school teaches how to lead a mosque: "Hartford Seminary is launching a new "Graduate Certificate in Imam Education" program this spring, with help from the seminary's Duncan Black MacDonald Center for the Study of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations, the Fairfax Institute and the Fairfax Institute's parent, the International Institute for Islamic Thought, or the IITT The Hudson Institute's Hillel Fradkin says he's concerned about the move, because the IIIT is a front group of the Egypt-based Muslim Brotherhood." No other gods

Obama's Terrorist-Shielding Envoy to the Muslim World: "On Feb. 20, 2003, Professor Sami Al-Arian of the University of South Florida was arrested by the Department of Justice for his leadership of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a designated terrorist organization. Al-Arian was a radical supporter of Islamic terrorism, a man who announced at rallies that he sought 'victory to Islam' and 'death to Israel.'...

      "On Sept. 5, 2004, law student Rashad Hussain spoke at a Muslim Student Association (MSA) conference. The MSA is in and of itself a troublesome organization, which has been repeatedly linked to terror -- but that wasn't the main problem. The main problem was Hussain's speech, in which he explicitly defended Al-Arian, calling his prosecution… a travesty of justice.…

      "On Feb. 28, 2006, Sami Al-Arian pled guilty to conspiracy to help Islamic Jihad. And on Feb. 14, 2010, President Barack Obama appointed Rashad Hussain to his Special Envoy to the Organization of Islamic Conference."

Christian school teaches how to lead a mosque: "Hartford Seminary is launching a new "Graduate Certificate in Imam Education" program this spring, with help from the seminary's Duncan Black MacDonald Center for the Study of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations, the Fairfax Institute and the Fairfax Institute's parent, the International Institute for Islamic Thought, or the IITT The Hudson Institute's Hillel Fradkin says he's concerned about the move, because the IIIT is a front group of the Egypt-based Muslim Brotherhood." No other gods

January 2010

November 2009

September 2009

July 2009

March 2009

November 2008

Humanists Launch ‘Godless Holiday’ Ads: "The American Humanist Association (AHA) announced the launch of a $40,000 'godless holiday'ad campaign in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday in which more than 200 placards will be placed in and on the city’s metro buses. The ads ask commuters, 'Why believe in a god?' and encourages them to 'Just be good for goodness sake.'"

      But apart from God's grace and guidelines, we can't "be good." See Human Nature

October 2008

All aboard the atheist bus campaign: "...the slogan 'There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life' could now become an ad campaign on London buses – and leading secularists have jumped on board to help us raise the money. The British Humanist Association will be administering all donations to the campaign.... Your donations will give atheism a more visible presence in the UK, generate debate, brighten people's day on the way to work, and hopefully encourage more people to come out as atheists. As Richard Dawkins says: 'This campaign to put alternative slogans on London buses will make people think – and thinking is anathema to religion.'" See Breaking Out of the Box

September 2008

Church makes ‘ludicrous’ apology to Charles Darwin - 126 years after his death: "The Church of England will tomorrow officially apologise to Charles Darwin for misunderstanding his theory of evolution. In a bizarre step, the Church will address its contrition directly to the Victorian scientist himself, even though he died 126 years ago. But the move was greeted with derision... with Darwin’s great-great-grandson dismissing it as ‘pointless’....

      "The Church is also anxious to counter the view that its teaching is incompatible with science. It wants to distance itself from fundamentalist Christians, who believe in the Biblical account of the creation.... An article to be posted on the Church’s website will say: ‘Charles Darwin, 200 years from your birth [in 1809], the Church of England owes you an apology...

      "Dr Brown writes: ‘His [Darwin’s] theory caused offence because it challenged the view that God had created human beings as an entirely different kind of creation to the rest of the animal world.'" See Expelled! No Intelligence Allowed

Almost half of all Americans don’t really know what an “evangelical Christian” is: "The most common perception is that evangelicals are Christians who place a special emphasis on spreading their faith to other people. Sometimes this is phrased in a negative light (the word 'proselytizing' comes up frequently).... Five percent say evangelicals are not just devoted or zealous, but are actually defined by fanaticism. Four percent don’t really have any specific definition, but make highly critical.... Another 4% believe they are defined by being completely closed-minded. Three percent define evangelicals as being greedy... and 3% say part of what defines an evangelical is their drive to impose their beliefs on other people....

      "Liberals are nine times as likely as conservatives to define evangelicals as being closed-minded, more than three times as likely to feel they are fanatics, four times as likely to level assorted criticisms at them....Evangelicals were called illiterate, greedy, psychos, racist, stupid, narrow-minded, bigots, idiots, fanatics, nut cases, screaming loons, delusional, simpletons, pompous, morons, cruel, nitwits, and freaks. ...they just know they can’t stand evangelicals.'" See An Evangelical Manifesto for an Interfaith World

July 2008

The Problem With Eternity (for atheists): "Instead of trying to bring the dawn of immortality closer to us, they would bring us closer to the dawn of immortality. This forward motion is the idea behind cryonics: freezing people just after they expire but before brain damage begins and then 'resurrecting them'... when medicine is finally able to cure that 'fundamental problem of life -- death.' Companies that currently offer this service will typically freeze a person's severed head... with the idea of eventually thawing it out and transplanting it onto a robotic torso, one invulnerable to the ailments that killed the actual body.... British longevity guru Aubrey de Grey has put forth the notion of 'immortality in tiny steps.' ... But how desirable would cryonics or immortality in tiny steps be, even if they were possible?"  Contrast such futile hope with Biblical hope  

Salvation through myriad faiths: "Seventy percent of all Americans say their religion is not the only path to eternal life.... The poll showed 'an enormous diversity' in American religion.... Pew released the first part of the survey in February. ... About 92 percent of all Americans profess a belief in God.... However, only six in 10 say God is a being with whom one can have a relationship. Twenty-five percent of those polled - including large concentrations of Buddhists, Jews, Muslims and Hindus - said God is an impersonal force. .. Seventy-four percent profess belief in heaven, whereas 59 percent say they believe in hell.... Jews were the least religious of the 13 groups..." See Breaking Out of the Box

June 2008

Oxford to Study Faith in God: "University of Oxford researchers will spend nearly $4 million to study why mankind embraces God. The grant to the Ian Ramsey Center for Science and Religion will bring anthropologists, theologians, philosophers and other academics together for three years to study whether belief in a divine being is a basic part of mankind's makeup.'... The study will be funded by the John Templeton Foundation." (Feb 19, 08) See The Templeton Foundation (and Rick Warren) 

 

Too Much Faith in Faith: "Perhaps you believe, with that vigorous atheist Christopher Hitchens, that 'religion poisons everything'; or, with the Christian historian and sociologist Rodney Stark, that religion created modern science and ended slavery. Or, like a significant majority of the British public recently polled... that religion is a 'social evil,' a 'cause of conflict and confusion.'...

     "Mr. Dawkins certainly thinks so: He is on record as saying that if we simply ceased to teach religion to our children we would soon have 'a paradise on earth.' ...But the idea that without religion people would stop seeking power, stop manipulating, stop deceiving, is just wishful thinking of the silliest kind." See Human Nature

Survey: More have dropped dogma for spirituality in U.S.: "Religion today in the USA is a salad bar where people heap on upbeat beliefs they like and often leave the veggies — like strict doctrines — behind. There are so many ways of seeing God, public policy expert Barry Kosmin says, that 'the highest authority is now the lowest common denominator.'... Such are the key findings in latest data from the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life's U.S. Religious Landscape Survey of 35,000 Americans." See Heresy in high places

Religious Americans: My faith isn't the only way: "...a new survey finds most Americans don't believe their tradition is the only way to eternal life.... The findings, revealed Monday in a survey of 35,000 adults, can either be taken as a positive sign of growing religious tolerance, or disturbing evidence that Americans dismiss or don't know fundamental teachings of their own faiths. ...57 percent of evangelical church attenders said they believe many religions can lead to eternal life.... 70 percent of Americans with a religious affiliation shared that view, and 68 percent said there is more than one true way to interpret the teachings of their own religion." See The twisted "truths" of The Shack & A Course in Miracles

May 2008

Civilization and the Texas Cult: "...the Texas polygamists are not pathfinders. Multiple wives are of course permitted in the Islamic religion, and co-wives are a feature of dozens of human groups in which powerful men control sufficient resources to be able to support more than one woman.... Again, the issue is cross-cultural. Osama bin Laden has at least five wives..." See The Angel of Light.

April 2008

Religion. Muslims Now Outnumber Catholics: "According to the Vatican, Muslims make up about 19 percent of the world's population. Catholics make up about 17 percent.... High birth rates among Muslims, increased immigration, and new converts to Islam are all factors that some experts believe could radically transform the Western World.... The Muslim birth rate in Europe is three times higher than the non-Muslim one. If current trends continue, the Muslim population of Europe will nearly double by 2015.... In France there are now more than 4,000 mosques.... Meanwhile, it has been projected that Muslims will be the majority population in Germany by 2046."

February 2008

Americans switching faiths, dropping out: "More than one-quarter of American adults have left the faith of their childhood for another religion or no religion at all, the survey found.... While nearly one in three Americans were raised Catholic, fewer than one in four say they're Catholic today.... Nearly half of all Catholics under 30 are Hispanic....

      "Hindus claimed the highest retention of childhood members, at 84 percent. The group with the worst retention is one of the fastest growing -- Jehovah's Witnesses.

      "...it's unclear whether people who called themselves Buddhists did so because they practice yoga or meditation, for instance, or claim affiliation with a Buddhist institution." See Emerging "Christianity-- Breaking Out of the Box

 

Santeria Surging in Venezuela: "The man says he is possessed by a god. He shouts, his body trembles and he lifts a sacrificed lamb to his lips, drinking its blood from the jugular. This initiation ceremony, seldom witnessed by outsiders, has become increasingly common in Venezuela, as the Afro-Cuban traditions of Santeria and other folk religions gain followers....

     "Santeria has grown in popularity in New York, Miami and Puerto Rico in the past following influxes of Cubans.... Santeria was born in Cuba among Yoruba slaves from West Africa. They were forbidden to practice their own religion, so they fused their beliefs with the Catholicism of their masters, starting a tradition that has spread throughout the Americas..... the Virgen de Las Mercedes, a manifestation of the Virgin Mary... represents Obatala, a patriarch in the pantheon of Yoruba gods. Some pay up to $7,000 for the yearslong initiation process to become "babalaos," or Santeria priests. ....

     "Black magic practitioners known as 'paleros' are known to gather human bones from cemeteries in order to seal pacts with the dead, to call upon their spirits for vengeance. At least some of the grave-robbing that plagues Caracas' main cemetery is thought to be due to the paleros, who according to some Santeria followers offer up to $5,000 for a skull." (2-7-08) See The Nature and Tactics of Satan

January 2008

Scottish pagan gathering spells worry for some Christians [UK]: "The Pagan Federation is intending to hold its first summer camp in Inchberry.... The three-day event, scheduled for July 2008, will be a celebration of the ancient religion, which is based on the honouring of the natural order as an expression of the divine.... The event is open to 'all witches, druids, shaman and other pagans of good'. It will feature an opening ritual as well as a host of workshops and talks....

      "...the Pagan Federation described as 'a huge stride in interfaith relations' the election of priestess Angie Buchanan to a three-year term as Secretary to the Council of the Parliament of the World’s Religions, one of the world’s oldest and most prominent interfaith organizations. She is the first Pagan to serve as an officer on the Executive Committee. In October 2007, Andras Corban-Arthen of the EarthSpirit Community in Massachusetts, USA, was elected as a member-at-large to the PWR executive committee." See Harry Potter Lures Kids to Witchcraft

For previous links on this topic, see Religion (2000-2004) or Religion (2005-2007)