Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been categorized as “Religion”
Not all American Christian leaders have covered themselves in glory when it comes to the issue of Syrian refugees being accepted by the US ( not many are). Evangelist Franklin Graham sees these refugees as a security threat because many of them are Muslim (though there are lots of kinds of Islam in Syria, and some 5% are Christian). Sen. …
A coalition of 82 civil liberties and human rights organizations, as well as faith-based groups and immigrant rights advocates, on Tuesday called on the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate the growing number of businesses around the country declaring themselves ‘Muslim-free zones.’ Doing so violates the constitutional rights of American Muslims, particularly under Title II of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, …
Pope Francis has opened the door for women who have had abortions – an act considered a grave sin by the Catholic church – to be absolved if they express contrition and seek forgiveness from their priest. “The forgiveness of God cannot be denied to one who has repented,” the pontiff wrote in an extraordinary letter that was released by the …
A study conducted with experienced scholars of Zen-Meditation shows that mental focussing can induce learning mechanisms, similar to physical training. Researchers at the Ruhr-University Bochum and the Ludwig-Maximilians-University München discovered this phenomenon during a scientifically monitored meditation retreat. The journal Scientific Reports, from the makers of Nature, has now published their new findings on the plasticity of the brain. Participants of the …
A team of archeologists from the University of Tel Aviv have uncovered a collection of ancient scrolls in the West Bank region, near the Qumran Caves, where the Dead Sea Scrolls were originally uncovered in 1947, and which promise to shed a new light on the life and physical appearance of Jesus Christ. The newly found documents which are believed …
Blanketed by its wealth and protected by political alliances, Saudi Arabia has covertly run and promoted a new movement in the Middle East: religious eugenics, under the false pretense of opposing the rise of Iran. From Syria to Bahrain and Yemen the evidence is overwhelming. Earlier this August, the Red Cross added its voice to those of other humanitarian and …
I’ve decided that, at least in the United States, the religiously devout really do have the interests of rationalist nonbelievers at heart, at least as far as providing us with (a sick, unseemly sort of) entertainment goes. They strive ceaselessly and tirelessly, without remiss, on holidays, weekends, and during the work week, to provide us with new episodes of the …
The Shin Bet security service has a great deal of chutzpah. After years of indulging messianic Jewish terror, it places the theological revolution on the shoulders of one Meir Ettinger, as if “he doesn’t listen to the rabbis.” Why it is convenient for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to write it off to uncontrollable “wild weeds” is quite clear; it was …
Eventful days in the middle of summer. Just as the Greek Pandora’s box appears to be closing for the holidays (but we know what happens once it’s open), and Europe’s ultra-slim remnants of democracy erode into the sunset, China moves in with a one-off but then super-cubed renminbi devaluation. And 100,000 divergent opinions get published, by experts, pundits and just …
MEXICO CITY, Aug 11 2015 (IPS) – A few centuries ago, the biotechnology industry would have been able to buy a papal bull to expiate its sins and grant it redemption. But in his encyclical on the environment, “Laudato Si”, Pope Francis condemns genetically modified organisms (GMOs) without leaving room for a pardon. In his second encyclical since he became …
