April 2013
1 post
December 2012
3 posts
3 tags
15 tags
"We Do Not Want War" -- the Plea of Afghan Youth →
Poignant, heartfelt, insightful and sincere thoughts, and perspectives from Afghan youths.
7 tags
The G-Word: What Does It Mean to Believe in God? →
”The possible questions are endless, but all that is typically asked is “Do you believe in God?” as if one person’s “yes” is pretty much the same as everyone else’s. This makes a mockery of the complexity and diversity of individual spiritual lives.” A big thank you to Philip Goldberg for writing this post. However, I would have gone a step further,...
October 2012
1 post
9 tags
Witchcraft in Tanzania: the good, bad and the... →
“The Pew Forum on Religious and Public life conducted 25,000 face-to-face interviews in 19 African nations and found that among them, Tanzanians hold the strongest belief in witchcraft.”
September 2012
5 posts
7 tags
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Ganesh Chaturthi 2012: Celebrating Lord Ganesha's... →
Photos of the 10 day celebration for Lord Ganesha’s birthday!
7 tags
Underneath The Turban: Why Sikhs Do Not Hide →
“While some non-Sikhs wear turbans as cultural garb, Sikhs are the only community for whom the turban is religious and nearly every person who wears the turban in the U.S. is Sikh. For many of us, abandoning this visible identity is equivalent to abandoning our faith and core values, including the commitment to protect the right of all people to practice whatever faith they choose.”
7 tags
Interfaith Misunderstanding in America →
“Whatever our faith tradition, we all should take the dangers of interfaith misunderstanding seriously because all of us — Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, agnostics, everyone — are affected.”
6 tags
August 2012
3 posts
9 tags
Atheists Ignore Islamophobia At Their Peril →
“But as a Humanist atheist, I feel a sense of moral obligation to stand up against identity-based hatred, no matter whom it’s directed at.”
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Google vs. God: What’s causing all these Hasidic... →
“Why at this particular moment is the mainstream media so interested in the story of strife within an ultra-orthodox branch that makes up a tiny, if growing, percentage of American Jews? The answer has a lot to do with the life span of the Internet. Because of it, more Hasidim are publicly exiting their communities than ever before.”
6 tags
July 2012
3 posts
4 tags
9 tags
Struggle over what to wear in Iran →
“An annual test of wills between Iran’s morality police and women who dress in ways that are deemed unacceptable has begun in cities across the Islamic republic.”
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Dawkins: Don’t need God to be good … or generous →
“One reason for our unpopularity is the widespread belief that you need God in order to be good. Going along with that misconception is further belief that atheists are less generous than religious people, less philanthropic, less likely to donate to charity. Even if that were the case it would, of course, have no bearing on the truth of religious beliefs.”
June 2012
1 post
5 tags
Buddhist vigilantes kill 9 Muslims in Myanmar... →
“Buddhist vigilantes in western Myanmar attacked a passenger bus and killed nine Muslims, police said on Monday, the deadliest communal violence in the tense region since a reformist government took power a year ago.”
May 2012
1 post
1 tag
January 2012
4 posts
8 tags
Lady Gaga – High Priestess of a New Kind of... →
“Raised Roman Catholic, Lady Gaga now makes plenty of spiritual statements in her lyrics, at her concerts and in public appearances. While she certainly espouses her own brand of religion, the strength of her spiritual sway comes not from her originality as much from her ability to give voice to the rising chorus of Millennial spirituality.”
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Chinese Muslims clash with police over mosque →
“Hundreds of Muslims in a northwestern China village trying to prevent the demolition of their mosque clashed with police, causing several deaths, Hong Kong media and residents said on Tuesday.”
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Nepal: Christmas and Christianity →
“The growth rate of Christians in Nepal has been rising sharply after Nepal became a republic and a secular state. There are unverified reports that in the recently conducted population census, the number of Christians is between 1.5 and 2 million which is more than 5% of the total population.”
3 tags
December 2011
11 posts
9 tags
My Take: The 3 biggest biblical misconceptions →
“The Bible is both a reservoir of spiritual insight and a cultural icon to which lip service is still paid in the Western world. Yet when the Bible is talked about in public by both believers and critics, it becomes clear that misconceptions abound…To me, three misconceptions stand out and serve to make the Bible hard to comprehend.”
8 tags
'The Funny Indian,' Rajiv Satyal, To Tour India,... →
“Rajiv Satyal, who is Hindu, will tour India with an Indian-American Muslim and one other performer on a Jan. 4-17 trip organized by the U.S. State Department. Their comedy show “Make Chai Not War” will include messages of diversity and religious harmony, with a measure of diplomacy.”
6 tags
Faith House Manhattan Tour Bus: Experience Your... →
“I came to realize that what they were experiencing was something I had access to every day, if I chose to. I saw very clearly how we were all pearls on the same thread of God’s mercy. I returned to my own community and practice with a sense of renewal that has stayed with me ever since.”
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'Tis the Season -- With Confucius →
“The message from Confucius on this season of love and giving is that which we can all strive for, the goal of the Noble Person. After all, even the Grinch and Scrooge come to recognize the goals of love and giving, transforming themselves toward the teaching of jen, goodness and humaneness, for all!”
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Remembering Christopher Hitchens: Shmuley Boteach... →
“A journalist friend of mine emailed me at 1 am Friday morning to tell me that Christopher Hitchens had died…No doubt you are now finally resting in peace Christopher given that, wherever you are, you finally have the answer to that great question of G-d’s existence you always debated.”
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Study: Atheists distrusted as much as rapists →
“A new study finds that atheists are among society’s most distrusted group, comparable even to rapists in certain circumstances.”
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Rabbi quits seminary over exclusion of gays →
“A Masorti (Conservative) rabbi has quit the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies inJerusalem in acrimony over the exclusion of openly gay students from its rabbinical studies program, The Jerusalem Post learned on Thursday.”
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Body and Soul, in the Checkout Line →
“Many thoughtful people feel a need to almost apologize or assume a somewhat ironic pose when warning of material excess, especially at Christmas time. This is not just understandable. It’s refreshing, given how the discussion of consumerism seems to perennially devolve into handwringing and dour pontification. The headmaster and the grad students realize that people are tuning out the...
5 tags
Bodhi Day 2011: Commemorating The Enlightenment Of... →
Bodhi Day is a Buddhist holiday that commemorates the day that the Buddha achieved enlightenment, translated as bodhi in Sanskrit or Pali. Bodhi Day is celebrated on the eighth day of the 12th lunar month. In 2011, Bodhi day is observed on Thursday, Dec. 8.
7 tags
On Black Atheism: Zaheer Ali →
“A recent New York Times article profiled African Americans who don’t believe in God or who have eschewed the faith that many assume is central to the black experience. What does the apparent rise in atheism and agnosticism (pdf) among blacks tell us about the utility of religion for African Americans in today’s social and political climate?”
November 2011
12 posts
7 tags
Biblical Views of God →
“And it would be a waste not to take advantage of what academic study of the Bible reveals about life, about the world and about God. For the Bible, the existence of the divine is not a question. But the Bible does pose questions about this existence: If God is all-powerful and benevolent, why is there evil in the world? If God is just, why do the wicked prosper? What is the relationship...
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What Does the Bible Say About Creation and... →
“The Bible does not claim a unified, monolithic portrait of creation. Its descriptions vary from text to text, as do its literary styles. It expresses how the material and human world came into existence, but its real message is not those external details but its insights into the nature of divinity, humanity, and the world.”
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South Park creators: Dawkins and the New Atheists... →
“When it comes to religion, the South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone are equal-opportunities offenders, and it’s an approach that has made them heroes to many atheists in age of heightened sensitivity around matters of faith.”
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Baha'i: A 21st Century Faith →
“The Russian, Mexican, African, Arab, Israeli, American, European and Australian all found a commonality in their diversity: a belief that we are all bound together by our oneness. This ideal, I thought, would certainly be one way to start doing away with prejudice among nations.”
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The Ku Klux Klan Revisited →
“For members of the Ku Klux Klan, burning a cross isn’t sacrilege: it’s an act of faith.”
**I disagree entirely with their philosophy/outlook. However, it’s still smart to be informed about their views.
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Eid al-Adha around the world - in pictures →
“The festival is an important religious holiday celebrated by Muslims worldwide to commemorate the willingness of the prophet Ibrahim to sacrifice his son as an act of obedience.”
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For growing ranks of pagans, October 31 means a... →
“(Paganism) is one of the fastest growing religions in the world,” says Michael York, a retired religious scholar from Bath Spa University in the UK. “True numbers are impossible to come by because many people are wary to admit they are pagan, and reliable statistics just don’t exist.”
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WatchExplain it to me: What’s the Hajj?
Millions of pilgrims have begun arriving in Saudi Arabia for the Hajj.
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The young [Jain] nun's tale →
“At its purest, Jainism is almost an atheistic religion, and the images of the tirthankaras represent less a divine presence than a profound divine absence.”
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“You cannot travel the path until you have become the path itself.”
– Buddha (via lazyyogi)
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Praying to the Zombie Jesus: The Spirituality of... →
“You might assume that all of this zombie Jesus talk exists on the level of simplistic parody, barbs hurled at Christianity by its less-than-cultured despisers. You would be wrong. Zombie Jesus has provoked some serious spiritual and existential reflection. John Morehead’s blog Theofantastique has looked at Zombie Jesus as an image of spiritual reflection and even suggested that evangelical...
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Events in New York, San Francisco capture... →
“Peace begins with the individual, and each person is called to be a peacemaker.”
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October 2011
40 posts
8 tags
12 tags
Why Doesn't Asia Have "Religion"? →
“The fact is that the Western idea of religion did not reach Asia until very recently. When it did, the concept was so foreign that many Asian languages had to invent a new word for it (specifically for making diplomatic treaties with the Western powers who insisted on a clause protecting “religious freedom”). This puts Asia’s own traditions into a strange bind. Even now,...
5 tags
WatchFather William Norvel is celebrating mass at Saint Francis Xavier Catholic church in Baltimore. This summer he became the first African American to head a Catholic order, the Josephites, a group of Catholic priests who came from Europe 140 years ago to minister to freed slaves. (Hamil R. Harris/The Washington Post)
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WatchYemeni women burn veils to protest regime
