Some sociologists believe that the rising number of non-religious Americans is a reaction against rightwing evangelicals. What if I were to tell you that the following trends in American religion were all connected: rising numbers of people who are religiously unaffiliated (“nones”) or identify as “spiritual but not religious”; a spike in positive attention to …
Continue reading ‘The backlash against rightwing evangelicals’ »
“Euthanasia is the last taboo. We can change gender, two men can have a baby, two women can have a baby, and abortion is legal (just!). But a person with an incurable disease who wants to end her or his life cannot do so in most countries.” (Letter to the Guardian Weekly from Elizabeth Keating, …
A Vatican document released last Saturday imposed further restrictions on the pre-Vatican II liturgy, including a prohibition on listing Latin Masses in parish bulletins. A preference for the old Mass is often associated with political conservatism and with a lack of support for Pope Francis. In his introduction to the document, Archbishop Arthur Roche, the …
Continue reading ‘Vatican announces new restrictions on Latin Mass’ »
Opus Dei is an (extreme) organization within the Catholic Church, dedicated to “seeking holiness” in every aspect of the lives of its adherents, especially at work. Its members are supposed to follow a daily two hour ritual of wearing a spiked metal chain on their thighs. This is intended to remind them of the suffering of Jesus. They believe …
I case you haven’t read the news, some 216,000 children – mostly boys – have been sexually abused by clergy in the French Catholic Church since 1950, a damning new inquiry has found. The head of the inquiry said there were at least 2,900-3,200 abusers, and accused the Church of showing a “cruel indifference towards …
Continue reading ‘216,000 children abused by French Catholic clergy’ »
Back in 2018, in reply to John Falconer, Michael Martin commented as follows on this blog: “You should live your life and try to make the world a better place for you being in it, whether or not you believe in god. If there is no god, you have lost nothing and will be remembered …
Afghanistan is hit by brain drain as the ‘best and brightest’flee Taliban rule. (Los Angeles Times) The re-emergence of Taliban rule has triggered the departure of thousands of highly skilled Afghans from what is already one of the world’s most under-developed nations. As the insurgents continue to tighten their grip, people with “a wealth of …
The number of confirmed exoplanets stands at 3,500, of which, scientists believe, at least some are potential Earths, with very similar characteristics. This poses a theological and philosophical conundrum for many religions, especially Christianity, which focuses on mankind and teaches that God created man in his own image, exclusively on our one small planet. So …
Continue reading ‘Religion and little people from strange planets’ »
A former U.S. official doesn’t view the Afghanistan withdrawal as an ‘intelligence failure’! Sue Gordon, who served as a top U.S. intelligence official under both the Trump and Obama administrations, said Sunday that she would not characterize the American withdrawal from Afghanistan “as an intelligence failure”, despite widespread criticism about how the Trump and Biden …
Message from a British evangelical christian “I am British. Some while ago I visited the American South Western states, including Wyoming Colorado and Arizona, and was amazed at the lack of general knowledge among the people we met and with whom we had lovely conversations . “May I suggest that the basic reason for the …
Continue reading ‘A message from an evangelical christian’ »
From 1937 to 1998 church membership in the US remained relatively constant, hovering at about 70%. But over the past two decades, that percentage has dropped to less than 50%, the sharpest recorded decline in American history. Meanwhile the atheists, agnostics and those claiming no religion, have grown to represent a quarter of the population. …
Last week the United States Supreme Court ruled unanimously in favor of Catholic Social Services (CSS), a private foster care agency that receives public funds. In March 2018, the city of Philadelphia learned that CSS, an agency it hired to provide foster care services to children in the city’s care, would not work with same-sex …
Continue reading ‘Fulton v. City of Philadelphia: Religion and politics’ »
Nobody is sure exactly how or why the Prince Philip cult movement began, though there are various theories. One idea is that villagers may have seen his picture along with the Queen’s on the walls of British colonial outposts when Vanuatu was still known as New Hebrides, a colony administered jointly by Britain and France. …
Continue reading ‘Part 2. Prince Philip: God to the Vanuatu tribes! How and why?’ »
The Vanuatu tribes are mourning the death of their ‘god’: the late Prince Philip (of all people). For years two villages on the Vanuatuan island of Tanna (in the Pacific) have revered the Duke as a god-like spiritual figure. “The connection between the people on the island of Tanna and the English people is very …
Continue reading ‘Prince Philip: God to the Vanuatu tribes! Part1’ »
“The only mystery in life is why the kamikaze pilots wore crash helmets.” – Al McGuire My comment: I was brought up to believe that they were not crash helmets, but head-dresses you wore in deference to the Emperor. Death was clearly nothing to these poor, wretched pilots. Just shows the danger of cults and …
