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POPSTeen summonsed for calling Scientology a cult The City of London police came under fire two years ago when it emerged that more than 20 officers, ranging from constable to chief superintendent, had accepted gifts worth thousands of pounds from the Church of Scientology. The City of London Chief Superintendent, Kevin Hurley, praised Scientology for "raising the spiritual wealth of society" during the opening of its headquarters in 2006. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anonymous_(group)
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POPSCatholic-Shiite Dialogue - Reasonable Understanding Against the background of these existing contacts between the Vatican and Muslim authorities, one can look forward with anticipation to the first meeting of the Catholic-Muslim Forum, scheduled for early November. The forum was founded following a meeting in the Vatican in March this year, which itself was the result of a letter written in October 2007 by 138 Muslim scholars from 43 countries to the pope and other representatives of the Christian churches. The topic of the forthcoming meeting is to be "Love of God and neighbour." The Vatican-Shiite dialogue is also set to continue: another colloquium is planned for two years time in Tehran. See also: The Vatican and leading Iranian theologians on "Faith and Reason in Christianity and Islam" . Deutsch: Vatikanisch-schiitischer Dialog - Vernünftige Verständigung
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POPSIslam and Secularism Volkhard Krech, professor for religious studies , has come to the conclusion that some religious traditions, such as Judaism and Protestantism, represent "secularization factors." Other faiths, such as Islam and evangelical churches have a tendency to combine a strong sense of both national and religious identity, mixing politics with religion. The Berlin Islamic scholar Gudrun Krämer made clear that a "massive rejection" of secularism prevails in most Muslim countries. In Islamic discourse, secularization is regarded as a "hostile takeover" of Muslim society. Instead of the notion of the separation of religion and state, the idea of "empowerment" is stressed. Islam calls for believers to actively participate in the power structures of the state. As a mixture of nationalism and Islamism, the so-called "national Jihad" is pushing its way into the political arena and has given birth to the notion of the "Islamic welfare state."
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POPSThe Enlightenment and dogmatism of the mediaeval and the awakening of modernity. Medieval philosophy combined Christian beliefs with the ideas of Plato and Aristotle. In the medieval world philosophers respected their predecessors and accepted their methods. If a new discovery about nature contradicted one of Aristotle's principles, for example, it would probably have been assumed that it was the discovery that was in error. Enlightenment thinkers were not content to accept appeals to Aristotle's authority. It could be seen that using experimental methods science was progressing and increasing our understanding of nature, which could not have been done without rejecting some of Aristotle's assumptions. It was not only Aristotle that was being questioned, using reason and logic philosophers criticised political and religious ideas. What rational answer is there for the justification of monarchy or that you should choose one type of religion over another?
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POPSEinstein's letter makes view of religion relatively clear In the letter, he states: "The word god is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honourable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this."
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POPSHitchens Vs. Hitchens : Full Video Sequence Added: April 07, 2008 (Less info) Brothers Christopher and Peter Hitchens debate the Iraq War and religion at an event organized by the Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies with support from the Center for Inquiry and the Interfaith Dialogue Association.
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POPSEvolution:24 myths and misconceptions It doesn't matter if people do not understand evolution "Survival of the fittest" justifies "everyone for themselves" Evolution is limitlessly creative Evolution cannot explain traits such as homosexuality Creationism provides a coherent alternative to evolution Creationist myths: Evolution must be wrong because the Bible is inerrant Accepting evolution undermines morality Evolutionary theory leads to racism and genocide Religion and evolution are incompatible Half a wing is no use to anyone Evolutionary science is not predictive Evolution cannot be disproved so is not science Evolution is just so unlikely to produce complex life forms Evolution is an entirely random process Mutations can only destroy information, not create it Darwin is the ultimate authority on evolution The bacterial flagellum is irreducibly complex Yet more creationist misconceptions Evolution violates the second law of thermodynamics
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POPSJürgen Heumann: "Islamisches Glaubensfach an Schulen nicht akzeptierbar" Religion wird in diesen Fächern nicht nur affirmativ vermittelt, sondern ebenso kritisch in ihren historischen bzw. gegenwärtigen problematischen bis gewaltsamen und terroristischen Versionen gewichtet. Diese grundsätzlich (auch) kritische Grundhaltung der eigenen wie anderen Religionen gegenüber bezieht sich auch auf das Gottesverständnis, d.h., mit der unterrichtlichen Behandlung der Theodizeeproblematik (wenn es Gott gibt, warum lässt er das Böse zu?) wird Gott selbst als 'fragwürdig' thematisiert und eben nicht als unhinterfragbar vermittelt. Kein Entwurf für einen islamischen Religionsunterricht hat bisher gezeigt, dass er die Theodizeefrage so ernst nimmt, dass er potentiell die Sekpsis von Schülern gegenüber Allah akzeptieren würde bis dahin, die Existenz Allahs zu bestreiten. Gleiches gilt für die Entstehung des Koran bzw. seiner göttlichen Legitimierung.
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POPSAufklärung: christlich? Islam: antiaufklärerisch? Aus: Corrina Gomani und Dursun Tan: Die Rolle des religiösen Diskurses in der Erziehung. Aus dem Inhalt: Die Tragweite kultureller Differenzen „Religion als kulturelles System“ Aufklärung versus Nichtaufklärung? Humanisiert versus Nichthumanisiert? Traditionalistisch versus Modernistisch? Die Geschlechtlichkeit des Menschen Religion als „historisches Gedächtnis“ und Diskursform
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POPSKhaled Abou el Fadl: "God Does Not Have an Equal Partner" Khaled Abou el Fadl is both a prominent Islamic jurist and an American lawyer. In his many books he has accused radical Islamists of ignorance concerning the Koran and Sharia law. "We can debate God's will as much as we like. I encourage Muslims to do so in order to discover God's will," says Abou el Fadl. "If, however, we adopt a law and the state implements it, we cannot assume that it represents God's will. If, on the other hand, we give the state the power to represent God, that is not a democracy, but a form of ideology. This contradicts Islamic theology, because God does not have an equal partner." This is why the divine law should only cover questions of faith and should not be subject to the state. It is not the job of the state to regulate the relationship between God and the faithful. Deutsche Fassung: Khaled Abou El Fadl: "Gott hat keine Partner"
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POPSChris Hedges: (I) Don't Believe (in) Atheists The bestselling author of The New Fascists speaks out against religious and secular fundamentalism as he explores the New Atheists: those who attack religion to advance the worst of global capitalism, intolerance and imperial projects. Hedges claims that those who have placed blind faith in the morally neutral disciplines of reason and science create idols in their own image — a sin for either side of the spectrum. He makes an impassioned, intelligent case against religious and secular fundamentalism, which seeks to divide the world into those worthy of moral and intellectual consideration and those who should be condemned, silenced and eradicated. Hedges shatters the new atheists' assault against religion in America, and in doing so, makes way for new, moderate voices to join the debate. This is a book that must be read to understand the state of the battle about faith. ISBN: 9781416567950 Author: Hedges, Chris Publisher: Free Press
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POPSLegitimacy of invoking Jesus in legislative organs? The public encouragement of religion, no matter how vague or poetic, is troubling to civil libertarians like Jack Van Valkenburgh, head of the American Civil Liberties Union of Idaho. "Anytime the government is promoting a religion it's undermining the freedom of religion in my view," Van Valkenburg said. "And to encourage a particular religion or a particular set of religions is particularly offensive." The 1983 Supreme Court case, Marsh v. Chambers, rested on the fact that within three days of appointing a committee to hire congressional chaplains in 1789, the First Congress approved the Bill of Rights, including the Establishment clause. But in carving out a First Amendment exception for legislative bodies, the justices failed to apply the Lemon test, the method that all courts use to determine church-state violations. It is taught in most high school government classes.
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POPSWill the Clash of Faiths Go on Forever? Religious conflict rages on, despite claims we live in a "secular age" -- two authors explore the clash of beliefs. This article reviews: Divided by Faith: Religious Conflict and the Practice of Toleration in Early Modern Europe by Benjamin J. Kaplan God's Crucible: Islam and the Making of Europe, 570-1215 by David Levering Lewis
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POPSSaudi woman to be beheaded for being a "witch" Being beheaded by sword in a public place... For being a "witch" or practising "witchcraft"... Welcome back to the Middle Ages: "Burn the witch!" or "Behead the witch!", by the name of God. Correct me if I'm wrong, Saudi Arabia is a close ally of the US, who enthusiastically invaded Iraq to bring "human rights and democracy" to Arabs, right?
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POPS'Tragic protest' of Iraqi Kurdish women "When Saddam's regime was in power he did everything to subordinate women" "The Anfal Campaign against the Kurds was exactly like that. He actually killed all the men but let the women stay and live that sort of misery with their children. There was 30 years of that kind of rule. It will take a long, long time for that to change. It is a very slow and painful process." The human rights minister in the Kurdistan region admits that immolation is a problem that his government is struggling to deal with There have been attempts to improve education and women's shelters have been built, but it will take years to change long-held customs.
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POPSWhat Religion's Blind Stranglehold on America Is Doing to Our Democracy to go from "there is a fixed truth" to "I have that fixed truth." Words alone are rarely enough to reassure the uncertain. In fact, the more people rely on faith talk to pursue certainty, the more they may actually reinforce both anxiety and uncertainty. It's a small step indeed to move beyond the issue of individual self-control to controlling others through the passage of laws. All too often, the faith-talk view of freedom ends up taking away freedom. In itself, faith in politics poses no great danger to democracy as long as the debates are really about policies -- and religious values are translated into political values, articulated in ways that can be rationally debated by people who don't share them. The challenge is not to get religion out of politics. It's to get the quest for certitude out of politics .
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POPSMyth:"The Jews Weren't Driven into Exile by the Romans" "After Bar Kochba…Jewish emigration, a more or less permanent feature of ancient Palestinian demography, now assumed alarming proportions." Salo Baron, A Social and Religious History of the Jews (New York/Philadelphia, 1952), vol. 2, pp. 122-3. Jeremiah Haber, Jerusalem, Israel Jeremiah (Jerry) Haber is the nom de plume of an orthodox Jewish studies professor who divides his time between Israel and the US.
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POPSRomney Won't Spill the Beans on His Mormon Faith Romney felt politically forced to give the speech specifically because evangelical Christians seem to know a little too much about the faith of his fathers. Many evangelicals believe and have said publicly that Mormonism -- contrary to Romney's assertions -- is not a Christian religion but an abomination of Christianity. Here's a sampling of why: Mormons believe that the Garden of Eden was in Missouri; that Jews were the first people in America; that Indians descended from Jews and are a lost tribe of Israel; that Jesus came to America; that after the next coming of Christ (which will be the second or third, depending on how you count his trip to America), the world will be ruled for a thousand years from Jerusalem and Missouri; and to answer Mike Huckabee's now famous question, yes, they believe "Jesus and Lucifer were brothers, in the sense of both being spiritually begotten by the Father."
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POPSGovernor Romney's "Faith In America" Address (20 min video) Steve Benen: Right-wing Iowa caucus voters, who are already pre-disposed not to like Mormons, don't much care for "religious tolerance." Why Romney's "Religion Speech" Won't Work After listening to right wing pundits like Pat Buchanan repeatedly praise Romney's over-hyped "faith speech", guest commentator Lawrence O'Donnell got mad as hell because he just couldn't take it anymore. The McLaughlin Group Mormonism Meltdown (VIDEO)
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