TV Presenter Gets Death Sentence for ‘Sorcery’
From CNN World:
Amnesty International is calling on Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah to stop the execution of a Lebanese man sentenced to death for “sorcery.”In a statement released Thursday, the international rights group condemned the verdict and demanded the immediate release of Ali Hussain Sibat, former host of a popular call-in show that aired on Sheherazade, a Beirut based satellite TV channel.
According to his lawyer, Sibat, who is 48 and has five children, would predict the future on his show and give out advice to his audience.
The attorney, May El Khansa, who is in Lebanon, tells CNN her client was arrested by Saudi Arabia’s religious police (known as the Mutawa’een) and charged with sorcery while visiting the country in May 2008. Sibat was in Saudi Arabia to perform the Islamic religious…
UFOs and The Divine Council on The Black Fridays
The Black Fridays Episode 12 — Dr. Mike Heiser
Website • iTunes • Direct Download • RSS
We are VERY excited about having Dr. Michael Heiser on the show tonight! Mike Heiser earned the M.A. and Ph.D. in Hebrew Bible and Semitic Languages at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2004. Before attending the UW-Madison, Mike earned an M.A. in Ancient History from the University of Pennsylvania (major fields: Ancient Israel and Egyptology).
Mike’s main research interests are Israelite religion (especially Israel’s divine council), biblical theology, ancient Near Eastern religion, biblical languages, ancient Semitic languages, the history of the biblical texts, and ancient Jewish binitarian monotheism.
We talk with Dr. Heiser about his work on The Divine Council and UFOs. Is there a pantheon of gods in the Old Testament? Listen and find out.
Learn more about Dr. Heiser at www.drmsh.com and www.thedivinecouncil.com.
Sceptic Challenges Guru to Kill Him Live on TV
From the Times Online:
When a famous tantric guru boasted on television that he could kill another man using only his mystical powers, most viewers either gasped in awe or merely nodded unquestioningly. Sanal Edamaruku’s response was different. “Go on then — kill me,” he said.
Mr Edamaruku had been invited to the same talk show as head of the Indian Rationalists’ Association — the country’s self-appointed sceptic-in-chief. At first the holy man, Pandit Surender Sharma, was reluctant, but eventually he agreed to perform a series of rituals designed to kill Mr Edamaruku live on television. Millions tuned in as the channel cancelled scheduled programming to continue broadcasting the showdown, which can still be viewed on YouTube.
First, the master chanted mantras, then he sprinkled water on his intended victim. He brandished a…
Sweat Lodge Deaths Caused by Heat Stroke
From UPI.com:
Three people who died in an Arizona sweat lodge in 2009 succumbed to heat stroke and hyperthermia, medical reports indicated.Kirby Brown, 38, of New York; James Shore, 40, of Wisconsin; and Lizbeth Neuman, 49, of Minnesota were guests along with about 60 others at motivational speaker James A. Ray’s retreat near Sedona when they became ill during a “Spiritual Warrior” session in the sweat lodge Oct. 8, 2009.
Brown and Shore died of heat stroke shortly after emergency medical technicians arrived on the scene, the Arizona Republic reported.
Neuman’s death a few days later was caused by “multisystem organ failure due to hyperthermia due to prolonged sweat lodge exposure,” the autopsy, released Tuesday, concluded.
Edge of Reason: The Lonely Reign of Benedict XVI
From the Independent:
The authoritarian leader of the world’s Catholics promised to restore the purity of his church. So why is it still plagued by scandal upon scandal? Peter Popham reports.
Of all the countries Pope Benedict XVI is visiting this year – including Malta, Portugal, Cyprus and Spain – Britain, which he visits in September, is the one in the greatest moral difficulty from his perspective: a citadel of wild-eyed relativism, beset by all the ills which the Sixties incubated and which the Catholic Church here, in the Vatican’s view, has done little to combat.
Look at the evidence: we have women vicars, openly gay Cabinet ministers, the minaret of a mosque looming over Regent’s Park. Multi-culturalism has supplanted Christianity as the religion of choice; hardly anyone goes to church any more;…
Voodoo Practitioners Shrug Off Blame for Haitian Quake
From the Telegraph:
In a whirl of limbs and with eyes bulging, the woman is helped to a squat in the ramshackle shed and starts cackling maniacally like a terrified chicken.
“Kaaaa! Ka-ka-ka-ka-ka-ka,” she screams and stutters, her right arm bent in front of her.Around her, the other Voodoo worshippers look on, unsurprised but expectant as their ceremony reaches its climactic mid-point. Someone ties a red cloth to her arm, which stops shaking.
In their eyes, she is possessed by a spirit of the dead – one of the 220,000 estimated to have perished in Haiti’s January quake perhaps – and is thus, in a way, blessed.
When she picks up a rusty knife and swings clockwise around the room, gulping from a bottle of cherry-flavored alcohol, they do not draw away.
Instead they embrace…
In Australia, Creationism Could Slip into Science Classes
From the Sydney Morning Herald:
The draft national curriculum does not prohibit the teaching of creationism in schools, raising questions about whether this will open the door to its promotion as a science in classrooms.
The NSW Board of Studies has explicitly ruled out the teaching of creation theory from the Bible as a science, however it allows the teaching of spiritual perspectives on creation in science classes, as long as they are not dressed up as scientific or used to substitute any curriculum content, such as the teaching of evolution.
Greens MP John Kaye said he did not oppose discussion of Aboriginal Dreamtime or Christian explanations of the world’s origins in science classrooms, as long as they were presented as non-scientific beliefs.
However, while the NSW curriculum explicitly required schools to present and…
Rare Buddhist Flower Found Under Nun’s Washing Machine
From the Telegraph:
A rarely seen Buddhist flower, which blossoms every 3,000 years, has been discovered under a nun’s washing machine.
The Udumbara flower was found in the home of a Chinese nun in Lushan Mountain, Jiangxi province, China.
The rare Youtan Poluo or Udumbara flower, which, according to Buddhist legend, only blooms every 3,000 years, measures just 1mm in diametre.
[Read more at the Telegraph]
Zen May Thicken Brain, Thwart Pain
From Bloomberg.com:
Meditation appears to build up cortex, MRI scans find
If you’re trying to reduce your sensitivity to pain, Zen meditation may help by actually thickening your brain, new research suggests.The authors of a new study, published in a special issue of the journal Emotion, reached their conclusions after comparing brain thickness in 17 Zen meditators and a control group of 18 people who didn’t meditate and hadn’t practiced yoga or suffered from chronic pain, brain disease or mental illness.
The researchers applied heat to the participants’ calves and used MRI scans to study how their brains reacted to the pain.
“Through training, Zen meditators appear to thicken certain areas of their cortex, and this appears to underlie their lower sensitivity to pain,” study author Joshua A. Grant, a doctoral student in the…
The Ghosts of Purim Past
From Slate:
Much like Halloween, the Jewish holiday of Purim carries a veneer of boisterous and innocuous fun overlaid on some ghoulish history. Of all the “they tried to kill us, we survived, let’s eat” holidays in the Jewish calendar, Purim has been the most responsible for shaping the Jewish view of other nations—and the theology behind that worldview has rung many alarm bells over the potential for Jewish violence.
Anyone familiar with the Bible can joke about the seemingly endless array of tribes with peculiar-sounding names, from Jesubites to Hittites. But one tribe’s spiritual legacy is very much alive today and embodies the most controversial commandment in the Bible: Amalek is the nation that attacked Israel at its weakest point during the Exodus story, and God’s quest for revenge is total—commanding…
Why ‘Everything Has a Cause’ Is a Terrible Justification for God’s Existence
From Alternet:
“If there’s no God, then where did all this come from?”
I’ve written a fair amount about some of the more painfully bad arguments for religion and against atheism. I’ve written about the argument that religion is just a story, not meant to be taken literally…a story that still somehow makes people get very bent out of shape when atheists point out that it isn’t true.
I’ve written about an assortment of arguments from wishful thinking, from the insulting (and irrelevant) argument that atheists don’t stay atheists when faced with death, to the baffling (and irrelevant) argument that religion gives us a needed feeling of mystery.
I’ve written about the arguments that essentially tell atheists to just shut up. And I’ve written about the ways that, when asked what evidence they have…
Zimbabwe Displays ‘Ark of Covenant Replica’
From BBC News:
A wooden object claimed to be a replica of the Biblical Ark of the Covenant has gone on display at a Zimbabwe museum.
The “ngoma lungundu” belongs to the Lemba people – black Africans who claim Jewish ancestry.
They say the vessel was built almost 700 years ago from the remains of the original Ark, which the Bible says was used to store Moses’ 10 Commandments.
For decades the ancient vessel was thought to be lost, until it was found in a storeroom in Harare recently.
Tudor Parfitt, who rediscovered the artefact three years ago, told the BBC he believed it was the oldest wooden object ever found in sub-Saharan Africa.
“On each corner there is the remnants of a wooden ring, and obviously at one point, it was carried by inserting poles…
Caring for Pets Left Behind by the Rapture
From Business Week:
For a fee, this service will place your dog or cat in the home of a caring atheist on Judgment Day.
Many people in the U.S.—perhaps 20 million to 40 million—believe there will be a Second Coming in their lifetimes, followed by the Rapture . In this event, they say, the righteous will be spirited away to a better place while the godless remain on Earth. But what will become of all the pets?Bart Centre, 61, a retired retail executive in New Hampshire, says many people are troubled by this question, and he wants to help. He started a service called Eternal Earth-Bound Pets that promises to rescue and care for animals left behind by the saved.
Promoted on the Web as “the next best thing to pet salvation in…
Why Does The West Love The Dalai Lama?
Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama. Photo by Luca Galuzzi – www.galuzzi.it
A US president is again choosing to meet the Dalai Lama despite Chinese opposition. BBC News asks why this Tibetan spiritual and political leader is such a popular figure in the West:
To the Chinese government and to many of its people he is an inciter of violence and a defender of a brutal, backward, feudalistic, theocratic society.
But to many politicians and people in the West, the Dalai Lama is a kind of smiling, spiritual and political superhero.
His monastic robes, beaming countenance and squarish, unfashionable glasses are the stuff of a thousand photo opportunities. To some he is in a league of international personalities that contains only one other person – Nelson Mandela.
He is well-known for his contact with Hollywood supporters like…
Christian TV Presenter Reads out Star Wars Plot as Story of Salvation
From the Telegraph:
An email prankster tricked the host of a Christian TV show into reading out the plots of The Fresh Prince of Bel Air and Star Wars in the belief they were stories of personal salvation.
The unsuspecting host read out most of the opening rap to The Fresh Prince, a 1990s US sitcom starring Will Smith, apparently unaware that it was not a genuine testimony of faith.
The prankster had slightly adapted the lyrics but the references to a misspent youth playing basketball in West Philadelphia would have been instantly familiar to most viewers.
The lines read out by the DJ included: “One day a couple of guys who were up to no good starting making trouble in my living area. I ended up getting into a fight, which terrified my mother.”
The presenter on Genesis TV, a British Christian channel, eventually realised that he was being pranked and cut the story short – only to move on to another spoof email based on the plot of the Star Wars films.
[Read more at the Telegraph]
The Man Who Found the Holy Grail
From Fortean Times:
According to the New Catholic Dictionary the Holy Grail is “a legendary sacred vessel, identified with the chalice of the Eucharist or the dish of the Paschal Lamb, and the theme of a medieval cycle of romance”. It “is said to have been the dish… used by Joseph of Arimathea to gather the Precious Blood of Christ.” And, according to author, historian and folklorist Mark Oxbrow, the Grail has actually been found.
Of course, the Grail was once in the hands of Indiana Jones, but even he ultimately lost it; so what makes Oxbrow’s claims special? Why should we believe him when we already have several Grails, including the Nantios Cup, the “Holy Bloodline” of Baigent, Leigh and Lincoln’s The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail and the Stone Tablets…
Being Religious May Not Make You Healthier After All
From Yahoo News:
Religious people may have taken comfort from a number of studies over the past two decades showing those adhering to a faith tend to be healthier but a new study casts some doubt on this belief.The study, published in the journal Circulation, suggests that when it comes to clogged arteries, attending religious services or having spiritual experiences may not protect against heart attacks and strokes.
“There’s not a lot of extra burden or extra protection afforded by this particular aspect of people’s lives,” concluded Dr. Donald Lloyd-Jones, of the Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, who led the study.
In a review of data from nearly 5,500 people, Lloyd-Jones and his colleagues expected to see less risk for heart disease among those with more “religiosity.”
The researchers defined religiosity as…
Ali G Interviews Religious Wingnuts
From ScienceBlogs:
Ali G talks to religious wingnuts about their beliefs .. oddly, religious wingnuts don’t like talking about aspects of their own religion that offend them .. if their religion and its real-life applications are so offensive, why believe all that wingnuttery in the first place?
[Read more at ScienceBlogs]
Earth Religions Get Worship Area at AF Academy
From The Washington Post:
The Air Force Academy has set aside an outdoor worship area for Pagans, Wiccans, Druids and other Earth-centered believers, school officials said Monday.A double circle of stones atop a hill on the campus near Colorado Springs has been designated for the group, which previously met indoors.
“Being with nature and connecting with it is kind of the whole point,” said Tech. Sgt. Brandon Longcrier, who sponsors the group and describes himself as a Pagan. “It will dramatically improve that atmosphere, the mindset and the actual connection.”
The stones were moved to the hilltop last year because erosion threatened to make them unstable in their previous location near the visitors center. Crews arranged them in two concentric circles because they thought it would be a pleasant place for cadets to…
