Posts Tagged ‘Jesus’

News & Submissions 3/25/2011

Friday, March 25th, 2011

Headlines:

DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS – Japan Disaster Relief (Click to Donate)

Events:

Pagicon - Friday, March 25th through Sunday, March 27th, 2011. Doubletree Park Place in St. Louis Park, MN.

Festival Invites Public to Stand With Japan – Beginning at 6:30pm on March 24, people will gather at Sylvan Theater (15th Street and Independence Avenue, SW) before walking the Tidal Basin. All donations received throughout the fundraising effort will go directly to the National Cherry Blossom Festival Red Cross Online Donation Site, benefiting the Japan Earthquake and Pacific Tsunami fund.

Arts & Entertainment:

Paranormal research session to air tonight
MILLERSBURG — Ghosts who reside in the Victorian House Museum in Millersburg apparently had their say Saturday, shutting down a planned live Internet stream of research being conducted in the house by the Central Ohio Paranormal Research Group.

However, there is good news for ghost hunters.

Saturday’s session, which Mark Boley, director of the Holmes County Historical Society, said again revealed “lots of activity,” will be available for viewing tonight on the Internet.

Beginning at 8 p.m., the session will be available at the web site www.centralohioparanormalresearchgroup.com/Livewebstream.html. A chat room also will be available. Read full story from timesreporter.com

History:

The First Pocahontas May Have Been a Viking
Genes from the Beotuk, a long-extinct branch of Canada’s aboriginal peoples, have shown up in samples of 80 people from Iceland, a team of anthropologists and geneticists has revealed.

A study published in the November issue of the American Journal of Physical Anthropology indicates that a woman of that line may have been brought to Iceland by the Vikings 1,000 years ago, the Montreal Gazette and other media outlets reported on Thursday. The study was conducted by researchers from Iceland and Spain. Read the full story from indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com

Lifestyle & Religion:

Diary reveals the horror of the Witchfinder General trials
A 350-year-old notebook which describes the execution of innocent women for consorting with the Devil, has been published online by The University of Manchester’s John Rylands Library. Puritan writer Nehemiah Wallington wrote passages on his attitudes to life, religion, the civil war as well as the witchcraft trials of the period. Read full story from pasthorizons.com

Coast home to 500 witches: psychic
A FAMOUS TV witch says the Sunshine Coast is a sacred and magical haven to as many as 500 practising witches.

Stacey Demarco, a judge on the 2009 psychic Australian television show The One, said the region had a variety of covens and had attracted them because the Coast’s earth had a “deep and powerful energy”.

Ms Demarco, voted Australia’s 2009 psychic of the year, will be on the Coast this weekend to teach one of her invitation-only workshops for “intermediate” witches. Read full story from bollinaadvocate.com

News:

Research Firm to Study Tribes’ Economic Impact on California
A coalition of American Indian organizations in California hired a prominent research firm to analyze tribes’ contribution to the state’s economy, states a California Nations Indian Gaming Association news release.

Beacon Economics, a consulting firm based in the Bay Area and Los Angeles, will measure the economic impact of tribes by examining Indian-owned casinos, businesses, tribal government programs, purchases of goods and services and charitable donations, amongst other things.

“This study is an important undertaking by tribal governments,” said Daniel Tucker, chairman of the California Nations Indian Gaming Association. “It’s significant that CNIGA, the Tribal Alliance of Sovereign Indian Nations and the California Association of Tribal Governments are participating, as it will provide a more complete picture of how tribal economic development and self-sufficiency are benefiting California taxpayers.” Read full story from indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com

Red Cross warning over Japan tsunami donation scam
The Red Cross has warned prospective donors who want to give money to the Japan Tsunami Appeal to beware scam emails purporting to be from the charity.

A spokesman for the charity said: “There are some fraudulent emails circulating claiming to be raising money for the Japan Tsunami Appeal. These may request that you donate through companies like Western Union or Money Bookers, which we would never do. If you suspect an email is fraudulent please do not open any attachments or click on any links. Read full story from guardian.co.uk

‘Thorn from Jesus’s crucifixion crown’ goes on display at British Museum
It was plundered in the Fourth Crusade, sold to French royalty and has spent the past 200 years in safekeeping at a British public school.

Now a relic claimed to be a thorn from Jesus’s crown is to go on display at the British Museum.

And while no one can doubt the item’s rich history, there is less evidence to support the claims of its provenance. Read full story from dailymail.co.uk

Media:

A change of faith (Source CNN)

38% of Americans Believe Japan Disaster a Sign From God (Source – YouTube: Atheistmediablog)

Question & Answer Session with Thai Buddhists  (Source – YouTube: gyalwarinpoche)

Blogspot:

Feel free to leave comments regarding the articles posted.

If you’re interested in guest blogging or would like to submit an article or event, contact me at pagansworld.org@gmail.com.

Thanks for stopping by! Well wishes to you all and have a great day!

Lisa

News & Submissions 3/17/2011

Thursday, March 17th, 2011

Pagans and the census
Sunday 27th March will be Census Day in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

As you all know, the census is conducted every 10 years to gather a broad range of information about people and households across the countries of the UK.

In 2001, the census included questions on religion, that made it possible, for the very first time, to prove that there were many thousands of Pagans in these islands. That we were, in fact, the seventh largest religion in Scotland and that our numbers were growing rapidly as other religions diminish. Census data on the number of Pagans proved to be of tremendous value in winning greater respect and recognition for Paganism.

This year, the census will again include a question on religion. And the Scottish Pagan Federation appeals to all Pagans in this country to enter “PAGAN” – in the “Another Religion” box provided. Read full story from shetlandtimes.co.uk

Divine control-freakery can go to hell
To claim – as John Richardson appears to – that eternal punishment in hell is necessary to make this a just universe is illogical and incoherent. Justice has of its nature to be proportionate – and eternity is infinite, whereas the most horrific crimes of human beings are of their nature limited. Moreover, the ideas about hell held historically by most religious believers are of disproportionately severe punishments. You look at the imaginatively foul tortures being dished out in the hells of Hieronymus Bosch, or some Buddhist art, and reflect that the worst people in human history do not deserve to be endlessly devoured and shat out by a canary-shaped demon.

Of course, however, those who believe in hell are a very long way from reserving it for Hitler and Pol Pot. Many believers think that most sins – or things they regard as sins – lead straight to hell. The inadvertently hilarious comic-book tracts of Jack Chick make this very clear – playing Dungeons and Dragons? Leads to hell. Reading Harry Potter? Leads to hell. I am quite a nice person – kind to people, only over-eat occasionally and give money to beggars – but there are so many reasons why many believers think I am on my way to the eternal bonfire that it would be tedious to rehearse them. Ah, but, they say, the real sin is not what you do – it is your disobedience of God’s commands, however arbitrary. So we are not talking about justice, we are talking about divine control-freakery. Read full story from guardian.co.uk

The rise of Europe’s religious right
Europe is generally regarded as the most secularised continent in the world. But in few EU member states is there a complete separation between church and state. The old interweaving of religious and worldly authority still makes itself felt in many countries today.

In England, the head of state is also titular governor of the church and bishops are members of the House of Lords. Finland and Denmark still have an official state religion, and in Greece up until recently, the Orthodox church was in charge of the public civil status register. Everywhere, churches maintain a firm grasp on education, the care and medical sectors, and the media. Churches have formal and informal positions of exception by law, which are sometimes used to refuse public services such as abortion or same-sex marriage, or to evade secular authority in cases of child abuse. Read full story from guardian.co.uk

Report: Nantucket child killed in exorcism
NANTUCKET — The woman accused of killing her 3-year-old daughter earlier this week believed God had instructed her to stick a rose in the young girl’s throat to ward off the devil, according to documents filed in Nantucket District Court.

Dora Alicia Tejada Pleitez, 26, of 13B Pine Tree Road was held without bail pending a mental competency hearing following her arraignment Tuesday on a murder charge. She was taken off the island Tuesday for the evaluation and is scheduled to appear in Nantucket District Court on Monday for a pretrial hearing.

The police were called to the family’s home at about 12:40 p.m. Monday, according to a six-page narrative describing police interviews in the investigation.

Officers found Pleitez’s daughter, Nicole Garcia, lying on a table inside the home and attempted to resuscitate her until paramedics arrived.

The girl was taken to Nantucket Cottage Hospital, where she was pronounced dead at about 1:18 p.m. Read full story from capecodonline.com

The Roman Ninth Legion’s mysterious loss
The disappearance of Rome’s Ninth Legion has long baffled historians, but could a brutal ambush have been the event that forged the England-Scotland border, asks archaeologist Dr Miles Russell, of Bournemouth University.

One of the most enduring legends of Roman Britain concerns the disappearance of the Ninth Legion.

The theory that 5,000 of Rome’s finest soldiers were lost in the swirling mists of Caledonia, as they marched north to put down a rebellion, forms the basis of a new film, The Eagle, but how much of it is true?  Read full story from bbc.co.uk

6 other calamities blamed on divine retribution
Age-old questions about divine punishment are back. Again.

On Tuesday, the governor of Tokyo apologized for saying the earthquake and tsunami that killed thousands of Japanese were divine retribution for national egoism.

Television and media personality Glenn Beck, meanwhile, has sent mixed messages about whether he thinks God is behind Japan’s natural disaster. “I’m not saying God is, you know, causing earthquakes,” he said Monday, adding he’s “not not saying that, either.”

“Whether you call it Gaia, or whether you call it Jesus, there’s a message being sent and that is, ‘Hey, you know that stuff we’re doing? Not really working out real well,’” Beck said. “Maybe we should stop doing some of it.”

Blaming human sinfulness for natural and man-made disasters is nothing new. “This kind of thinking is actually typical rather than atypical in world history,” says Stephen Prothero, a Boston University religion professor and CNN Belief Blog contributor. Read full story from cnn.com

Estranged son of anti-gay Westboro pastor says father does ‘evil’ (source cnn)

Dog in Japan stays by the side of its ailing friend in the rubble
It’s a universal truth that dogs are man’s best friend, but they’re pretty darn loyal to their own as well. Case in point: this tear-inducing video, via the website Jezebel, showing a dog, shivering and disoriented, remaining loyally by the side of a stricken fellow canine amid the devastation of the Japanese tsunami. Read full story from yahoo.com

Saturday Morning Post

Saturday, February 19th, 2011

Toronto’s one-stop Occult Shop
The next time you’re satisfying a serious ice-cream craving at Dutch Dreams on Vaughan Road, wander a little bit north and you’ll find a large, white building containing an inconspicuous store framed by clouded windows. The red, weather-beaten, wooden sign hanging above the entrance reads, “The Occult Shop,” and despite its humble facade, the store serves as a gathering place for a range of spiritual subcultures in Toronto.

Tamarra and husband Richard James (pictured at right) opened The Occult Shop in 1979 at a location on Queen Street West (where Doc’s Leathers & Motorcycle Gear now resides). After a few years of moving around, they finally settled into their current home at 109 Vaughan, where they dole out spiritual advice with their herbs, incense and candles.

“We make sure that we know our product really, really well,” says Richard, who, with Tamarra, also also founded the Wiccan Church of Canada (WCC) around the same time that they opened the store. The church’s headquarters and main temple—which holds open rituals every Sunday at 7pm—is housed in the same building as The Occult Shop. The James started the group partly because of customer demand, but also to educate people on this often misunderstood faith. The church currently has a satellite temple in Hamilton and around 100 members, although Richard points out that that number fluctuates. Read full story from eyeweekly.com

It’s a witch…It’s a boat…It’s Salem
These three words, together with a logo that can be seen as either a sailboat or witch hat, were unveiled yesterday as a new brand Salem will use to sell itself.

“We want this to be a tool for communication and for sharing what we are here in Salem,” said Kate Fox, executive director of Destination Salem.

A nonprofit funded by a combination of city money and advertising dollars, Destination Salem is charged with promoting the city and attracting visitors. The group paid Rattle, a Beverly advertising, design and marketing firm, $25,000 to create the logo and tag line.

When it was first shown at the end of a video about the city, the Salem business owners and managers who gathered in a Peabody Essex Museum auditorium broke into applause.

“I’m super excited about it,” Mayor Kim Driscoll said. “What it says to me is that the more we change and grow, in many respects, the more we stay the same.”

The dual-purpose logo acknowledges Salem’s popular “Witch City” identity but also celebrates its maritime roots. Read full story from salemnews.com

Norse code as Vikings return to York
WE’RE used to seeing the occasional blood-spattered Viking wandering the streets of York. But for nine days you won’t be able to move for axe-wielding Norsemen, even when you are doing the weekly shop in Monks Cross.

Next weekend they will even be rampaging across the racecourse.

The annual Jorvik Viking Festival starts today and this year hundreds of warriors will descend on the city to commemorate King Ethelred’s battle to capture York. Read full story from yorkpress.co.uk

Thomas Reed Interview: Part 2 (Conclusion) (Video)
Well everyone, here it is! The long awaited conclusion of the Thomas Reed Interview. It’s been a long time coming and it took quite a lot of editing to get it to a manageable length but I did it.The Reed Saga is quite extraordinary and I hope I was able to do it justice. In the conclusion we talk to Tom about his mid to late abductions as well as those of his brother Matt. We also were able to speak with Debbie Kauble and get her input as well as a video clip she took during a MUFON investigation of Matt’s SUV after his latest experience. Read full story from ghosttheory.com

Renowned atheist draws crowd at Nova Southeastern
t was more than an hour before the biology professor walked onto stage at Nova Southeastern University, but dozens of fans had already lined up Thursday night in hopes of getting in to hear his much-anticipated speech.

Universities are naturally magnets for academics to talk about their study, but this was no average scientist.

A sold-out crowd was already inside.

If it’s possible to conceive a God of the world of atheism and evolutionary biology, Richard Dawkins would be hard to beat for the title.

One of the most prolific atheists and secular humanists living today, he spoke on “The Fact of Evolution” and his stance against creationism in an hour-long chat that spanned topics from philosophy and theology to biology and gene mutation. Read full story from miamiheral.com

Rob Zombie Talks ‘The Lords of Salem’
Rob Zombie is touching on some of his inspirations for his next film “The Lords of Salem.”A co-production between Haunted Movies (“Insidious”) and Alliance Films, “The Lords of Salem” is written and directed by Zombie (“The Devil’s Rejects,” “Halloween”).

The film will center on contemporary Salem, where the residents encounter a 300-year-old coven of demonic witches.

“I’m going to probably start pre-production in March,” Zombie said in an interview with List.co.uk. “Hopefully I’ll shoot it around June. … ‘Lords of Salem’ is an original idea, it’s a new thing. Read full story from rabiddoll.com

Why Are Some Paranormal Beliefs More Attractive to Males While Others Are More Appealing to Females?
There are interesting differences between men and women on so-called “paranormal beliefs,” such as the belief in astrology, ESP, UFOs, Bigfoot, and ghosts. An abundance of research in the sociology of religion has found that women are more spiritual than men in a variety of ways. Women are more likely to belong to conventional religious organizations and hold traditional religious beliefs. They are also much more likely than men to believe in psychic powers, astrology, the power of mediums, and ghosts.

Men are more likely than women to believe that some UFOs are extraterrestrial craft and about equally likely to believe in creatures such as Bigfoot. Concerning an escalation of participation to the level of active research, men are also more likely than women to pursue these beliefs by becoming Bigfoot or UFO “hunters.”
These discrepancies indicate that men have a tendency to approach the paranormal differently from women. Men are more likely to see the paranormal as a means of discovery—i.e., they hope to capture Bigfoot to prove to others that it is (empirically) real. Females are more likely to see the paranormal as a source of personal discovery and enlightenment, a route to achieving a more thorough understanding of themselves and their relations to other people. Such lines of interest may also be pursued in the effort to “become a better person.” scienceandreligiontoday.com

Buying a new home? Add a touch of witchcraft (source necn)

Couple Finds Image of Jesus in Wooden Chair (source ktla)

News & Submissions 12/19/2010

Sunday, December 19th, 2010

Fact and fiction of Paganism
THE cult film The Wicker Man has a lot to answer for. It featured a naked Britt Ekland tempting virgin cop Edward Woodward on a remote Scottish island before he is burned alive as a sacrifice to appease their Pagan Gods because of a crop failure – a bit different from your average Christian harvest festival. Now there are calls for Paganism to be put on the school curriculum. Should we be worried? Mike Kelly reports

THERE are many misconceptions about Paganism. The most obvious one is that it is somehow related to devil worship or satanism.

One of the reasons for this is an item of jewellery Pagans wear as a symbol of their beliefs – most commonly a pentacle or pentagram, a five-pointed star in a circle. For them it represents perfect balance and wisdom. Read full story from sundaysun.co.uk

Katy Guest: We wish you a merry Solstice. Or whatever…
The next time two smartly dressed young people knock at your door, keep you chatting as if they’re casing the joint and then ask you whether you really understand the true meaning of Christmas, try this: invite them in, brew up some hot mead, and explain to them patiently about a time 2,000 years ago when early Christians went in search of an arbitrary date on which to celebrate an event of middling theological importance in their fledgling religion.

Sitting around a festive Yule tree (redolent of the Norse god Ullr), decorated in tiny, glittering symbols of the end of darkness and the return to light, watch their little faces light up as you share seasonal offerings of meat and sprouts, in communion with the seasonal generosity of nature. Soon they will understand the true meaning of the Winter Solstice. Read full story from independent.co.uk

Four in 10 Americans Believe in Strict Creationism
PRINCETON, NJ — Four in 10 Americans, slightly fewer today than in years past, believe God created humans in their present form about 10,000 years ago. Thirty-eight percent believe God guided a process by which humans developed over millions of years from less advanced life forms, while 16%, up slightly from years past, believe humans developed over millions of years, without God’s involvement. Read full story from gallup.com

Rendlesham Forest UFO mystery still leaves questions
Thirty years after claims that UFOs had been spotted in Rendlesham Forest, experts and enthusiasts still can’t agree on what happened.

Mysterious craft and lights around the airbases of Woodbridge and Bentwaters in Suffolk were reported around Christmas 1980.

BBC Suffolk’s Mark Murphy presented a special 30th anniversary radio show from the forest in December 2010.

Mr Murphy promoted his favourite theory, but questions remained. Read full story from bbc.co.uk

Bones found on island might be Amelia Earhart’s
NORMAN, Okla. – The three bone fragments turned up on a deserted South Pacific island that lay along the course Amelia Earhart was following when she vanished. Nearby were several tantalizing artifacts: some old makeup, some glass bottles and shells that had been cut open.

Now scientists at the University of Oklahoma hope to extract DNA from the tiny bone chips in tests that could prove Earhart died as a castaway after failing in her 1937 quest to become the first woman to fly around the world.

“There’s no guarantee,” said Ric Gillespie, director of the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, a group of aviation enthusiasts in Delaware that found the pieces of bone this year while on an expedition to Nikumaroro Island, about 1,800 miles south of Hawaii. Read full story from yahoo.com

Crowds expected to gather to witness magical winter solstice light ceremony at Newgrange
Despite the weather, it’s expected that like last year, crowds will gather to witness the winter solstice light ceremony on December 21. Last year the World Heritage site in Newgrange drew a large audience.

The 5,000-year-old Stone Age tomb is older than the pyramids, and over 32,000 people worldwide applied to witness last year’s magnificent winter solstice.

The tomb’s chamber lights up when the sun rises on a winter solstice morning. It is the only time of the year when the tomb lights up with natural sunlight. Read full story from irishcentral.com

Christmas wrapped up in many cultures
I grew up singing in Greek and English Silent Night and Deck the Halls With Boughs of Holly, but why we are decking the “halls” at all? Each year at this time (December), we take the time to decorate our homes during the festive holiday season, hanging baubles on the Christmas tree and placing holly and ivy around the house. But how many of us stop to wonder why we participate in such traditions?

There are countless myths and legends as to why we place a pine tree in our home and hang wreaths on our doors during the winter holiday season.

The festivities of Christmas originate in the fourth century, when Pope Julius I declared that Dec. 25 would be the celebration of Christ’s birth. This can be seen as an attempt to Christianise Pagan rituals during the darkest days of the year and, as such, much of the folklore surrounding Christmas decoration originates from Pagan tradition. Read full story from thestarpress.com

Santa has little connection with Jesus
What connection does Santa Claus have with Christ?What is the real meaning of mistletoe, the holly wreath and orbs on trees?Was Jesus really born on December 25?

Christmas no matter the origin is the most important commercial season of the year. Without the centuries old tradition of exchanging gifts the national economy would be dealt a terrible blow.

Thousands of businesses would go bankrupt. You would be astonished to discover the real truth about the most of all Christian holidays. Anyone can discover the real truth about the pagan origins of Christmas simply by looking up the word and all its accouterments and symbols in the major encyclopedias and history books with the Internet it’s even easier. Read full story from godanriver.com

what can we do now? You and I and all living things
Freeport, Ill. — This is the time of the winter solstice when all people north of the equator experience the shortest days of the year. From earliest times, the turning point to longer days has been a time for celebrations – something that all people around the world have in common.

People have more in common with each other than celebrations. David Suzuki, a highly acclaimed geneticist, in his book, “The Sacred Balance: Rediscovering Our Place in Nature” explains that it is a scientifically supported fact that each of us is quite literally air, water, soil and sunlight. We have fundamental elements of life in common with other people and with all living things on our planet. And it is a web of living things that maintains these fundamental elements of life. Read full story from journalstandard.com

Sam Harris: Can Science Determine Human Values? (source FORA.tv)


BBC Newsnight – ‘Clash of Civilizations?’ (source BBC)

News & Submissions 12/15/2010

Wednesday, December 15th, 2010

‘Goddess Temple’ planned at Wellsprings
ASHLAND — Nearly 20 local women plan to open an Ashland Goddess Temple dedicated to the “sacred feminine” in a dome at Jackson Wellsprings north of town.

The temple, founded by Graell Corsini and 18 others, will open under a full moon on the spring equinox, the women say.

It will enshrine the great goddess mother of ancient times, working in equal partnership with the “sacred masculine” God to “celebrate the divinity in everything,” Corsini said.

The women say the goddess path honors and supports all faiths, includes both genders and provides a space for ceremonies of the solstice and equinox, weddings, births, dance, music, meditation, counseling, classes in sacred subjects and alternative healing using reiki, cranial-sacral therapy and other modalities. Read full story from mailtribune.com

Mummified head is skull of Henri IV, say historians
A gash above the lip, a beauty spot and a pierced ear were among key features that helped identify the well-preserved head as that of the “Gallant Green” king, stabbed to death by a Catholic fundamentalist in 1610.

Jean-Pierre Babelon, France’s leading Henri IV scholar told The Daily Telegraph he and the other experts were “99 per cent sure” of their findings.

He will be alongside the 19-man team of international experts when it details its historic discovery in Paris’ Grand Palais after two years of painstaking research.

The experts, led by the renowned pathologist Philippe Charlier, used a “whole range of methods” to cross check their discovery. Read full story from telegraph.co.uk

Man in cemetery IDed
PICAYUNE — The man photographed naked in a local cemetery says he didn’t mean anything crazy by it, he was trying to capture pictures of spirits, or do orb photography.

The man, 47 year-old Robert T. Hurst, of 208 Mitchell St., said he was in the cemetery conducting his year-long hobby, orb photography, which is capturing circles of light at night, some of which appear to be faces. As for why he was naked the night he was caught by a game camera set up by cemetery staff, he said skin can be the best canvas for such photography. Read full story from picayuneitem.com

Archaeology: 8000 year-old Sun temple found in Bulgaria
The oldest temple of the Sun has been discovered in northwest Bulgaria, near the town of Vratsa, aged at more then 8000 years, the Bulgarian National Television (BNT) reported on December 15 2010. Read full story from sofiaecho.com

Pompeii skeletons reveal secrets of Roman family life
The remains of the Roman town of Pompeii destroyed by a volcanic eruption in AD79 continue to provide intriguing and unexpected insights into Roman life – from diet and health care to the gap between rich and poor.

The basement storeroom under a large agricultural depot in the little suburb of Oplontis was full of pomegranates. To many of the Pompeiians trying to find shelter from the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, it must have seemed strong and safe. Read full story from bbc.co.uk

Storm in Israel uncovers ancient statue
Jerusalem (CNN) — A huge storm that collapsed part of a cliff on Israel’s central coast led to the discovery of a statue dating back to the Roman period, the Israel Antiquities Authority said Tuesday. Read full story from cnn.com

The Film That Brought Down Youtube in Indonesia
Geert Wilders, a Dutch parliamentarian leading the Party for Freedom in the Netherlands, caught the attention of the world when he released a short film on his views on Islam in 2008, titled Fitna. The 15 minute film juxtaposes several passages from the Q’uran with images of Islamic. Of course, the film was to be a controversial bombshell, so to speak. But the response that ensued was not merely limited to the expected hordes of Muslims chanting ‘Death to Wilders’ on the streets of Pakistan, Iran or Afghanistan. Read full story from ISSA

On the 120th Anniversary of Sitting Bull’s Death
One hundred and twenty years ago today, Sitting Bull was killed during a confrontation with Indian police in Grand River, S.D.

Excerpt from the Smithsonian’s American Indians/American President: A History:

The campaign to take Indian lands led some Native people to seek answers and hope from spirital sources. In the winter of 1889, shortly after President Benjamin Harrison took office, a Paiute man named Wovoka, from the  Walker River Indian Reservatio in Nevada, had a vision of being “taken up into the spirit world.” Wovoka later told enthnographer James Mooney that while in the spirit world he saw “God and the dead of his nation, happily alive in a beautiful land abundant with game.” When Wovoka returned from his experience, he told the Paitue people to “work hard, and to live in peace with the Whites and that eventually they would be reunited with the dead in a world without death or sickness or old age.” Read full story from nmai.si.edu

Celebrate the start of winter at Stonehenge
Astronomical calculator? Sacred burial ground? Landing spot for UFOs? Altar for human sacrifice? Whatever the wild theories about Stonehenge, it’s clear that the monument is an awe-inspiring work of vast antiquity, which comes into its own at the solstice celebrations. Read full story from hellomagazine.com

Drug lord with a spiritual bent (source cnn)

Hookers for Jesus (source cnn)

News & Submissions 12/13/2010

Monday, December 13th, 2010

‘I’m Not A Witch’ Picked As Top Quote Of Year
Christine O’Donnell’s TV ad declaration “I’m not a witch” during her U.S. Senate campaign topped this year’s best quotes, according to a Yale University librarian.

O’Donnell’s quote is cited by Fred Shapiro, associate librarian at Yale Law School, who released his fifth annual list of the most notable quotations of the year. In the ad, O’Donnell was responding to reports of her revelations that she had dabbled in witchcraft years ago. Read full story from npr.org

Loch Ness monster ‘seen twice’
Simon Dinsdale, a retired police detective from Essex, insists that the two minute film recorded 50 years ago by his father, a famous Nessie-hunter, is genuine.

The footage, shot by Tim Dinsdale in 1960, is one of the best-known images put forward as evidence by those who insist on the existence of the mysterious creature.

Now the insistence of those who believe in Nessie that the film is genuine has been lent new weight after Mr Dinsdale claimed he had seen the monster with his own eyes on two occasions. Read full story from telegraph.co.uk

BP Gulf Spill the #1 Twitter Trend in 2010
There were 25 billion 140-character tweets sent out in 2010, and more of them were concerned with the BP Gulf Spill than any other topic. Twitter has just released its list of the top 10 tweets for 2010, and it’s a pretty interesting blend of pop culture phenomena, world events, and debuting gadgetry. And seeing as how Twitter has grown to be pretty international in its reach and user base, I was a tad surprised to see that the BP spill took the top slot. Here’s how the top trends broke down: Read full story from treehugger.com

Global Warming Mapped
The world is getting warmer. Whether the cause is human activity or natural variability, thermometer readings all around the world have risen steadily since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution.

According to an ongoing temperature analysis conducted by scientists at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), the average global temperature on Earth has increased by about 0.8°Celsius (1.4°Fahrenheit) since 1880. Two-thirds of the warming has occurred since 1975, at a rate of roughly 0.15-0.20°C per decade. Read full story from nasa.gov

New Da Vinci mystery discovered in Mona Lisa
Leonardo Da Vinci’s 500-year-old Renaissance masterpiece has long been steeped in mystery with even today, the true identity of the woman with the alluring smile still far from certain.

The painting also featured in the Dan Brown blockbuster The Da Vinci Code, which was turned into a 2006 film starring Tom Hanks, in which his character interprets secret messages hidden in the Mona Lisa and some of Da Vinci’s other paintings, including The Last Supper.

Now members of Italy’s National Committee for Cultural Heritage have revealed that by magnifying high resolution images of the Mona Lisa’s eyes letters and numbers can be seen. Read full story from scotsman.com

Jonathan Horwitz Discusses “Shamanic Inheritance” on December 14 “Why Shamanism Now?” Radio Show
Streaming live on the Co-Creator Radio Network on Tuesday, December 14, at 11 a.m. Pacific time/2 p.m. Eastern time, on her show “Why Shamanism Now?: A Practical Path to Authenticity,” shaman and founder of the Last Mask Center for Shamanic Healing Christina Pratt welcomes Jonathan Horwitz, co-founder with Annette Host of the Scandinavian Centre for Shamanic Studies. Horwitz says, “The shaman works by asking for help. We never get anywhere alone. We’re always being helped, although often we do not recognize… The shamanic path is excellent for learning to re-connect with being alive, re-discover the spiritual power we are all born with, and to re-learn what it means to be a part of the whole.” Read full story from pr-canada.net

Lost Civilization May Have Existed Beneath the Persian Gulf
Veiled beneath the Persian Gulf, a once-fertile landmass may have supported some of the earliest humans outside Africa some 75,000 to 100,000 years ago, a new review of research suggests.

At its peak, the floodplain now below the Gulf would have been about the size of Great Britain, and then shrank as water began to flood the area. Then, about 8,000 years ago, the land would have been swallowed up by the Indian Ocean, the review scientist said.

The study, which is detailed in the December issue of the journal Current Anthropology, has broad implications for aspects of human history. For instance, scientists have debated over when early modern humans exited Africa, with dates as early as 125,000 years ago and as recent as 60,000 years ago (the more recent date is the currently accepted paradigm), according to study researcher Jeffrey Rose, an archaeologist at the University of Birmingham in the U.K. Read full story from livescience.com

Rooting for swarm intelligence in plants
They’re underfoot and underappreciated. But the roots of a plant may demonstrate the remarkable wisdom of crowds just as swarms of honeybees or humans can.

Three plant scientists now propose that roots growing this way and that in their dark and dangerous soil world may fit a definition for what’s called swarm intelligence. Each tip in a root system acquires information at least partly independently, says plant cell biologist František Baluška of the University of Bonn in Germany. If that information gets processed in interactions with other roots and the whole tangle then solves what might be considered a cognitive problem in a way that a lone root couldn’t, he says, then that would be swarm intelligence. Read full story from sciencenews.org

Now Playing: Geminid Meteor Showers, Year’s Best Sky Show
The annual Geminid shower is about to hit its peak, with anywhere from 60 to 100 meteors zooming across the night sky each hour between midnight tonight and dawn on Tuesday.

The weeklong shower is easily visible to the naked eye and is the best in the Northern Hemisphere.

The Associated Press calls the meteors (or shooting stars) “rocky celestial leftovers.” Earth passes through this stream of debris from 3200 Phaethon, which is considered an extinct comet, every December. Read full story from aolnews.com

Druid leader calls for Judicial Review on excavation of remains
DRUID leader King Arthur Pendragon went to The Royal Courts of Justice in London last week in a bid to see the return of cremated human remains taken from Stonehenge in 2008.

The Senior Druid and Pagan Priest presented a 36-page document asking for a Judicial Review on the decision by the Minister of Justice to grant Sheffield University an extension to retain the remains for five years.

King Arthur said: ‘This is not just a Druid or Pagan issue, and we have the support of thousands of people from all walks of life from nations around the world and all the major faiths, who have signed our petition demanding that the remains be re-interred at what should have been their final resting place. Read full story from salsburyjournal.co.uk

Challenge to Chillicothe council prayer should strengthen, not diminish, faith community
Another year, another civil liberties fight in the Scioto Valley.

Two years ago, a practicing Wiccan who was about to graduate from Southeastern Local Schools asked the district to eliminate the prayer at the graduation ceremony. Prayer went ahead as scheduled, and nothing more was said.

About a month later, it was the city of Greenfield — which had for years begun its city council meetings with a prayer that usually ended with “in Jesus’ name, Amen” — threatened with a lawsuit by The American Civil Liberties Union to stop the prayer. The practice was changed shortly thereafter. Read full story from chillicothegazette.com

Sarah Palin visits Haiti with Christian group (source cnn)

Fox News: Parents Outraged Over School Book Portraying Jesus as a “Socialist”

Fareed Zakaria: Glenn Beck wrong about 10 percent of Muslims being terrorists (source cnn)

News & Submissions 12/07/2010

Tuesday, December 7th, 2010

Reindeer ‘cruelty’ slammed by rights group
Reindeer are being tormented when slaughtered, according to the animal rights organisation World Society for Protection of Animals (WSPA).

WSPA released a video on Monday that shows reindeer in distress when herded and transported, and while at the slaughterhouse.

“The film that we are showing is particularly shocking now that Christmas is upon us, but it clearly shows the cruel reality that reindeer are exposed to,” Roger Pettersson, secretary general of WSPA Sweden, said in a statement on Monday. Read full story from thelocal.se

Mum’s poltergeist fears
A YOUNG mum is calling in an exorcist amid fears she is sharing her new home with a poltergeist.

Student midwife Holly Taylor and her two-year-old daughter Willow will no longer sleep at the apartment in Pemberton town centre after a terrifying series of events.

And few people the 22-year-old has told are doubting her because many have witnessed ghostly goings-on too. Read full story from wigantoday.net

French library finds Leonardo da Vinci manuscript
A coded manuscript by Leonardo da Vinci has been discovered in a public library in the French city of Nantes.

The document was found after a journalist came across a reference to it in a Leonardo biography, the library said.

It was among 5,000 manuscripts donated by wealthy collector Pierre-Antoine Labouchere in 1872 and then forgotten. Read full story from bbc.co.uk

On 69th Anniversary, Pearl Harbor Survivors Remember
Sixty-nine years ago today, Japan attacked the U.S. forces at Pearl Harbor.

And though fewer of them are still with us, members of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association don’t want to disband, association president Art Herriford tells the Associated Press. Read full story from npr.org

Resident challenges Christian prayers at Chillicothe City Council meetings
CHILLICOTHE –Chillicothe resident Rebekah Valentich formally has requested the Chillicothe City Council stop reciting Christian prayers at the beginning of every regular session.

“Myself and others have found that we are sitting in silence and being forced to participate in religious practices that I/we do not agree with,” Valentich said in her letter she sent council members by e-mail Sunday evening. “I am asking that this practice stop or be replaced with a non-sectarian prayer so as not to promote Christianity over other religions or non-religion.”

In 2008, the Chillicothe City Council conducted brief discussions on the role prayer should play in its meetings after the city of Greenfield received letters from the American Civil Liberties Union asking its council stop prayer at its meetings. Read full story from chillicothegazette.com

Healing thyself: Does psychedelic therapy exploit the placebo effect?
My last post talked about the depressing lack of progress in treatments for depression and other common psychological disorders. Talking cures and antidepressants alike are subject to the “dodo effect,” which decrees that all therapies are roughly as effective—or ineffective—as one another. The dodo effect implies that treatments harness the placebo effect, the patient’s expectation of improvement. Claims that one therapy beats all the others often reflect researchers’ favoritism, called the “allegiance effect”.

After reading the post one of my smart-ass students asked, “What about psychedelic therapies? Are those subject to the dodo and allegiance effects, too?” Good questions. He knew that, although bashing conventional psycho-treatments, I’ve written positively about psychedelics’ therapeutic potential. Does my reporting reflect countercultural allegiance to psychedelics and distrust of clinical psychology, psychiatry and Big Pharma? Maybe a little. But I’ve also pointed out the risks of drugs such as DMT and LSD as well as the role of suggestion in shaping psychedelic trips. Read full story from scientificamerican.com

Volcanic Eruptions May Have Wiped Out Neandertals
A cave in the northern Caucasus Mountains may hold a key to the long-standing mystery of why the Neandertals, our closest relatives, went extinct. For nearly 300,000 years the heavy-browed, barrel-chested Neandertals presided over Eurasia, weathering glacial conditions more severe than any our own kind has ever faced. Then, starting around 40,000 years ago, their numbers began to decline. Shortly after 28,000 years ago, they were gone. Paleo­anthropologists have been debating whether competition with incoming modern humans or the onset of rapidly oscillating climate was to blame for their demise. But new findings suggest that catastrophic volcanic eruptions may have doomed the Neandertals—and paved the way for modern humans to take their place.

Researchers led by Liubov Vit­a­lien­a Golovanova of the ANO Laboratory of Prehistory in Saint Petersburg studied the deposits in Mezmaiskaya cave, located in southwestern Russia. First discovered by archaeologists in 1987, the cave once sheltered Neandertals and, later, modern humans. Analyzing the various stratigraphic layers, the scientists found layers of volcanic ash that, based on the geochemical composition of the ashes, they attribute to eruptions that occurred in the Caucasus region around 40,000 years ago. Because the cave preserves a long record of Neandertal occupation preceding the ash layers but no traces of them afterward, the team surmises that the eruptions devastated the locals. Read full story from scientificamericans.com

My Take: Who owns Jesus? Who owns yoga?
The recent scuffle over Christianity and yoga, initiated by remarks of the head of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary Albert Mohler and picked up in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and here at CNN, has raised a series of questions far broader than whether Christian faith and yoga practice are compatible.

The most intriguing of these questions is: Who owns the stuff of a religion? When my Christian and Jewish friends adopt and adapt yoga postures are they stealing something? Who owns Christmas? Who owns the Buddha? Who owns Jesus? Read full story from cnn.com

WRIGHT WAY: Holiday lights and ho, ho — huh?
When I was a child the most enchanting thing about Christmas was the colorful array of lights that decorated the holiday season. The appeal of a fluffy, jolly old man who lived at the North Pole knowing whether I was bad or good also brought a sense of wonder to my winter wonderland.

Those displays of holiday lights combined with someone coming down the chimney with a bag of toys, however, were not as fascinating as the origin of those Christmas lights and who initially was on the rooftops of primitive little children.

For example, in his book “4,000 Years of Christmas,” Earl W. Count said, “The bright fires, the giving of presents, the merrymaking, the feasting, the processions with their lights and song — all these and more began in Mesopotamia three centuries before Christ was born.” Read full story from clevelandbanner.com

Corals Reefs Will Be Wiped Out By 2050, Expert Says
First the news was that if we don’t change our habits around fishing, all the world’s fisheries will be wiped out by 2050. Now, experts guess that if we don’t significantly change our interaction with the ocean, coral reefs will be all but wiped out by that same time. J.E.N. Veron, former chief scientist of the Australian Institute of Marine Science, writes that human pollution of the water, as well as human-generated carbon dioxide emissions which are causing ocean acidification and rising ocean temperatures are rapidly killing off corals. He notes that without a radical change in our behaviors and priorities, we will be left with a bleak future for the oceans, and consequently, ourselves. Read full story from treehugger.com

News & Submissions 10/6/2010

Wednesday, October 6th, 2010

Shamans and sorcerors booted off Russian TV
Having a sixth sense will no longer be enough to advertise legally – from now on only a license will allow fortune tellers, faith healers, magicians and shamans to practice.

Anyone who wants to use their traditional or occult gifts to promote a business will be forced to get a licence – and it’s up to the media to check out the credentials of their clients. Read full story from mn.ru

Jenice Armstrong: O’Donnell ad irks witches
GRAB YOUR broomsticks and go find yourself a black cat while you’re at it. Because even if you’ve never given a second thought to the notion that Delaware’s Republican Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell was ever a witch, you might now. Read full story from philly.com

Jury to begin deliberating in case of alleged synagogue bomb plot
New York (CNN) — Jury deliberations are expected to begin Wednesday in the trial of one of four men charged with plotting to bomb a synagogue and a Jewish community center. Read full story from cnn.com

Why Sunday morning remains America’s most segregated hour
“Sunday morning is the most segregated hour of Christian America.”

That declaration, which has been attributed to Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., used to startle listeners. Now it’s virtually become a cliché. For years, various academic studies and news articles have reported what many churchgoers already know: most American congregations are segregated. Read full story from cnn.com

Head of religious sect arrested in Siberia
Nikolai Rudnev, 43, who reportedly calls himself “a being from Sirius”, was arrested on rape charges after two former female members of the cult testified against him. Read full story from en.rian.ru

Cherokee chief opens Highland Games in Scotland
The orange flag with yellow stars symbolizing the seven Cherokee clans swayed brightly among swinging kilts and skirling bagpipes at the Highland Games in Nethy Bridge, Scotland. Read full story from indiancountrytoday.com

Court denies Onondaga land rights lawsuit
ALBANY, N.Y. – A federal court has dismissed the Onondaga Nation’s land rights lawsuit in a ruling that follows recent precedent-setting cases depriving other Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy nations of their lands. Read full story from indiancountrytoday.com

My Take: Atheists not so smart after all
The U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey of the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life went viral last week.

According to Luis Lugo, the Pew Forum’s director, over a million people have taken the online quiz associated with the survey, and the Forum “has had unprecedented Web traffic since the survey was launched, nearly crashing its servers on the day of release.” Read full story from cnn.com

Anti-gay church, grieving father square off over free speech, privacy (Source cnn.com)

Cancer patient: I see Jesus in my MRI (Source cnn.com)

Integration on Sunday Morning (Source cnn.com)

News & Submissions 12/12/2009

Saturday, December 12th, 2009

Candle rituals a symbolic form of prayer, a way to ask for change
In Wicca, and other pagan (nature-based) and mystical belief systems, burning candles is one of the simplest forms of magic. Not the “hocus-pocus, pull-a-rabbit-out-of-a-hat” variety of magic, but rather focusing and directing mental energies to manifest a change in the physical world. Read full story from winnipegfreepress.com

“Jesus is the ONLY reason for the season” Billboard
I saw a billboard here in San Diego (on University in Hillcrest), which reads “Jesus is the ONLY reason for the season,” apparantly sponsored by two businessmen. To paraphrase Jeff Dunham’s Achmed the Dead Terrorist: “Don’t say Merry Christmas, it only irritates the other infidels.”. That is a very profound statement. Read full story from sandiegoreader.com

Happy Holidays to you, Jay!
I’d like to know, what’s wrong with saying “Happy Holidays” and “Seasons Greetings” anyway?  Isn’t the Christmas spirit about being welcoming, loving and peaceful to all? Don’t you think when certain Religious Right groups make such a fuss over this every year, claiming there is some sort of “war on Christmas,” that they are the ones breaking that peace? Read full story from beliefnet.com

David Robson: The origins of the yule log
Yule logs are more associated with the Winter Solstice, the longest night of the year. Fires were burned to provide light, ward off evil spirits and provide warmth. Choosing the largest piece of wood lying around meant more heat and more light. Read full story from sj-r.com

University of Washington Professor: Mother Earth Wants to Kill You
If your image of Mother Earth is a loving, peaceful benevolent who wants to see her human offspring grow and prosper (I’m looking at you, Wiccans) you might not want to invite University of Washington paleontologist Peter Ward to your next moon dance. Read full story from seattleweekly.com