Clipmarks | Religion Clips

Release warns of persecution threat against British Muslim converts

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 03:07:11 GMT

clipped by: Smoke TNT
clipper's remarks: "Converts from a Muslim background may be traumatised, having faced intense pressure, threats, blackmail and the loss of their families and homes. They often have to cope with either secrecy or intimidation, and may need emotional and spiritual counselling.

Clip Source: www.christiantoday.com

July 7

A growing number of Christians in Britain from a Muslim background are facing harassment and persecution, warns Release International.

They include ‘Yasmin’, whose ex-husband planned to kill her. She’s been attacked in the street, driven from her home and was taken under police protection.

A campaign was set up against me; people would come and bang on the door every ten minutes during the night."

The police set up a panic alarm but finally told Yasmin they could no longer protect her and moved her into a women’s refuge.

Yasmin relocated to another part of the country, but her ex-husband tracked her down and demanded custody of their children as he objected to them being brought up by a Christian.

Her son yielded to pressure and went to live with his dad.

"as his dad told him that he had arranged for someone to kill me and was pressing my son for details of the layout of our home - where the alarm was and where I slept."

Tags: muslims, islam, threat, religion, persecution, islamofascism

Mark Twain -- Free Ebooks And Resource Links

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 02:10:43 GMT

clipped by: victorlamp1
clipper's remarks: The entire collection of Mark Twain books and a list of related external links on Mark Twain can be found here:
http://bookyards.blogspot.com/2008/07/mark-twain-ebooks-and-resource-links.html

Clip Source: bookyards.blogspot.com

Bookyards collection of Mark Twain Ebooks is here.

Works by Mark Twain – Project Gutenberg

Mark Twain Biography And Works – Literature Network

Mark Twain Biography And Works -- MTwain

Complete Letters of Mark Twain by Mark Twain – Project Gutenberg

Essays By Mark Twain -- Quotidiana

Mark Twain's Speeches by Mark Twain – Project Gutenberg

Audiobooks Of Mark Twain’s Writings – Librivox

Works by Mark Twain – Classic Authors

The Complete Literary Works Of Mark Twain – Classic Literature

Mark Twain’s Works – The Free Library

Punch, Brothers, Punch – Old Style American Humor

The Awful German Language – Cross My T

Mark Twain On Scientific Research – Animal Rights History

The War Prayer by Mark Twain

Mark Twain on Religion – Sacred Texts

Getting To Be Mark Twain by Jeffrey Steinbrink – Gigapedia (free registration required)

The Cambridge Introduction to Mark Twain (Cambridge Introductions to Literature)

by Peter Messent –Gigapedia (free registration required)

Tags: a connecticut yankee in king arthur's court, american literature, ebooks, huckleberry finn, mark twain, mark twain biography, tom sawyer

Hell Pizza

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 00:28:21 GMT

clipped by: spikechan42
clipper's remarks: It was too funny not to clip

Clip Source: ateistet.org

Tags: religion, satire

Fewer Belgians attending Mass

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 12:21:36 GMT

clipped by: Djiezes
clipper's remarks: 7% attend church weekly (11% a decade ago)
57% new born children are baptised (65% a decade ago)
26.5% opt for a church wedding (49% a decade ago)
61% for church funeral (76% a decade ago)

The full press release (27 pages) is available in Dutch or French

Clip Source: www.deredactie.be

Fewer Belgians attending Mass

Tue 08/07/08 12:36 - A study carried out by the Leuven University Centre for Political Science on behalf of the Belgian Conference of Bishops has revealed a big fall in the number of Belgians attending Mass on a regular basis.

According to the study just 7% of us go to Mass every week.

This is down from 11% a decade ago.

The figures also show that just under 57% of new born children were baptised in Catholic churches in 2006.

This is down from 65% in 1998.

However, the most dramatic fall was in the number of church weddings.

Almost half (49%) of couples opted for a church wedding in 1998.

By 2006 this had fallen to just over a quarter (26.5%).

The number of church funerals is also down from 76% in 1998 to 61% in 2006.

Flanders being the most Catholic region and Greater Brussels having the lowest percentage of practicing Catholics.

However, the multi-cultural mix that is Greater Brussels means that many people practice other forms of religion that Catholicism.

Tags: religion, belgium, church, stats, study, numbers, statistics

Teen summonsed for calling Scientology a cult

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 01:18:26 GMT

clipped by: pokkets
clipper's remarks: 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)

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

A teenager is facing prosecution for using the word "cult" to describe the Church of Scientology.

The unnamed 15-year-old was served the summons by City of London police when he took part in a peaceful demonstration opposite the London headquarters of the controversial religion.

Officers confiscated a placard with the word "cult" on it from the youth, who is under 18, and a case file has been sent to the Crown Prosecution Service.

The incident happened during a protest against the Church of Scientology on May 10. Demonstrators from the anti-Scientology group, Anonymous, who were outside the church's £23m headquarters

were banned by police from describing Scientology as a cult by police because it was "abusive and insulting".

"Following advice from the Crown Prosecution Service some demonstrators were warned verbally and in writing that their signs breached section five of the Public Order Act.

A CPS spokesman said no specific advice was given to police regarding the boy's placard.

President Bush Edits Thomas Jefferson

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 23:14:36 GMT

clipped by: dulios
clipper's remarks: Christianity neither is, nor ever was a part of the common law.
-Thomas Jefferson, letter to Dr. Thomas Cooper, February 10, 1814

Clip Source: scienceblogs.com

Bush Edits Out Jefferson's Religious Views

President Bush was at Monticello for a 4th of July celebration and he delivered an address. But it's quite telling that his speechwriters, in quoting Jefferson, cut out an anti-religious statement from a long and famous quote. Here's the way Bush put it:

"May it be to the world, what I believe it will be -- to some parts sooner, to others later, but finally to all -- the Signal of arousing men to burst the chains, and to assume the blessings and security of self-government."

Now let's look at the full quote

May it be to the world, what I believe it will be, (to some parts sooner, to others later, but finally to all,) the signal of arousing men to burst the chains under which monkish ignorance and superstition had persuaded them to bind themselves, and to assume the blessings and security of self-government.

Tags: bush, jefferson, independence day, religion

religi-humor

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 19:39:54 GMT

clipped by: DresdenKurosaki

Clip Source: www.edkrebs.com

"Have you taken Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior? No? Then you're probably not in politics."
-- Lewis Black

"If Jesus had been killed 20 years ago, Catholic school children would be wearing little Electric Chairs around their necks instead of crosses"
-- Lenny Bruce

"Religion is excellent stuff for keeping common people quiet."
-- Napoleon Bonaparte

"God made me an atheist. Who are you to question his wisdom?"

Tags: religion, humor, funny, religious

God to visit on July 17

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 17:53:14 GMT

clipped by: AtlLiberal
clipper's remarks: Oh boy! Only a few days to go and the world will be infused with this "Grace Light" that will infuse everyone with a spiritual glow and change everyone's life.

If that doesn't work out, please contact me directly and I'll send you my special "Grace Light Enhancement Kit" for $19.99 which will enable you to be ready for the next Full Moon of hte Guru. It also doubles as a swell red/green 3D viewer.

Clip Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

[Video]

Tags: religion, huckster, india, grace, guru

Obama website the latest thing that offends Muslims

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 08:14:37 GMT

clipped by: Charlie Martel 732AD

Clip Source: jihadwatch.org

Obama website the latest thing that offends Muslims

As I noted here, Obama has been going to some lengths to make sure nobody thinks he's a Muslim. Nor has he been making any particular effort to add, "Not that there's anything wrong with that." This is an example of Obama's canny political calculation and tacit awareness that people are suspicious of the violent and supremacist elements of Islam, but the Perpetually Angry are angry again, and soon he may have to issue an unequivocal Islam Is A Religion Of Peace declaration.

"Obama website riles Muslims," by Beth Reinhard for the Miami Herald, July 6 (thanks to Twostellas):

Vanessa Alikhan was at a Democratic ''unity party'' when she overheard another guest indignantly refute the rumor that Barack Obama is Muslim, as if it was a racial slur. She later recounted the conversation to a friend.

A racial slur? A slur, sure -- his website denying it is called Fight The Smears. But a racial slur? What race is Islam again?

Tags: islam, obama, muslim

Jefferson's Cut and Paste Bible

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 02:00:35 GMT

clipped by: ramsesemerson
clipper's remarks: Really fascinating...and Plato IS boring.

Clip Source: www.latimes.com

"Say nothing of my religion," Jefferson once said. "It is known to myself and my God alone. Its evidence before the world is to be sought in my life; if that has been honest and dutiful to society, the religion which has regulated it cannot be a bad one."

Making good on a promise to a friend to summarize his views on Christianity, Thomas Jefferson set to work with scissors, snipping out every miracle and inconsistency he could find in the New Testament Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

"Can you imagine the reaction if word got out that a president of the United States cut out Bible passages with scissors, glued them onto paper and said, 'I only believe these parts?' "

Stripping miracles from the story of Jesus was among the ambitious projects of a man with a famously restless mind. At 71, he read Plato's "Republic" in the original Greek and found it lackluster.

Tags: jefferson, founding fathers, american history, history, bible, deism

Tablet ignites debate on messiah and resurrection

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 22:46:05 GMT

clipped by: invictus
clipper's remarks:

"This should shake our basic view of Christianity," he [Israel Knohl] said as he sat in his office of the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem where he is a senior fellow in addition to being the Yehezkel Kaufman Professor of Biblical Studies at Hebrew University. "Resurrection after three days becomes a motif developed before Jesus, which runs contrary to nearly all scholarship. What happens in the New Testament was adopted by Jesus and his followers based on an earlier messiah story."

Clip Source: www.iht.com

JERUSALEM: A three-foot-tall tablet with 87 lines of Hebrew that scholars believe dates from the decades just before the birth of Jesus is causing a quiet stir in biblical and archaeological circles, especially because it may speak of a messiah who will rise from the dead after three days.

If such a messianic description really is there, it will contribute to a developing re-evaluation of both popular and scholarly views of Jesus, since it suggests that the story of his death and resurrection was not unique but part of a recognized Jewish tradition at the time.

The tablet, probably found near the Dead Sea in Jordan according to some scholars who have studied it, is a rare example of a stone with ink writings from that era — in essence, a Dead Sea Scroll on stone.

Tags: religion, christianity, messiah, israel, judaism, resurrection, dead sea scrolls

Belief System Selector

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 21:22:04 GMT

clipped by: overunity
clipper's remarks: According to the results of the survey, i should be Adventist. - Well... I am.

Clip Source: www.selectsmart.com

BELIEF SYSTEM SELECTOR RESULTS

Seventh Day Adventist (100%)

Orthodox Quaker (97%)

Mainline - Conservative Christian Protestant (86%)

Eastern Orthodox (80%)

Roman Catholic (80%)

Hinduism (56%)

Mainline - Liberal Christian Protestants (51%)

Jainism (49%)

Jehovah's Witness (44%)

Orthodox Judaism (43%)

Islam (41%)

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (38%)

Bahai (37%)

Liberal Quakers (36%)

Theravada Buddhism (35%)

Mahayana Buddhism (35%)

Unitarian Universalism (27%)

Sikhism (24%)

New Age (21%)

Neo-Pagan (20%)

Taoism (19%)

Non-theist (18%)

Secular Humanism (18%)

Reform Judaism (16%)

Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (15%)

New Thought (14%)

Scientology (13%)

Tags: adventist, god, belief, religion

New Sam Harris :)

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 19:57:27 GMT

clipped by: Antara
clipper's remarks: Sam writes about the recent "belief" surverys he conducted....

Clip Source: newsweek.washingtonpost.com

According to a recent Pew survey, 21 percent of atheists in the United States believe in “God or a universal spirit,” and 8 percent are “absolutely certain” that such a Being exists. One wonders if they were also “absolutely certain” they understood the meaning of the term “atheist.” Claiming to be an atheist who believes in God is like claiming to be a happily married bachelor. Rarely does one discover nonsense in such a pristine state. Still this hasn’t stopped many people from concluding that there is a schism in the atheist community.

Tags: sam harris, atheism, religion, belief, conclusions

An Example of Incredible Mistrust

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 18:42:06 GMT

clipped by: seaj11
clipper's remarks: Just because creationists need to misrepresent to get people to accept their opinion, doesn't mean scientists need to. When will they get that science is not a religion?

Clip Source: pandasthumb.org

Prof. Lenski claims that these bacteria 'evolved' novel traits and that these were preceded by the evolution of 'potentiated genotypes', from which the traits could be 'reevolved' using preserved colonies from those generations.

'potentiated' by the Creator when He designed the bacteria thousands of years ago

The only way this can be settled is if we have access to the genetic sequences of the bacteria colonies so that we can apply CSI techniques and determine if these 'potentiated genotypes' originated through blind chance or intelligence. But with the physical specimens in the hands of Darwinists, who claim they will get around to the sequencing at some unspecifed future time, how can we trust that this data will be forthcoming and forthright?

samples of the preserved E. coli colonies so that the data can be accessible to unbiased researchers outside of the hegemony of the Darwinian academia

This is simply about keeping tax-payer-funded scientists honest

Tags: evolution, creationism, science, ignorance

Continental Philosophy

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 17:20:32 GMT

clipped by: Socratoad

Clip Source: www.continental-philosophy.org

Clipmarks | Religion Clips

Release warns of persecution threat against British Muslim converts

Mark Twain -- Free Ebooks And Resource Links

Hell Pizza

Fewer Belgians attending Mass

Tue 08/07/08 12:36 - A study carried out by the Leuven University Centre for Political Science on behalf of the Belgian Conference of Bishops has revealed a big fall in the number of Belgians attending Mass on a regular basis.

Teen summonsed for calling Scientology a cult

President Bush Edits Thomas Jefferson

Bush Edits Out Jefferson's Religious Views

religi-humor

God to visit on July 17

Obama website the latest thing that offends Muslims

Obama website the latest thing that offends Muslims

Jefferson's Cut and Paste Bible

Tablet ignites debate on messiah and resurrection

Belief System Selector

New Sam Harris :)

An Example of Incredible Mistrust

Continental Philosophy

Continental Philosophy

A Bulletin Board for Continental Philosophy, History of Philosophy and More…

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