By Laura Koran, CNN
Here's the Belief Blog’s morning rundown of the top faith-angle stories from around the United States and around the world. Click the headlines for the full stories.
From the Blog:
CNN: Nuns' group plans bus trip to protest the Ryan budget
American nuns are taking their opposition of the proposed Paul Ryan budget to the American people and embarking on a bus tour through some of America’s most politically important states.
CNN: My last conversation with Ray Bradbury
The voice on the other line was slurred and halting. My childhood hero, I realized, was nearing the end of his life. “Hello, Mr. Bradbury,” I shouted into the phone, so loud that one of my colleagues sitting nearby raised his eyebrows. The call was supposed to be professional. I had called Ray Bradbury’s daughter to tell her that I wanted to write about a different side of her father: What did this science fiction giant think about God and the afterlife?
CNN: Muslims sue over New York police surveillance
New Jersey Muslims filed a lawsuit against the City of New York on Wednesday, accusing police of using unconstitutional tactics to spy on them in the years after September 11, casting an unwarranted shadow of suspicion on the community.
CNN: Vatican reprimand sends American nun's book up bestseller lists
Authors are known to seek out glowing blurbs to help sell books, but they might consider courting a Vatican reprimand instead. After the Vatican’s doctrinal watchdog condemned an American nun for a book she wrote on human sexuality this week, the book shot up Amazon.com’s bestseller list, becoming the #1 best selling religious studies book by Tuesday.
Tweet of the Day:
[tweet https://twitter.com/jeromesoco/status/210460156033634304%5D
Enlightening Reads:
Religion News Service: Sikh TSA agent wins suit over religious wristband
A Sikh security officer at New York’s largest airport won a $30,000 settlement against the Department of Homeland Security, which had forbidden him from displaying his kara – a wristband that Sikhs wear to remind them of the divine. Kulwinder Singh called it a violation of his religious rights, and took his case to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
The Washington Examiner: Montgomery County asked to close schools for Muslim holidays
Montgomery County officials are considering closing schools for two Muslim holidays next school year. At-large County Councilman George Leventhal asked school leaders in a letter to shut down campuses for Eid-ul-Adha and Eid-ul-Fitr, days when Muslim students and residents usually pray, feast and visit with family. Currently, Montgomery County Public Schools system offers excused absences to these students.
CNN: After winning GOP primary, rabbi takes moderate tone
If Rabbi Shmuley Boteach wins a congressional race in New Jersey's 9th district in November he will become the first rabbi to serve in Congress. And while he moved a step closer by winning the district's Republican primary on Tuesday night, Boteach says he is not hung up on being first.
Quote of the Day:
I'm really intrigued by those eternal questions of creation and belief and faith. I don't care who you are, it's what we all think about. It's in the back of all our minds.
Prometheus director Ridley Scott, in an interview with Esquire Magazine, discusses using religious themes in his movies.
Join the conversation…
The Vatican and the American Catholic Church have issued three reprimands of Catholic nuns since last year.
CNN: Vatican intensifying crackdown on American nuns
The Vatican denies there's a connection, but its reprimand of an influential American nun, at a moment when the Holy See is already engaged in an intense fight with most American nuns, sends a clear message: The Catholic Church’s leaders think America’s nuns have gone rogue and must be reined in. The Vatican on Monday censured Sister Margaret A. Farley, who teaches at Yale Divinity School, over a 2006 book she wrote that the church said is out of step with official church teaching on human sexuality.
Prayer changes things.
Prayer changes things
Prayer doesn’t not; you are such a LIAR. You have NO proof it changes anything! A great example of prayer proven not to work is the Christians in jail because prayer didn't work and their children died. For example: Susan Grady, who relied on prayer to heal her son. Nine-year-old Aaron Grady died and Susan Grady was arrested.
An article in the Journal of Pediatrics examined the deaths of 172 children from families who relied upon faith healing from 1975 to 1995. They concluded that four out of five ill children, who died under the care of faith healers or being left to prayer only, would most likely have survived if they had received medical care.
The statistical studies from the nineteenth century and the three CCU studies on prayer are quite consistent with the fact that humanity is wasting a huge amount of time on a procedure that simply doesn’t work. Nonetheless, faith in prayer is so pervasive and deeply rooted, you can be sure believers will continue to devise future studies in a desperate effort to confirm their beliefs!
CASE CLOSED!
nope
Why are people so antiquated in their thinking, or shall I say
Well, I found out where the crazies went for sure.
The understanding of reverence is the graduation of respect.
Fides et Ratio
As if you'd have a clue.
StandupforLies
That is a better name for you.
AndTwerp is a better name for you while we are exchanging pleasantries
For you.
A thought to consider without a typical ego response
Accept Jesus christ as your lord and saviour. You never know how soon is too late. Transcend the worldly illusion of enslavement.
The world denounces truth....
Accepting Jesus Christ (for me) resulted in something like seeng a new colour. You will see it .....but will not be able to clearly explain it to anyone else..... Its meant to be that way to transend any selfism within you.
Also... much the world arranges "surrounding dark matter into something to be debated" in such a way that protects/inflates the ego.
The key is be present and transcend our own desire to physically see evidence. We don't know anyways by defending our own perception of dark matter.
Currently.... most of us are constructing our own path that suits our sin lifestyle. Were all sinners. Knowing that we are is often an issue. But both christians and non are sinners.
We don't like to Let go and let god. We want control to some degree. This is what Jesus asks us to do. "Follow me".
It's the hardest thing to do... but is done by letting the truth of scripture lead you (redemptive revelation)... as I said .
Try reading corinthians and see if it makes sense to you. Try it without a pre conceived notion of it being a fairy tale.
See the truth...
do we do what it says in todays society... is it relevant... so many have not recently read and only hinge their philosophy on what they have heard from som other person...which may have been full of arogance pride or vanity..
Look closely at the economy ponzi, look at how society idolizes Lust , greed , envy, sloth, pride of life, desire for knowledge, desire for power, desire for revencge,gluttony with food etc .
Trancsend the temporal world.
Just think if you can find any truth you can take with you ....in any of these things. When you die your riches go to someone who will spend away your life..... You will be forgotten.... history will repeat iteslf.... the greatest minds knowledge fade or are eventually plagerzed..... your good deeds will be forgotten and only give you a fleeting temporary reward . your learned teachings are forgotten or mutated..... your gold is transfered back to the rullers that rule you through deception. Your grave will grow over . This is truth .
Trancsend your egoism and free yourself from this dominion of satan. Understand you are a sinner and part of the collective problem of this worldly matrix... Repent.... Repent means knowing (to change) The Holy spirit (within) will convict you beyond what you think you can do by yourself. Grace is given to those who renounce the world. That are" in" the world but not "of " the world.
Evidence follows faith. Faith does not follow evidence..... Faith above reason in Jesus Christ.
Faith comes by Reading or Hearing the word of god from the bible . Ask Jesus in faith for dicernment and start reading the new testament... You will be shocked when you lay down your preconceived notions and ....see and hear truth ... see how christ sets an example ... feel the truth....
Read Ecclesiastes. Read corinthians.
You cant trancend your own egoism by adapting a world philosophy to suit your needs. Seek the truth in Christ.
Sell all your cleverness and purchase true bewilderment. You don't get what you want ....you get what you are in christ.
I promise this has been the truth for me. In Jesus christ .
Think of what you really have to lose. ...your ego?
Break the Matrix of illusion that holds your senses captive.
once you do . you too will have the wisdom of God that comes only through the Holy Spirit. Saved By grace through Faith. Just like seeing a new colour.... can't explain it to a transient caught in the matrix of worldly deception.
You will also see how the world suppresses this information and distorts it
You're all smart people . I tell the truth. Its hard to think out of the box when earthly thinking is the box.
I'ts a personal free experience you can do it free anytime . Don't wait till you are about to die.. START PUTTING YOUR TREASURES WHERE THEY REALLY MATTER >
Its awsome and It's just between you and Jesus
my testimony
"A thought to consider without a typical ego response"
Your post reeks of ego so the rest of it is moot. It's because of your ego that you continue to post this crap over and over again. The bible has also been proven not to be an historical document further proving your post is moot. LMAO!
The "human psyche" is translucently arboreal. We see as in our sights' eyes yet we dream without eyesight. Daydreamers are the ones who ascribe our civilization to venture forth into and upon the issues for and of lividness toward living. Ray Bradbury was such a daydreamer and I will miss his perceptions of life. May his psyche go ever on until God gives him a place to live deeply within the microcosm of spatialness where all celestial life goes after death beckons them to return to their atomic roots. God bless Mr Bradbury!
Is God plausibly real? I shall not speak about biblical terminologies and do not need to be reminded about manuscripted religious flaws. God is to me, beyond any mere human mortals' book-knowledge and God is found far away from "digitalized algebraic numeralities"! God creatively evolved us out of and from the very first single-celled creation thru His doing and slowly thru time did creatively evolve us into being what we now today are, which is human beings.
Is not this one Cosmos of which our universe is held in going thru its' own evolution of pre-determinations, yet viewed by most of us as randomized motion? That said then, could there honestly be a Creator of any Cosmological quagmire wherein;- a singular Cosmos is made up of many innumerable clusters of universes being randomly set in semi-intellectual motions each according to their own universally calculative vibrations?
Our universal breech in the vastness of just one universe in a singular Cosmos is said to be 13 or so billions of years old as science so reveals. Are we in this universe of ours living just upon the outermost fringes of a single Cosmos where our universe was born first, or was our universe born last in the creations regarding a simplified Cosmos of multi-universes? Maybe our universe was born in the middle of the grand Cosmos of all celestial universes. Your guess is as good as mine!
Could this universe we find ourselves being in and living upon a planet that is just at the right distances from a star for our inhabited planet to be biospherically sound for the harborage of sanctioned life? Ergo, was God not the designer/creator or author of our planet's creatively evolved life tree of biology eventually culminating with life forms called mankind?
Creations are always evolving. Sometimes slowly and sometimes even slower. Our Cosmos is creatively evolving and morphing itself but we will never know what the Cosmos will become even if we were here trillions of years from now. The rate of our Cosmos creatively evolving is so very slow when compared to our body's creatively comstrained, cellularized morphology from conception to birth and finally to adulthood.
If one's 'God' needs to be jealous, he can't possibly be all-knowing or almight, just another tinhat mirror image of the idiots who dreamed him up,
Genesis 1:27
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
Amen.
HeavenSent just proved the point. Humans are basically crazy, so, we either created a crazy god, or a crazy god created crazy people.
sam, humans aren't crazy, disrespectful, whiny and arrogant, yes. Crazy is a man made excuse to use when you get caught in the court system. Remember. God destroyed the first earth age due to Lucifer wanting to overthrow Him (disrespectful) as he lied to 1/3 of God's angels to go against Him.
Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:
2 Peter 3:6
and the idea of we exist by random without proof is better?
Case closed!
Brothers and Sisters in the Faith,
In light of the saturated toxicity contributed by those whose sense of argument is to mock the Faith, I propose an experiment; to no longer comment on any of the articles in this blog. It bears no fruit and it is entertainment for those who ridicule our beliefs. It would be interesting to see how much they will comment without our contributions.
To quote Dr. King – “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”
Fides et Ratio
Now that's a unique approach. People of faith doing experiments. Maybe there's hope
You realize that MLK said that because silence was a bad thing, right?
@Squirrel-Jesus: folks like this take pretty much everything out of context.
Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.
Matthew 7:6
Amen.
@StandupforTruth
You said, "In light of the saturated toxicity contributed by those whose sense of argument is to mock the Faith"
Mocking the infantile beliefs of believers is an attempt to shake them up. To try to get them to engage their brains. To try to get them to open their eyes. The root of the argument against faith and religion, is that they are entirely baseless. There isn't a rational argument to be made in support of the veracity of faith and religion. There isn't a single shred of convincing evidence to support the notion of gods, let alone the specific one for the various religions.
You said, "I propose an experiment; to no longer comment on any of the articles in this blog. It bears no fruit and it is entertainment for those who ridicule our beliefs."
You are correct tat it is, at times, entertaining. Frustrating too, sometimes.
You said, "It would be interesting to see how much they will comment without our contributions."
Go if you must. Believers are a dime a dozen. There will probably not be a shortage of posts by believers any time soon.
You said, "To quote Dr. King – “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”"
King was encouraging people to speak up, and not to remain silent. The fact that you completely missed that is very entertaining.
You said, "Fides et Ratio"
Faith and reason are incompatible. Just because the pope saw the writing on the wall, and realized that the church was wrong every time they were at odds with science, doesn't mean he gets to co-opt reason and that faith is required for it. The first requirement to be a believer is to check rational thought at the door.
Kindness
For you.
A thought to consider without a typical ego response
Accept Jesus christ as your lord and saviour. You never know how soon is too late. Transcend the worldly illusion of enslavement.
The world denounces truth....
Accepting Jesus Christ (for me) resulted in something like seeng a new colour. You will see it .....but will not be able to clearly explain it to anyone else..... Its meant to be that way to transend any selfism within you.
Also... much the world arranges "surrounding dark matter into something to be debated" in such a way that protects/inflates the ego.
The key is be present and transcend our own desire to physically see evidence. We don't know anyways by defending our own perception of dark matter.
Currently.... most of us are constructing our own path that suits our sin lifestyle. Were all sinners. Knowing that we are is often an issue. But both christians and non are sinners.
We don't like to Let go and let god. We want control to some degree. This is what Jesus asks us to do. "Let go and let god".
It's the hardest thing to do... but is done by letting the truth of scripture lead you (redemptive revelation)... as I said .
Try reading corinthians and see if it makes sense to you. Try it without a pre conceived notion of it being a fairy tale.
See the truth...
do we do what it says in todays society... is it relevant... so many have not recently read and only hinge their philosophy on what they have heard from som other person...which may have been full of arogance pride or vanity..
Look closely at the economy ponzi, look at how society idolizes Lust , greed , envy, sloth, pride of life, desire for knowledge, desire for power, desire for revencge,gluttony with food etc .
Trancsend the temporal world.
Just think if you can find any truth you can take with you ....in any of these things. When you die your riches go to someone who will spend away your life..... You will be forgotten.... history will repeat iteslf.... the greatest minds knowledge fade or are eventually plagerzed..... your good deeds will be forgotten and only give you a fleeting temporary reward . your learned teachings are forgotten or mutated..... your gold is transfered back to the rullers that rule you through deception. Your grave will grow over . This is truth .
Trancsend your egoism and free yourself from this dominion of satan. Understand you are a sinner and part of the collective problem of this worldly matrix... Repent.... Repent means knowing
Evidence follows faith. Faith does not follow evidence..... Faith above reason in Jesus Christ.
Faith comes by Reading or Hearing the word of god from the bible . Ask Jesus in faith for dicernment and start reading the new testament... You will be shocked when you lay down your preconceived notions and ....see and hear truth ... see how christ sets an example ... feel the truth....
Read Ecclesiastes. Read corinthians.
You cant trancend your own egoism by adapting a world philosophy to suit your needs. Seek the truth in Christ.
Sell all your cleverness and purchase true bewilderment. You don't get what you want ....you get what you are in christ.
I promise this has been the truth for me. In Jesus christ .
Think of what you really have to lose. ...your ego?
Break the Matrix of illusion that holds your senses captive.
once you do . you too will have the wisdom of God that comes only through the Holy Spirit. Saved By grace through Faith. Just like seeing a new colour.... can't explain it to a transient caught in the matrix of worldly deception.
You will also see how the world suppresses this information and distorts it
You're all smart people . I tell the truth. Its hard to think out of the box when earthly thinking is the box.
I'ts a personal free experience you can do it free anytime . Don't wait till you are about to die.. START PUTTING YOUR TREASURES WHERE THEY REALLY MATTER >
Its awsome and It's just between you and Jesus
'Kindness'. what a big load of crap you just posted. Religious faith is what people have when they aren't smart enough or brave enough to handle the evidence and draw the obvious conclusions from it: there's no god.
If your god was so "loving", he wouldn't have loaded his holy book with such horrible instructions to murder and worse, and he wouldn't be letting millions of innocent people and children worldwide die horrid deaths from e.g. cancers and starvation and natural disasters.
Grow some courage and get past your sickening religious delusions already.
Ask the questions. Break the chains. Join the movement. Be free of Christianity and other superstitions.
http://whywontgodhealamputees.com/
And I will punish the world for [their] evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.
Isaiah 13:11
Amen.
God’s law is a mirror. It shows us that we can’t meet his standard of good without Jesus.
Wait, I thought I needed Mohammad?
Marty,
Are these three religions; Judaism, Christianity, and Islam worshiping the same God?
Adam 4000 bc
Noah-flood 2300 bc
Abraham 2000-1800 bc
Ishmael-Ishmaelites
Issac-Israelites
Moses-Judaism 1400-1300 bc
First 5 books of the Bible collated 500 bc
Jesus-Christianity 30 ad
Muhammed-Islam-Quran 600 ad
Robert Brown, that's some awful "standard" from your god, when your holy book includes awful demands from your god like these. Take a look at these loving chestnuts, and the many others like them in the bible:
Numbers 31:17-18
17 Now kiII all the boys. And kiII every woman who has slept with a man,
18 but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man.
Deuteronomy 13:6 – “If your brother, your mother’s son or your son or daughter, or the wife you cherish, or your friend who is as your own soul entice you secretly, saying, let us go and serve other gods … you shall surely kill him; your hand shall be first against him to put him to death”
Note that the bible is also very clear that you should sacrifice and burn an animal today because the smell makes sicko Christian sky fairy happy. No, you don't get to use the parts for food. You burn them, a complete waste of the poor animal.
Yes, the bible really says that, everyone. Yes, it's in Leviticus, look it up. Yes, Jesus purportedly said that the OT commands still apply. No exceptions. But even if you think the OT was god's mistaken first go around, you have to ask why a perfect, loving enti-ty would ever put such horrid instructions in there. If you think rationally at all, that is.
And then, if you disagree with my interpretation, ask yourself how it is that your "god" couldn't come up with a better way to communicate than a book that is so readily subject to so many interpretations and to being taken "out of context", and has so many mistakes in it. Pretty pathetic god that you've made for yourself.
So get out your sacrificial knife or your nasty sky creature will torture you eternally. Or just take a closer look at your foolish supersti-tions, understand that they are just silly, and toss them into the dustbin with all the rest of the gods that man has created.
Ask the questions. Break the chains. Join the movement. Be free of Christianity and other superstitions.
http://whywontgodhealamputees.com/
Bob,
You are confused and are spreading confusion. Your references are more about the wrath and judgment of God than his law. You are focusing on the punishment or consequences of sin which is death.
Thank God, through faith in Jesus we do not have to get what we deserve. Instead of death, we get an abundant spirit filled life now and eternal life when the flesh returns to the dust.
Robert is suffering a case of I-D-10-T syndrome...off his rocker completely. If he values this life so poorly, he should make his way to the nearest bridge and join the next life now...retarded people such as him are not worthy of life on this planet.
Gods law does not exist. It shows you that you are weak minded if you believe that bullsh•t.
...,
Unworthy, yes, I will agree. The rest of your post is just denial and unbelief in the very one who gave all life on this planet.
No God, if you are ever so blessed as to actually know God, your thoughts will change.
@ Bobby Brown... take a real history class.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlnnWbkMlbg
Robert Brown, the poster children of bad behavior are irked at His scriptures describing them in detail. Oh, the irony.
HeavenSent & Robert Brown,
What makes you think that the Bible is the words of a god?
OTOH, you'd be able to answer this truth for yourself, if you stopped being lazy and read the letter He wrote to all of us (the Bible).
Bob, no matter how many times I tell you Jesus' truth, you spin His truth around to continue with your lies so you can hold on to your sinful ways.
Tune in Bob, for the record, the NT enhances the OT to explain Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior's life and death ... what He did for all mankind.
The mistake is looking back at you when glaring into a mirror.
HeavenSent,
You are quite presumptuous, aren't you?
I read that book for nearly 50 years. It is the words and stories of a bunch of Hebrew tribesmen.
CNN is full of anti-God writers that need to be fired. We need good, Christian columnists that can finally write about the truth of the Word instead of bashing it and promoting gay marriage. Most of your articles have been horrible and biased anti-Religion for months and this need to stop. STOP PROMOTING GAY MARRIAGE!
And this is why you steal Mark's name? Because you are a rabid anti-gay fundiot? Seriously? LOL
Romans 1:24-28
Marriage is a sacrament, a covenant between humanity and God that promises to keep life going. One man, One woman.
It's none of those things; it's simply a contract to gain insurance, tax, and other benefits. A $100 million ceremony is just as valid as a shotgun wedding in Vegas. Kindly pull your head from your a[b][/b]ss and let other people live in relative peace.
you may not respect the sacrament of marriage but that doesn't mean it does not exist. Do people err? yes we are human, imperfect.
It's not just me that doesn't see marriage as a sacrament. A marriage isn't official until the certificate is signed. The wedding doesn't need to be at a church, and if I can spend $50 and become an ordained minister to conduct a wedding, any and all holiness goes out the window.
You want marriage to be a sacrament? Find a good Christian girl/boy and book the most expensive church in the city. Focus on your family, not mine.
names are dumb, you do realize that you won't be spending eternity with Jesus if you don't repent, ask Him that you get closer to Him, and of course, sin no more.
From your posts it doesn't look like you are choosing wisely.
names are dumb
Then you do not understand the concept of marriage and so long as you think this way you will never see the fulfillment of marriage. You think or feel it is a legal matter. I know it is a sacrament.
Which is greater the exchange of goods or the exchange of lives?
I will give you a clue, legal contracts deal with the exchange of goods.
"STOP PROMOTING GAY MARRIAGE!"
Gay marriage is about civil rights a right gays deserve. They have shown that being gay is NOT a choice, it"s NOT a mental illness and it can't be voluntarily changed. The courts around the country keep ruling the defense of marriage act is NOT constitutional. The American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Counseling Association, the American Psychiatric Association, the American Psychological Association, the American School Counselor Association, the National Association of School Psychologists, and the National Association of SocialWorkers, together representing more than 480,000 mental health professionals, have all taken the position that homosexuality is not a mental disorder and thus is not something that needs to or can be “cured."