By Arielle Hawkins, 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: Girl held on Pakistan blasphemy charge
An 11-year-old Christian girl has been arrested and detained on charges of blasphemy for allegedly desecrating pages from the Quran in the Pakistan capital Islamabad. According to a statement released by the President's office on Sunday, the girl, identified as Ramsha, was accused by a local resident of burning pages of the Muslim holy text after she gathered paper as fuel for cooking. Local media reports said the girl has Down syndrome.
Tweet of the Day:
Belief on TV:
Enlightening Reads:
BBC: Austria Freedom Party condemned for Nazi-like cartoon
A far-right Austrian politician has caused anger after posting a cartoon on Facebook, likened to anti-Semitic Nazi propaganda. Heinz-Christian Strache posted a caricature of a banker with a hooked nose, wearing Star of David cufflinks. Austrian Jewish leader Oskar Deutsch likened it to images used by the Nazis in the 1930s. Mr Strache, who leads the Freedom Party, has denied he was being anti-Semitic.
Live Science: Americans Increasingly Super-Sizing Their Churches
More and more Americans are spending their Sundays at megachurches, enormous churches with congregations numbering in the thousands. Despite the size of these churches, members don't get lost in the crowd, new research finds. In fact, a new study of 12 representative megachurches spread across the country finds that the size of these churches is a major part of their appeal. Members report that the experience of worshiping with thousands is intoxicating, the researchers find.
Religion News Service: Mormon women seeking middle ground to greater equality
For some Mormon feminists, there can be only one goal on the road to gender equality: ordination to the all-male priesthood. At the same time, lots of Mormon women are perfectly comfortable with the roles they believe God assigned to them, including motherhood and nurturing. They would not want, they say, to “hold the priesthood.” Yet another group of women, while not pushing for ordination, crave a more engaged and visible role for women in the Mormon church. Many of them agree that no meeting should take place in which decisions about women are made without a woman being present.
The Van Couver Sun: United Church urges boycott of Israeli settlement-made goods
Canada's largest Protestant denomination has approved a boycott of products made or linked to Israeli settlements built on occupied Palestinian territory. The United Church of Canada's decision is intended to signal to the Israeli government that it considers Israel's continued occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem illegal, and to contribute to a long-term Middle East peace.
Baptist Press: Via Twitter, pastors connect with church, others
With social media sites like Twitter, pastors can easily connect with their church members or fellow preachers just by typing out a message and hitting "send." But navigating the constant stream of Twitter and other social networks from the standpoint of a pastor can be challenging since those websites are targeted toward more casual content. However, many pastors throughout the country are using Twitter as a tool to encourage and further teach the Gospel.
Quote of the Day:
The excitement that usually precedes Ramadan was missing this year and I had no motivation to fast…This Ramadan I woke up expecting nothing more than an update of the death toll in Syria.
Adeshina 'Tunde, from Nigeria, contributor to the Huffington Post blog series Ramadan 2012: A HuffPost Community Observation Of The Islamic Month Of Fasting.
Join the conversation…
CNN: My Take: How evangelicals could grow to love Muslims
Eboo Patel, founder and president of Interfaith Youth Core, and author of Sacred Ground: Pluralism, Prejudice and the Promise of America, discusses why “the dynamic of evangelicals cheering for Catholics is one of the most stunning shifts in American political history” and how a similar relationship could be built between evangelicals and Muslims.
Prayer really changes things
Not true actually. It's really best for all people including children to have an agnostic approach to god, and an atheistic approach to all religion. Teaching kids to be agnostic helps reinforce their understanding of the new real things they can see and learn about in life. It helps them properly separate the known from the unknown without confusing them. They just need to be taught things that are unknown, like god, and things that are made up, like all religion.
Atheists have strong minds, and don't run and hide their misdeeds within their religion (and by doing so, disserving society).
Prayer is really just a time-sucker-upper. The best time to think about someone who is ill or just someone else you wish well is – well any time you can think about them or actually do something for them with your strong mind. So don't weaken your mind by adding in make-believe characters.
We have only begun to scratch the surface in using the mind to its maximum, and damaging it with made-up junk that politicians and salesmen dreamed up long ago is senseless, and as history has shown, is dangerous to society.
old mama kindless
Prayer does 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 .
B"H
PLEASE CLICK BELOW TO READ ARTICLE
http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=282090
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Barack Obama vs the People of Israel
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=947by3X6_RU&w=640&h=360]
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LET MY PEOPLE GO – FREE JONATHAN POLLARD NOW
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IB"H
IT IS TIME FOR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE TO MAKE THEIR DECISION ON THIS SPEECH
WAKE UP AMERICAN PEOPLE, TIME TO STOP SLEEPING
CLICK ON LINK FOR VIDEO BELOWl
Barack Obama vs the People of Israel
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=947by3X6_RU&w=640&h=360]
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You're one step behind in getting your own blog... do that wouldn't you and just fvck off.
“If every trace of any single religion were wiped out and nothing were passed on, it would never be created exactly that way again. There might be some other nonsense in its place, but not that exact nonsense. If all of science were wiped out, it would still be true and someone would find a way to figure it all out again.”
― Penn Jillette
Praise Jesus for the intelligence He bestowed unto man (meaning women too).
@HS. Why not praise the tooth fairy – equally worthy
HeavenSent, do at least feed some of your cats.
This is for the atheists.
Revelation 13:4-9
HeavenSent said: "This is for the atheists. . . . Revelation 13:4-9"
Child, most sensible people suspect there were a lot of characters from the bible who were smoking a lot of weed, but my goodness – revelation? why mention that? everyone knows the person who wrote that must have crashed their camel in a field of burning poppies or something like that to dream up that nonsense. my goodness the things that some fools believe in.
kindless, I could care less what your atheists sites babble. Grow up and admit your bad behavior. Once you acknowledge the problem, then you can work at getting rid of it. Until then, the rest of us have to babysit you.
HeavenSent said: "kindless, I could care less what your atheists sites babble. Grow up and admit your bad behavior."
Mama kindless is probably a lot older than HeavenSent. But your the one, dear who is babbling like one of the mindless sheep that has gone into the wrong pasture and started eating the poisonous grass. You're the one who posts nonsense in the middle of discussions that have little to do with your misinformed proclamations. My goodness – poor child really needs to get some help for that little mind of hers that is just spinning in circles. Mama kindless has been around the block and few times – HeavenSent, 'truth be told', 'Atheism is not . .' not the first looney tune she's encountered.
kindless, you atheists constantly dish it out, then when the taste of your own medicine is not to your liking, you complain. Don't act innocent kindless, you have posted your venom many times under the phony heavensent posts loving as you mocked. Now, the pretense of maturity, yet, never to obtain wisdom.
@HeavenSent
As usual, you have nothing of actual value to add to any conversation. All you ever do is show your lack of humanity, so please continue.
kindless,
Not sure how long you have been reading here, but here are a few tidbits that we have on @HeavenSent:
- "retired", so unless you are over 70, you are not much older
- the butt of several phony posts (the ones you see with the random diapers, excreta, cats, etc., are not HS's)
- a delusional zealot
- not very intelligent
HeavenSent said: "kindless, you atheists constantly dish it out, then when the taste of your own medicine is not to your liking, you complain. Don't act innocent kindless, you have posted your venom many times under the phony heavensent posts loving as you mocked. Now, the pretense of maturity, yet, never to obtain wisdom."
Hmm, let's see here – mama kindless may be venomous. True. Sometimes you have to use a stick with dumb sheep. And mama kindless is definitely not innocent of many things. True also. But I'm not acting innocent. And I do not post as a phony heavensent – that is just a lie. Child, why would I need to post as someone else? I guess that's for someone who is not comfortable with what they want to say. Mama kindless has a strong atheist mind that has no need but to say what is on her mind when people spout silly stuff here in these comments. My goodness.
FYI, I retired before the age of 35. There goes your theory.
Reading is not your strong point kindless. I never accused you of posting using my handle. I said that you've posted to the phony heavensent's babble and loved your mocking at those posts.
hawaiiguest, I do believe you are referring to yourself.
Retired from what at 35? Housewiving? Isn't that biblically all you can do?
"hawaiiguest, I do believe you are referring to yourself."
Really? That's what you come back with? What are you 10?
Gotta love Revelation quotes.
The day I see a locust with the face of a man, the hair of a woman, the face of a lion and the tail of a scorpion wearing a tiny crown and armour, I'll drop to my knees and repent before the 7 headed dragon that spews torrents of water and eats pregnant women comes to get me.
Until such time, I'll treat it the same way as I do Beowulf – entertaining, but far from proving the existence of Grendels.
Oh sorry! the locust has the MOUTH of a lion, not the face of one.
I mean c'mon – the face of a lion on a grasshopper? That's just unbelievably absurd.
Face of a man, hair of a woman, MOUTH of a lion – that's perfectly legit.
HeavenSent said: "I never accused you of posting using my handle. I said that you've posted to the phony heavensent's babble . ."
Now let's see, dear – here is what you first said: "you have posted your venom many times under the phony heavensent posts . ."
That's still a lie, that's what that is. I have not posted anything to, under, over or by anything related to your silly names. My goodness – full of lies and just squirming around trying to justify those crazy lies.
Bible crap from HeavenSent .. that's really what everyone expects anyways. BS day in and day out.
HeavenSent
"FYI, I retired before the age of 35. There goes your theory."
Ah, then you have been intentionally duplicitous in implying your wisdom as an elder. PFFFT!
kindless, you can't post over the phony heavensent's post. Therefore, you can only post under it. As in replied to.
Next week we'll start with the alphabet.
FYI, that's easy when dealing with perpetual 5 year olds.
hawaiiguest, how many times do I have to write NOYB?
@HeavenSent
Then why didn't you use "reply to" in the first place? Oh that's right, "post under" can mean multiple things, so you use it, play a semantic game, then equivocate it to reply to at the end to make it look like you won something. Surprisingly well planned out for a religious zealot. Unfortunately, your still a dishonest, sociopathic, pile of shit.
Doc Vestibule, let me help you with scriptures, again. Being pregnant in those scriptures means to be involved with a phony religion or in your case none at all.
hawaiiguest, temper, temper. Now you want to critique what I post? It sure is a slow day for you folks.
Answer, what are you complaining about? If it weren't for the Christians posting on this site, you'd have to chat with each other. That's a slow death.
HS: At least if it was just Atheists posting the entire conversation would be based on reality and thus intelligent.
@HeavenSent
Considering you have not posted anything of worth in your entire time here, I don't think you're in a position to talk about a slow day.
TruthPrevails
Nonsense, if there is a God then God would again send out the truth. Your assumption, as a godless women , is that there is no absolute truth so that truth can be whatever.
As to science your assumption is also not valid as without God (real or imagined)you have no proof of what civilization would like. Don’t forget Jesus waited to arrive until the proper time when a centralized government provided stability and global commerce. Without God (real or imagined) you may have but a bunch of godless tribes like the kind God washed away with the flood (real or imagine that).
HeavenSent said "I said that you've posted to the phony . ."
after saying "you have posted your venom many times under the phony . ."
And now you're going to defined what under means? And avoid your lies? Lol. Oh my goodness this child is like a fruitcake that went bad long ago.
mama kindless said: "defined " which should be "define" of course. I do try to be clear in what I am saying, unlike, hmm, some others that do cartwheels around their own words to avoid being caught in a lie.
HeavenSent
FYI, I retired before the age of 35. There goes your theory.
-
Disability from a head injury does not qualify.
HS, if your God exists, He can see the hate in your heart. Have fun at your Great White Throne judgement, where you even have to account for what you've said on message boards. 😉
I'm leaving for dinner ... now, for more truth from our Father before I bid you good night.
They conceive mischief, and bring forth vanity, and their belly prepareth deceit.
Job 15:35
Amen.
HeavenSent
I'm leaving for dinner ... now, for more truth from our Father before I bid you good night.
They conceive mischief, and bring forth vanity, and their belly prepareth deceit.
Job 15:35
Amen.
-–
that head injury is more severe than I thought
Mystical Pizza, you stoners wouldn't even know you have a head. Never mind, how to use it. That's if the weed didn't eat all your brain cells. The only head you care about is the size of the buds. LOL.
Tom Tom
I have often wondered how the Racial Holy War so many on the right might unfold.
Frankly, if the R/R team gets elected, we may finally find out.
For me politics is a spectator sport, I don't vote and frankly don't really care for our political class, because I have always felt it all works out in the wash.
This time it feels different. With the level of rhetoric, and the ongoing financial crisis’s, I believe for the first time in my half century, that with a sudden strong stimulus (like another market crash or war with Iran) social unrest seems not only possible, but likely.
As The Revolution Will not Be Televised says, that Racial Holy War wouldn't be a spectator sport. If you feel it would be prudent to prepare for social unrest I'll go along with that. It does feel different these days. Sharper divisions than before.
"Crises" is the plural of "crisis".
"For some Mormon feminists, there can be only one goal on the road to gender equality: ordination to the all-male priesthood."
Romney/Ryan is a two-headed beast joined by the common idea that women are subordinate to men before God.
Sounds like a Revolution is going to happen if those two get elected.
ok now I have that Beatles song "Revolution" in my head and I can't shake it... thanks a lot!!!! lol 🙂
I was thinking of The Revolution Will Not Be Televised – an old poem. It ends "The revolution will be live."
" The Revolution Will Not Be Televised " is a song by Gil-Scott Heron, and available on YouTube.
Mirosal: Whatever it takes my friend. Enjoy this day or is it your night (??).
Maybe they'll make us all take Soma, like in "Brave New World"? lol But, the sheep are already overdosed on the religion drug anyway, so it won't be that much of a stretch now would it?
M'lady, my weekend starts in about 45 minutes. Once I clock out, it's "Friday" for me, and Friday will be my "Monday".
Mirosal: Then I guess I'll catch you on FB later.
And it shall come to pass afterward, [that] I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions:
Joel 2:28
Amen.
If no dates, the prophesies are junk.
Karl, these scriptures are just some for the atheists Revelation 13:4-9
Just admit it Karl, you haven't a clue how to read scriptures, never mind, comprehend them.
@HS. Please explain how to interpret scriptures especially the part where one determines the foretold date. Please explain how that is different from, say, reading Tarot cards.
Veritas,
Mark 13:30-32
30 Verily I say unto you, that this generation shall not pass, till all these things be done.
31 Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away.
32 But of that day and [that] hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.
Amen.
And verily every religion is plain bs.
Hs: You old bat!!! You and everyone else that shares your imaginary friends (god, jesus, satan, adam, eve) interpret the buybull in their own way. Our interpretation is based on reality, yours is based on brainwashing by the sadistic people you called Mommy and Daddy (aka sister and Gramps).
"31 Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away."
.
Actually they will...without the bible....Chrsitianity would have been dead a long time ago. God needs the bible to continue to exist.
Prayer changes things
NO, it doesn't. People have been praying for you to stop your idiotic "broken record" postings, but to no avail. Therefore, prayer doesn't work. –proven– (to use one of YOUR quotes)
Mirosal: Someone needs to pull the plug on this one!
Atheism is not... looks like a permanent feature. Ignore it and walk around?
@ Tom Tom ... a permanent feature... sounds man-made to me .. and like General George S. Patton, Jr. once said, "Anything built by man can be destroyed (or overcome) by man."
Tom Tom: You're right...sadly no amount of factual evidence will get through to some people. They'll never see outside the box.
No, they'll never see outside their book, no box lol
Atheism is fine for all folk. Keeps them out of trouble since they have to be responsible for their own actions. History has shown us that religious folk often hide their misdeeds within their religions, which is lying to society. And prayer is way overrated. Take out all those make-believe characters that people pray to, and add in a good cup of tea, and then, well, it's no longer prayer, but it's just what mama kindless ordered to calm and strengthen your mind.
Pray for some imagination
"The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much."
James 5:16
Amen.
How are your 72 cats today, HeavenSent? Or is it 84 now?
HEY, HEY, HEYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY A L B E R T.
LOL.
Prayer does 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!
Prayer changes things
Proven
You're a proven liar. Prayer does 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!