The ultimate goal of Judaism is rule of the world by Satan, and to literally unleash hell upon the earth. 

Are you aware that Martin Luther wrote a treatise called "On the Jews and Their Lies", warning Christians in the most serious terms of the destructive influence of the jews, and advocating their banishment from European society? Luther was very knowledgeable of the religion, nature, origins, and influence of the Jews - having actually read the Talmud and written large parts of the Bible. Luther describes the Jews as an accursed, malicious, greedy, cunning, treacherous, thieving, and greatly evil people, who are descended from the very people who murdered the Messiah, who deeply hate Christianity and God's people, and are working in every possible way to undermine and destroy Western Christian civilization. Among other things, Luther rubbishes the Talmud, including its vicious hatred of Jesus and Christians, as well as relishing the many times Jews have been expelled from European nations.
ellauri067.html on line 241: Harold Bloom was an American literary critic and the Sterling Professor of Humanities at Yale University. Since the publication of his first book in 1959, Bloom has written more than forty books of literary criticism, several books discussing religion, and one novel. He edited hundreds of anthologies.
ellauri069.html on line 111: He also believed that one of the things deadening our responses was mass culture. “I believe that’s the place artists are trying to get to, and I further believe that when they are successful, they reach it... an area somewhere probably between mathematics and religion, in which what may fairly be called truth exists.” He was an enemy of television. He was a serious jazz buff. It took him a while to become interested in rock. Daugherty is right. He was a postmodernist in the first sense.
ellauri072.html on line 206: What has gone mainly unnoticed in the various discussions of the problem is something that has puzzled me for some time. Why does Dante treat the homosexual Florentines in Inf. 16 with greater respect than any other infernal figures except those in Limbo? I do not have an answer to that question, but would like to bring it forward. Let me begin with Purg. 26. We have probably not been surprised enough at Dante's insistence that roughly half of those who sinned in lust, repented, and were saved (and are now on their way to that salvation) were homosexual. It would have been easy for him to have left the homosexuals out of Purgatory, and it is hard to imagine an early (or a later) commentator who would have objected to the omission, especially since, in Hell, homosexuality is treated, not as a sin of the flesh, but as one of violence against nature. However, for a unique instance of a commentator who is aware of Dante's unusual gesture see Trifon Gabriele on Inf. 15.46: "Non e' dubbio che 'l Poeta vuol applaudere a questo vitio quanto egli puo'. Puopa hyvinkin. Ecco, gli fa parlare di belle cose e gli fa tutti grand'uomini nelle lettere e nell'arme e nella religione, e finalmente non e' peccato ne l'Inferno o Purgatorio che egli men danni con le parole sue che questo; anzi lo polisce quanto puo' con suoi versi".
ellauri074.html on line 451: Russian President Vladimir Putin, in an interview with the Israeli Channel 1, condemned antisemitism and stated that Judaism was one of the "traditional religions" of Russia.
ellauri074.html on line 656: A Tale of a Tub. Written for the Universal Improvement of Mankind. was the first major work written by Jonathan Swift, arguably his most difficult satire and perhaps his most masterly. William Wotton wrote that the Tale had made a game of "God and Religion, Truth and Moral Honesty, Learning and Industry" to show "at the bottom Jonathan´s contemptible Opinion of every Thing which is called Christianity." The work continued to be regarded as an attack on religion well into the nineteenth century. The overarching parody is of enthusiasm, pride, and credulity. It was widely misunderstood, especially by Queen Anne herself who purposely mistook its purpose for profanity. It effectively disbarred its author from proper preferment in the Church of England, but is considered one of Swift´s best allegories, even by himself.
ellauri080.html on line 799: Gandhi’s family was also closely connected to Jainism, a religion which made non-violence a key element.
ellauri080.html on line 801: During his life, Gandhi studied all the major religions – the Bible, The Qu’ran, The Buddhist scriptures and of course the major Indian classics, such as the Bhagavad Gita. In London he also studied Theosophy.
ellauri080.html on line 802: Gandhi said of religion.
ellauri080.html on line 803: “After long study and experience I have come to the conclusion that (1) all religions are true; (2) all religions have some error in them; (3) all religions are almost as dear to me as my own Hinduism.” He could not tell a lie, but did not shirk from contradiction.
ellauri082.html on line 354: Also lässt sich Troeltschs Aufsatz globalgeschichtlich in die Reihe von Reaktionen einordnen, mit denen Vertreter der Weltreligionen Buddhismus, (protestantisches) Christentum, Hinduismus und Islam ab Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts auf die Herausforderungen des naturwissenschaftlichen Materialismus und der allgemeinen Religionsgeschichte antworten, zumeist indem Religion allgemein über Kriterien der Innerlichkeit und Universalität definiert und die eigene Tradition im Gegenüber zu anderen als vollständige Erfüllung dieser Kriterien dargestellt wird.
ellauri082.html on line 499: The fundamental conceptions of psychology are practically very clear to us, but theoretically they are very confused, meaning how can we fit in soul and god and all that good old mind numbing religion.
ellauri082.html on line 504: In a general theory of evolution the inorganic comes first, then the lowest forms of animal and vegetable life, then forms of life that possess mentality, and finally those like ourselves that possess it in a high degree. (As you can see I am not one of your nature religions types but an honest to god homo sapiens chauvinist.)
ellauri082.html on line 509: John Tyndall FRS (/ˈtɪndəl/; 2 August 1820 – 4 December 1893) was an Irish physicist. He first noticed the greenhouse effect but went on mountaineering happily in the melting glaciers. He was a member of a club that vocally supported Charles Darwin's theory of evolution and sought to strengthen the barrier, or separation, between religion and science. The most prominent member of this club was the anatomist Thomas Henry Huxley. Others included the social philosopher Herbert Spencer.
ellauri089.html on line 77: Heinlein used his science fiction to earn money and as a way to explore his provocative social and political ideas, and to speculate how progress in science and engineering might shape the future of politics, race, religion, and sex. Within the framework of his science-fiction stories, Heinlein repeatedly addressed certain social themes: the importance of being earnest, individual liberty and self-reliance, the nature of incestual sexual relationships, the obligation individuals owe to their societies, the influence of organized religion on culture and government, and the tendency of society to repress nonconformist thought. He also speculated on the influence of space travel on human cultural practices.
ellauri089.html on line 198: The story examines religion through the eyes of Alex, a Christian political activist who is corrupted by Margrethe, a Danish Norse cruise ship hostess and loves every minute of it. Enduring a shipwreck, an earthquake, and a series of world-changes brought about by Loki (with Jehovah's permission), Alex and Marga work their way from Mexico back to Kansas as dishwasher and waitress.
ellauri089.html on line 212: History does not record anywhere at any time a religion that has any rational basis. Religion is a crutch for people not strong enough to stand up to the unknown without help. But like dandruff, most people do have a religion and spend money on it and seem to derive considerable pleasure from fiddling with it.
ellauri093.html on line 363: Efter sigende var Karl bedre som gymnastik- end som religionslærer, men allerede nu var han en begejstrende foredragsholder.
ellauri093.html on line 449: In this respect all religions are only one religion. Tästä seuraa että kaikki uskonnot on oikeasti ihan 1 ja sama.
ellauri094.html on line 233: This period saw the last high point of biblical prophecy in the person of Ezekiel, followed by the emergence of the central role of the Torah in Jewish life. According to many historical-critical scholars, the Torah was redacted during this time, and began to be regarded as the authoritative text for Jews. This period saw their transformation into an ethno-religious group who could survive without a central Temple. Israeli philosopher and Biblical scholar Yehezkel Kaufmann said “The exile is the watershed. With the exile, the religion of Israel comes to an end and Judaism begins.”
ellauri094.html on line 760: Almost all atheists believe in Marxism and have a thought process that is so uniform as to appear like a mass produced. Prayer is what human beings do. Homo Orate (or was it Anate? oh well), man who prays, prays 24/7, 365.25. But man of all creatures, is born and lives completely unaware of nature (as taught by religion). Jesus, Son of God, gave us the Lord’s Prayer, which is a short, convenient prayer, easier to mass produce than a Ford. But in order to benefit from prayer, the man must pursue excellence in prayer.
ellauri094.html on line 809: The bible is a fallible human’s interpretation of God/history/etc. Christians who claim it to be infallible seem to crave something in religion that doesn’t exist in mainstream Christianity: authority. Seems to me, they lack something or someone authoritative like the Catholic Pope or the Mormon Prophet who claims to be God’s spokesman. Since mainstream Christianity lacks an authoritative claim, they nonsensically claim “the word of God” to be their powerful lightning rod.
ellauri095.html on line 123: Hopkins became a skilled draughtsman. He found his early training in visual art supported his later work as a poet. His siblings were much inspired by language, religion and the creative arts. Milicent (1849–1946) joined an Anglican sisterhood in 1878. Kate (1856–1933) would help Hopkins publish the first edition of his poetry. Hopkins's youngest sister Grace (1857–1945) set many of his poems to music. Lionel (1854–1952) became a world-famous expert on archaic and colloquial Chinese. Arthur (1848–1930) and Everard (1860–1928) were highly successful artists. Cyril (1846–1932) would join his father's insurance firm.
ellauri095.html on line 135: A short fellow of 5’2 or 3”, he was enthusiastic, had a high-pitched voice, loved to sketch and write poems, was close to his family, and had warm, lifelong friends from Oxford, fellow Jesuits, and Irish families. For recreation he visited art exhibitions and old churches, and enjoyed holidays with his family, friends, and fellow Jesuits in Switzerland, Holland, the Isle of Wight, the Isle of Man, Whitby on the North Sea, Wales, Scotland, and the West of Ireland. During these holidays, he loved to hike and swim. His passions were nature (especially trees), ecology, beauty, poetry, art, his family and friends, his country, his religion, and his God. His curse was a lifelong “melancholy” (his word) which in 1885 in Dublin became deep depression and a sense of lost contact with God.
ellauri095.html on line 209: The typical Hopkins drawing is what Ruskin called the “outline drawing”; as Ruskin put it, “without any wash of colour, such an outline is the most valuable of all means for obtaining such memoranda of any scene as may explain to another person, or record for yourself, what is most important in its features.” Many such practical purposes for drawing were advanced by Ruskin, but his ultimate purpose was to unite science, art, and religion.
ellauri095.html on line 240: In September 1868 Hopkins began his Jesuit novitiate at Manresa House, Roehampton, under the guidance of Alfred Weld. Two years later he moved to St Mary´s Hall, Stonyhurst, for philosophical studies, taking vows of poverty, chastity and obedience on 8 September 1870. He felt that his interest in poetry had stopped him devoting himself wholly to religion. However, on reading Duns Scotus in 1872, he saw how the two need not conflict.
ellauri095.html on line 528: Hopkins eventually began to be critical of mere love of detail, however––“that kind of thought which runs upon the concrete and the particular, which disintegrates and drops toward atomism in some shape or other,” he wrote in his journal––and he became increasingly aware of the importance of religion as the ultimate source of unity.
ellauri097.html on line 65: As a scholar, Mencken is known for The American Language, a multi-volume study of how the English language is spoken in the United States. As an admirer of the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, he was an outspoken opponent of organized religion, theism, populism, and representative democracy, the last of which he viewed as a system in which inferior men dominated their superiors. Mencken was a supporter of scientific progress though he couldn´t find his arse with both hands. He was critical of osteopathy and chiropractic. He was also an open critic of economics. In a word: a royal pain in the ass.
ellauri097.html on line 271: La plupart des livres de ce catholique pratiquant s'intéressent aux problèmes de la foi et de la religion ainsi qu'à l'hypocrisie qui leur est liée.
ellauri100.html on line 303: My intelligence was recognized at an early age, but its use was not much stimulated by my parents or the K-12 schools I attended. Only when I went to college was I “stretched”, and then the stretching came mostly at my initiative (unassigned reading and long, solitary sessions working through academic theories). The stretching — which was episodic during my working career — continues to this day, in the form of blogging on subjects that require research, careful analysis, and self-criticism of what I have produced. Self-criticism is central to my personality (see next) and leaves me open to new ideas (see next after that). Like religion. Next I am thinking of becoming a Trotskyist.
ellauri100.html on line 493: We are interested in measuring happiness on this site because many studies have found that religious people are happier than non-believers, and some have found that politcally conservative people are slightly happier than are political liberals, even after controlling statistically for religiosity. A recent Gallup survey found that religiosity was associated with better mental health for Republicans, but it didn’t make a difference for Democrats. We want to investigate these complex relationships among happiness, morality, religion, and ideology.
ellauri101.html on line 42: Joseph John Campbell (March 26, 1904 – October 30, 1987) was an American professor of literature at Sarah Lawrence College who worked in comparative mythology and comparative religion. His work covers many aspects of the human experience. Campbell's best-known work is his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949), in which he discusses his theory of the journey of the archetypal hero shared by world mythologies, termed the monomyth.
ellauri101.html on line 69: Campbell began identifying the patterns of this monomyth. Over and over again, he was amazed to find this structure in the cultures he studied. He saw the same sequence in many religions including the stories of Gautama Buddha, Moses, and Jesus Christ.
ellauri101.html on line 616: During the early to mid-2010s, more babies were born to Christian mothers than to those of any other religion in the world, reflecting the fact that Christianity remained the most popular religion in existence. However, it was the Muslims who had a faster rate of growth. About 33% of the world´s babies were born to Christians who made up 31% of the global population between 2010 and 2015, compared to 31% to Muslims, whose share of the human population was 24%. During the same period, the religiously unaffiliated (including atheists and agnostics) made up 16% of the population but gave birth to only 10% of the world´s children.
ellauri102.html on line 108: After almost a century of moving upward, David has eventually gone down. Yankelovich is survived by his daughter, Nicole Mordecai, and her husband David; granddaughter Rachel Mordecai; sister Libby Schenkman and her children Fay and Max. In 1959, he married Hassmieg Kaboolian; that marriage ended in divorce. She was Armenian. He later married Mary Komarnicki, now deceased, and then Barbara Lee. More recently, he lived in La Jolla with his companion, Laura Nathanson. Laura got nothing, being just a companion. Neither did Kaboolian nor Komarnicki, nor Barbara Lee, for being utter failures, having wrong opinions, or wrong religion.
ellauri106.html on line 392: "I'm exactly the opposite of religious, I'm anti-religious. I find religious people hideous. I hate the religious lies. It's all a big lie. … I have such a huge dislike. It's not a neurotic thing, but the miserable record of religion. I don't even want to talk about it, it's not interesting to talk about the sheep referred to as believers."
ellauri106.html on line 403: Religion was a lie that he had recognized early in life, and he found all religions offensive, considered their superstitious folderol meaningless, childish, couldn´t stand the complete unadultness — the baby talk and the righteousness and the sheep, the avid believers. No hocus-pocus about death and God or obsolete fantasies of heaven for him. There was only our bodies, born to live and die on terms decided by the bodies that had lived and died before us. If he could be said to have located a philosophical niche for himself that was it - he'd come upon it early and intuitively, and however elemental, that was the whole of it. Should he ever write an autobiography, he'd call it The Life and Death of a Male Body.
ellauri106.html on line 413: Religion may have given most of these bloodthirsty episodes a badge. It frequently provided a cohesive force, just as human ideas about nationhood and race still do - but it was hardly ever the underlying cause. Admittedly, while organised religion has frequently sanctioned and even blessed such conflicts, giving them some sense of purpose, it has rarely initiated them.
ellauri106.html on line 421: And this, too, is surely true of religion. In prehistoric times, Homo sapiens was deeply endangered. Early humans were less fleet of foot, with fewer natural weapons and less well-honed senses than all the predators that threatened them. Moreover, they were hampered in their movements by the need to protect their uniquely immature young - juicy meals for any hungry beast. We had less natural protection against repeated changes of climate than other species - yet we survived. Human spirituality would have played an important part.
ellauri106.html on line 432: She researches contemporary American literature, religion, 9/11, and rhetoric and composition.
ellauri106.html on line 434: Roth’s works have no Talmud, no Jewish philosophy, no mysticism, no religion, and as a self-professed atheist, Roth has consistently opted against reinforcing the tenets of Judaism as an author such as eg Cynthia Ozick does (whodat?). Roth writes out of hatred more often than not, and his work is open to the charge of anti-Semitism.
ellauri107.html on line 106: In 1963, Mailer wrote two regular columns: one on religion called "Responses and Reactions" for Commentary and one called "Big Bite" for Esquire. Mailer also divorced from his third wife Jeanne Campbell and met Beverly Bentley who would become his fourth wife. Bentley had known Hemingway in Spain and briefly dated Miles Davis in New York before she met Mailer. Bentley and Mailer took a long car trip, notably visited an army buddy "Fig" Gwaltney in Arkansas, viewed an autopsy of a cancer victim, watched the Sonny Liston and Floyd Patterson fight in Las Vegas, and spent time with the Beats in San Francisco. While in San Francisco, Mailer "walked narrow ledges, testing his nerve and balance".
ellauri107.html on line 169: Nathaniel Hawthorne (July 4, 1804 – May 19, 1864) was an American novelist, dark romantic, and short story writer. His works often focus on history, morality, and religion.
ellauri107.html on line 422: George F. Babbitt was an archetype of the American city dwellers who touted the virtues of Republicanism, Presbyterianism, and absolute conformity because "it is not what he feels and aspires that moves him primarily; it is what the folks about him will think of him. His politics is communal politics, mob politics, herd politics; his religion is a public rite wholly without subjective significance." Mencken said that Babbitt was the literary embodiment of everything wrong with American society.
ellauri108.html on line 112: There is no uniform Rasta view on race. Black supremacy was a theme early in the movement, with the belief in the existence of a distinctly black African race that is superior to other racial groups. While some still hold this belief, non-black Rastas are now widely accepted in the movement. Rastafari's history has opened the religion to accusations of racism. Cashmore noted that there was an "implicit potential" for racism in Rasta beliefs but he also noted that racism was not "intrinsic" to the religion. Some Rastas have acknowledged that there is racism in the movement, primarily against Europeans and Asians. Some Rasta sects reject the notion that a white European can ever be a legitimate Rasta. Other Rasta sects believe that an "African" identity is not inherently linked to black skin but rather is about whether an individual displays an African "attitude" or "spirit".
ellauri108.html on line 127: Rastas do not believe that there is a specific afterlife to which individuals go following bodily death. They believe in the possibility of eternal life, and that only those who shun righteousness will actually die. The scholar of religion Leonard E. Barrett observed some Jamaican Rastas who believed that those practitioners who did die had not been faithful to Jah. He suggested that this attitude stemmed from the large numbers of young people that were then members of the movement, and who had thus seen only few Rastas die. Another Rasta view is that those who are righteous will undergo reincarnation, with an individual's identity remaining throughout each of their incarnations. In keeping with their views on death, Rastas eschew celebrating physical death and often avoid funerals, also repudiating the practice of ancestor veneration that is common among traditional African religions.
ellauri108.html on line 133: Some Rastas have promoted activism as a means of achieving socio-political reform, while others believe in awaiting change that will be brought about through divine intervention in human affairs. In Jamaica, Rastas typically do not vote, derogatorily dismissing politics as "politricks", and rarely involve themselves in political parties or unions. The Rasta tendency to believe that socio-political change is inevitable opens the religion up to the criticism from the political left that it encourages adherents to do little or nothing to alter the status quo. Other Rastas do engage in political activism; the Ghanaian Rasta singer-songwriter Rocky Dawuni for instance was involved in campaigns promoting democratic elections, while in Grenada, many Rastas joined the People's Revolutionary Government formed in 1979.
ellauri108.html on line 135: Rastafari promotes what it regards as the restoration of black manhood, believing that men in the African diaspora have been emasculated by Babylon. It espouses patriarchal principles, including the idea that women should submit to male leadership. External observers—including scholars such as Cashmore and Edmonds—have claimed that Rastafari accords women an inferior position to men. Rastafari women usually accept this subordinate position and regard it as their duty to obey their men; the academic Maureen Rowe suggested that women were willing to join the religion despite its restrictions because they valued the life of structure and discipline it provided. Rasta discourse often presents women as morally weak and susceptible to deception by evil, and claims that they are impure while menstruating. Rastas legitimise these gender roles by citing Biblical passages, particularly those in the Book of Leviticus and in the writings of Paul the Apostle. The Rasta Shop is a store selling items associated with Rastafari in the U.S. state of Oregon.
ellauri108.html on line 139: As it existed in Jamaica, Rastafari did not promote monogamy. Rasta men are permitted multiple female sex partners, while women are expected to reserve their sexual activity for one male partner. Marriage is not usually formalised through legal ceremonies but is a common-law affair, although many Rastas are legally married. Rasta men refer to their female partners as "queens", or "empresses", while the males in these relationships are known as "kingmen". Rastafari places great importance on family life and the raising of children, with reproduction being encouraged. The religion emphasises the place of men in child-rearing, associating this with the recovery of African manhood. Women often work, sometimes while the man raises the children at home. Rastafari typically rejects feminism, although since the 1970s growing numbers of Rasta women have called for greater gender equity in the movement. The scholar Terisa E. Turner for instance encountered Kenyan feminists who were appropriating Rastafari content to suit their political agenda. Some Rasta women have challenged gender norms by wearing their hair uncovered in public and donning trousers.
ellauri108.html on line 147: One of the central activities at groundings is "reasoning". This is a discussion among assembled Rastas about the religion's principles and their relevance to current events. These discussions are supposed to be non-combative, although attendees can point out the fallacies in any arguments presented. Those assembled inform each other about the revelations that they have received through meditation and dream. Each contributor is supposed to push the boundaries of understanding until the entire group has gained greater insight into the topic under discussion. In meeting together with like-minded individuals, reasoning helps Rastas to reassure one another of the correctness of their beliefs. Rastafari meetings are opened and closed with prayers. These involve supplication of God, the supplication for the hungry, sick, and infants, and calls for the destruction of the Rastas' enemies, and then close with statements of adoration.
ellauri108.html on line 152: Nyabinghi Issemblies typically take place in rural areas, being situated in the open air or in temporary structures—known as "temples" or "tabernacles"—specifically constructed for the purpose. Any elder seeking to sponsor a Nyabinghi Issembly must have approval from other elders and requires the adequate resources to organise such an event. The assembly usually lasts between three and seven days. During the daytime, attendees engage in food preparation, ganja smoking, and reasoning, while at night they focus on drumming and dancing around bonfires. Nyabinghi Issemblies often attract Rastas from a wide area, including from different countries. They establish and maintain a sense of solidarity among the Rasta community and cultivate a feeling of collective belonging. Unlike in many other religions, rites of passage play no role in Rastafari; on death, various Rastas have been given Christian funerals by their relatives, as there are no established Rasta funeral rites.
ellauri108.html on line 160: There are various options that might explain how cannabis smoking came to be part of Rastafari. By the 8th century, Arab traders had introduced cannabis to Central and Southern Africa. In the 19th century, enslaved Bakongo people arrived in Jamaica, where they established the religion of Kumina. In Kumina, cannabis was smoked during religious ceremonies in the belief that it facilitated possession by ancestral spirits. The religion was largely practiced in south-east Jamaica's Saint Thomas Parish, where a prominent early Rasta, Leonard Howell, lived while he was developing many of Rastafari's beliefs and practices; it may have been through Kumina that cannabis became part of Rastafari. A second possible source was the use of cannabis in Hindu rituals. Hindu migrants arrived in Jamaica as indentured servants from British India between 1834 and 1917, and brought cannabis with them. A Jamaican Hindu priest, Laloo, was one of Howell's spiritual advisors, and may have influenced his adoption of ganja. The adoption of cannabis may also have been influenced by the widespread medicinal and recreational use of cannabis among Afro-Jamaicans in the early 20th century. Early Rastafarians may have taken an element of Jamaican culture which they associated with their peasant past and the rejection of capitalism and sanctified it by according it Biblical correlates.
ellauri108.html on line 170: 1968 saw the development of reggae in Jamaica, a musical style typified by slower, heavier rhythms than ska and the increased use of Jamaican Patois. Like calypso, reggae was a medium for social commentary, although it demonstrated a wider use of radical political and Rasta themes than were previously present in Jamaican popular music. Reggae artists incorporated Rasta ritual rhythms, and also adopted Rasta chants, language, motifs, and social critiques. Songs like The Wailers' "African Herbsman" and Peter Tosh's "Legalize It" referenced cannabis use, while tracks like The Melodians' "Rivers of Babylon" and Junior Byles' "Beat Down Babylon" referenced Rasta beliefs in Babylon. Reggae gained widespread international popularity during the mid-1970s, coming to be viewed by black people in many different countries as music of the oppressed. Many Rastas grew critical of reggae, believing that it had commercialised their religion. Although reggae contains much Rastafari symbolism, and the two are widely associated, the connection is often exaggerated by non-Rastas. Most Rastas do not listen to reggae music, and reggae has also been utilised by other religious groups, such as Protestant Evangelicals. Out of reggae came dub music; dub artists often employ Rastafari terminology, even when not Rastas themselves.
ellauri108.html on line 175: Rastas make wide use of the pronoun "I". This denotes the Rasta view that the self is divine, and reminds each Rasta that they are not a slave and have value, worth, and dignity as a human being. For instance, Rastas use "I" in place of "me", "I and I" in place of "we", "I-ceive" in place of "receive", "I-sire" in place of "desire", "I-rate" in place of "create", and "I-men" in place of "Amen". Rastas refer to this process as "InI Consciousness" or "Isciousness". Rastas typically refer to Haile Selassie as "Haile Selassie I", thus indicating their belief in his divinity. Rastas also typically believe that the phonetics of a word should be linked to its meaning. For instance, Rastas often use the word "downpression" in place of "oppression" because oppression bears down on people rather than lifting them up, with "up" being phonetically akin to "opp-". Similarly, they often favour "livicate" over "dedicate" because "ded-" is phonetically akin to the word "dead". In the early decades of the religion's development, Rastas often said "Peace and Love" as a greeting, although the use of this declined as Rastafari matured.
ellauri108.html on line 177: Rastas often make use of the colours red, black, green, and gold. Red, gold, and green were used in the Ethiopian flag, while, prior to the development of Rastafari, the Jamaican black nationalist activist Marcus Garvey had used red, green, and black as the colours for the Pan-African flag representing his United Negro Improvement Association. According to Garvey, the red symbolised the blood of martyrs, the black symbolised the skin of Africans, and the green represented the vegetation of the land, an interpretation endorsed by some Rastas. The colour gold is often included alongside Garvey's three colours; it has been adopted from the Jamaican flag, and is often interpreted as symbolising the minerals and raw materials which constitute Africa's wealth. Rastas often paint these colours onto their buildings, vehicles, kiosks, and other items, or display them on their clothing, helping to distinguish Rastas from non-Rastas and allowing adherents to recognise their co-religionists. As well as being used by Rastas, the colour set has also been adopted by Pan-Africanists more broadly, who use it to display their identification with Afrocentricity; for this reason it was adopted on the flags of many post-independence African states. Rastas often accompany the use of these three or four colours with the image of the Lion of Judah, also adopted from the Ethiopian flag and symbolizing Haile Selassie.
ellauri108.html on line 189: Rastas differ on whether they regard dreadlocks as compulsory for practicing the religion. Some Rastas do not wear their hair in dreadlocks; within the religion they are often termed "cleanface" Rastas, with those wearing dreadlocked hair often called "locksmen". Some Rastas have also joined the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, the Christian organisation to which Haile Selassie belonged, and these individuals are forbidden from putting their hair in dreadlocks by the Church. In reference to Rasta hairstyles, Rastas often refer to non-Rastas as "baldheads", or "combsome", while those who are new to Rastafari and who have only just started to grow their hair into dreads are termed "nubbies". Members of the Bobo Ashanti sect of Rastas conceal their dreadlocks within turbans, while some Rastas tuck their dreads under a rastacap or tam headdress, usually coloured green, red, black, and yellow. Dreadlocks and Rastafari-inspired clothing have also been worn for aesthetic reasons by non-Rastas. For instance, many reggae musicians who do not adhere to the Rastafari religion wear their hair in dreads. A Rasta man wearing a rastacap has been sighted in Jamaica.
ellauri108.html on line 201: Marcus Garvey, a prominent black nationalist theorist who heavily influenced Rastafari and is regarded as a prophet by many Rastas. The Jamaican activist Marcus Garvey, spent much of his adult life in the US and Britain. Garvey supported the idea of global racial separatism and called for part of the African diaspora to relocate to Africa. His ideas faced opposition from civil rights activists like W. E. B. Du Bois who supported racial integration, and as a mass movement, Garveyism declined in the Great Depression of the 1930s. A rumour later spread that in 1916, Garvey had called on his supporters to "look to Africa" for the crowning of a black king; this quote was never verified. However, in August 1930, Garvey's play, Coronation of an African King, was performed in Kingston. Its plot revolved around the crowning of the fictional Prince Cudjoe of Sudan, although it anticipated the crowning of Haile Selassie later that year. Rastas hold Garvey in great esteem, with many regarding him as a prophet. Garvey knew of Rastafari, but took a largely negative view of the religion; he also became a critic of Haile Selassie, calling him "a great coward" who rules a "country where black men are chained and flogged".
ellauri108.html on line 216: In the 1940s and 1950s, a more militant brand of Rastafari emerged. The vanguard of this was the House of Youth Black Faith, a group whose members were largely based in West Kingston. Backlash against the Rastas grew after a practitioner of the religion allegedly killed a woman in 1957. In March 1958, the first Rastafarian Universal Convention was held in the settlement of Back-o-Wall, Kingston. Following the event, militant Rastas unsuccessfully tried to capture the city in the name of Haile Selassie. Later that year they tried again in Spanish Town. The increasing militancy of some Rastas resulted in growing alarm about the religion in Jamaica. According to Cashmore, the Rastas became "folk devils" in Jamaican society. In 1959, the self-declared prophet and founder of the African Reform Church, Claudius Henry, sold thousands of tickets to Afro-Jamaicans, including many Rastas, for passage on a ship that he claimed would take them to Africa. The ship never arrived and Henry was charged with fraud. In 1960 he was sentenced to six years imprisonment for conspiring to overthrow the government. Henry's son was accused of being part of a paramilitary cell and executed, confirming public fears about Rasta violence. One of the most prominent clashes between Rastas and law enforcement was the Coral Gardens incident of 1963, in which an initial skirmish between police and Rastas resulted in several deaths and led to a larger roundup of practitioners. Clamping down on the Rasta movement, in 1964 the island's government implemented tougher laws surrounding cannabis use.
ellauri108.html on line 218: At the invitation of Jamaica's government, Haile Selassie visited the island for the first time on 21 April 1966, with thousands of Rastas assembled in the crowd waiting to meet him at the airport. The event was the high point of their discipleship for many of the religion's members. Over the course of the 1960s, Jamaica's Rasta community underwent a process of routinisation, with the late 1960s witnessing the launch of the first official Rastafarian newspaper, the Rastafarian Movement Association's Rasta Voice. The decade also saw Rastafari develop in increasingly complex ways, as it did when some Rastas began to reinterpret the idea that salvation required a physical return to Africa, instead interpreting salvation as coming through a process of mental decolonisation that embraced African approaches to life.
ellauri108.html on line 222: In the mid-1970s, reggae's international popularity exploded. The most successful reggae artist was Bob Marley, who—according to Cashmore—"more than any other individual, was responsible for introducing Rastafarian themes, concepts and demands to a truly universal audience". Reggae's popularity led to a growth in "pseudo-Rastafarians", individuals who listened to reggae and wore Rasta clothing but did not share its belief system. Many Rastas were angered by this, believing it commercialised their religion.
ellauri108.html on line 233: Rastafari is not a homogeneous movement and has no single administrative structure, nor any single leader. A majority of Rastas avoid centralised and hierarchical structures because they do not want to replicate the structures of Babylon and because their religion's ultra-individualistic ethos places emphasis on inner divinity. The structure of most Rastafari groups is less like that of Christian denominations and is instead akin to the cellular structure of other African diasporic traditions like Haitian Vodou, Cuban Santería, and Jamaica's Revival Zion. Since the 1970s, there have been attempts to unify all Rastas, namely through the establishment of the Rastafari Movement Association, which sought political mobilisation. In 1982, the first international assembly of Rastafari groups took place in Toronto, Canada. This and subsequent international conferences, assemblies, and workshops have helped to cement global networks and cultivate an international community of Rastas.
ellauri108.html on line 254: Rastafari is a non-missionary religion. However, elders from Jamaica often go "trodding" to instruct new converts in the fundamentals of the religion. On researching English Rastas during the 1970s, Cashmore noted that they had not converted instantaneously, but rather had undergone "a process of drift" through which they gradually adopted Rasta beliefs and practices, resulting in their ultimate acceptance of Haile Selassie's central importance. Based on his research in West Africa, Neil J. Savishinsky found that many of those who converted to Rastafari came to the religion through their pre-existing use of marijuana as a recreational drug.
ellauri108.html on line 256: Rastas often claim that—rather than converting to the religion—they were actually always a Rasta and that their embrace of its beliefs was merely the realisation of this. There is no formal ritual carried out to mark an individual's entry into the Rastafari movement, although once they do join an individual often changes their name, with many including the prefix "Ras". Rastas regard themselves as an exclusive and elite community, membership of which is restricted to those who have the "insight" to recognise Haile Selassie's importance. Practitioners thus often regard themselves as the "enlightened ones" who have "seen the light". Many of them see no point in establishing good relations with non-Rastas, believing that the latter will never accept Rastafari doctrine as truth.
ellauri108.html on line 258: Some Rastas have left the religion. Clarke noted that among British Rastas, some returned to Pentecostalism and other forms of Christianity, while others embraced Islam or no religion. Some English ex-Rastas described disillusionment when the societal transformation promised by Rastafari failed to appear, while others felt that while Rastafari would be appropriate for agrarian communities in Africa and the Caribbean, it was not suited to industrialised British society. Others experienced disillusionment after developing the view that Haile Selassie had been an oppressive leader of the Ethiopian people. Cashmore found that some British Rastas who had more militant views left the religion after finding its focus on reasoning and music insufficient for the struggle against white domination and racism.
ellauri108.html on line 268: Some Rastas in the African diaspora have followed through with their beliefs about resettlement in Africa, with Ghana and Nigeria being particularly favoured. In West Africa, Rastafari has spread largely through the popularity of reggae, gaining a larger presence in Anglophone areas than their Francophone counterparts. Caribbean Rastas arrived in Ghana during the 1960s, encouraged by its first post-independence president, Kwame Nkrumah, while some native Ghanaians also converted to the religion. The largest congregation of Rastas has been in southern parts of Ghana, around Accra, Tema, and the Cape Coast, although Rasta communities also exist in the Muslim-majority area of northern Ghana. The Rasta migrants' wearing of dreadlocks was akin to that of the native fetish priests, which may have assisted the presentation of these Rastas as having authentic African roots in Ghanaian society. However, Ghanaian Rastas have complained of social ostracism and prosecution for cannabis possession, while non-Rastas in Ghana often consider them to be "drop-outs", "too Western", and "not African enough".
ellauri108.html on line 274: By the early 1990s, a Rasta community existed in Nairobi, Kenya, whose approach to the religion was informed both by reggae and by traditional Kikuyu religion. Rastafari groups have also appeared in Zimbabwe, and in South Africa; in 2008, there were at least 12,000 Rastas in the country. At an African Union/Caribbean Diaspora conference in South Africa in 2005, a statement was released characterising Rastafari as a force for integration of Africa and the African diaspora.
ellauri108.html on line 489: Rastas do not believe that there is a specific afterlife to which individuals go following bodily death. They believe in the possibility of eternal life, and that only those who shun righteousness will actually die. The scholar of religion Leonard E. Barrett observed some Jamaican Rastas who believed that those practitioners who did die had not been faithful to Jah. He suggested that this attitude stemmed from the large numbers of young people that were then members of the movement, and who had thus seen only few Rastas die. Another Rasta view is that those who are righteous will undergo reincarnation, with an individual's identity remaining throughout each of their incarnations. In keeping with their views on death, Rastas eschew celebrating physical death and often avoid funerals, also repudiating the practice of ancestor veneration that is common among traditional African religions.
ellauri109.html on line 615: Roth, who thought of religion as fairy tales and illusion, left strict instructions: no Kaddish, no God, no speeches. Roth had asked a range of friends to read passages from his novels. The mourners heard only the language of Roth and then shovelled dirt into his grave until it was full.
ellauri110.html on line 137: Book IV of Gulliver's Travels is the keystone, in some ways, of the entire work,[citation needed] and critics have traditionally answered the question whether Gulliver is insane (and thus just another victim of Swift's satire) by questioning whether or not the Houyhnhnms are truly admirable. Gulliver loves the land and is obedient to a race that is not like his own. The Houyhnhnm society is based upon reason, and only upon reason, and therefore the horses practice eugenics based on their analyses of benefit and cost. They have no religion and their sole morality is the defence of reason, and so they are not particularly moved by pity or a belief in the intrinsic value of life. Gulliver himself, in their company, builds the sails of his skiff from "Yahoo skins".
ellauri111.html on line 110: The Apocrypha is a collection of uninspired, spurious books written by various individuals. The Catholic religion considers these books as scripture just like a Bible-believer believes that the 66 books in the Authorized Version of 1611 of the Bible are the word of God, i.e., Genesis to Revelation. We are going to examine some verses from the Apocrypha later in our discussion.
ellauri111.html on line 124: The apocryphal books were not permitted among the sacred books during the first four centuries of the real Christian church (I'm certainly not talking about the Catholic religion. The Roman Catholic "Church" is not Christian).
ellauri111.html on line 182: Concerning the Dead Sea Scrolls, there may be some information in them that parallels the Masoretic Text, but there are fables in them, too. I went to see the scrolls a few years ago with great expectation but found a bunch of fables. The best defense against error in any form (unauthorized Bibles and religions) is a solid knowledge of the AUTHORIZED (King James) Version of 1611 of the Bible. If you read it, forgeries become readily apparent.
ellauri111.html on line 431: But the Lord Jesus Christ did not die for nothing. Repenting of our sins and believing in the Lord Jesus Christ is the only way that we can make it into heaven. Righteousness does NOT come by the law and good works and rituals prescribed by false religions like Catholicism, Islam, Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Seventh Day Adventism, Hinduism, etc.
ellauri111.html on line 433: We need Jesus to pay the price for our sins in the right currency. We cannot do it. Righteousness comes by repenting of our sins and believing on the Lord Jesus Christ and his blood that was shed to pay for our sins. God will not accept made up religions and attempts to please him.
ellauri111.html on line 699: "Contemplative" prayer is essentially an old occult technique adjusted to the ignorant church people. It can bring up that yoga kundalini serpent power. With open eyes, one can see this type of technique being magnified in society--I saw a book for magic in a place for shipping goods and for photocopies, office supplies, etc. I looked on the back of the book, it was the same technique as the church people are using. This is spreading like wildfire and not just amongst false (or extremely ignorant) brethren, it is throughout society. Revelation 13:8 teaches us that all people who are not in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world will worship the beast. Revelation 13:4 says that all the world will worship the dragon which gave power unto the beast--we learn from Revelation 12 that THE DRAGON IS SATAN. In the ecumenical movement (all the religions getting together in "peace") and under a "meditative" spirituality, Hindus, Buddhists, Roman Catholics, church people, atheists, Muslims, cabalists, new agers, etc. can get together and have a "meditation" session with no problems. This is not for the future, it is already happening, I picked up a brochure about some sessions while at a library. In Contemplative prayer, church people are calling the devil by the Lord's name. I read that many of them will not listen to the scriptures when confronted with the truth--they do not know the Lord's voice, they are not his sheep. Worldly people are under the devil and they despise holiness and speak against it as "legalism" or even as heresy or false doctrine. I have seen extreme antinomianism in Baptist churches. They derisively call work-out-your-own-salvation-with-fear-and-trembling discipleship "Lordship salvation". If a person does not obey the Lord, they are not saved. The reader may wish to see our article, Lordship Salvation.
ellauri111.html on line 741: I have been in kundalini awkening for 10 years by a so called healer . I was very sick . So I went to a healer. Well she happened to be a shaman yogi I was only 24 years old I have been fighting for my life ever since the kundalini rose I can't even begin to tell you ...they say once you open your kundalini you can't shut It well I have not been able to shut mine... Yoga is a very sick religion and spiritually you feel dead you were right when you said nothing good comes from Yoga. Guru 's are extremly dangerous individuals. Let Christians know it could hurt your faith even just the excercise...
ellauri112.html on line 825: Regarding children, in most of the United States it is not illegal for children to consume alcohol "in the performance of a religious ceremony or service." In many religions it is also a-ok for men of God to consume kids.
ellauri112.html on line 933: We should agree with the Westminster Confession of Faith, which teaches us that “The supreme judge by which all controversies of religion are to be determined, and all decrees of councils, opinions of ancient writers, doctrines of men, and private spirits, are to be examined, and in whose sentence we are to rest, can be no other but the Hard Spirit speaking in the Scripture.” As it is with all controversies of religion, so it is with this one. Smell the breath of the Lord.
ellauri115.html on line 292: And who is to blame? Well, Christianity, of course. As the new religion swept through the continent, dogma took over. How dare you question the church? Now kiss my pinky ring, and let's kill some Muslims and Jews. Divine right, damn it! Uskokaa tai älkää, Grice and Strawson kirjoitti vielä 1956 paperin In Defense of a Dogma. Well kiss my pinky ring!
ellauri115.html on line 429: Moreover, Rousseau advocated the opinion that, insofar as they lead people to virtue, all religions are equally worthy, and that people should therefore conform to the religion in which they have been brought up. This religious indifferentism caused Rousseau and his books to be banned from France and Geneva. He was condemned from the pulpit by the Archbishop of Paris, his books were burned and warrants were issued for his arrest. Former friends such as Jacob Vernes of Geneva could not accept his views, and wrote violent rebuttals.
ellauri115.html on line 440: Rousseau published Emile, or On Education in 1762. A famous section of Emile, "The Profession of Faith of a Savoyard Vicar", was intended to be a defense of religious belief. Rousseau's choice of a Catholic vicar of humble peasant background (plausibly based on a kindly prelate he had met as a teenager) as a spokesman for the defense of religion was in itself a daring innovation for the time. The vicar's creed was that of Socinianism (or Unitarianism as it is called today). Because it rejected original sin and divine revelation, both Protestant and Catholic authorities took offense. Eikös ne Emersonin porukat olleet unitaareja? Ja se Erasmuxen elämäkerturi Ephraim Emerton Bostonista.
ellauri115.html on line 486: Samuel Clarke (1675–1729) was the most influential British metaphysician and theologian in the generation between Locke and Berkeley, and only Shaftesbury rivals him in ethics. In all three areas he was very critical of Hobbes, Spinoza, and Toland. Deeply influenced by Newton, Clarke was critical of Descartes’ metaphysics of space and body because of the experimental evidence for Newtonianian doctrines of space, the vacuum, atoms, and attraction and because he believed Descartes’ identifying body with extension and removing final causes from nature had furthered irreligion and had naturally developed into Spinozism.
ellauri115.html on line 488: Clarke sided with Locke and Newton against Descartes in denying that we have knowledge of the essence of substances, even though we can be sure that there are at least two kinds of substances (mental and material) because their properties (thinking and divisibility) are incompatible. He defended natural religion against the naturalist view that nature constitutes a self-sufficient system and defended revealed religion against deism. Clarke adopted Newton’s natural philosophy early on. Through his association with Newton, Clarke was the de facto spokesperson for Newtonianism in the first half the eighteenth century, not only explaining the natural science but also providing a metaphysical support and theological interpretation for it.
ellauri119.html on line 89: connected to a god or a religion, religious and morally good, informal —used in phrases that show surprise or excitement. See the full definition for holy in the English Language Learners Dictionary
ellauri119.html on line 387: God is most often held to be incorporeal, with said characteristic being related to conceptions of transcendence or immanence. In religion, transcendence is the aspect of a deity´s nature and power that is wholly independent of the material universe, beyond all known physical laws. This is contrasted with immanence, where a god is said to be fully present in the physical world and thus accessible to creatures in various ways. In religious experience, transcendence is a state of being that has overcome the limitations of physical existence, and by some definitions, has also become independent of it. This is typically manifested in prayer, rituals, meditation, psychedelics and paranormal "visions".
ellauri119.html on line 400: Paul Matthews van Buren (April 20, 1924 – June 18, 1998) was a Christian theologian and author. An ordained Episcopal priest, he was a Professor of religion at Temple University, Philadelphia for 22 years. He was a Director [NYT obituary says "Associate"] of the Center of Ethics and Religious Pluralism at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem. Van Buren was born and raised in Norfolk, Virginia. During World War II, he had served in the United States Coast Guard. He graduated with a bachelor´s degree in government from Harvard College in 1948. A professor at Temple University, he was considered a leader of the "Death of God" school or movement, although he himself rejected that name for the movement as a "journalistic invention," and considered himself an exponent of "Secular Christianity." He died of cancer on June 18, 1998 at age 74.
ellauri119.html on line 409: Like Paul van Buren, an Episcopal priest and religion professor at Temple University in the 1960s, Hamilton rejected the existence of God while focusing devotedly on Jesus Christ and affirming that his teachings and example should be followed.
ellauri119.html on line 440: Love encompasses the Islamic view of life as universal brotherhood that applies to all who hold faith. Amongst the 99 names of God (Allah), there is the name Al-Wadud, or "the Loving One," which is found in Surah [Quran 11:90] as well as Surah [Quran 85:14]. God is also referenced at the beginning of every chapter in the Qur'an as Ar-Rahman and Ar-Rahim, or the "Most Compassionate" and the "Most Merciful", indicating that nobody is more loving, compassionate and benevolent than God. The Qur'an refers to God as being "full of loving kindness." The Qur'an exhorts Muslim believers to treat all people, viz. those who have not persecuted them, with birr or "deep kindness" as stated in Surah [Quran 6:8-9]. Birr is also used by the Qur'an in describing the love and kindness that children must show to their parents. Ishq, or divine love, is the emphasis of Sufism in the Islamic tradition. Practitioners of Sufism believe that love is a projection of the essence of God to the universe. God desires to recognize beauty, and as if one looks at a mirror to see oneself, God "looks" at himself within the dynamics of nature. Since everything is a reflection of God, the school of Sufism practices to see the beauty inside the apparently ugly sufist. Sufism is often referred to as the religion of love. God in Sufism is referred to in three main terms, which are the Lover, Loved, and Beloved, with the last of these terms being often seen in Sufi poetry.
ellauri119.html on line 698: The implication being that that anyone who disagrees with you is not a “man of the intellect”? That’s just a shitty religion-variety argument. “You can’t feel God because you don’t have enough faith.”
ellauri119.html on line 775: Asked what she thought of Reagan, Ayn Rand replied, “I don’t think of him. And the more I see, the less I think of him.” For Rand, “the appalling part of his administration was his connection with the so-called ‘Moral Majority’ and sundry other TV religionists, who are struggling, apparently with his approval, to take us back to the Middle Ages via the unconstitutional union of religion and politics.” Rand’s primary concern, it seems, is that this “unconstitutional union” represented a “threat to capitalism.” While she admired Reagan’s appeal to an “inspirational element” in American politics, “he will not find it,” remarked Rand, “in the God, family, tradition swamp.” Instead, she proclaims, we should be inspired by “the most typical American group… the businessmen.”
ellauri132.html on line 111: (PST: Kuka on Sam Harris?) Samuel Benjamin Harris was born in Los Angeles, California, on April 9, 1967. He is an American author, philosopher, neuroscientist, and podcast host. His work touches on a wide range of topics, including rationality, religion, ethics, free will, neuroscience, meditation, psychedelics, philosophy of mind, politics, terrorism, and artificial intelligence. — Sam Harris rejects the dichotomy between spirituality and rationality , favoring a middle path that preserves spirituality and science but does not involve religion.
ellauri132.html on line 113: Sam is the son of actor Berkeley Harris, who appeared mainly in Western films, and TV writer and producer Susan Harris (née Spivak), who created Soap (TV series) and The Golden Girls among other series. His father, born in North Carolina, came from a Quaker background, and his mother is Jewish but not religious. He was raised by his mother following his parents' divorce when he was aged two. Harris has stated that his upbringing was entirely secular and that his parents rarely discussed religion, though he also stated that he was not raised as an atheist.
ellauri140.html on line 111: Libresse F-, alias Duessa, a lady who personifies Falsehood in Book I, known to Redcrosse as "Fidessa". As the opposite of Una, she represents the "false" religion of the Roman Catholic Church. She is also initially an assistant, or at least a servant, to Archipelago.
ellauri142.html on line 110: Initially, the Freemason creed declared anti-Catholic, anti-Royalty, and anti-Democratic (i.e. Republican) virtues, including self-government, personal freedom, gun laws, and free enterprise. The basic tenet was that no person or organization should be controlled or oppressed by a government or religion, or their respective laws and doctrines. At their start, and for centuries, The Freemasons were a feisty, calculating, and powerful coalition.
ellauri142.html on line 147: Geometry and architecture are essential themes within Freemasonry, which is why Freemasons often refer to God as either The Supreme Being or The Grand Geometrician. These names help keep the concept of God as generic, and not tied to a specific religion, which removes any chance that a member will be offended.
ellauri142.html on line 167: Vittu mitä pellejä! Jo on lapsellista touhua. According to the historian David Stevenson, it was influential on Freemasonry as it was emerging in Scotland. Robert Vanloo (n.h.) states that earlier 17th century Rosicrucianism had a considerable influence on Anglo-Saxon Masonry. Hans Schick sees in the works of Comenius (1592–1670) the ideal of the newly born English Masonry before the foundation of the Grand Lodge in 1717. Comenius was in England during 1641. Their mission is to prepare the whole wide world for a new phase in religion, which includes awareness of the inner worlds and the subtle bodies, and to provide safe guidance in the gradual awakening of man's latent spiritual faculties during the next six centuries toward the coming Age of Aquariums. This is the dawning of it, judging by the sea levels. According to Masonic writers, the Order of the Rose Cross is expounded in a major Christian literary work that molded the subsequent spiritual beliefs of western civilization: The Divine Comedy (ca. 1308–1321) by Dante Alighieri.
ellauri142.html on line 609: Spencer's reputation among the Victorians owed a great deal to his agnosticism. He rejected theology as representing the 'impiety of the pious.' He was to gain much notoriety from his repudiation of traditional religion, and was frequently condemned by religious thinkers for allegedly advocating atheism and materialism. Nonetheless, unlike Thomas Henry Huxley, whose agnosticism was a militant creed directed at 'the unpardonable sin of faith' (in Adrian Desmond's phrase), Spencer insisted that he was not concerned to undermine religion in the name of science, but to bring about a reconciliation of the two. The following argument is a summary of Part 1 of his First Principles (2nd ed 1867).
ellauri142.html on line 611: Starting either from religious belief or from science, Spencer argued, we are ultimately driven to accept certain indispensable but literally inconceivable notions. Whether we are concerned with a Creator or the substratum which underlies our experience of phenomena, we can frame no conception of it. Therefore, Spencer concluded, religion and science agree in the supreme truth that the human understanding is only capable of 'relative' knowledge. This is the case since, owing to the inherent limitations of the human mind, it is only possible to obtain knowledge of phenomena, not of the reality ('the absolute') underlying phenomena. Hence both science and religion must come to recognise as the 'most certain of all facts that the Power which the Universe manifests to us is utterly inscrutable.' He called this awareness of 'the Unknowable' and he presented worship of the Unknowable as capable of being a positive faith which could substitute for conventional religion. Indeed, he thought that the Unknowable represented the ultimate stage in the evolution of religion, the final elimination of its last anthropomorphic vestiges.
ellauri143.html on line 62: Though the scholars (Urai aasiriyargal, in Tamil) titled Thirukkural’s first chapter as ‘The Praise to God’ (Kadavul Vaazhthu), Thiruvalluvar has nowhere in his work mentioned the words ‘god’ or ‘religion’.
ellauri143.html on line 65: V Arasu, former head of Tamil department, University of Madras said the move is nothing short of hindi cultural appropriation. “Every religion including Christianity has claimed Thiruvalluvar as their own. Since the BJP is in power now, they can do whatever they wish. But we should not worry. Truth will always triumph,” he said.
ellauri145.html on line 251: L´HUMOUR chez Baudelaire fait partie intégrante de sa conception du dandysme. On sait que, pour lui, « le mot dandy implique une quintessence de caractère et une intelligence subtile de tout le mécanisme moral de ce monde ». L´humour, nul plus que lui n´a pris soin de le définir par opposition à la gaieté triviale ou au sarcasme grimaçant dans les quels se plaît à se reconnaître l´« esprit français ». Il place Molière en tête des « religions modernes ridicules»; Voltaire, c´est « l´antipoète, le roi des badauds, le prince des superficiels, l´antiartiste, le prédicateur des concierges, le père Gigogne des rédacteurs du Siècle ». Le dandy est partagé entre le souci narcissique de ses attitudes et de ses actes («Il doit aspirer à être sublime sans interruption. Il doit vivre et mourir devant son miroir ») et le désir de provoquer sur son passage une longue rumeur désapprobatrice (« Ce qu´il y a d´enivrant dans le mauvais goût, c´est le plaisir aristocratique
ellauri150.html on line 715: I could go on, but I think it is best to leave it here. I've covered only the opening parts of this encyclical. There is so much more in this document about the various freedoms that we take for granted like freedom of religion, speech and the press. In discussing this encyclical I hope I've given you an appreciation for the writings of Pope Leo XIII. (You can find all of his encyclicals here.)
ellauri150.html on line 736: It seems to me that Hawking is using a particular model of the universe to try to attack religion. But for me the very fact that there is a universe is enough to fill me with awe at creation and in God the Creator. In fact the more we learn about the immensity of space and the variety of celestial objects, the more I am filled with awe and wonder. Part of that is the admiration that we are living in such an advanced society that we are able to make these discoveries in the first place.
ellauri150.html on line 752: I've watched a variety of shows on EWTN on the lives of saints. Even though the production quality cannot approach that of Hollywood, I find the stories so intriguing that I prefer to watch them to the regular TV programs on other channels. In the 1960s the stories of the saints were rejected as being to full of supernatural elements. Now with the New Age movement, people complain that Christianity does not have enough of a spiritual content. Well that's because the rationalists attempted to strip all the spirituality from Christianity. The lives of the saints are full of spirituality and can demonstrate to contemporary Man that there is no need to turn to exotic religions for spirituality. Everything that they are looking for is right here in the Catholic Church.
ellauri151.html on line 125: It is impermissible under any circumstances for morals to sink as low as communism has done. No one can begin to imagine the tragedy of humanity, of morality, of religion and of freedoms in the land of communism, where man has been debased beyond belief.
ellauri151.html on line 437: Without language we would have no reason, without reason no religion, and without these three essential aspects of our nature, neither mind nor bond of society. Help us translate this quote!
ellauri151.html on line 684: communication as a counter-model for religious language and uses it to criticize Frazer’s attempts to debunk religion. Religious rituals must be understood as expressive communication. Magic, religion and language are based on symbolism, as the harmony of language and reality takes place in the symbol. A religious ritual like a rain-dance symbolically represents and mythologically enacts the connection between a wish and its fulfillment, and Wittgenstein mentions sacraments like baptism in this context (RF: 125). All language is similarly symbolic and ceremonial at its core and cannot be separated from mythology.
ellauri153.html on line 554: Now that the problem of evil has been exposed as a conceptual confusion, the way is clear for a Jamesian science of religions and worldviews. The methods of grammatical description can be extended to the practices and ways of sense-making in different worldviews: how they give meaning to moral practices and how do they approach the intelligibility of the world? What practical responses do they have for coping with evil? For example, the grammar of seeing-as for models and metaphors can be applied to the metaphors in the Hebrew Bible for God’s activity to understand what it is to see the world as God’s creation. The grammar of virtues can be used to describe Buddhist practices and explore, how these approaches contribute to the human good. Similar approaches can be taken to secular worldviews as well. These descriptions can then be used to assess the worldviews through dialogical encounters between them. However, one thing should be clear. There is no point in devaluing the world by arguing for the meaninglessness of life or atheism on the basis of evil, or in giving justifications for evils that can stand in the way of divine or human meliorist projects of fighting for justice. To paraphrase the judgment of the Divine Judge in the Book of Job, such approaches are not even wrong. They are as meaningless as life itself.

Ihmiset kysyvät myös: Is transcendentalism a religion?

Sydney Pierce religion blog 2015

• Anknytning i kontexten av religion och andlighet.
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• Vad är det vi söker i andlighet och religion.
  xxx/ellauri354.html on line 261: Mandel takes a brief reference to an anticlerical novel made by one of the characters in A Farewell to Arms and explores the historical and ideological basis for its presence in the novel. In a novel where the Priest is such an important figure, the discussion of the Catholic Church and the way that soldiers would regard religion becomes an important thematic examination. Mandel traces her exploration of this topic, the translation of this obscure novel, and her subsequent revelations, in a way that makes this chapter a study in scholarship and the excavation of an arcane reference.
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