Desperate people are easily exploited and now another one of those exploiters has been exposed. An outfit called the Christian Prayer Center advertised that they could get many people to pray for one’s need and provided testimonials to the power of such mass prayers. It turns out that those testimonials were fake and that no one actually was praying on behalf of those who sent in money.
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It is clear that god has been jerking the Republican party around. Many of the candidates vying for the nomination said that god had played a role in their decision to run. This article back in July of last year discussed god’s role in the decisions made by Scott Walker, John Kasich, Ben Carson, Rick Perry, Rick Santorum, and Mike Huckabee to run for president.
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People in the west tend to think of Buddhism as a somewhat austere and ascetic religion and its monks as people living a simple life. Those of us who grew up in predominantly Buddhist countries know otherwise. While there are undoubtedly many monks who fit that description, there are also many who enjoy the pleasures of the material life, living and eating well, driving around in luxury cars, and getting involved in politics in a big way, often to advance reactionary agendas.
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The US has long been considered an outlier when it comes to religious beliefs, with much higher numbers of believers and churchgoers than in other parts of the developed world. But a new study says that that gap seems to be closing, and once again it is the young who are leading the way.
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In the US someone can set up a bogus church and proceed to fleece people by getting them to donate money, even what they cannot afford. Those donations are tax deductible and the pastors get to live the high life with fancy houses, private jets and the like at our expense. The government will not touch them because as soon as they do, people will scream ‘religious persecution’.
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The Girl Scouts of America are a great organization, very supportive of diversity and inclusion, and welcoming members of the LGBT community into their ranks. Unlike the Boy Scouts who had to be dragged kicking and screaming into the modern world by threats of boycotts, the Girl Scouts have been very forward looking.
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There is something sweet about poetic justice. Jessica Williams of The Daily Show returns to a church with a virulently anti-gay pastor. The building is under foreclosure because he has not been paying his water bills among other debts and now owes about a million dollars. The pastor seems to think that having tax-exempt status (itself an indefensible boondoggle) means he is entitled to free water as well. Why stop there? Why not free electricity too? And internet? And cable TV?
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In Idaho, a panel of Republicans in the state senate has approved a bill to allow public school teachers to use the Bible as a reference book in the teaching of astronomy, biology, and geology. Not to be outdone, two Mississippi Democratic legislators think that they have found the solution to the world’s many problems. They have proposed that the Bible be the official state book.
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The Guardian had an interesting article about a new book.
Atheism is not a modern invention from the western Enlightenment, but actually dates back to the ancient world, according to a new book by a Cambridge academic – which challenges the assumption that humanity is naturally predisposed to believe in gods.
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