The mixing of religious and non-religious beliefs in an individual.

Denita's Blog (29)

Rainier Marie Rilke poem

Nowhere, Beloved, will world be but within us. Our life

passes in transformation. And the external

shrinks into less and less. Where once an enduring house was,

now a cerebral structure crosses our path, completely

belonging to the realm of concepts, as though it still stood in the brain.

Our age has built itself vast reservoirs of power,

formless as the straining energy that it wrests from the earth.

Temples are no longer known. It is we who secretly save… Read More

Added by Denita on August 16, 2009 at 8:05pm — 1 Comment

Your Brain on God

NPR series on neuroscience studies of brain dealing w/ spiritual virtuosos, near-death experience,the god chemical, the god spot, etc. "More than half of adult Americans report they have had a spiritual experience that changed their lives. Now, scientists from universities like Harvard, Pennsylvania and Johns Hopkins are using new technologies to analyze the brains of people who claim they have touched the spiritual — from Christians who speak in… Read More

Added by Denita on July 29, 2009 at 7:44pm — 2 Comments

The world's oldest Bible, the Codex Sinaiticus, now entirely online

The world's oldest Bible, the Codex Sinaiticus, with chapters previously scattered across the planet, is now available, in its entirety, online. There are images of the ancient pages, with holes, in scraps. No English translation is currently on the website.

Very cool to look at. Even on a website, there is a certain power and mystery. Interesting how, over centuries, the manuscript was changed, lines inserted, words changed, etc.… Read More

Added by Denita on July 6, 2009 at 5:00pm — 5 Comments

Young Evangelicals join the Nuclear-Weapon-Free World Movement

U.S. Evangelicals join the nuclear-weapon-free world movement

By Rev. Tyler Wigg-Stevenson | 6 May 2009

Article Highlights

* The recently launched Two Futures Project is a collection of young Evangelicals who are dedicated to working toward a nuclear-weapon-free world.

* Although Evangelicals traditionally have supported… Read More

Added by Denita on July 4, 2009 at 5:11am — No Comments

Group of International Paleontologists visit the Creation Museum

From an international conference of paleontologists, a brave and curious group take a field trip to the Creation Museum.

June 30, 2009

Paleontology and Creationism Meet but Don’t Mesh

By KENNETH CHANG

PETERSBURG, Ky. — Tamaki Sato was confused by the dinosaur exhibit. The placards described the various dinosaurs as originating from different geological periods — the stegosaurus from the Upper Jurassic, the heterodontosaurus from the Lower Jurassic, the… Read More

Added by Denita on July 2, 2009 at 11:44am — 1 Comment

10 Reasons Why Gay People Should Not Marry

10 Reasons why Gay Marriage is "wrong".

1) Being gay is not natural. Real Americans always reject unnatural things like eyeglasses, polyester, and air conditioning.

2) Gay marriage will encourage people to be gay, in the same way that hanging around tall people will make you tall.

3) Legalizing gay marriage will open the door to all kinds of crazy behavior. People may even wish to marry their pets because a dog has legal standing and can sign a marriage… Read More

Added by Denita on April 12, 2009 at 1:51pm — 2 Comments

The End of Christian America

The percentage of self-identified Christians has fallen 10 points in the past two decades. How that statistic explains who we are now—and what, as a nation, we are about to become.

By Jon Meacham | NEWSWEEK

Published Apr 4, 2009

From the magazine issue dated Apr 13, 2009

It was a small detail, a point of comparison buried in the fifth paragraph on the 17th page of a 24-page summary of the 2009 American Religious Identification Survey. But as R. Albert Mohler Jr.—president of… Read More

Added by Denita on April 5, 2009 at 6:30pm — No Comments

Quiverfull Evangelical Movement - Womb as Weapon-

Among some conservative Christians, a movement is giving new meaning to the biblical mandate to "be fruitful and multiply."

The movement, called Quiverfull, is based on Psalm 127, which says, "Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are sons born in one's youth. Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them."

Those in the Quiverfull movement shun birth control, believing that God will give them the right number of children. It turns out, that's a lot of… Read More

Added by Denita on March 25, 2009 at 4:33pm — 3 Comments

Atheism on Rise: Secular Student Alliance, Secular Coalition of America

The month of March has brought interesting news on the front of religion in America today. The National Journal’s cover article highlighted what they call the "Rise of the Godless." The American Religious Identification Survey found that the number of Americans claiming no religion is on the rise. Both instances highlight a growing lack of religions affiliation and belief in America’s youth.

The American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS)… Read More

Added by Denita on March 23, 2009 at 4:22pm — 1 Comment

Shamans, religious and political resistance

Why are elements of shamanic practice adopted in people’s ritualization of resistance? First, “shamanism” can be regarded as a native religion, while such “major” religions as Christianity and Buddhism are of foreign origin. In this regard shamanism is chosen as a symbol of the pure Korean cultural tradition. Second, since shamanism has been branded by the state as a superstition and not a “proper” religion, it is identified with the alienated space that is negated by the official discourse of… Read More

Added by Denita on March 22, 2009 at 11:35pm — 2 Comments

Legacy of Henry Corbin, scholar of Islam and imaginal reality

"To be a philosopher is to take to the road, never settling down in some place of satisfaction with a theory of the world, not even a place of reformation, nor of some illusory transformation of the conditions of this world. It aims for self-transformation, for the inner metamorphosis, which is implied by the notion of a new or spiritual rebirth. The adventure of the mystical philosopher is essentially seen as a voyage which progresses towards the… Read More

Added by Denita on March 18, 2009 at 2:10pm — 2 Comments

The Culture Warriors Get Laid Off, NY Times March 14, 2009

March 15, 2009

Op-Ed Columnist

The Culture Warriors Get Laid Off

By FRANK RICH

SOMEDAY we’ll learn the whole story of why George W. Bush brushed off that intelligence briefing of Aug. 6, 2001, “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.” But surely a big distraction was the major speech he was readying for delivery on Aug. 9, his first prime-time address to the nation. The subject — which Bush hyped as “one of the most profound of our time” — was stem cells. For a… Read More

Added by Denita on March 14, 2009 at 10:03pm — 1 Comment

Skinny dipping in reality: A coot's account of the great hippy LSD enlightenment search party

Joe Bageant | February 20, 2009

"There's nothing better that 250 mics of good acid to kick start the cosmic coonhunt for Enlightenment. It takes juice. After all sonny boy, you don't knock down stars with a bee bee gun."

-- Mad Dog Howard, Hippie Doper/Philosopher

First LSD trip, 1965: Tumbling, tumbling, tumbling inward with eyes closed, I could hear the spider plant hanging in the basket overhead singing in its green subatomic plant language, a hymn to the sunlight… Read More

Added by Denita on February 21, 2009 at 9:05pm — 3 Comments

What is Neurotheology?

What is Neurotheology?

By Charles Zeiders

What is neurotheology?

Neurotheology is a new science that explores how brain and nervous system states might create, correlate with, or inform our understanding of religious experience. With new instrumentation we can explore our bodies and how they respond to various types of religious experience. Exploring the nervous system’s relationship to religious experience helps interdisciplinary thinkers develop a… Read More

Added by Denita on February 17, 2009 at 10:27am — 1 Comment

Brain Activity in amygdala and political party preference

THE WAY WE LIVE NOW: 8-22-04: IDEA LAB; The Political Brain

STEVEN JOHNSON

Published: August 22, 2004

NY Times

A few months before retiring from public office in 2002, the House majority leader Dick Armey caused a mini-scandal when he announced during a speech in Florida, ''Liberals are, in my estimation, just not bright people.'' The former economics professor went on to clarify that liberals were drawn to ''occupations of the heart,'' while conservatives… Read More

Added by Denita on February 17, 2009 at 8:01am — 4 Comments

Online list of Proposition 8 Supporters Posted

From KTVU.com & Associated Press:

Gay Marriage Opponents Identified Online

Monday, February 2, 2009 – updated: 8:02 am PST February 2, 2009

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Supporters of Proposition 8 were publicly identified Monday after a judge decided last week that their identities could not be kept secret.

A federal judge on Thursday denied a request to keep the names of donors to California's anti-gay marriage initiative secret, saying the public has a right… Read More

Added by Denita on February 3, 2009 at 12:07am — No Comments

Mormon Church Admits it Spent 100 Times More for Prop 8 than Reported

Hey, Greg, didn't you post somewhere that the Mormon church itself didn't contribute money towards defeating Proposition 8 in California?

365 Gay: NewsSubscribe

Mormon Church admits it spent 100 times more for Prop 8 than reported

By 365gay Newscenter Staff

02.02.2009 8:54am EST

(San Francisco, California) Six weeks into an investigation by California’s Fair Political Practices Commission, the Church of Latter-Day Saints has admitted that it… Read More

Added by Denita on February 2, 2009 at 11:48pm — 6 Comments

The Peace Eye - an antidote to the internecine war w/in RG

To the peaceful warrior, the watchful eye of the sentry is a shield. Placed in the palm of a hand, the eye represents the restraint necessary to set boundaries and the vigilance to keep them. The framing rattlesnakes depict the healing and harming forces that circulate around the boundaries of any situation, including dialogue and discourse.

(Engraved Stone Disk, Moundville, Alabama, c. 1200 CE.

From The Mythic Image by Joseph… Read More

Added by Denita on January 11, 2009 at 4:41pm — No Comments

Ecospirituality - An Imaginal Approach by Owen Couch

The following essay explores a number of key questions regarding the revival of shamanism and other ancient Pagan ways, and outlines some approaches to viable ecospiritual work for today. The quotations skillfully culled by the author are extremely helpful. Owen Couch's cautious, well-informed assessment of ecospirituality echoes some of my own concerns—especially, the lack of connection to… Read More

Added by Denita on January 11, 2009 at 4:30pm — 6 Comments