Religion

I don't whether the Germans are just trying to catch up with the Scandinavians when it comes to hedonism or whether their thought processes are just hopelessly grim from the likes of Schopenhauer, Marx, and Nietzsche: > A German Protestant youth group has put together a 2006 calendar

Despite attempts to secularize their society, Germans will find their religion one way or the other: > Yoga instructors are being employed on German trains to help calm stressed out passengers in the run up to Christmas.

> I'm reading Thomas Woods' book on the Progressive Era and one of the things that struck me was just how church philanthropy of that era so intertwined the physical and spiritual. Relief of poverty was viewed as a means to an end, not an end in

> The Roman Catholic Church is preparing to abolish limbo, the place between heaven and hell reserved for the souls of children who die before they have been baptised. I'm not qualified to write on the intricate theological issues of unbaptized infants, but I know enough to realize

> During the past twenty-five years, study after study has shown that seriously ill patients who are prayed for--including those who don't know about these prayers--fare better than those who are not prayed for. The man who has done the most to integrate the results

The companion piece to the new directive: > The Vatican newspaper said on Tuesday that homosexuality risked "destabilizing people and society", had no social or moral value and could never match the importance of the relationship between a man and a woman. > The remarks were contained in

The usual suspects are up to no good again. WaPo Link [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/29/AR2005112901852.html] . > The president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said yesterday that under a new Vatican directive on homosexuality, men with a lasting attraction

> Growing numbers of educated Italian women are throwing away their high heels and lipstick and opting for the austere life of nuns in closed convents. . . . > Until recently, most women entering closed convents in Rome were third world immigrants with little education. Now the recruits are all Italians with

Disgusting, yes, but give the guy credit. At least he's not stealthily trying to tear the Church apart. Nothing is worse than the renegade priests who cover up their apostasy in hopes of furthering it (the M.O. of heretics throughout the ages): > The Rev. Tim Stier,