Religion

> Thousands of veterans, including those from "the Greatest Generation" who served in World War II, are expected in Washington, DC next week for the November 11 " Atheists in Foxholes [http://www.atheistfoxholes.org/]" Parade and Rally on the national mall. > The event is designed

> Religious persecution in China has reached the point that distributing Bibles is earning a three-year prison sentence [http://www.washtimes.com/national/20051109-122418-9246r.htm]. I like this ironic twice: > Friends of Falun Gong, a religious movement espousing meditative practices, say that more than 100,000

Interesting essay at NYT [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/08/science/08essay.html] about man's innate tendency to look for invisible verities. The writer says it's common to religious types and scientific types. His concluding paragraphs: > Religious belief that the universe is the handiwork

From the New Republic: > Evangelicals began aggressively reaching out to Catholics for intellectual aid. That movement reached its apotheosis with the nomination of Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court. With his addition to the ranks of Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas, and John Roberts, all five members of

I'm not sure if this was published today or last spring (the dateline is ambivalent). Either way, I missed it: > A Manchester historian has claimed that Pope John Paul II was Jewish. > Yaakov Wise says his study into the the maternal ancestry of Karol Josez Wojtyla

Bettnet reports on "Bishop" Gay Robinson's excoriation of the Catholic Church [http://bettnet.dyndns.org/blog/comments.php?id=P5741_0_1_0]: > The gay Episcopalian bishop went to England to speak to Anglicans and had some commentary on the Catholic Church. V. Gene Robinson

Why can't they just leave the religious stuff alone? > In a full-bodied blend of blasphemy and ingenuity, a Los Angeles couple is seeking to market a wine called "Jesus Juice" that bears a label showing a Michael Jackson-like figure appearing to be crucified.

I found this column by The God Squad (a Jewish Rabbi and Catholic Monsignor) interesting: Four common characteristics of a cult [http://www.detnews.com/2005/religion/0511/06/A23-372875.htm]. > 1. Love bombing. Most of the cults we've encountered engage in this highly successful technique

> We should have a daily familiarity with death, a daily desire for death. By this kind of detachment our soul must learn to free itself from the desires of the body. It must soar above earthly lusts to a place where they cannot come near, to hold it fast.