NPR reports on how Saudi Arabia is modernizing the Hajj

http://www.npr.org/2010/11/16/131350606/saudi-arabia-modernizes-mecca-for-muslim-pilgrims

This link is all about how incredibly profitable the Hajj is for Saudi Arabia. It makes a good point, that the industry of religious tourism is recession-proof, just in the sense that all Muslims wishing to complete the Hajj must move through this one particular area. Building hotels and businesses in Mecca is, in that sense, a no-brainer.

Was Satan and Angel or a Djinn?

http://www.answering-islam.org/Quran/Contra/iblis.html

An interesting breakdown of several analyses of the text of the Quran, attempting to determine the proper origin of Satan based on the Quran. It seems pretty inconclusive, and it appears as though the text contradicts itself, but on the other hand, no text so large is going to be completely ironclad.

Update on the Tennessee Mosque

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/11/tn_mosque_lawsuit_funding.php

If anybody remembers, right around the time of that ridiculous 'Ground Zero Mosque' controversy, there was another group of bigots decrying the building of an Islamic Cultural Center in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. It turns out that once the opponents of the Mosque realized that they could not oppose it based on religious grounds, since America has freedom of religion, they decided to discredit Islam as a religion altogether. I think that anyone looking at this lawsuit from the outside can tell how absurd the viewpoint of this fundamentalist "Christian" group is, and how poorly they represent any other Christians. It's a shame that they can't simply adhere to their own gospel and turn the other cheek, and allow the local Muslim community to exist without persecution.

Exorcisms in the Alps

A small article with a good sound-bite about how the French speakers in Switzerland, who are predominantly catholic, are requesting exorcisms from their clergy at unprecedented rates.


http://worldradio.ch/wrs/news/switzerland/more-exorcisms-wanted-in-french-speaking-switzerla.shtml?21660=

Religion in China

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/07/magazine/07religion-t.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

Interesting article about religion developing in China. As the article states, "reformers and revolutionaries saw it as a hindrance holding the country back and a key reason for China’s 'century of humiliation.'", but now, as the country is experiencing economic prosperity, many of its citizens are coming to terms with religious beliefs. It will be interesting to see how a society of billions of people turning to religion affects other religions on the world scale over the next few years, from rising evangelism, to religious conflicts, internecine and international.

Catholic Bishop complaining about secularism

http://www.goddiscussion.com/34063/catholic-bishop-complains-about-secularism-and-not-enough-religion-in-the-public-square/

This Bishop says, "As I understand it, the doctrine was meant to protect the church from the state and not the other way around"


Well, Bishop, you don't understand it. As Thomas Jefferson explained, in a letter to a Baptist Church, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of separation between Church & State." As you can see, the establishment clause makes it so that Congress cannot legislate ANY establishment of religion. The Establishment clause does not just stop the state from interfering in religious affairs, it also stops religions from interfering in state matters. Which, when you think about it, is the same exact thing. If Religion A gets the state to pass laws favoring religion A, Religion B, which thinks that Religion A is completely wrong, has been disenfranchised by the state. You cannot legislate for one religion without simultaneously repressing another. This Bishop would do well to take an American Civics course before he takes the pulpit again.


EDIT: I've just now thought...at what point does a Church lose its tax exempt status? As I understand it, Churches don't pay taxes, and in return they are expected to stay out of political affairs. Tax-exempt churches are NOT allowed to endorse specific candidates, nor are they allowed to tell their parishioners how to vote on any particular ballot initiatives or propositions. This Bishop is certainly not over the line in his comments, deluded though they may be, but does he realize that if he gets his way, his organization would almost certainly have to lose its tax exempt status? Just an interesting side thought.

Catholic Demonology

http://religiousdemonology.com/index.htm

I stumbled on this site whilst wandering through the corridors of the internet. It always fascinates me when people portray their religion as something perfectly true and eternal while cherrypicking from myths that were created over a thousand years after said religion's inception. Demonology is a Medieval construct. The site is quite interesting, regardless of what kind of nonsense it's composed of, and at the very least comprises a nice story.

Entertaining article

This article is really old, but it makes me laugh every time

http://www.theonion.com/articles/god-angrily-clarifies-dont-kill-rule,222/

Why the Creation Museum is full of nonsense

http://www.vertpaleo.org/news/permalinks/2007/07/31/Misrepresentation-of-Earth-History-at-the-New-Creation-Museum/

This is the press release from the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology about why the Creation Museum is completely scientifically inaccurate. This is not an opinion, this is empirically verifiable science, objectively true from any point of view that accepts as fact that which can be proven. I thought it might be useful to have a breakdown of some of the ridiculous things that the Creation Museum asserts. It's all very well and good to have a religious point of view for things in your personal life, but those views do not belong in the science classroom, because they do not adhere to scientific standards. Here's another link, about a group of paleontologists visiting the Creation Museum

http://www.physorg.com/news165555744.html

As Jerry Lipps, professor of geology, paleontology and evolution at University of California, Berkeley says, "It's sort of a monument to scientific illiteracy, isn't it?"

South Park Mormonism

My personal favorite breakdown of the Mormon religion

http://www.southparkstudios.com/full-episodes/s07e12-all-about-the-mormons

Completely irreverent, probably offensive, but it definitely points out some of the...rather odd parts of the Mormon scripture. As far as how accurate it is, I haven't read the Book of Latter Day Saints myself, but I asked three separate mormons, and they all admitted that this episode is pretty scarily accurate. There are just as many discrepancies within any religious scripture, since a lot of them rely on leaps of faith for their stories, but this one in particular lends itself to a pretty funny south park episode.

http://www.adatshalom-dallas.org/

http://www.torahatlanta.com/NEW%20WEBSITE/Articles/The%20Real%20Jews%20for%20Jesus.html

http://www.simpletoremember.com/articles/a/jewsandjesus/

http://judaism.about.com/library/3_askrabbi_c/bl_jesus.htm

A few posts (that I have been meaning to put up forever) that explain why Jews for Jesus are not Jews. The first link is to a Messianic Jewish Temple in Dallas, where I'm from. It actually meets in a Church. It included that for a good example of how these organizations are tied to evangelist Christianity. The second link is a comprehensive breakdown of how Jews for Jesus are tied to Christian Groups, and are really an organization for christian groups to try and convert Jews. Again, the reason a lot of Jews have a distaste for Messianic churches is that we see them as a direct attempt by Evangelical Christians to target Jews specifically, to tell us that our ways are wrong and to tell us how to worship.

Mormon Church rejects and denounces Gay-bashing

I thought this article was interesting: an LGBT group sent a petition to the Mormon Church that basically wanted them to denounce gay-bashing, in light of the recent suicide from the man whose roommate taped and released online a video of him with another man. The mormon church has historically been very against gay rights, as shown by the recent 'prop 8' controversy in California. The Mormon church flooded the state with millions of political dollars to fund ads portraying prop 8, which would outlaw gay marriage, as something that everyone should vote for, despite the fact that most of the money was from people who did not live in California. This shows a somewhat progressive turnaround from the Mormon Church, and one does not usually see such quick turnarounds in political policies like this. I think it shows how quickly American society is moving towards an acceptance of gay rights policies, that a large religious institution is swayed so quickly. Even though the Church's statement still condemns gay marriage, it mentions support of almost all other gay rights.

http://www.religiondispatches.org/dispatches/joannabrooks/3539/gay_rights_org_delivers_150,000-signature_petition_to_lds_church/

Insanely artsy Sukkahs

With the holiday of Sukkot coming up, I thought this post about all these modern art style sukkahs in NYC was pretty relevant

http://sukkahcity.com/

Singing the Torah

http://www.ellietorah.com/

I know a lot of people were interested in the sounds and the song that the Cantor sang for us from the Torah last class, so I found this guide to trope. Trope is the method of annotation that tells us what sounds to make on what syllables of which words in the Torah, this site has some pretty good sound samples and examples of Trope.

Castro's message to Ahmadinejad

http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2010/09/fidel-to-ahmadinejad-stop-slandering-the-jews/62566/

Man...When Fidel Castro says you're being way too crazy, it's maybe time to shut up and sit down.

Religious leaders across America speak out against 'Burn a Q'uran Day'

It is heartening to see people coming together across all faiths to support the intolerance of intolerant people. Too often in our day and age, people stay silent against bigotry and injustice. The one thing a tolerant society cannot tolerate is intolerance.

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/Religion/post/2010/09/koran-quran-patraeus-burn-dove-mosque/1

A somewhat more in depth look at Sarah Palin's church

http://www.alternet.org/rights/97939/

Interesting to note that her splinter sect of Evangelical Christianity has been declared heretical by the other Evangelicals.