Religion Dispatches
…y up to $50,000 a year. Unlike Hovind, Hyman is giving away his system for free. All you have to do is sit through an hour-long video, during which Hyman explains how “to unlock vast amounts of wealth safely and ethically.” Fancy explanations are provided, but it’s actually rather simple. Hyman advises investors to research the company before buying a stock: “Is the business run well? Are customers happy and sales increasing?” Which is actually go…
Read More…powers of autonomy. A draft bylaw sent to AFP on Saturday outlaws anal sex between men and “the rubbing of body parts between women for stimulation”, and for the first time applies Islamic laws and punishments to non-Muslims. The bylaw also punishes adultery with 100 lashes of the cane. The bylaw reinforces previous sharia legislation that bans alcohol consumption, gambling, fraternising between unmarried men and women, and physical displays of af…
Read More
…onsibility for ourselves rather than consign our fate to our genes or God. Free will works better than any other single criterion for gauging the vitality of a life, or a society. Choices, freely made, are what make life meaningful. When people doubt free will, they are more likely to behave badly. After reading a passage from a book that challenged the validity of free will, students were more likely to cheat on a mathematics exam. Others were le…
Read More
…elevant, which is why the Westboro Church case will be decided strictly on free speech grounds and not as a free exercise case. Smith was immediately unpopular and congressional efforts to overturn it by statute met with limited success, leaving federal government actions that substantially burden religious practice subject to the compelling state interest test, but state and local laws exempt. The funeral privacy interest in Snyder is a generall…
Read More
…GOP, there’s no statistically significant difference in support for Trump between White evangelicals who are the most tightly connected to churches and those who are staying home on Sundays. But it remains true that six in ten White evangelicals continue to hold a favorable view of Trump, regardless of how often they go to church. Pew’s 2020 validated voters study found that two-thirds of White evangelicals who voted in 2020 attended religious se…
Read More
…ly well armed members of the anti-fascist John Brown Club). Restriction of Freedom Conspiracy Theories Conspiracy theories about governments restricting individual freedoms have been prevalent for many years and often gain traction during periods of social and political change or uncertainty. Here are some notable recent examples: 15-Minute Cities misinterprets the urban planning concept of ‘15-minute cities,‘ in which essential services and ameni…
Read More
…anuary 6th. Which brings us to the present day. Trump himself declared at a 2024 rally in Waco, TX: “Either we surrender to the demonic forces, abolishing and demolishing (and happily doing so) our country, or we defeat them in a landslide on November 5th, 2024.” To resist these “demonic forces,” two conservative Christian pastors, Lance Wallnau and Mario Murillo, started The Courage Tour. The Courage Tour aims to turn battleground states over to…
Read More…y) or the worship of the occult or the devil should not be broadcast.” The Free to Air Radio Program Code says “information, themes or subplots on lifestyles such as homosexuality, lesbianism, bisexualism, transsexualism, transvestism, paedophilia and incest should be treated with utmost caution. Their treatment should not in any way promote, justify or glamorize such lifestyles. Explicit dialogue or information concerning the above topics should…
Read More…rnment claims that the legislation will strengthen the NGOs’ work and help better promote the services they offer. It would do so by creating NGO monitoring offices at the district, regional, and national levels. That framework would also ensure that all rules and regulations set up by the bill are enforced…. Critics rebuke the bill as a rejection of the work that NGOs do in Uganda—to better the livelihood of its people, especially the underprivil…
Read More
…convincing was this product launch, complete with Facebook ad campaign and promotional website including a promo video that went viral, that a number of customers were disappointed and angry to find out that it was a fake. Part of the confusion seems to have been that the launch occurred on March 28, not the customary April 1. But just as important was consumer demand. Enough people were convinced by the slick product rollout that they actually wa…
Read More