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Romney Banking on Trump’s Birthers Pulling Him Over Finish Line

…ruary, that Romney was replaced by this one: [W]ithout question, the legal code in this country is based upon Judeo-Christian values and teachings, Biblical teachings, and for the president not to understand that a wide array of religions and a conviction that Judeo-Christian philosophy is an integral part of our foundation is really an extraordinary thing. I think again that the president takes his philosophical leanings in this regard, not from…

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Inventing “Jihad”

…non-Muslims in order to expand Muslim realms while observing humanitarian codes of conduct against civilians is more or less accepted as a given, even by many specialists of Islam. The proof-texts invoked in support of such a position are medieval Islamic legal texts, which frequently did list such a requirement as part of the duties of the Muslim ruler and established furthermore an elaborate code of conduct for initiating war. And this is where…

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American Nuns and the Vatican: More Pain than Promise

…ps this is because there is not much content, or at least not much that is new or helpful for creating the next phase of religious life set in an egalitarian church. Rather, he offered “the Congregation’s response to the Visitator’s General Report” with the sociological information of high median age/low number of new members. He avoided discussing the sticky wickets about Christo-centric prayer as opposed to the spiritual eclecticism that many re…

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Upside Down Judaism: Why Are Progressives Studying Talmud?

…ion from a grounded Jewish space and in a textured Jewish vocabulary. This new tenor, tone, sensibility, aesthetic, and hermeneutic of social justice as a textually-grounded Jewish practice opens up the door to a new mode of envisioning Judaism and Jewish identity which moves beyond denominational labels (Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist, Renewal, Humanist…). The Judaism that is being constructed by these practices is a Judaism wh…

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Pastors Urged to Defy IRS to Defeat Evil, Hitlerian Obama

…the day in 1954 when the “Johnson amendment” language was put into the tax code was the day that “changed America” and set the stage for bad Supreme Court decisions and everything else that has gone wrong since the 1960s. Pulpit Freedom Sunday participants agree to preach political sermons, send them to the IRS, and dare the agency to sue them. The Alliance Defending Freedom (formerly known as the Alliance Defense Fund) has offered legal help to c…

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“Traditional” Marriage or a Break with Tradition?

…sent took the traditional acceptance of private agreement to marriage to a new level, requiring the Church to support the validity of a marriage even if the parents had not given permission. If a man and woman claimed they had exchanged marital vows—out by the haystack or behind the stable, without any witnesses—then they were validly married in the eyes of the Church, unless they were slaves or non-believers. In 1215, the Church decreed that a “l…

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Is Christianity Simply About God Entering the Uterus of a Jewish Virgin?

Just the other day, a friend forwarded me a mass-mailed promotion for Free Inquiry magazine (a publication in which, incidentally, I had an article published a couple of years ago). The brochure was emblazoned with the following warning: “If you wish to avoid spending eternity roasting in HELL, do not open and read this brochure.” Having no fear of hell, I opened it and fished for what my friend said would be inside: a note from Richard Dawkins e…

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On Pi Day, Puzzling Over the Most Famous Transcendental Number

…calculated pi long enough, you’d eventually find the works of Shakespeare coded in 1’s and 0’s. “Somewhere inside the digits of pi is a representation for all of us — the atomic coordinates of all our atoms, our genetic code, a coding of our motions and all our thoughts through time, all our memories…. Given this fact, all of us are alive, and hopefully happy, in pi. Pi makes us live forever. We all lead virtual lives in pi. We are immortal,” Pic…

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What’s the Problem With a Good Placebo?

…asing endogenous opiates in the brain for pain relief. To these we can add new insights about how our mental states can influence our immune systems and regulate powerful hormones in our bodies. Too much mental stress, for instance, releases cortisol in our bloodstream—a powerful steroid that, over time, weakens our immune system. Psychosomatic effects are not really isolated in individual patients, as physicians tend to assume: a better term inst…

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Tinkering with Creation: Intelligent Design 2.0

…ionists’ latest strategy. His is merely relying on what Forrest calls the “code words.” But their long-term goals remain the same: To get God into science class. The full statement in the Texas standards reads: “The student is expected to analyze, review, and critique scientific explanations, including hypotheses and theories, as to their strengths and weaknesses using scientific evidence and information.” (Italics added.) McLeroy considers common…

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