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And Moses gathered all the congregation of the Children of Israel and he said to them: These are the things that G-d commanded to do them. For six days you shall work and on the seventh day, it will be holy for you, a Shabbat of Shabbats for G-d, whoever does work on it will be put to death. You shall not burn fire in your dwellings on the day of Shabbat. (From this week's Torah portion, Vayakhel, Exodus 35: 1-3) The commandment to observe the Shabbat is often woven together with the commandments of the Temple. What is the...

Featured Term (selected at random):HUMANISM Name originally given to the intellectual, literary, and scientific movements of the fourteenth century through the early sixteenth. Their aim was to base every branch of learning on the culture of classical Greek and Roman antiquity. On its pagan side, it extolled the early non-Christian writers who stressed the full development of human nature, only vaguely interested in life after death. On its Christian side, believing humanists encouraged the free use of the treasures of antiquity without compromising the truths of the Gospel. Christian humanism began with Dante (1265-1321), while pagan humanism reached its peak...

Comparing Christianity and the New Paganism The most serious challenge for Christianity today isn't one of the other great religions of the world, such as Islam or Buddhism. Nor is it simple atheism, which has no depth, no mass appeal, no staying power. Rather, it's a religion most of us think is dead. That religion is paganism — and it is very much alive. Paganism is simply the natural gravity of the human spirit, the line of least resistance, religion in its fallen state. The "old" paganism came from the country. Indeed, the very word "paganism" comes from the Latin...

A study using census data from nine countries shows that religion there is set for extinction, say researchers.The study found a steady rise in those claiming no religious affiliation.The team's mathematical model attempts to account for the interplay between the number of religious respondents and the social motives behind being one.The result, reported at the American Physical Society meeting in Dallas, US, indicates that religion will all but die out altogether in those countries.The team took census data stretching back as far as a century from countries in which the census queried religious affiliation: Australia, Austria, Canada, the Czech Republic,...

More than eighty years ago, America began moving away from its' founding Biblical-based worldview to what President Calvin Coolidge identified as "pagan materialism." Fearing for the future of our Constitutional Republic he said in a speech delivered on the 150th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, July 5, 1926: "Democracy is Christ's government in church and state," said Coolidge as he quoted John Wise (1710). "Here was the doctrine of equality, popular sovereignty, and the substance of the theory of inalienable rights....When we take all these circumstances into consideration, it is but natural that the first paragraph of the Declaration...

And Moses and Aaron were brought again to Pharaoh; and he said to them: 'Go, serve Hashem your God; who exactly is going?' (From this week's Torah portion, Bo, Exodus 10:8) The real issue debated in the exchange between Pharaoh, Moses and Aaron is Pharaoh's political/theological status. "The river is mine and I made myself," says Pharaoh, according to the Midrash. Modern man has repeated this statement in varying forms, many times over. I am the focal point of creation, it is my will that determines what will be and everything else is simply a narrative or other post-modern postulation....

The Lehigh Valley Humanists — an 18-month-old group of rationalists, agnostics and atheists — is bringing the so-called "anti-Claus" to speak about the sacred and secular meanings of Christmas at the Allentown Brew Works this weekend. His name is Tom Flynn. Best-known as the author of a book called "The Trouble With Christmas," he has spent nearly two decades lecturing on why the holiday celebration ought to be tamed for the sake of non-Christians who resent the annual full-scale assault of cheer. "The bloated feast demands the sacrifice of 36 million trees and causes almost 80,000 tons of discarded wrapping...

The 19th century was the nursery for contemporary politics. Every form of modern political activity -- fascism, communism, socialism, liberalism -- has its roots in that epoch. (Yes, I'm fully aware of such figures as Locke, Burke, Madison, and Jefferson, but their work was hijacked and twisted all out of recognition, in large part by French revolutionaries and assorted German academics. Edmund Burke was so appalled by this that, having invented modern liberalism, he turned around and invented modern conservatism.) Anything coming out of the 19th century is going to be imbued with rationalism, the dominant intellectual credo of the...

Another Columbus day has come and gone and those who resent Western Civilisation have used the occasion to try to shame us into a state of collective guilt for being happy about the discovery of the New World. Tongue in cheek indeed, they mockingly say that the way to celebrate the day Columbus set foot on an island in the Caribbean, would be to take someone else’s house, or to give them a case of smallpox. There are many who are even calling for October 11 to become a national day of mourning for what Europeans have done to indigenous...

And all the earth was of one language and one speech. (From this week's Torah portion, Noach, Genesis 11:1) It is impossible not to draw parallels between the opening of the story of the Tower of Babel and the modern global village. Once again, the entire world is of one language and one speech. Everyone is connected to everyone, speaking to everyone and at least in the Western world, everyone is motivated by the same ideas. Ultimately, this uniformity leads to a war against the Creator and to the re-scattering of humanity. We are at the threshold of a new...

Seniors at a New Haven, Conn., high school will not be graduating “in the year of our Lord” this year – or any future years, according to the superintendent of schools. The school district has removed the traditional phrase from high school diplomas after someone complained. “It’s a religious thing,” Superintendent Reginald Mayo told the New Haven Register. “I’m surprised it took this long for someone to notice it. We certainly don’t want to offend anyone.” Last year, former alderwoman Ina Silverman filed a complaint about “in the year of our Lord" when her daughter was a student at Wilbur...

Pico della Mirandola was a thinker who lived in 15th century Florence. The notion of the world he nurtured was somewhat differing to the one we favor today. Not to speak of the ideas of the unforgiving clerics of that time. Despite this, Pico della Mirandola's ideas on the image of man are relevant. This is how educated inhabitants of Renaissance Florence interpreted God's one and only message to man: ``We have given you, O Adam, no visage proper to yourself, nor endowment properly your own, in order that whatever place, whatever form, whatever gifts you may, with premeditation, select,...

One week before the most solemn day in the Christian year, the city of Davenport, Iowa removed Good Friday from its municipal calendar, setting off a storm of complaints from Christians and union members whose contracts give them that day off. Taking a recommendation by the Davenport Civil Rights Commission to change the holiday's name to something more ecumenical, City Administrator Craig Malin sent a memo to municipal employees announcing Good Friday would officially be known as "Spring Holiday." "My phone has been ringing off the hook since Saturday," said city council alderman Bill Edmond. "People are genuinely upset because...

A 10-minute historical look at one of the most enduring theological debates within the Christian religion. The scholars in the video make a case for how and why Arminianism (Free Will theology) is the root of the vast liberalism we see in the professing church today (and arguably the liberalism we see in the greater Western culture and modern world.)

Even though the Bible was completed 2,000 years ago, long before the invention of the microscope, the telescope, satellites, etc. it does not contain any scientific errors. This might be considered a miracle in itself. Without exception, every ancient religious writing has certain unscientific views of astronomy, medicine, hygiene, etc. The Qur’an says in Surah 18:86 that the sun sets in a muddy spring. Qur’an 18:86 “…when he reached the setting-place of the sun, he found it setting in a muddy spring” The only exception to these kinds of errors, among ancient religious writings, is the Bible. Not only is...

The American Humanist Association is expanding its “Godless Holiday” advertising campaign to five major American cities this Christmas -- taking its message of a holiday season without religion nationwide for the first time. The ads read: “No God -- no problem! Be good for goodness’ sake. Humanism is the idea that you can be good without a belief in God” and feature several people in red and white Santa hats. The new ads come on the heels of an AHA campaign last year which asked “Why believe in a God?” and featured ads on public transit in Washington, D.C. Previously,...

There are only 35 shopping days left until Christmas. I'm keenly aware of this primarily because of those overcaffeinated Glee-show-choir-in-red-white-and-blue-alpine-sweaters-and-ear-flaps-making-high school-cheerleading-pyramids Gap ads that started running about a week ago. You know, the ones where they chant a little ditty titled, annoyingly, "Happy Dowhateveryouwannukah." "Go Christmas! Go Hannukah! Go Kwanzaa! Go Solstice!" the exceptionally good-looking, multicultural, skinny-jeans-clad cheerbots shout. "You 86 the rules, you do what just feels right," they cheer, before entreating us to "do whatever [we] wannukkah" this ambiguous winter holiday season. Their jangly dance number ends by wishing us "a cheery night." How festive, you say? Meh....

The role of religion in public life in Sweden has been brought into sharp relief by a provocative ad campaign questioning the existence of God. Earlier this week, billboards went up in several Stockholm subway stations and elsewhere around the city proclaiming, “God probably doesn’t exist” (Gud finns nog inte). Accompanying the proclamation are images of three flags featuring symbols from Judaism, Islam, and Christianity fashioned in the same shades of blue and yellow found on the Swedish flag. The ads come from the Swedish Humanist Association (Humanisterna), and are part of a campaign to further debate about the impact...

Why not legalize same-sex marriage? Who could it possibly hurt? Children and the rest of society. That’s the conclusion of David Blankenhorn, who is anything but an anti-gay “bigot.” He is a life-long, pro-gay, liberal democrat who disagrees with the Bible’s prohibitions against homosexual behavior. Despite this, Blankenhorn makes a powerful case against Same-Sex marriage in his book, The Future of Marriage. He writes, “Across history and cultures . . . marriage’s single most fundamental idea is that every child needs a mother and a father. Changing marriage to accommodate same-sex couples would nullify this principle in culture and in...

Dangerous Turn Ahead: Traveling down the road to compromise by Henry Morris, Ph.D.* Genesis 1:1 states, "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." This is the first and foremost apologetic. If a person stumbles on this one profound truth, a lifetime of doubt and confusion lies ahead for him, full of uncertainty about the ultimate purpose for being alive. But when a Christian attempts to alter this ultimate statement of reality to fit the compromising philosophies of men--even scientifically-trained professionals--then woe to him for his unbelief and, even graver still, for teaching others that unbelief. The following...