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A new study shows that attending religious services regularly can mean a more optimistic, less depressed, and less cynical outlook on life. In a follow-up to its 2008 report that found that attending services increases life expectancy, the Women's Health Initiative observational study based this report on a survey of 92,539 post-menopausal women over 50. The participants made up an ethnically, religiously, and socioeconomically diverse group. According to the report, to be published this week in the Journal of Religion and Health, those who attend services frequently were 56% more likely to have an optimistic life outlook than those who...

The Budist is a Christian. You won't find much difference in Budism with that of Christianity. Buda preached accepting sufferings calmly, so did Christ. That's what Beinsa Douno said in regards to Budism. Any budists coming here on this forum?

Nigeria: Radical Muslim sect grows more dangerous ........... "Whomever we kill, we kill because Allah says we should kill and we kill for a reason," Shekau says in a recording of a sermon obtained by The Associated Press. Boko Haram, which in August bombed the United Nations headquarters in Nigeria, is the gravest security threat to Africa's most populous nation and is gaining prominence despite efforts by the military and police to stamp it out. A security agency crackdown, which human rights activists say has left innocent civilians dead, could be winning the insurgency even more supporters. ........... " The...

Plenty of people throughout history have pondered the possibility that extraterrestrial intelligent life exists on a planet other than Earth, but how does that relate to Christian theology and teachings? The idea that life could exist elsewhere and how it might relate to Christian and Catholic beliefs will be the topic of a free lecture Tuesday at St. John's Seminary in Camarillo. The Rev. Dr. Thomas O'Meara, retired University of Notre Dame theology professor and nationally renown author and speaker, will present his lecture, "Christian Theology and Extraterrestrial Intelligent Life," at 7 p.m. Members of the public are welcome. O'Meara,...

A judge has sentenced two members of an Oregon church that embraces faith healing to more than six years in prison, telling them they could easily have kept their newborn son alive. The Oregonian reports the sentences handed down Monday ( http://bit.ly/sEPJVl) are the harshest sanctions yet for members of the Followers of Christ church. The Oregon City congregation shuns traditional medicine in favor of faith-healing rituals such as prayer and rubbing oil on the sick.

The Good Prayer by Beinsa Douno Lord God, our tender Heavenly Father, Who has given us Life and health to rejoice in You – we pray to You: send us Your Spirit to shelter and protect us from every evil and cunning thought.Teach us to do Your Will, to sanctify Your Name and to glorify You always. Enlighten our spirit, guide also our hearts and minds to keep Your commandments and instructions. By Your presence, inspire within us Your pure thoughts and guide us to serve You with joy. Bless our lives, which we dedicate to You for the sake...

Christian apologist William Craig has offered a response to atheist intellectual Richard Dawkins who called him "a deplorable apologist for genocide" in his column last week. In a speech at the Sheldonian Theater at Oxford University on Tuesday, Craig responded to Dawkins' allegations during the question and answer session. “There was no racial war here, no command to kill them all,” he said, alluding to extermination of the Canaanites in the Old Testament, “the command was to drive them out.” He then said: “I would say that God has the right to give and take life as He sees fit....

I read that carbon dating method is only accurate for up to 30,000 yrs. So how are scientists coming up with millions yrs. old fossils? For all we know dinosaurs died off not millions but 100's of thousands of yrs ago.

Michael Voris of RealCatholic TV discusses Mormonism and Protestantism: http://www.youtube.com/user/RealCatholicTV#p/search/0/zQZBukPUwAA

I hope that it's okay to post this in the Religion forum!? I have been thinking about this for quite some time now and have come to my own conclusion and that is .. GOD HAS TO EXIST and not only does he exist .. He is the main argument Against the now popular 'Multi-verse' scenario! Scientists from many different areas are pondering an infinite number of universes to explain our existence. They talk about 'string theories' and 'infinite universes' where anything and everything can and does exist! An example may be that in one universe, I am alive but...

Don't feel embarrassed if you've never heard of William Lane Craig. He parades himself as a philosopher, but none of the professors of philosophy whom I consulted had heard his name either. Perhaps he is a "theologian". For some years now, Craig has been increasingly importunate in his efforts to cajole, harass or defame me into a debate with him. I have consistently refused, in the spirit, if not the letter, of a famous retort by the then president of the Royal Society: "That would look great on your CV, not so good on mine". Craig's latest stalking foray has...

DURHAM, N.C.—Eben Alexander was your typical neurosurgeon. A firm believer of scientific reductionism, he thought that all thoughts originate from the brain. But this changed in 2008 when he encountered a case of near-death experience (NDE). As much as it was the complete opposite of his previous views, he couldn’t dismiss or avoid the case—it was none other than his own experience, and he had to face it and search for an explanation. Having contracted acute bacterial meningitis, which damages the neocortex—the part of the brain that is thought to involve complex cognitive functions like conscious thought—Alexander went into a...

Melanie Pritchard and her daughter Ella, whom Melanie nearly died giving birth to. PHOENIX, AZ, October 4, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Midnight contraction pains signaled to Melanie Pritchard that labor was beginning. If all went well, her baby would have a birth date on July 28th, 2010. Melanie phoned her mother to say that her husband Doug was taking her to the hospital. That phone call was the last event that Melanie remembers, the beginning of a 3-day dramatic ordeal that nearly took her life and the life of her unborn child. Pritchard, aged 34, is a nationally renowned Catholic defender...

WASHINGTON (RNS) White evangelicals and Tea Party members are less likely to believe in evolution and climate change than most Americans, a finding that could pose a particular problem for Republican presidential hopefuls. A new poll released Thursday (Sept. 22) also showed that a majority of Americans (57 percent) believes in evolution, and an even larger majority (69 percent) believes in climate change—though many still disagree that the phenomenon is based on human activity. But most Americans do not insist that their presidential candidates share their views on these issues, nor do they believe scientists have come to a consensus...

Many people who work in the field of psychology argue against the idea that a person can change their sexual orientation. But a new study published in the October edition of the Journal of Sex and Marital Therapy reveals that some homosexuals who seek to change their sexual orientation may be able to do so with the help of religious mediation. The study, conducted by psychologists Stanton L. Jones of Wheaton College and Mark A. Yarhouse of Regent University, examined changes in homosexuals who sought the help of Exodus International in trying to change their sexual orientation. Researches tracked changes...

Go to www.thegodhaters.com to order the e-Book. Christian Apologist Publishes his 14th Book! Don Boys, Ph.D. recently published The God-Haters: Angry Atheists, Shallow Scholars, Silly Scientists, Pagan Preachers, and Embattled Evolutionists Declare War on Christians! Boys re-read books by the famous atheists of the past then read the writings of the crop of New Atheists who have declared war upon Christians, Christ, and the Church–mainly Dawkins, Hitchens, Dennett, Harris and Company known as the Four Horsemen of New Atheism. The author declares that the atheists’ books are filled with mistakes, mishmash, and misinformation. He said, “Every time I finished one...

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams thinks “atheism is cool” and that’s made it difficult for his church to convey its message. Well, he’s right that there’s been a recent surge in the popularity of atheism, but that’s not the reason the church isn’t growing. Think back to the “cool” people you know in high school. They were the ones willing to say what no one else was saying, the people who always maintained a certain level of confidence, the people who didn’t care what you thought because it just didn’t matter. That’s the position a lot of young atheists are...

JERUSALEM — Two thousand years after they were written and decades after they were found in desert caves, some of the world-famous Dead Sea Scrolls went online for the first time on Monday in a project launched by Israel's national museum and web giant Google. The appearance of five of the most important Dead Sea scrolls on the Internet is part of a broader attempt by the custodians of the celebrated manuscripts — who were once criticized for allowing them to be monopolized by small circles of scholars — to make them available to anyone with a computer. See msnbc.com's...

Firstly, as I reported before there is a huge piece of flaming hurtling death-inflicting space junk falling to earth even as I write. I calmly explained the facts here in my post entitled “RUN! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES! FALLING BURNING SPACE BUS! AAAAH!“. Go to confession, do your penance, make some Mystic Monk Coffee just wait for it to happen.Second, I understand from a friend in Rome who sent a story from ANSA that the flaming hurtling space junk may hit Northern Italy. If that is the case, to all my Italian friends in the north I issue a blanket...

VATICAN CITY, SEPT. 21, 2011 (Zenit.org).- What is the proper gift for a Pope on the Day for the Protection of Creation? According to the Italian agricultural group Coldiretti, it's about a half million bees.Italy's largest farming association gave Benedict XVI eight beehives containing more than 500,000 bees last Sunday.The beehives will be kept at the pontifical farm of Castel Gandolfo, where they will be used in pollination and the production of honey (some 617 pounds a year).Coldiretti explained that bees "play a vital role in the planet's ecosystem and their disappearance would have disastrous consequences for health and the...