Free Republic

Religions have surprisingly diverse approaches to the issue of possible extraterrestrial life, David Weintraub found. Below, a quick survey adapted from his book "Religions and Extraterrestrial Life: How Will We Deal With It?" and interviews with the author.

DECHANTSKIRCHEN, Austria, Oct. 9 (UPI) -- Officials at an Austrian elementary school said yoga lessons were stricken from the curriculum due to a complaint from a parent who cited "religious reasons." Ingrid Karner, who taught yoga to students once a month during gym classes at the school in Dechantskirchen, told the Kleine Zeitung newspaper the classes had been popular with students and their parents until one parent's complaint led to yoga being banned from the curriculum. "All I heard was that according to the Bible yoga should not be allowed and it would lead the children in the wrong direction,"...

A stampede at a popular religious festival in eastern India on Friday left 32 people dead and several dozen injured, an official said. Thousands of people had gathered to celebrate the Dussehra festival at a ground in the city of Patna in Bihar state, when panic erupted, officials said. It was unclear what triggered the stampede, which occurred as crowds were leaving the venue after watching giant effigies of the Hindu demon king Ravana set ablaze for Dussehra, which celebrates the victory of good over evil. "We have information that 32 people including women and children died due to a...

New Delhi — The family and followers of one of India’s wealthiest Hindu spiritual leaders are fighting a legal battle over whether he is dead or simply in a deep state of meditation. His Holiness Shri Ashutosh Maharaj, the founder of the Divya Jyoti Jagrati Sansthan religious order, with a property estate worth an estimated US$167-million, died in January, according to his wife and son. However, his disciples at his ashram have refused to let the family take his body for cremation because they claim he is still alive. According to his followers, based in the Punjab city of Jalandhar,...

Newly elected Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has officially invited Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to Modi’s inauguration ceremony, according to India’s victorious Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The BBC reported that this is believed to be the first time an olive branch of this magnitude has been extended to Pakistan’s Prime Minister. On May 16, Modi and the BJP were victorious in an Indian election that experienced the highest quantitative voter turnout in history. Modi is set to take the oath as India’s new leader on May 26. In addition to Pakistan, Modi has also reached out to neighboring states...

The evils of the caste system are regularly expounded in contemporary writings. In The Open Society and Its Enemies, Karl Popper argued that Plato’s ideal state, with it three-tier structure, is totalitarian. Yet, as others have noted, Plato's ideal represents an improvement upon the rigid caste structure that characterized ancient societies. Plato suggested that some particularly gifted individuals should be trained to work outside of their caste. This was a radical idea for his time (B.C. 428-347). The egalitarian nature of American society makes castes anathema. We react strongly to perceived or real limitations of our freedom of choice. On...

First paragraph excerpt: Of all the moral precepts instilled in Buddhist monks the promise not to kill comes first, and the principle of non-violence is arguably more central to Buddhism than any other major religion. So why have monks been using hate speech against Muslims and joining mobs that have left dozens dead?

Italy, December 14, 2012 (articolotre.com): [HPI notes: This article is a translation of the original Italian language article. The Hindu population of Italy is at least five times greater than the number mentioned here.] A new milestone for religious freedom and equality between religions in Italy: The parliament has finally approved an agreement with the Italian Hindu Union (Sanatana Dharma Sangha) and the Italy Buddhist Union. These religions will now have the ability to open schools and have access to limited state funding. Article 8 of our Constitution provides for freedom for all religions that do not conflict with Italian...

Many people in India know that, according to their narrative, Jews have lived in their country for two thousand years. They are very proud of the fact that Jews have lived there for so long without experiencing indigenous anti-Semitism. It supports their self-perception as an extremely tolerant and welcoming society to foreign religious minorities. "The fact that Jews lived in India without experiencing persecution is part and parcel of contemporary Hindu identity. This is especially significant for Indians as tensions with Muslims become stronger and friction with Christian missionaries is highlighted in the world press. Indians want to be able...

A disturbing action known as "love jihad" is gaining notoriety after several reports have emerged of young impressionable women being seduced by Muslim men who wish to manipulate them and use them in an effort to aid their jihad. Troves of diplomatic cables were disclosed to the public after the WikiLeaks incident, and one of the cables revealed how foreign officials were monitoring what they referred to as "love jihad" -- an alleged conspiracy of foreign-funded "charming" Muslim men attempting to seduce, marry and convert Hindu and Christian women to be used in the jihadi effort. One such correspondence from...

Almost all Christian denominations can be traced to 3 main traditions - the Catholic, the Protestant, and the Eastern Orthodox traditions. All three traditions are based on the Bible. Mormonism is a religion that has a heritage that is very different from traditional Christianity, and is based on the Book of Mormon. The theological differences that separate a Baptist from a Catholic, are not the same as those which separate a Baptist from a Mormon, or a Catholic from a Mormon. In a dispute between a Baptist and a Catholic, they will argue over whether Church tradition prevails over scripture...

ISLAMABAD: Text books in Pakistani schools foster prejudice and intolerance of Hindus and other religious minorities, while most teachers view non-Muslims as ”enemies of Islam,” according to a study by a US government commission released on Wednesday. The findings indicate how deeply ingrained hard-line Islam is in Pakistan and help explain why militancy is often supported, tolerated or excused in the country. ”Teaching discrimination increases the likelihood that violent religious extremism in Pakistan will continue to grow, weakening religious freedom, national and regional stability, and global security,” said Leonard Leo, the chairman of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom....

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...

20-year-old Jessica Mokdad is dead. Her stepfather Rahim Alfetlawi shot Jessica in the head while she was at her grandmother's Michigan home. Alfetlawi was upset that Jessica was not living by strict Muslim customs, according to a report in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and so he killed her this past Saturday. Meanwhile, in an upcoming Vanity Fair article, singer Katy Perry complains of not having a "childhood" because she was raised in a Christian home. Perry is riding the top of the music charts and making tons of money singing songs like "Teenage Dream" and "Hot N Cold," having escaped...

In Sunday’s edition of The New York Times — the front page, no less — reporter Paul Vitello writes about “a surprisingly fierce debate in the gentle world of yoga.” Well, welcome to my world. My last few weeks have been heavy into “fierce debate” and light on “the gentle world” part. It all started when I was asked to answer a practical pastoral question: Should Christians Practice Yoga? My answer was the answer long offered by those committed to orthodox biblical Christianity — No. There is nothing wrong with stretching exercises, and Christians are called to meditate upon the...

Warning to Christians: There may be churches that will bless your Blackberry, but your favorite morning workout may undermine your faith. In a recent blog post, Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr. president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, examines the argument that practicing yoga may be in direct conflict with the values of Christianity. "Yoga begins and ends with an understanding of the body that is, to say the very least, at odds with the Christian understanding," Mohler writes.

"The sea, which had been beating against the shores, suddenly broke the boundary that was imposed on it by nature. The sea rushed into the city. It coursed through the streets of the beautiful city. The sea covered up everything in the city. Arjuna saw the beautiful buildings becoming submerged one by one. He took a last look at the mansion of Krishna. In a matter of a few moments it was all over. The sea had now become as placid as a lake. There was no trace of the beautiful city, which had been the favourite haunt of all...

I had always been taught to believe in the homogeneity of the pious. But a year after September 11, as I snuck into a Thursday afternoon zikr at the Masjid al-Farah twelve blocks from the still smoldering Ground Zero, I was not so sure. It was Ramadan and the tradition of breaking of the fast, the iftar was going to happen after the zikr, or Sufi chanting. Looking around, I felt this was hippie for the Muslims. It was like the Muslim Woodstock or Burning Man. Clearly the congregants would prefer granola bars to kebabs. They wore all manner of...

Her parents were Baptist and Catholic and she was born in Georgia, part of the US Bible Belt. But Hollywood superstar Julia Roberts says she is now a practising Hindu. Speaking to the September issue of Elle magazine, Roberts said she goes to the temple to "chant, pray and celebrate." The 42-year-old actress, who won a million hearts with Pretty Woman and an Oscar with Erin Brockowich, took to Hinduism during the shooting of her upcoming film, `Eat, Pray and Love' last year. In the movie, she plays a divorced woman who travels to Italy for food, India for spirituality...

SOUTH BRUNSWICK — As a Muslim growing up in East Brunswick, Atiya Aftab missed classes and had to make up school work to be with her family on two important holidays: Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting, and Eid al-Adha, the Feast of Sacrifice. As a mother of three in South Brunswick, Aftab has seen her children go through the same thing. Until now. In a decision that sent ripples of hope across the Muslim community well beyond New Jersey, the South Brunswick Board of Education has approved school closings in the...