Shift in the Zeitgeist…

http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/ is an online form which new US President Obama says anyone can use to contact the US Government.
The White House website declares:
President Obama is committed to creating the most open and accessible administration in American history. To send questions, comments, concerns, or well-wishes to the President or his staff, please use the form below
The whole website [...]

Read Full Post »

Cremation Story

Burning of the dead is an ancient practice which persists in many cultures; European cremation urns can be seen in museums and columbariums, dating beyond the end of the Roman Empire.
Cremation was common at that time but not within the Jewish faith and for the early Christians, who were culturally Jewish.
In Islam, human interference with the body of the deceased was traditionally strictly forbidden, and though modern Muslims [...]

Read Full Post »

Poem

Being Human: a poem
So long as life in me has breath
I will not live in fear of death,
Nor shall avoiding daily strife
Hinder living my own life,
Instead, employing each device
Love grants us: Earth is sacrifice.
 
Though many might alas nay-say,
I will not flinch my judgement day
When all uncovered I may be:
The best, the worst, the ALL of me…
Those [...]

Read Full Post »

Don’t buy more tunnel!

 
 
  I cannot swallow whole the view of Lincoln as the Great Emancipator.

~ Barack Obama
 Why not?
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A PROCLAMATION
Whereas, it has become necessary to call into service not only volunteers but also portions of the militia of the States by draft in order to suppress the insurrection existing in [...]

Read Full Post »

What’s in a name?

‘The Child is father of the Man;
And I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety’

~ William Wordsworth, Ode : Intimations of Immortality
Early childhood shapes the whole of our lives, as Wordsworth noted in the early nineteenth century: we hope to provide our beloved infants with delight and liberty, the simple [...]

Read Full Post »

In *what* we trust?

That which science refuses to grant to religion is not its right to exist, but its right to dogmatize upon the nature of things and the special competence which it claims for itself for knowing man and the world. As a matter of fact, it does not know itself. It does not even know what [...]

Read Full Post »

Truth in jest

from Eliot Gershenson’s New Year Letter to Houston Interfaith supporters:
 
 

A THOUGHT TO PONDER
I was struck by a comic strip in the Sunday, December 28th, Houston Chronicle. 
I think that reading the comics keeps us young.  Humor does that. 
Every once in a while humor pierces the walls that separate us.  Take a look at it below.  [...]

Read Full Post »

Today’s NewScientist Christian Aid ad

Christian Aid doesn’t just give Christians aid.
That wouldn’t be very ‘christian’ would it?

Poverty doesn’t discriminate between religions. So we don’t.
Christian Aid works with people of all religions and none to tackle poverty and injustice in around 50 countries worldwide.
We fund long-term development projects in areas such as agriculture, healthcare, education and training. And in [...]

Read Full Post »