what is written in the margin…..

"religious bodies - including institutions linked to the Catholic Church - need to be free to act in accordance with their own principles and specific convictions based upon the faith and the official teaching of the Church" 

Pope Benedict XVI, speaking at Westminster Hall, London on 17 Sept 2010.

In an interesting, if somewhat intellectual, analysis of the roles between religion and State, the Pope bemoaned the 'marginalisation of religion" in modern societies. Within the speech were the above words.

Freedom of religion is a precious and deeply treasured aspect of most modern democracies – yet that freedom is moderated by the requirement to honour and uphold the moral and/or ethical standards within a society as manifest by laws that protect human rights.

'Marginalisation' is nothing more or less than the refusal of society, and the peoples that constitute society, to accept a lower standard of behaviour from religious organisations than is required, practised and manifest within secular society.

Freedom to act within a religion pre-supposes a basic fundamental of respect for others. This is integral in Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, etc.etc. Time after time in ancient writings of any and all of these religions the same message is found – behave towards others as you wish them to behave towards you.

As has been observed before on this blog, society is now teaching ethics and morality to the major religions. For as long as that continues – and the major religions continue to espouse outdated and immoral standards of human rights – for this long shall the major religions continue to be marginalised.

< the scientific approach>(l+c=u)

 

"She had a wonderful sense of humour. I learned from her that the highest forms of understanding we can achieve are laughter and human compassion."

Richard Feynman, Nobel Prizewinner 1965 in Physics (jointly with Julian Schwinger and Sin-Itiro Tomonaga) talking about his mother.

getting grey…..

via

"Sincerity is the luxury allowed, like diadems and authority, only to the highest rank.

Every man alone is sincere.

At the entrance of a second person, hypocrisy begins"

Ralph Waldo Emerson

It kind of reminds me that as children we all have an innocence of faith/belief…. and then we fill ourselves with other people's experiences/ideas/concepts….so that by the time we are 30 years old, we have become fairly expert at making all the conceptual permutations that are necessary to allow us to do whatever we want, say whatever we want,….always claiming to be part of the 'peer group'.

it does not say what it says it says……..huh?

There is a general misunderstanding about 'old religious texts'. General simply because most people are busy getting on with their lives and have little time for in-depth study, Form Criticism or Higher Criticism researches occupy much time…so unless you are unemployed or long-term sick, you are unlikely to devote a lot of time to such researches.

For these reasons 'sound-byte religion' has become the norm at the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century.

So, check out this article which looks at some of the 'mirror settings' that can take a sacred text and severely alter or obscure it's intended meaning:

check out the full article HERE

interchangeable wisdoms

He said, "To do unto all men as you would wish to have done unto you, and to reject for others what you would reject for yourself."

via

Change the name of the religion, it doesn't really matter……some beautiful truths are universal.

remembered

Love makes hearts sing

Not everyone is trying to get headlines and attention by extreme actions – like terrorist activities or Burning Korans or complaining about new religious building a few blocks away from 'ground zero'..

CLICK HERE to have the full story about this inter-faith community in Memphis.

In these true events you can actually begin to understand the concept of 'the ONE GOD'

Not forgotten

always it is the children who pay………..

legalised paedophilia???

Ok. So we thought the Catholic Church had a pretty bad past on this subject. They are now paying the price in lost respect, revulsion and decline.

But as has been mentioned in this blog before, many 'religious organisations' are also revealed to be lacking in this morality. As has also been mentioned here, Islam – with it's seperate and warring clans and groups (Sunnis, Shia, Wahabbi, Alawites, Taleban, etc.etc.etc.) – is no stranger to Paedophilia.  However, most of the time this is presented as isolated incidents in modern life, or in the past.

So, take a look at modern Syria – where the government has actually removed 1000 teachers who wore the niquab – and read about recent 'proposed revisions' to State Law:

"…as a concession to Islamists, …..…a proposed rewrite of Syria’s personal status law, which governs civil matters, leaked last year, retained provisions that made it legal for men to marry girls as young as 13 years old"

via

Oh Dear, Islam…..between the BACHA BAZI in Afghanistan and proposed laws like this in Syria……and your reliance upon ethical and moral standards of more than 1000 years ago……you set a poor example in this modern world

Time to modernise………?

Carpe Diem…the children cry

The real differences around the world today are not between Jews and Arabs; Protestants and Catholics; Muslims, Croats, and Serbs.  The real differences are between those who embrace peace and those who would destroy it; between those who look to the future and those who cling to the past; between those who open their arms and those who are determined to clench their fists.  ~William J. Clinton, 1

inter-dependency

“The welfare of each of us is dependent fundamentally upon the welfare of all of us.”

Theodore Roosevelt

 

Spiritual Sudoku – Postscript 1

 

"There’s a seller’s market in ideologies that gives people a chance to feel victimized"

David Brooks    VIA

never-ending story

VIA

Many roads, ONE destination – One-ness.

"The great Sufi saints like the 13th-century Persian poet Rumi held that all existence and all religions were one, all manifestations of the same divine reality. What was important was not the empty ritual of the mosque, church, synagogue or temple, but the striving to understand that divinity can best be reached through the gateway of the human heart: that we all can find paradise within us, if we know where to look. In some ways Sufism, with its emphasis on love rather than judgment, represents the New Testament of Islam."  

William Dalrymple

via

spiritual sudoku

There are some who 'play the mind games' with spiritual truths. It's a kind of spiritual sudoku. It's entertaining. Sold as an expensive necessity to life or as the latest 'ticket to an enlightened nirvana", consciousness, or self-satisfying personal indulgence.

balancing polarities

“I have learned silence from the talkative,

tolerance from the intolerant,

and kindness from the unkind;

yet strangely, I am ungrateful to these teachers”

Kahlil Gibran

“Sometimes it is only when you meet the opposite of what you are

that you truly become what you are”     geoff groom

Respect is free

 

For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.
Nelson Mandela

never to late to say 'sorry'

At 93 – and following a stroke in 1996 – KIRK DOUGLAS still has important things to say, and does say them….

it is written……….

.

Eternal truths will be neither true nor eternal unless they have fresh meaning for every new social situation.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Healing kindness

"Research has shown that a simple act of kindness directed toward another improves the functioning of...[our] immune system[s] and stimulates the production of serotonin in both the recipient of the kindness and the person extending the kindness. Even more amazing is that persons observing the act of kindness have similar beneficial results. Imagine that! Kindness extended, received or observed, beneficially impacts the physical health and feelings of everyone involved"

 

The Power of Intention     Wayne Dyer, Ph.D