Cleric says polio vaccination ‘un-islamic’, warns of jihad against docs
A cleric in Pakistan’s Punjab province has warned that a jihad would be launched against polio vaccination teams at a time when the World Health Organisation has expressed concern at the emergence of new cases of the disease across the country.Maulvi Ibrahim Chisti of Muzaffargarh district declared the anti-polio campaign as “un-Islamic” and announced at [...]
Woman says face-chewing attacker was religious
Published: Today MIAMI (AP) – There was no indication the man who chewed off the face of a homeless man had a history of mental illness or was using drugs other than marijuana, the attacker’s girlfriend said Wednesday. Yovonka Bryant said Rudy Eugene never showed any signs of violence during their four-month relationship. They often [...]
NC Pastor Wants To Build Electrified Fence To Contain, Starve And Ultimately Kill Gays: VIDEO| News | Towleroad
In a sermon blasting President Obama for his same-sex marriage support, Pastor Charles L. Worley of Providence Road Baptist Church in Maiden, North Carolina, offered a novel — and horrific — solution to the so-called gay scourge: build an electric fence and let “lesbians, queers and homosexuals” starve to death.”I figured a way to get [...]
Religious Experiences Shrink Part of the Brain: Scientific American
The article, “Religious factors and hippocampal atrophy in late life,” by Amy Owen and colleagues at Duke University represents an important advance in our growing understanding of the relationship between the brain and religion. The study, published March 30 in PLoS One, showed greater atrophy in the hippocampus in individuals who identify with specific religious [...]
‘When God Talks Back,’ by T.M. Luhrmann – NYTimes.com
Secular Americans’ worst fears have come true: there is now scientific evidence that evangelical churches brainwash believers. They don’t merely teach that Adam and Eve actually existed and that gay marriage is an abomination. They change the way their members’ brains work. But T. M. Luhrmann, a psychological anthropologist at Stanford, argues that this is [...]
Nigeria Christians hit by fresh Islamist attacks
Nigeria has been hit by a fresh wave of violence apparently targeting the country’s Christian communities.At least 17 people were killed in Mubi in Adamawa state as gunmen opened fire in a town hall where members of the Christian Igbo group were meeting.There were also reports of a deadly attack in Adamawa’s capital, Yola.The Islamist [...]
Pagan mom outraged after school gives son Bible
Ginger Strivelli is a different kind of Bible-thumper: The self-proclaimed pagan would like to smack school officials for giving her son access to a copy of the good book. “It’s totally inappropriate they think they can get away with this,” an angry Strivelli told the Asheville Citizen-Times after her fifth-grade son came home with a [...]
