A recent survey looked at the oft-repeated adage that religion is the major cause of war on Earth, to see if it was true. They discovered that it was false: specifically, they found that countries with the greatest religious freedom tended to be the most peaceful; that countries that are highly religious are statistically slightly more peaceful because religion can provide a basis for inclusion and social cohesion; and that the factors most associated with wars were corruption, political terror, gender & economic inequality (but not overall wealth or poverty), and political instability. The report further commented that, of 35 armed conflicts in 2013, only 5 were motivated by religion alone; and of the 15 armed conflicts motivated in part by Islamist groups in 2013, 10 were intra-group conflicts in countries where Muslims are the majority.
The Vatican has published a document that decrees that Greek Catholic churches may make their own decisions about whether their priests may marry. This concludes a conflict that has been running for over 100 years, particularly in the USA where Greek Catholics (also known as Byzantine Catholics, who are widespread in many East European, Middle Eastern and North African countries) can be found alongside their Roman Catholic counterparts. It also removes a significant barrier to dialogue between the Catholic and Orthodox churches.
A Pentecostal church in Udumalpet, Tamil Nadu, India, has been violently attacked by Hindu radicals who destroyed vehicles in the car park, then broke in, desecrated the altar, burned Bibles and broke musical instruments. The pastor and four other Christians are in a serious condition in hospital; some radicals even followed them to the hospital and attacked them again there. There has been a big increase in attacks on Christians and other religious minorities since May, when a right-wing Hindu government was elected.
The National Cathedral in Washington D.C. hosted an invitation-only Islamic prayer service, which was interrupted by a lone woman who loudly proclaimed the name of Jesus. She said afterwards, “Let’s play fair. If there can be an Islamic prayer service in a cathedral, let’s have a Bible study in a mosque.”
A synagogue in New York has come up with a new way to get people through the doors to discuss Jewish law: it has set up a mock trial of Abraham on charges of attempted murder and endangering his son Isaac. New York governor Eliot Spitzer will lead the prosecution; renowned lawyer Alan Dershowitz will appear for the defence; and U.S. District judge Alison Nathan will preside. The synagogue’s new director said, “If I put an ad asking people to come study Bible on Sunday morning, not many people would come. But [this event allows them] to come and study Torah – in a creative way that makes religion relevant to their lives.” The synagogue has sold more than 1000 tickets for the event at $36 each.
A new multimedia Museum of the Bible is under construction in Washington D.C. The motivation for the museum – and many of the items in its collection – come from Steve Green, an Oklahoma businessman who is president of Hobby Lobby (which recently won a controversial freedom-of-conscience case in the Supreme Court). The items, which include stained glass windows, fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the hand-written lyrics to “Battle Hymn Of The Republic” are designed to tell one of three stories: how the Bible was translated and transmitted through the ages; the Bible’s impact on culture; or to tell the narrative of the Bible itself in an ‘immersive’ way (e.g. by making one exhibition room a copy of Abraham’s tent). The museum is scheduled to open in autumn 2017.
In technology news, a computer anti-virus company has uncovered an “extremely sophisticated” spyware program that appears to have been used for data theft and other covert surveillance for at least the past six years. “Regin” is so sophisticated that experts believe it must have been written by a national intelligence service, much like the “Stuxnet” virus which crippled many nuclear reprocessing machines in Iran some years ago, and which was widely believed to have been written by Israeli intelligence. Countries targeted/affected by Regin include Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan, Mexico, India, Austria, Belgium and Ireland. No country has yet been reported to be the likely author of the software, but since Regin uses internal codewords that are written in English and use cricketing terminology, the UK and Australia are suspected.
Also in technology news, a five year old boy who was born in Pakistan but has lived most of his life in Coventry set a new world record recently, by becoming the youngest person ever to pass the Microsoft Certified Professional exam. Ayan Quresh’s father, an IT technician, starting giving him old computers to play with at the age of three, and Ayan proved to have such a good memory that his father started teaching him more and more about computers. Ayan has now built his own computer network at home.
And finally, actress Brooke Shields has written an autobiography which reveals that her mother was pressurised to abort her daughter. Conceived out of wedlock, Brooke’s grandfather decided it would hurt his son’s social standing to have such a baby, and so gave an envelope to Brooke’s mother with enough money for an abortion. However, Brooke’s mother defiantly spent it on a coffee table -- which became a favourite standing aid for her baby daughter. Brooke Shields herself has said, “Too many people use abortion as a form of birth control. And that’s very wrong. I could never, ever, have an abortion.”
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