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A noted left-wing author who teaches at a bastion of so-called progressive education recently delivered a surprising defense of Western civilization—and an attack on prevailing academic attitudes towards it. Unfortunately, Christopher Hitchens said, confidence in the superiority of the West has been eroded in recent decades. Hitchens teaches at the New School in New York City. Hitchens criticized those Americans (on both the Left and the Right) who responded to the September 11 attacks by asking what America had done to deserve them—a question belonging to a mindset he called “moral suicide.” Such relativism, Hitchens said, is the result of...

When Christopher Hitchens died this week, I trust that after he did so, something miraculous happened. That’s what my faith tells me. It’s not in good taste to speak ill of someone recently deceased. But in this case, I think Hitchens would approve, or at least shrug it off with indifference, many of the screeds written for or against him. But, while reading the eulogies about Hitchens I get the feeling, more than anything else, of a life wasted on unbelief. Everyone dies, and then…that’s it… or is it? Is all that’s left behind for a writer like Hitchens a...

THE HINDU THEORY OF WORLD CYCLES In the Light of Modern Science Traditional Hindu scriptures view history as cyclical in character, with vast repeating series of ages. Each age has its own particular qualities. Interestingly, this system seems to be taken literally by modern Yoga masters such as Swami Muktananda, Baba Hari Dass, Swami Vishnu Tirtha, and so on. As a Western devotee, I found myself wondering exactly what the full system of Hindu cycles is, and how it relates to the findings of modern science. Following is my attempt to explain what I found out. Traditional Puranic Model...

OK, a lot of y'all will freak on this, but I am not a Christian. Not that I have any problem at all with His teachings, but I decided a long time ago I didn't want Jesus to die on that cross to expunge my sins. I'll take the hit to my own Karma. Laugh if you want, but this is what I believe: Nichiren Daishonin Buddhism. I was raised Southern Baptist. My grandfather was a deacon in the church in Shawnee, Oklahoma. I remember unlocking the church with him before the sun came up, and going to Sunday School....

On January 15, Rick Warren will kick-off a 52-week Daniel Plan to become healthier with Dr. Mehmet Oz, a follower of cult leader Emmanuel Swedenborg. According to Warren's website, his church will host a 52-week course to stress losing weight and becoming healthier. The kick-off event will include Dr. Mehmet Oz, Dr. Daniel Amen, and Dr. Mark Hyman. All three have Eastern spiritual connections. Dr. Mehmert Oz is a follower of Emmanuel Swedenborg according to The New Church website. He has appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show and is Professor of Cardiac Surgery at Columbia University. He is inspired by...

Signs of consciousness have been detected in three people previously thought to be in a vegetative state, with the help of a cheap, portable device that can be used at the bedside. "There's a man here who technically meets all the internationally agreed criteria for being in a vegetative state, yet he can generate 200 responses [to direct commands] with his brain," says Adrian Owen of the University of Western Ontario. "Clearly this guy is not in a true vegetative state. He's probably as conscious as you or I are." In 2005, Owen's team, used functional MRI to show consciousness...

The Budist is a Christian. You won't find much difference in Budism with that of Christianity. Buda preached accepting sufferings calmly, so did Christ. That's what Beinsa Douno said in regards to Budism. Any budists coming here on this forum?

Mona Simpson, an author and biological sister of Steve Jobs, said her brother’s final words were “Oh wow. Oh wow. Oh wow,” in an Oct. 16 eulogy she delivered that was published Sunday in The New York Times. Simpson remembered the man she first learned about when she was 25, living in New York and working at a small literary magazine. A lawyer had informed her that she had a rich and famous long-lost brother.

I grew up as an only child, with a single mother. Because we were poor and because I knew my father had emigrated from Syria, I imagined he looked like Omar Sharif. I hoped he would be rich and kind and would come into our lives (and our not yet furnished apartment) and help us. Later, after I’d met my father, I tried to believe he’d changed his number and left no forwarding address because he was an idealistic revolutionary, plotting a new world for the Arab people. Related Even as a feminist, my whole life I’d been waiting for...

Bishop Anba Stephanos (Orthodox Coptic) of Beba and Elfashn Christians in Egypt are currently experiencing their worst time in recent centuries. This statement was made by the Coptic Orthodox Bishop Stephanos of Beba and Elfashn to the international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN). Christians are being violently killed under the eyes of the international media. Also, for the first time in many years, churches are being systematically burned and destroyed. The police are taking no action and nobody is punished for it. In the Egyptian media, “the facts are systematically covered up in order to...

It is not about God or love, it is about control and domination—just as sadism is not about human intercourse or love; it is about control, torture, punishment and domination. Why else name a so-called religion "submission?" Islam’s provisions are intended to dominate every waking moment in the life of a believer. Islam seeks nothing less than a total global domination. There is no room for being a half-hearted Muslim and no toleration of watering down its invocations. How do the Islamists prey upon their victims? For one, Islam is stamped on the impressionable mind of the child from birth....

Abingdon resident Michael Solano describes his "spiritual awakening" after suffering a stroke while nearly choking to death at a crab cake eating contest in Timonium. Abingdon resident Michael Solano says he no longer fears death after a harrowing experience that nearly cost him his life. “I can tell anybody who's willing to listen what it’s like to die,” he said. “I’m very respectful of death. I’m not trying to want it or have it bestowed upon me, but when it happens, I’m not going to be afraid.”

World's Largest-ever Study Of Near-Death Experiences ScienceDaily (Sep. 10, 2008) — The University of Southampton is launching the world's largest-ever study of near-death experiences this week. The AWARE (AWAreness during REsuscitation) study is to be launched by the Human Consciousness Project of the University of Southampton - an international collaboration of scientists and physicians who have joined forces to study the human brain, consciousness and clinical death. The study is led by Dr Sam Parnia, an expert in the field of consciousness during clinical death, together with Dr Peter Fenwick and Professors Stephen Holgate and Robert Peveler of the University...

Bruce Greyson thinks that research has only scratched the surface of the near-death experience phenomenon, and that there is a great prospect for future studies. (Stephanie Lam/The Epoch Times) DURHAM, N.C.—Grandma was just resuscitated. She wakes up and tells you a bizarre story of coming out of her body and going to heaven. Has she developed psychosis? Was her brain damaged from the lack of oxygen? After over 30 years of research, scientists have concluded that this is not the case. Instead, they think that this phenomenon is something today’s science is yet to understand, and that it is an...

DURHAM, N.C.—Eben Alexander was your typical neurosurgeon. A firm believer of scientific reductionism, he thought that all thoughts originate from the brain. But this changed in 2008 when he encountered a case of near-death experience (NDE). As much as it was the complete opposite of his previous views, he couldn’t dismiss or avoid the case—it was none other than his own experience, and he had to face it and search for an explanation. Having contracted acute bacterial meningitis, which damages the neocortex—the part of the brain that is thought to involve complex cognitive functions like conscious thought—Alexander went into a...

Once a self-identified founding member of the American “religious right,” Franky Schaeffer now says that “religion is dumb” and “man made.” Although Schaeffer grew up among some of the most influential evangelicals of the twentieth century, and worked as one of them during much of his adult life, he now believes the Bible is a fraud and that Christianity teaches “misogynistic” practices. Schaeffer, the son of the late evangelical theologian, philosopher, and founder of the L’Abri Fellowship, Francis Schaeffer, discussed his newest book at the Kansas City Public Library on September 27, 2011. His recent book, Sex, Mom, and God:...

Ever felt a little incoherent? Or maybe you've been in two minds about something, or even in a bit of delicate state. Well, here's your excuse: perhaps you are in thrall to the strange rules of quantum mechanics. We tend to think that the interaction between quantum physics and biology stops with Schrödinger's cat. Not that Erwin Schrödinger intended his unfortunate feline - suspended thanks to quantum rules in a simultaneous state of being both dead and alive - to be anything more than a metaphor. Indeed, when he wrote his 1944 book What is Life?, he speculated that living...

Facing a growing shortage of priests, the Roman Catholic Church is turning to former priests who left their callings to get married.While the “dispensed” priests won’t be allowed to take confessions or celebrate mass — they will be asked to serve as teachers and lay workers in such roles as helping serve communion to the congregation, roles already filled by lay members of local congregations.“The Vatican has appealed to diocesan bishops to encourage priests who have left ministry in order to get married to play a more active role in parish life,” reports Catholic Herald magazine, which reports that Cardinal...

Is evil over? Has science finally driven a stake through its dark heart? Or at least emptied the word of useful meaning, reduced the notion of a numinous nonmaterial malevolent force to a glitch in a tangled cluster of neurons, the brain? Yes, according to many neuroscientists, who are emerging as the new high priests of the secrets of the psyche, explainers of human behavior in general. A phenomenon attested to by a recent torrent of pop-sci brain books with titles like Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain. Not secret in most of these works is the disdain for...

Inside your body breathes a person—a soul. Inside the body of Jewish practice breathes an inner wisdom—the soul of Judaism. We often call it “Kabbalah”, meaning “receiving.” Just as Jewish practice is received through an unbroken, ancient tradition from the revelation at Sinai, so is its soul. Kabbalah, then, is the received wisdom, the native theology and cosmology of Judaism.