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It is a mystery in the desert hills near Los Lunas, New Mexico. It has puzzled experts for more than 50 years. It has been referred to by many different names -- Ten Commandments Rock, Mystery Rock, The Los Lunas Decalogue Stone. It is most commonly known as the Mystery Stone. Mystery Stone is located at the base of Hidden Mountain, on New Mexico state trust land, about 16 miles west of Los Lunas. It is a boulder weighing an estimated 80 to 100 tons and is about eight meters in length. Nine rows of 216 characters were chiseled at...

The federal government will no longer forgive student loans in exchange for public service if that service is related to religion, according to a new Education Department rule from the Obama administration. The Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program announced the change Jan. 31 with little fanfare, while most of Washington was focused on the new ObamaCare rule requiring religious organizations to provide free birth control through health insurance. “Generally, the type or nature of employment with the organization does not matter for PSLF purposes,” reads the new language. “However, if you work for a nonprofit organization, your employment will...

It's a site for rituals performed by practitioners of the Palo Mayombe religion, Richard Couto saysThe curious are beginning to seek out a bizarre site that sits nestled up against a major roadway in northwest Miami-Dade. The ground is littered with pots full of small tools, machetes, the remains of animals – and, before the police arrived, human bones and a skull. Richard Couto explains that it is a site for sacrificial rituals performed by practitioners of the Palo Mayombe religion. "They often use human remains in their ceremonial sites and that is exactly what we found at the bottom...

The Aokigahara Forest is a lonely place to die. So dense is the vegetation at the foot of Japan's Mount Fuji, it is all too easy to disappear among the evergreens and never be seen again. Each year the authorities remove as many as 100 bodies found hanging at the country's suicide hotspot - but others can lie undiscovered for years. Exactly why so many choose to end their lives in the forest remains something of a mystery, though it has been suggested that the first among them were inspired by a novel set there. Azusa Hayano has studied and...

Opinion versus Fact: Why Opposing Beliefs Leave No Room for Compromise Between Republicans and Democrats In Senator Jim DeMint’s new book, Now or Never, he boldly states, “The differences between the Democratic and Republican Parties are irreconcilable: there can be no compromise between collectivism and freedom.” How refreshing that someone in the U.S. Senate has the courage to speak the truth. I totally concur with Senator DeMint’s position. The vast majority of Democrats are not interested in truth. They are not interested in logic. They are not interested in helping others. And they certainly are not interested in upholding and...

David Barton, an influential conservative activist promoting America's Judeo-Christian heritage, has joined a long list of critics of President Obama's contraceptive mandate and its impact on religious liberties. But Barton has taken his criticism one step further in a recent blog post by claiming that the Obama administration is the most Biblically hostile in U.S. history. The Texas-based evangelical author and self-taught historian wrote in his latest WallBuilders post: "So perhaps the most accurate description of his (President Obama) antipathy toward Catholics, Protestants, religious Jews, and the Jewish nation would be to characterize him as anti-Biblical. And then when his...

Ancient Bible in Aramaic dialected Syriac rediscovered in Turkey The relic was ‘rediscovered’ in the depositum of Ankaran Justice Palace, the ancient version of bible is believed to be written in Syriac, a dialect of the native language of Jesus. Ankara / Turkey – The bible was already in custody of Turkish authorities after having been seized in 2000 in an operation in Mediterranean area in Turkey. The gang of smugglers had been charged with smuggling antiquities, illegal excavations and the possession of explosives and went to trial. Turkish police testified in a court hearing they believe the manuscript...

A secret Bible in which Jesus is believed to predict the coming of the Prophet Muhammad to Earth has sparked serious interest from the Vatican. Pope Benedict XVI is claimed to want to see the 1,500-year-old book, which many say is the Gospel of Barnabas, that has been hidden by the Turkish state for the last 12 years. The £14million handwritten gold lettered tome, penned in Jesus' native Aramaic language, is said to contain his early teachings and a prediction of the Prophet's coming.

It sounds totally beyond belief. But read the tantalising evidence from this boy's family and you may start to wonder... The agonised screams pierced the air. 'Plane on fire! Airplane crash.' In the dark, a two-year-old boy was just visible, writhing on his bed in the grip of horror. 'He was lying there on his back, kicking and clawing at the covers like he was trying to kick his way out of a coffin,' remembers the boy's father. 'I thought, this looks like The Exorcist. I half expected his head to spin around like that little girl in the movie....

Six decades ago, a 21-year-old Navy fighter pilot on a mission over the Pacific was shot down by Japanese artillery. His name might have been forgotten, were it not for 6-year-old James Leininger. Quite a few people — including those who knew the fighter pilot — think James is the pilot, reincarnated. James' parents, Andrea and Bruce, a highly educated, modern couple, say they are "probably the people least likely to have a scenario like this pop up in their lives." But over time, they have become convinced their little son has had a former life. From an early age,...

Nearly six decades ago, a 21-year-old Navy fighter pilot on a mission over the Pacific was shot down by Japanese artillery. His name might have been forgotten, were it not for 6-year-old James Leininger. Quite a few people — including those who knew the fighter pilot — think James is the pilot, reincarnated. James' parents, Andrea and Bruce, a highly educated, modern couple, say they are "probably the people least likely to have a scenario like this pop up in their lives." But over time, they have become convinced their little son has had a former life. From an early...

Based on the love story of two devout Christians, the movie version of "The Vow," starring Rachel McAdams and Channing Tatum, strips the tale of its overt religious themes, which has some Christian reviewers concerned. The film is based on the true life story and book, “The Vow” by Kim and Krickitt Carpenter, which draws heavily on that couple’s Christian beliefs and the power of God to heal and shepherd a marriage through difficult times.

Almost all Christian denominations can be traced to 3 main traditions - the Catholic, the Protestant, and the Eastern Orthodox traditions. All three traditions are based on the Bible. Mormonism is a religion that has a heritage that is very different from traditional Christianity, and is based on the Book of Mormon. The theological differences that separate a Baptist from a Catholic, are not the same as those which separate a Baptist from a Mormon, or a Catholic from a Mormon. In a dispute between a Baptist and a Catholic, they will argue over whether Church tradition prevails over scripture...

LORENZAGO DI CADORE, Italy — For the second time in a week, Pope Benedict XVI has corrected what he says are erroneous interpretations of the Second Vatican Council, reasserting the primacy of the Roman Catholic Church and saying other Christian communities were either defective or not true churches.

Written in Greek, the tablet holding the curse was dropped into a well in Antioch, then one of the Roman Empire's biggest cities in the East, today part of southeast Turkey, near the border with Syria. The curse calls upon Iao, the Greek name for Yahweh, the god of the Old Testament, to afflict a man named Babylas who is identified as being a greengrocer. The tablet lists his mother's name as Dionysia, "also known as Hesykhia" it reads. The text was translated by Alexander Hollmann of the University of Washington. The artifact, which is now in the Princeton University...

Some Middle Eastern governments often use religion as a tool to attack their opponents. In Turkey, the authorities have for long tried to portray the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) as non-Muslims in order to delegitimize their movement among Muslim Kurds and Turks. Charging the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) and the PKK with promoting Zoroastrianism is yet another campaign by Turkey against the Kurdish rebel group. The idea that Kurds are actually Zoroastrians is not something new. Kurdish nationalists such as the Bedirkhan brothers tried to revive Zoroastrianism and Yezidism as the original religion of the Kurds in the 1920s...

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....