Multiplicity and Religion

Some multiple systems have one common faith in which they find relief. For example, they are professing christians, and all find support from their common adherence to the Lord. Other systems, however, have more than one religion or spiritual covinction amongst their members. In my own case, as a whole, I identify as agnostic. However, [...]

Read Full Post »

Thoughts on a Sermon

Last Sunday, I went to church with a friend, who is a member in some type of pentecostal church. Oh well, it calls itself evangelical, but I found out that this is one of the names commonly used by pentecostal churches in the Netherlands, because of the negative, sect-like connotation to pentecostalism. In her church, [...]

Read Full Post »

Punished for Being too Tolerant?

A few weeks ago, an Ontario facility for people with developmental disabilities, Christian Horizons, was penalized by the Human Rights Tribunal for having discriminated against gays. The reason was that they have a Lifestyle Morality Statement (LMS) that prohibits such activities as lying, premarital sex, illegal drug use and homosexual behavior. A woman was employed [...]

Read Full Post »

Thoughts on an Essay Discussing Euthanasia

I borrowed a book of essays on medical ethics from the Dutch library for the blind. I’m currently reading one of the author’s essays on euthanasia. The author is a Christian, yet he supports euthanasia as defined as ending somone’s life on that person’s request. That is not to say the author has no objections [...]

Read Full Post »

Rants on Christian Denominations, the Essentials of Religion, and Moral Standards

I once again did some reading on Christianity and religion in general. I read over the United Methodist Church webpage and was astonished at the many rituals and doctrines it imposes, even being a relatively liberal church. I just can’t understand that God would impose so many laws upon us. There are, of course, certain [...]

Read Full Post »

Musings on Identity and Purpose

If we create and maintain our identities and self-images because of a need to provide our lives with a sense of unity and purpose… why do we have such a need in the first place? This is a difficult subject for me. Why would one need an identity, a self-image, in the first place? Why [...]

Read Full Post »

Student Getting an “F” for Mentioning God

This is truly ridiculous! Student gets F grade for mentioning God, it is said. The atheist professor had prohibited her from using the word in an essay on the role of religion in government. How would this be possible? When you permit a student to write a paper on religion, you should expect to find [...]

Read Full Post »

The Bible, Sin, and Homosexuality

The same conservative Christian I wrote about before is now claiming that homosexuality is wrong according to the Bible. Before I studied the Bible too extensively, I thought so as well, simply cause Leviticus says that homosexuality is wrong. However, if we had to follow everything that’s in Leviticus, every single person would be sinful [...]

Read Full Post »

Does Morality Come from God?

I am seeing some extremist Christians claim that all morals come from God, and specifically their God, or Jesus. They say that morals have to come from somewhere, since otherwise there would be no Absolute Truth and if there weren’t, nothing would be good or evil. Agreed, there have to be some universal values that [...]

Read Full Post »

Just Some Ramblings

I went to Sevinc yesterday. I had known her from the school for the blind, when I was in fourth grade and she was in sixth. When I was at the rehab centre this summer, she would actually have come, but had no time. Then, I mentioned I knew her, so Ingrid and I went [...]

Read Full Post »