Monday, Febuary 14, 2011

India gets new Goddess of the English Language...who aids her worshipers climb up the  economic and social ladder!

The Dalit (formerly untouchable) community is building a temple in Banka village in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh to worship the Goddess of the English language, which they believe will help them climb up the social and economic ladder.
Full article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-12355740

Monday, September 27, 2010

Voodoo's popularity reaching the mainstream in Haiti

The stairs leading to Rolanda Delerme’s basement open onto a dazzling tableau: Pink and green feathers in jars, sequined bottles, a life-sized mannequin holding a knife, altars packed with Catholic saints.  “Welcome,” the voodoo priestess says, dressed in a headdress and flowing white robes.  Voodoo temples such as this are said to have thrived for years in the homes of Haitian émigrés in Montreal, hidden from the judging eyes of outsiders. But now devotees have started a movement to bring voodoo and its rituals out of the shadows.

Full article: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/quebec/haitian-diaspora-spreading-the-gospel-of-voodoo/article1727147/

Atheists and agnostics know more about religion then the average church-goer according to new research

A new survey of Americans' knowledge of religion found that atheists, agnostics, Jews and Mormons outperformed Protestants and Roman Catholics in answering questions about major religions, while many respondents could not correctly give the most basic tenets of their own faiths.  Forty-five percent of Roman Catholics who participated in the study didn't know that, according to church teaching, the bread and wine used in Holy Communion is not just a symbol, but becomes the body and blood of Christ.

Full article: http://www.ktvu.com/family/25188020/detail.html

Saturday, August 7, 2010

Research at the University of Toronto reveals that thinking about god among believers reduces stress

Thinking about God reduce distress, but only in believers, while atheists are more distressed after thinking of God-related ideas, Canadian researchers say.  Researchers at the University of Toronto Scarborough looked at brain activity in people primed to think about God and found decreases in activity in the anterior cingulate cortex -- an area of the brain associated with regulating bodily states of arousal when things were going wrong -- such as making mistakes. However, atheists were more distressed making mistakes after thinking of God-related ideas.

Full article: http://www.upi.com/Health_News/2010/08/07/Thinking-about-God-de-stresses-believers/UPI-37731281154763/