Let’s talk about Hell. During recent centuries, most Christian denominations, faith groups, and most Muslim traditions have taught the belief in the existence of a Hell where some — perhaps most — people are sent after death for eternal punishment. Christians differ about who will be selected to be sent to Hell. Some teach that people are judged by God according to their deeds while on earth while others teach that God’s judgment is based on their beliefs about Jesus... Read more

Was your mom wowed by the DES anti-miscarriage drug commercials? It may have actually caused transgenderism. Firstly, a brief introduction to the term “transgender:” Transgender individuals identify their current gender as different from their sex as it was assessed at birth — and as it was recorded on their birth certificate. Some boys transition to a female gender identity as early as three years-of-age, and vice-versa. They are referred to as MTF (Male to Female) or FTM (Female to Male)... Read more

There’s been endless conflicting speculation about what happens after we die. Unfortunately, there is little, if any, hard, verifiable evidence to help us understand what the afterlife is like — if it exists at all. After all, people who die simply do not come back later to talk about it and fill us in. Near Death Experiences (NDEs): A Gallup Poll found that about three percent of Americans have experienced a near-death experience (NDE). They may have gone through the... Read more

Is the Earth really flat? Let’s see what religious history says. Ancient Pagan religions in the Mediterranean region taught that the Earth was shaped like a flat disk, and was located at the center of the universe. Above the Earth was a dome, which was referred to as the “Firmament.” It was supported by mountains at the edge of the Earth. Authors of the Hebrew Scriptures (a.k.a. Old Testament) taught the same beliefs. Ancient Greeks and Romans both believed that... Read more

Latin American Human Rights Court issues a stunning ruling on same-sex marriage. Support for gay marriage has been growing in many countries of the world, particularly in the Americas, in Europe, and in all large predominately English-speaking countries except Northern Ireland. The first country to legalize such marriages was the Netherlands in 2001. In the U.S., individual states attained marriage equality, one at a time, starting with Massachusetts in 2004. Eleven years later, 38 states had followed suit. Then in... Read more

Truth in religion. What, actually, is the truth? A person, whom I will call “Anon” — short form for “Anonymous” — recently sent me Email discussing absolute and relative truth in religion. He asked: “If I believe I am an automobile, does that mean I am one?” I feel that the correct answer is no, that a human cannot be an automobile. I base this assertion on the source of all secular knowledge, “Google,” which defines “automobile” as: “a road... Read more

Marriage certainly has evolved since Biblical times. Let’s see how… The most common verse in the Bible that’s quoted in support of opposite-sex marriage is probably Genesis 2:24, which the King James version translates as a rather beautiful passage: “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.” However, this isn’t a good description of a typical marriage today. When Genesis 2 was written, there were no... Read more

Should abortions for known Down Syndrome fetuses be banned? Women’s access to abortion became perhaps the most intense religiously-motivated debate a few years after the famous Roe v. Wade ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 1971. Roe v. Wade gave women free access to abortions during their first trimester and allowed states to create progressively restricted access later in pregnancy. Down Syndrome, sometimes written as “Down’s Syndrome” causes newborns to experience an intellectual disability that is usually mild... Read more

Jesus was said to have been a refugee. So why all the kerfuffle? A new parallel is emerging between the Bethlehem story in the Bible and today’s reality in the Middle East. Hundreds of thousands of people in Syria and other countries are finding themselves unable to remain in their native lands. Living conditions have become unsafe and intolerable, because of terrorist attacks, civil wars, bombing, and other types of violence. They’ve been forced to become refugees and are leaving... Read more

The conflict between genetics and religion is a never-ending debate. A Google search for the three words: conflict, science, and religion returned about 95.5 million results in late 2017! The conflicts between science and religion appear to be a prominent and enduring debate. A Google search for the three words: conflict, science, and religion returned about 95.5 million results in early 2018! Conflicts are to be expected because science and religion have two very different concepts of truth. Religious truth is typically... Read more