What is Pope Benedict's definition of "radical feminism"?

By Suzanne MacNevin

According to Pope Benedict the nuns in America are a bunch of radical feminists.

I think he and I differ on the meaning of "radical feminist".

Lets establish some criteria.

#1. Radical is usually used to describe something that is unusual. ie. "Out of the box thinking."

#2. Feminism is the belief that men and women are equals.

#3. "Radical Feminism" is the belief that men and women are caught in a power struggle wherein men have control of the balance of power and women are seeking to share it equally.

So does this mean that Pope Benedict controls the balance of power within the Holy Roman Catholic Church and he sees nuns as a threat to his control? Possibly. It might explain his comments.

Lets put this in context.

Yesterday Pope Benedict chose to rebuke American nuns for being more concerned about poverty and social justice issues than about abortion and gay marriage. He basically argued that American nuns should stop worrying about people who are poor and starving to death and instead worry about harassing gay people and women so poor they see abortion as their only alternative to starvation.

(Methinks Pope Benedict doesn't have his priorities straight and has probably never been poor and starving.)

Last month the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith scolded the Leadership Conference of Women's Religious (which represents some 80% of American nuns) for what they called "serious doctrinal problems", such as subscribing to "radical feminist themes" like social justice and preventing poverty, while being too quiet about abortion and same sex marriages.

Which is frankly funny because its basically a bunch of old rich men who have probably never been poor, have definitely never been pregnant, and ironically can't keep their penises in their pants when choirboys are around.

A bishop was then appointed to correct this discrepancy with the nuns, but the resulting puzzlement among nuns (and many other people) who point out that the Bible has a lot to say about poverty and the poor but doesn't explicitly mention anything about homosexuality or abortion, except by implication (Sodom and Gomorrah, although to be fair the word "sodomy" probably has very little to do with the Biblical city of Sodom).

It just seems extremely silly that the Vatican is chastising nuns, a group which travels to many nasty places around the world and sacrifices their time to help those in greatest need. Nuns run makeshift hospitals in war-torn and disease infected areas while less faithful people have turned tail and ran away.

Meanwhile the Vatican hierarchy sits in their golden palaces and gold-trimmed silk and complains about homosexuals while secretly fondling altar boys. It makes for a stark contrast.

And then Pope Benedict came out and outright called the nuns "radical feminists" just because they aren't doing enough to stop abortion and gay marriages (although seriously, there is no power on earth that will stop gay men from wanting to get married and if a woman has her heart set on an abortion it won't matter whether the USA says its legal or not, she will have one anyway).

Indeed by shining the light on the plight of the nuns (and also radical feminists by happy accident) Pope Benedict may actually inadvertently help both the causes of poverty, social justice and even further the cause of feminism.

While a person can laugh and appreciate the Vatican's hypocritical concerns, it is a gross tactical error to suggest that nuns spend too much effort helping and guiding the poor. The Bible after all strongly stresses the need to help the poor and its been a cornerstone of the Catholic Church.

Even the most die-hard atheists would still agree that nuns who serve in remote, dangerous and uncomfortable areas of the world are shining beacons for good in the world. This has nothing to do with god, their actions resonate bravery, faith in the human spirit and dedication to helping and comforting the sick and dying, and those who have little hope. Nobody in their right mind would have anything bad to say about the sacrifices performed by nuns around the world in their efforts to help people.

And social justice? What is wrong with social justice. Nothing. Its not like the nuns are homicidal maniacs toting guns and waving Confederate flags. Helping the poor and poverty issues are hardly revolutionary.

Also this shines the light on the Vatican's scandals that have plagued the Catholic Church in recent years have involved priests and cover-ups of pedophilia and sexual mischief. In contrast the nuns have a virtually untarnished reputation and can be best be described as "demanding" in the cases of schools run by nuns.

The nuns aren't stupid, nor are they pushovers. Pope Benedict and the Vatican seems to have forgotten that. The nuns are the front line soldiers of the Catholic Church and the armchair generals (the bishops) are giving faulty orders to the troops that contradict the higher orders found in the Bible. The nuns are going to look at the orders from the Vatican, look at the Bible's efforts to fight poverty, say "Pfff!" and keep doing what they've always been doing: Helping people.

Lets give a historical example:

A mother superior in Greece asked the bishop there if she could send two nuns to teach a literacy project in a poor area. The Bishop said "No."

"The bishop was very clear in his refusal to allow two nuns, and I could not disobey him," said the mother superior. "So I sent three nuns."

Which is exactly my point. The nuns will get around foolish orders without actually disobeying the order. They may not literally say "Pfff!" but their actions will be clear that they will disregard any idiocy.

In the USA its not like nuns have any control over Congress anyway. Its the same problem all over again. Men controlling the show. Congress is a male dominated piece of the American government and it will likely stay male dominated for a long time.

The current and 112th United States Congress consists of 541 elected officials from 50 states. The Senate has 100 members; the House of Representatives has 435 members.

Of this there are 17 women in the Senate and 76 women in the House of Representatives (17.5%).

So its not like the nuns are going to attack Congress and force them to change the laws governing the right to a safe abortion or gay marriages.

I would argue Pope Benedict is barking up the wrong tree. The nuns are the ones who are in the right. Benedict should be worrying about POVERTY first. It is HE who should be admonished for fussing over homosexuals too much when he is forgetting the cornerstone of the Catholic Church is helping people.

ANIMA: A film about doing what you want

ENTERTAINMENT/RELIGION - "Anima" is a documentary with a goal of making you think about you really want to do in life and encouraging you to go after that goal. The film stresses the importance of human creativity, understanding and courage.

Watch it here (this is not a trailer, this is the whole film):



"Anima" is from Dominoes Falling Productions and is a feature length documentary using a collaboration of various material from multiple directors and then mashed together in a common goal of provoking thought and creativity. If you watch the film and feel inspired to get off the couch and do something, then the film is doing its job.

The film examines our relationships with ourselves, others and the environment around us. It talks about the power of individual creativity and how many individuals expressing their creativity can make great changes in the world around us.

an·i·ma – The Latin translation of the Greek word psyche.

1. The inner self of an individual (soul); a relationship with that which is greater than self.

2. Expressions of the unconscious or true inner self of an individual (Carl Jung’s school of analytical psychology).

Veganism, The New Religion

By Charles Moffat.

HEALTH/RELIGION - Veganism is more than a diet to many Vegans. Its a way of life. Its a set of moral values. Why should a religion need anything more than that?

There are other non-deistic religions in the world (non-deistic means a religion with no god). Confucianism for example believes in honouring ancestors. Shamanism and various other religions believe in a spirit world, but one without a god.

For fun some Canadians and Americans put down "Jedi" when asked their religion, so much so that some Jedi people now claim it should be acknowledged as an actual religion.

However the major problem with organized religions is that they tend to be pushy, worse than credit recovery agencies and their annoying phone calls, and they try to push their beliefs unto others by ranting on and on about how their religion is superior.

And certainly there are some Vegans out there whom do that. (And we could also say the same about some meat-eaters and omnivores always trying to convert Vegans and vegetarians back to the fold of bacon.)

I have a Vegan friend who unlike a few other Vegans I've met doesn't try to ram her lifestyle down the throats of unwilling people. She doesn't try to coerce you, doesn't fuss about all the health benefits of Veganism (unless it comes up naturally as part of the conversation), doesn't show you horribly graphic documentaries showing how cattle, lambs and horses and brutally slaughtered for food... she just treats everyone equal, bends over backwards to be nice to people and is genuine about it.

Her behaviour is such that I wish more people (not just Vegans) were more like her. Genuinely nice.

Because frankly there is nothing more annoying than a friend who is constantly trying to get you to change your beliefs, doesn't respect your beliefs, and wants you to completely change your lifestyle.

Becoming a Vegan is a daunting task. People don't do it over night. It really is like changing your religion. Its a life style change, from the clothes you wear (no wool, leather or fur), no foods or drinks that contain any kind of meat, dairy or animal byproducts... and some of them may lose friends in arguments about morality and food.

I would argue therefore that there really needs to be a set of ethics for Vegans. A sort of Ten Commandments of Veganism... and these edicts should include behavioural advice too.

The Thou Shalt Commandments of Veganism

1. Thou shalt not eat meat, dairy or animal byproducts.

2. Thou shalt not wear leather, fur, wool or animal byproducts.

3. Thou shalt not use household objects containing animal byproducts.

4. Thou shalt be respectful of other people's food habits.

5. Thou shalt be courteous and kind and non-forceful when spreading your ideas.

6. Thou shalt be helpful to people expressing an interest in Vegan lifestyle.

7. Thou shalt be equally kind to people with no interest in Vegan lifestyle.

8. Thou shalt let other people, including your own children, decide for themselves.

9. Thou shalt be understanding of other people's opinions and respectful of their decisions.

10. Thou shalt be a role-model for other Vegans and people in general.

Is that too much to ask?

I know if we replaced the word Vegan with the names of various religions (especially the ones which go door to door trying to convert people) that the above 'Thou Shalts' would be too much for some people to actually do. There are two kinds of people in the world: Those who like to force their beliefs on others, and those who simply ask to be left alone to make their own decisions.

I personally prefer to make my own decisions. If I go to the fridge and pull out cheese and bread and make a grilled cheese sandwich, its my decision. If I can respect the choices of others, why should they not respect mine?

See Also:
Veggie-Curious

Is Pope Benedict evil?

RELIGION - Have you seen this guy?

It's Pope Benedict XVI.

Formerly known as Cardinal Ratzinger, the same guy who allowed sexually abused deaf children to continue being abused and even made efforts to cover up the scandal... the same guy who opposes condom use in AIDS stricken Africa... the same guy who described his own leadership as "a dictatorship of relativism" (pride is one of the 7 deadly sins, FYI)... the same guy who declared 'holy war' on people claiming to be suffering from stigmata or claiming to be having visions... the same guy who pardoned Holocaust deniers and brought back the Good Friday prayer which prays that Jews 'may be delivered from their darkness'... the same guy who was in the Hitler Youth during WWII.

And this is just the tip of the iceberg of intolerance, deceit, and indeed sins which Pope Benedict has done. (A little research and you will uncover quite a list out there.)

But what is most obvious to the naked eye is just how evil he looks. We should never judge a book by its cover, but in this case the old belief that a person's life marks their face with their emotions stands true. A person who is happy constantly will have laugh wrinkles, a person who is sad or stressed with have obvious signs due to lack of sleep, and so forth.

Pope Benedict looks like he has lived a life in which he was constantly plotting evil, bringing to mind Emperor Palpatine (Sith Lord from Star Wars), Gargamel (the evil wizard from the Smurfs), Richard Nixon (once considered the most hated president in American history) and Adolf Hitler (the most evil man in recorded history). They all had faces which suggested a lifetime of evil thoughts and emotions and those emotions left their mark. (True, Emperor Palpatine and Gargamel are fictional characters, but the analogy is still valid.)

But is this self-described dictator "evil"? Or just misguided, proud, greedy, lustful, gluttonous, slothful, wrathful and envious? He's evidently not out there leading a holocaust, but he's not exactly doing humanity any favours when pardoning Holocaust deniers.

It all comes down to how we define evil, measure evil and balance it against acts of kindness.

If you believe in god or karma we could assume that if Pope Benedict is truly evil he will be punished later. A religious person should therefore let God decide, for who better to judge a person based on their evil deeds?

But if there is no god and no karma, what then? Well then its a matter of what evil things a person does and whether these things eventually kill Pope Benedict... you see there is a reason why they are called "The Seven Deadly Sins":

Lust will kill you when you acquire a venereal disease.
Gluttony will kill you with a heart attack, cancer or other illness.
Greed will kill you when you take too much and it ends up being your downfall.
Sloth will kill you when you neglect to do something important to your own survival.
Wrath will kill you when you pick a fight with someone with more strength or cunning than you.
Envy will kill you when you pick a fight with a rival.
Pride will kill you when you assume you are invincible.

Thus even if we don't believe in any religion we can still learn from and appreciate the wisdom that certain actions or inactions can lead to our own demise. ie. Failing to act on climate change and global warming could be a death knell for many.

In theory the Seven Deadly Sins work a bit like karma. Do enough evil acts and they come back to haunt you.

Yoga Lifestyle Festival in Toronto

CANADA/RELIGION - How can one maintain sanity in a world overloaded with consumerism? Let alone with wars, corruption and crime?

Starting today, Monday Jun 6th, Vaisesika Dasa, a renowned Bhakti Yoga monk, will share with Torontonians the art of yoga for body and self control.

People interested can RSVP at urbanedgeyoga.com

Coming up is a Yoga Lifestyle Festival, a ten day "spiritual adventure", the Annual Yoga Festival - InSpirit from June 16th to 26th. Go and hear from Monks like Devamrita Swami and Badahari Das who have been practicing Bhakti Yoga for over 40 years, inspiring people and sharing their experiences. Enjoy "soul stirring" musical meditations, insightful presentations and delicious Vegan cuisines.

The titles of some of the individual presentations/discussions are quite amusing...

16^th: Reincarnation – Womb after Womb, Fact or Fiction?
17^th: The Gita Unpacked - Crucial Wisdom for the Urban Mystic
18^th: Why Life and Death – The story of Karma
20^th: Longing for Love in the Land of Dreams
21^st: Intelligent Life on Earth and Other Planets? What the Yoga Texts Say
23^rd: The Vegan Revolution and Beyond – Consciousness Cooking
24^th-26^th: Bhakti retreat

See Also
Yoga
Yoga Tips for Beginners
The History and Benefits of Yoga
Jock Yoga

Alcoholics Anonymous split over God usage

HEALTH/RELIGION - Do alcoholics need god?

In Toronto the Alcoholics Anonymous organization has split into two rival groups... the groups are split over the usage of god in the Twelve Step Program and the introduction of new wording of the Twelve Steps.

The Old Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous:

2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.

5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.

11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, as we understood Him, prayer only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.

The New Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous:

2. Came to accept and to understand that we needed strengths beyond our awareness and resources to restore us to sanity.

3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of the AA program.

5. Admitted to ourselves without reservation, and to another human being, the exact nature of our wrongs.

6. Were ready to accept help in letting go of all our defects of character.

7. Humbly sought to have our shortcomings removed.

11. Sought through mindful inquiry and meditation to improve our spiritual awareness, seeking only for knowledge of our rightful path in life and the power to carry that out.

The old steps were written in the 1930s and are really outdated. It is past time it was updated.

Sadly Alcoholics Anonymous has become a very religious group, using techniques similar to cults, and is opposed to new versions of AA which is more democratic and leaves it open to interpretation with respect to god.

In the early days of AA meetings they would end with the Lord's Prayer, but that was later scrapped. A few hardcore Christian AA groups still use the Lord's Prayer.

World wide there are 113,000 AA groups. In Toronto alone there are 500+ AA meetings per week. Atheist, agnostic and more democratic versions of Alcoholics Anonymous are increasingly common because many alcoholics are turned off by the too religious groups which feel more like a sermon.

“I’ve tried AA meetings and I couldn’t get past the influence of right-wing Christianity,” says one man at a recent AA meeting, known only by his first name (by AA tradition only first names are used.

“Last night I went to a meeting and it was like a sermon again,” he says. “I felt I should quit."

“But someone told me, ‘hey, go downtown, there’s an atheist/agnostic meeting.’ So I thought I thought I’d give AA one last chance and I came here.”

Apocalypse: 2012, 3797, or never?

RELIGION - If you missed the failed Rapture yesterday predicted by American millionaire evangelist Harold Camping, don't worry there is another chance the world might be destroyed on December 21st 2012.

See Apocalypse fails to happen.

December 21st 2012 is the day the Mayan long calendar comes to an end and a fresh calendar starts. Some religious folks however have taken this to mean the world will be destroyed on that day. It should be noted however that its just a calendar and the Mayans were not prophets.

Nostradamus however was a 16th century prophet, and he predicted a much farther away date... the year 3797. Or 3786, depending on which version of Nostradamus you read.

It should be noted however that Nostradamus' predictions were so vague they are very open to interpretation and have known to be completely wrong and off the mark.

ie. Nostradamus predicted that World War Three would start in July 1999 when Europe is invaded, the war will last until 2026 and an American city will be burnt to the ground.

HOWEVER, Nostradamus did something unusual which covers his predictions if they prove to be false. He said that mankind has the option to change/prevent his predictions from happening, simply by choosing another path. Thus his predictions aren't guaranteed. Amusing move for him to make, it makes him seem right even when he turns out to be wrong.

Here is a prediction for you...

2012 will come and go, some cults will commit mass suicide, but otherwise nothing major will happen.

3797 will come and go too, nothing spectacular will happen then either. Hopefully by then mankind will be out colonizing the galaxy and using intra-galactic travel.

And the Earth won't be destroyed, or at least not for billions of years when the sun finally goes supernova. The surface of the sun is around 5780 Kelvins and would need to go up several thousand degrees Kelvin and turn blue long before it goes supernova. It takes 15,000 years for the sun's surface temperature to go up just 1 degree Kelvin.

There is an asteroid which might hit the Earth in 2029, but the chance is minimal. Only 2.7%. In which case there is a 71% chance it would hit water and cause a tsunami. If it hit land it would destroy approx. 18,000 square km, an area 20% smaller than the state of New Jersey.

So it wouldn't be the Apocalypse, just a big impact crater.

There is also a tiny chance the asteroid could hit earth's gravity at a specific angle, fall into orbit and become a 2nd moon. Which would be interesting.

Apocalypse fails to happen

RELIGION - If you were one of thousands of people expecting the Rapture today, as predicted by Harold Camping to happen May 21st 2011 at 6 PM, you were sorely disappointed. There was no rapture, no earthquakes, no zombies.

Just a sunny day, sometimes cloudy, maybe some rain, depending on where you lived.

Some believers were so fanatical they gave away all their earthly possessions or cleaned out their bank accounts.

Meanwhile multi-millionaire Harold Camping, rich off his popularity and donations from thousands of followers, is avoiding the mass media and privately claiming he must have made a math error like he did before in 1994.

The Oakland California headquarters of Family Radio International meanwhile is set to expand, having plundered the wealth of thousands of would-be Rapturites.

One might wonder what United States laws say about fraudulent behaviour. True, they're "donations", so Harold Camping hasn't committed fraud because everyone gave their money willingly, but making these Apocalyptic predictions and getting rich off the gullible should be illegal.

Related Topic: Judgment Day is tomorrow, so sayeth cult

Judgment Day is Tomorrow, so sayeth Cult

By Charles Moffat - May 20th 2011.

RELIGION - According to a cult based in California, Judgement Day is tomorrow (May 21st 2011) and Jesus Christ will return to the Earth and bring about the Apocalypse.

So what will you be doing during the rapture?

I was thinking of going to the beach tomorrow and enjoying a bit of 'God's green earth'.

Strike me down for being a non-believer, but I don't think the world will come to an end tomorrow.

Oh I suppose there is a tiny minuscule chance I could suffer eternal damnation for mocking this cult and they turn out to be correct, but lets face it, I mock every cult that claims "The end is nigh!"

Now if it was the Catholic Church or some other major religion claiming that Judgment Day is tomorrow, that would be more interesting and potentially dangerous if lots of people believe it and go around looting and killing people, causing general anarchy for 24 hours before it settles down and people realize "Hey, I guess we were wrong."

The cult in question will feel pretty silly on Sunday when their prediction turns out to be false. They're basing their belief on "five months of supernatural earthquakes and unspeakable suffering", namely the earthquakes in Haiti, Chile, Japan, etc.

Harold Camping, the founder of Family Radio, a California-based evangelical Christian radio network and cult, who says the world will end tomorrow whether the rest of us believe it or not.

“The Bible guarantees it!” says Family Radio’s website. The non-profit network of evangelical radio stations has posted 3,000 billboards about the apocalypse across the world, including 85 in Canada. They focused mostly on English speaking nations because apparently non-English people don't matter.

Harold Camping, age 89, who also predicted the world would end in 1994 (except it didn't last time, so why does he expect to be correct this time?), claims to have reached his conclusion after studying the Bible and mathematically interpreting a timeline of ancient events. (Camping says he made several math mistakes in 1994.)

According to Camping, the Apocalypse, End of Days, actual time of Rapture will occur at 6 PM Eastern Standard Time, or 2 AM if you live in New Zealand. A series of massive earthquakes will then destroy the earth. Only true believers will be airlifted to heaven and anyone left on earth will fight to the death earth until October 21st, when God will decide whether to completely destroy the planet.

Or Harold Camping is off his rocker again (frankly I think he fell off it years ago and never regained his seat).

EXTENDED COMMENTARY

Believing in any kind of Dooms Day scenario is really rather counter productive. People should be trying to improve the world around them, acting as caretakers to the earth in an effort to make it better.

If we take a religious perspective I would argue that people who believe in the Apocalypse and 'want it to happen' are actually committing several sins:

#1. Sloth - Refusing to do any work to improve the world around you because you think the world will be destroyed anyway. Being lazy for such a reason is like saying you can't go do work on a sunny day, because its too hot, or on a rainy day because its too wet, or a cloudy day because its too depressing. Excuses, excuses.

#2. Wrath - Being angry against non-believers is no reason to wish them all to die. Wishing for the Apocalypse just so you can punish your neighbour is a clear sin. Thou shalt not wish for your neighbour to die just because you don't like his or her beliefs.

#3. Pride - Thinking that you are right and everyone else is wrong is a clear sign you lack humility. Therefore thinking that the Apocalypse will happen and that you will be one of the few who will be saved (the Bible says only 12,000 people from each of the 12 tribes of Israel shall be saved) assumes 2 examples of pride: That you are a member of one of those 12 tribes, and that you are actually a good enough person worth saving.

I would argue therefore that people who believe in the Apocalypse are inherently believing in their own damnation through a combination of vanity, laziness and hatred for their fellow human beings.

I would also argue that people in the world whom practice the Seven Virtues are few and far between. They are:

Chastity
Temperance/Self-Control
Charity
Diligence
Patience/Understanding
Kindness
Humility

How many chaste, charitable, hard-working, patient, understanding and kind people are there in the world whom have good self-control and a strong dose of humility? Very, very few.

I think humility is perhaps the most important one. Humility is the key to unlocking all other virtues.

And you don't have to be religious to appreciate said virtues. An atheist or agnostic could benefit from practicing being virtuous. It is just a matter of letting go of your pride.

The world might end someday, but wishing it to happen isn't going to make it come any faster. Our sun isn't about to go supernova just because you don't like your neighbours.

There is no heaven, says Stephen Hawking

RELIGION - Theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking says there is no heaven and no room for heaven or any other fairy tales in his explanation of the cosmos.

In an interview conducted in London England, the 69-year-old physicist says the human brain is a like a computer that will stop working when its components fail. We just die and that is the end of it.

Hawking says: “There is no heaven or afterlife for broken-down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark.”

In his book “Grand Design”, Hawking declared that it was “not necessary to invoke God... to get the universe going.” Instead the universe is like a giant clock. It keeps going and going because it has to. There is no end to it.

Hawking says he is not afraid of death, but adds: “I’m in no hurry to die. I have so much I want to do first.”

See Also
The Philosophy of Atheism
An Atheist Perspective on Death

2012? Pfff! You're probably doomed.

RELIGION - Before we get into this topic we feel it is important to point that anyone who believes the world is going to end in 2012 is committing blasphemy. The Mayan calendar is not a Christian source and believing in non-Christian ideals is automatically heresy and blasphemy.

Therefore, if you do believe that the world will end in 2012 (regardless of whether it happens or not) you are just dooming yourself.

If you don't know what this fuss about 2012 is, here it is in a nutshell: The ancient Mayans have a cyclical calendar, and when converted the Mayan calendar ends on December 21st 2012, the Winter Solstice. The calendar then starts over again. However some religious fanatics have interpreted this to mean that the Apocalypse, End of Days, the events of Revelations, etc. will happen either on that day or in the lead up to that day. Its blasphemy to borrow ideas from non-Christian beliefs, but whatever. That won't stop heathens and idiots.

However lets pretend for a moment that these 2012 Apocalyptical Nutjobs actually have it right. Lets pretend that the events of the book of Revelations will actually play out...

Chances are likely, if such events did come to pass, you would be doomed anyway.

And the reasoning is simple: According to the book of Revelations only 12,000 people from the 12 tribes of Israel will be saved during the 'rapture'. (The rapture is a prophesized event in which all the good saintly people are sucked up to heaven and spared the destruction of the apocalypse.)

So if you do the math that is only 144,000 people who will be saved, out of the world's population of the almost 7.28 billion (7,278,527,603) people that will be on the earth by December 21st 2012. Only 1 out of every 50,545 people will be saved. Less than 0.002%.

Soooo... mathematically speaking you're probably doomed. Lets face it, as nice a person as you may like to think you are, you're probably not that nice are you? And even you are nice, are you a descendant of one of the 12 tribes of Israel?

The only question remains is how you will die: Conquest, War, Famine and Death. Will you die trying to conquer another nation? While fighing a hopeless war, starve to death from food shortages or die from pestilence, disease or something else?

We should also note that wanting the Apocalypse to happen and thinking you are somehow morally supeior than other people are both cardinal sins (namely wrath and pride).

Holy Moly its 2011!

2010 was a year of many things, as most years are. There is never a year that is dull and nothing happens. True, some years are more interesting (2001 for example).

Lets go down the list of important things that happened in 2010...

AUTOMOTIVE - Gas prices soared in 2010 and the first mass production electric car was introduced. Other car manufacturers are coming out with more electric cars in 2011. Oil prices went down at the start of the year, but gas prices overall kept going up.

CANADA - The Canadian minority government continues teeter on the brink of an election... sometime... eventually. Whenever Canadians get bored of having a Conservative government which doesn't actually do anything (and is too afraid to show Canadians what they would really do if they got a majority government).

ENTERTAINMENT - YouTube is outpacing television in popularity. More people now watch YouTube on a daily basis than they watch TV. TV still pulls in more hours per viewer, but YouTube is more popular (at least in North America).

ENVIRONMENT - The BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is the big story of 2010. Blame for the environmental disaster has been handed squarely on BP and contracting companies. Meanwhile global warming and climate change are getting worse and countries world wide still can't come up with an agreement that would halt the process. (Scientists now say its too late to stop the effects of global warming, the best we can do is to try and fix what we can so it doesn't get even worse.)

FASHION - Men wearing hamburgs and Swisses (and mistakenly calling them fedoras). The 1920s fashion culture is suddenly in. What's next, zoot suits?

FEMINIST - Precious, the story of an overweight, illiterate teenager in 80s ­Harlem, won two Oscars. Except we didn't go see it... and we can't think of anyone who did. Honestly, we're not sure if anything significant happened in the world of feminism in 2010... and that is rather sad.

GOTHIC - Gothic culture is practically dead at this point. Even Emo is becoming lame (although we'd argue Emo was ALWAYS lame). The new thing is STEAMPUNK... which we argue could also be interpreted as STEAMGOTH! Anything that is retrofuturistic is now kewl.

HEALTH - Several major breakthroughs that may lead to cures for AIDS and cancer. The problem however is that they won't be available for another 5 to 10 years while they are thoroughly tested. One of them cures 60% of AIDS strains, and holds promise for curing the other 40% of AIDS strains. Cancer meanwhile is the result of toxins and malformed cell tissue. New medications that get rid of the toxins and helps cancerous cell tissue to regenerate are in the works.

POLITICS - 2010 was really more about economics than politics... true, the USA is on the verge of war with North Korea... and maybe Iran too... but American's primary worry is economics on the home front. The US economy is still sour because of their trade imbalance with China, despite efforts to boost the American economy too many people are buying products from China. President Obama meanwhile is too scared to face down China because most of the national debt is owed to, you guessed it, China. In 2011 we predict the US economy will get WORSE and it will likely do so suddenly, like a sudden stock market drop in Spring or Summer. And then the USA will have no choice but to demand that China stop pegging their currency to the US dollar, and China will have to agree when their economy starts hurting too.

If anything China has the most to lose if the economy goes sour. Their real estate market is in a bubble and will burst if there is an extended period of economic uncertainty. Anyone who invested in real estate in China is going to lose their shirts. That or we will have a currency war.

As proof that the economy is still on shaky ground gold prices soared in 2010 to a record $1405 USD per ounce. Experts think it might go as high as $2000 USD in 2011 if the US economy stays weak or gets worse.

RELIGION - Pope Benedict helped cover up a pedophile priest who molested hundreds of boys. Complaints to the Catholic Church are falling on deaf ears. Yada yada yada, don't send your children to a religious school where they will likely be molested.

SEX - California dropped its ban on gay marriages, but meanwhile NASA announced that sex in space is a big no-no. (Although the James Bond movie Moonraker begs to differ...)

TECHNOLOGY - Tablets and SmartPhones debuted in 2010 and we will see a slew of better made versions in 2011. They're getting a lot cheaper too, which will be nice.

Christmas Eve Treason

POLITICS/RELIGION - Almost a hundred years ago, on December 24th 1914, troops on both sides of enemy lines committed treason by having an unofficial truce.

In modern society religion, ideology and nationalistic pride have become the primary sources of clashes between civilizations. But a hundred years ago religion was actually a source of unity.

Thus it was that on December 24th 1914, following the opening of World War I and Christian churches on both sides of enemy lines supporting the national stance of ethnic and/or religious superiority (basically saying 'God is on our side'), that the doomed soldiers who were sent to the front set aside their weapons and ignored orders.

Such an event hasn't happened again since then. The act of treason that occurred then would never happen today. Soldiers who did would be subject to summary execution (ie. shot on the spot for treason).

Thus it was that only 5 months into the conflict (and not knowing how long it would last) the first Christmas of World War I was not a slaughter-fest of artillery, machine gun and poison gas weaponry...

It was Christmas in the Trenches and the morale was low. Rats, disease, filth, the screams of wounded soldiers in the distance, the ominous presence of the enemy. It could have been a potential massacre. To boost morale the German Kaiser Wilhelm ordered 100,000 Christmas trees and millions of candles sent to the front.

It started with German troops on the opposite side of No Man's Land singing "Stille Nacht" (Silent Night). British, French, Scottish and Canadian troops joined in and in various spots along the 600 mile stretch of trenches the unusual event happened: The Christmas Truce of 1914.

It should be noted that MOST of the soldiers did not leave their posts. Instead they stood there dumbfounded, suspecting it was all a trick. But quite a few did leave their posts and surprisingly they were not given any serious punishment for it. (There were punishments later handed out, but none of them were severe.)

Those who did set down their weapons and wandered out on to No Man's Land which was quiet for the evening. They gathered up the corpses of the fallen, and what followed was a celebration of photographs from home, chocolate, cigarettes, beer, wine, schnapps and according to several reports, soccer games.

Fraternization with the enemy / treason is severely punishable, including the possibility of summary execution by a commanding officer. But there were too many troops that did it. An officer who shot his own men on Christmas Eve would have had a revolt on his hands.

A French film, “Joyeux Noel”, later tells the story of how this all happened and is adapted from the stories and letters from the soldiers who lived through the event. Letters from the actual event are actually quite valuable now. A remake of the film in 2005 makes it out to be to the Scottish who started it.



Now more religious people might say that the treasonous Christmas Eve of 1914 was the spirit of Christmas alive in the souls of those men... but religious historians are quick to point out Jesus was actually born in March and the festival of Christmas was moved to December 25th by the Roman Emperor Constantine to coincide with the Roman festival of Saturnalia. Prior to that gift giving was not part of Christmas, but a Saturnalia tradition.

Likewise Yule logs and Christmas trees are also pagan traditions. And Saint Nicholas (aka Santa Claus) was actually a 4th century Greek (270 - 343 AD) who would secretly give gifts to people all year round, usually in the form of coins. Saint Nicholas is the patron saint of sailors, merchants, archers, thieves, children and students.

Since then the story of Saint Nicholas has been warped and twisted so many times that it is now more of a pagan tradition than anything else.

Thus one could argue it was the common humanity that the soldiers in the trenches felt on December 24th 1914. They were tired of war and were really only there because their country had asked them to...

But there is one story about Saint Nicholas which does pertain to war and death. Its depicted in the painting shown here, Saint Nicholas Saves Three Innocents from Death. Saint Nicholas preached the values of compassion for your fellow man and helping out those in need.

Thus humanity and compassion was probably what moved the troops in 1914. Sadly it was short lived.

God Vs. Climate Change?

ENVIRONMENT/RELIGION - According to U.S. House of Representatives' John Shimkus, who is currently being touted as the future chairman of the Congressional committee that deals with energy and environmental concerns, climate change should not concern Americans because God has already promised not to destroy the Earth.

Ahem.

Yesterday Shimkus, an evangelical Christian and a Republican from Illinois, announced his desire to become chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, one the most powerful committees because it effects energy policy, environmental initiatives and public health. Shimkus is already on the committee, but now he wants to be chairman.

In 2009, Shimkus dismissed the dangers of climate change and the warnings of scientists by quoting the Bible.

First, Shimkus quoted Genesis 8:21-22:

“Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though all inclinations of his heart are evil from childhood and never again will I destroy all living creatures as I have done."

“As long as the earth endures, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, will never cease.”

“I believe that’s the infallible word of God, and that’s the way it’s going to be for his creation,” Shimkus said.

Then Shimkus quoted Matthew 24:31:

“And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds from one end of the heavens to the other.”

“The Earth will end only when God declares it’s time to be over. Man will not destroy this Earth. This Earth will not be destroyed by a Flood,” says Shimkus. “I do believe that God’s word is infallible, unchanging, perfect.”

So yeah, no floods coming... But rising sea levels, droughts, plagues, pestilence, and so forth... its all on the agenda now. Americans sure seem to WANT an apocalypse to happen, but they will likely be disappointed when such things do happen.

What Shimkus apparently is ignoring is that God is also a vengeful god. According to the Bible mankind was placed here to be caretakers of the Earth. If we mess it up, God will punish us. Take from that what you will.

The Republicans grew in power during the recent Congressional elections, which means the committee will shift to Republican leadership.

So yeah... if you're American and worried about the environment you might as well kiss the planet goodbye for as long as whackjobs like Shimkus are put in power.

The Ethics of Pacifism

RELIGION - Granted, pacifism is not a religion, but it is a philosophy, a belief and a code of conduct that many religions promote. Indeed even atheists promote pacifism and admonish religious war.

Quakers, Mennonites, Hare Krishna believers... the list of pacifistic religions is pretty long. The word "Islam" for example actually means "Peace".

But these religions also frequently allow for the possibility of war and violence, for the purpose of defending ourselves.

"The central principle of Pacifism is to avoid unnecessary violence, which by its very definition means that violence is sometimes necessary to defend the weak and the innocent." - Charles Moffat.

At its core Pacifism is all about not being a bully, a brute and a savage who just takes what they want and does what they want. Pacifism is about being honourable, courageous and choosing not to fight when there is no need to fight.

In Pop Culture we can refer to the Superman principle: "Superman doesn't kill." Ever. Oh sure, he may have wrecked a robot or several in his time, but they were always unintelligent automatons. Superman has never actually killed a living / thinking entity.

But that hasn't stopped him from fighting crime and super villains. The Pacifism principle isn't limited to Superman either, it is a trait common to many principled superheroes in comic books (althought obviously not Wolverine).

The 9 Principles of a True Pacifist

#1. Never kills or attacks an unarmed foe.
#2. Never harms an innocent.
#3. Never tortures for any reason.
#4. Never kills for pleasure.
#5. Always defends the weak and innocent.
#6. Works within the boundaries of the law when possible.
#7. Avoids breaking the law except in rare desperate circumstances.
#8. Believes in self-discipline (ie. controlling your temper).
#9. Never deliberately abuses their position or other people.

Contrary to what some people might think however, this doesn't mean a pacifist should be ignorant of the martial arts. Quite the opposite, if you look at #5 pacifists are expected to defend the weak and innocents and thus a knowledge of how to defend oneself and others is necessary.

Bodyguards, peace keepers, anyone who works in the defense of others should be respected as pacifists, but most importantly they must not abuse their authority (ie. police brutality).

Civil rights leader Malcolm X for example is a good example of pacifism at work. He believed people should behave with honour and integrity, but he also believed people have the right to defend themselves and others.

Some people might think this means pacifism is all black and white. For the most part this is correct, but there is some grey areas... for example torture could be seen as a necessity in dire circumstances, but only if it can proven that the person being tortured actually possesses the knowledge which can be used to save people. Torturing someone without proof that they possess such knowledge, torturing for the purpose of pleasure, and likewise torturing someone out of anger and revenge is contradictory to the principles of pacifism.

“My pacifism is an instinctive feeling, a feeling that possesses me because the murder of men is disgusting. My attitude is not derived from any intellectual theory but is based on my deepest antipathy to every kind of cruelty and hatred.” - Albert Einstein.

Dalai Lama visiting Toronto October 2010

CANADA/RELIGION - His Holiness the Dalai Lama of Tibet is visiting Toronto in October and tickets to attend speeches, gatherings, etc are available. Some of the events are already sold out, but some organizations are selling/giving away tickets they snapped up in the rush. ie. Buddha Body Yoga has 10 tickets for sale.

Human Approaches to World Peace
Public Talk at the SkyDome with His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama.

During the event His Holiness will share his personal outlook on how we may bring about peace not only on a personal level but at the community and world wide level.

Date - Friday, October 22nd.
Time - 2.00- 5.30pm
Location - The SkyDome (aka The Roger's Centre)
Cost - $42 (per ticket based on group rate)

Grand Inauguration Ceremony
Date - Saturday October 23, 2010
Time - 10:00am - 12:00pm
Location - Tibetan Canadian Cultural Centre
Tickets - Invitation Only

Tibetan Community Audience
Date - Saturday October 23, 2010
Time - 2:00pm - 4:00pm
Location - Tibetan Canadian Cultural Centre
Tickets - $50.00

Can't afford a ticket? The TCCC is also accepting volunteers.

See also DalaiLamaToronto2010.org or you can follow on Facebook, Twitter or YouTube.

Expect some tension between China and Canada

Vatican Bank accused of money laundering

POLITICS/RELIGION - The head of the Vatican Bank is being investigated for money laundering and police have frozen 23 million euros ($30.2 million USD) of the bank's funds.

Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, who has been head of the Vatican Bank (aka the Institute for Religious Works or IOR) for a year, and another executive from IOR are under investigation because of suspicious bank transactions.

One of the transactions was a transfer of 20 million euros to a German branch of a U.S. bank and another of 3 million euros to an Italian bank.

Gotti Tedeschi, a devout Catholic, is also a close adviser to Italian Treasury Minister Giulio Tremonti, heads the Italian unit of the Spanish Banco Santander, and serves on the board of several major Italian banks. If he is found guilty of money laundering it could hurt his business partners.

This is hardly the first scandal within the Vatican Bank.

In 1982 the Vatican Bank was involved in the fraudulent bankruptcy of Banco Ambrosiano, then Italy’s largest private bank. The Vatican Bank owned a stake in the bank. Banco Ambrosiano's president Roberto Calvi was found hanged under London’s Blackfriars Bridge in 1982 and allegations of conspiracy and murder have swirled ever since.

Investigators could not determine whether Calvi was murdered or committed suicide. The head of the Vatican Bank at the time was American Archbishop Paul Marcinkus, who later died in 2006.

The Vatican denied any responsibility for the falsified collapse of Banco Ambrosiano and denied all knowledge of where the missing funds went.

1 in 4 university students regularly cheats

CANADA/UNITED STATES - According to surveys conducted in the USA and Canada, 1 in 4 American university students actively cheats on a regular basis and 1 in 5 Canadian university students also regularly cheats. How do they do it? Hidden notes, hiring other people to write essays and a variety of other methods.

Here's some examples from the University of Toronto, which has become beset by a plague of cheating students:

1. One U of T female student paid for an essay, but left the credit card bill among the pages when she handed the essay in.

2. One U of T economics student was caught whispering questions to a forbidden cellphone taped to his arm which was transmitting answers from a friend sitting at a computer.

3. One philandering male U of T student convinced his two girlfriends to write his essays and tests for him, but when they found out he was cheating on them they turned him in. He was accused of cheating 67 times and expelled from the University of Toronto.

4. An U of T tutorial assistant charged three students $1,500 each to slip them the answer sheet when he escorted them to the washroom during the exam. The TA was suspended for five years.

5. One U of T student plagiarized an essay, forged a doctor’s letter saying he was too sick to hand in a second essay on time, which he also plagiarized, followed by a third plagiarized essay. He was recommended for expulsion.

6. One U of T student agreed to write an essay for $120 for a female classmate, but then plagiarized the essay so his classmate failed the course. When she tried to get a refund, they had a fistfight and the university learned he had been selling essays for years. He was suspended for five years.

7. One U of T student plagiarized an essay from a website for a course called Philosophy of Language, in the same term as she plagiarized an essay for another course. Essay topic? Artificial Intelligence. (Talk about dumb eh?) She was suspended for three years.

8. One U of T student submitted an essay written originally by a professor at Purdue University. She was suspended for two years.

Unfortunately cheating at the University of Toronto is so rampant they only bother to expell the people who are caught in the most severe cases. They are turning a blind eye to students who are getting away with cheating.

But severe cases of cheating are on the rise. In 2008-09 there was 38 severe cases, up from 21 cases in 2007-08. A new report is expected out soon which will show the rise during 2009-10.

According to another report, “Liars, Fraudsters and Cheats” by the Canadian Council on Learning, three out of every four Canadian students admits to cheating at least once.

Part of the problem is the internet. Its far too easy to find someone else's academic paper, change the title, the name and then hand it in without changing anything else.

U of T has become proactive in their attempts to discourage, detect and deal with everything from plagiarism to paying for papers. They've even hired a full time watchdog to help instructors catch cheaters. In the last three years since the watchdog has been on the job campus charges for cheating have more than doubled to 388 in 2009-10 from 182 in 2006-7.

"Cheaters never prosper? Bullsh*t. They get away with it so much and are rarely punished its reached a point that we're basically rewarding their bad behaviour by ignoring the problem."

Support Gay Marriage in Montana

RELIGION/SEX - We've been asked to post something about gay marriage rights in Montana.

"I am a singer/songwriter from Great Falls, Montana. Gay marriage is not legal here in Montana and I wish that it was. I believe we LGBT folks are being denied a Constitutional right. I watched the results of Prop 8 in California with much interest. The more places in America that have gay rights the better things will eventually be for the rest of us. I was heart broken when Prop 8 passed and was elated when the Judge overturned it. The subsequent rulings are hopefully just speed bumps on the way to eventual victory.

I was moved emotionally by all of this and as a songwriter I was compelled to write about it. This song is a time capsule of my emotions regarding Prop 8 and the subsequent rulings. Please take the time to watch/listen to "Wearing White" and feel free to share it with anyone you feel could be ministered to by it's message." - James R. Waddell.



We believe that the more other people try to restrict our rights to be free the more people protest and demand their rights to be free. Trying to prevent people from having the right to get marriage will only further cause them to demand that right. Battles may be lost, but the war will never end until gay marriage is fully legalized.

Hey, Ayatollah, leave those kids alone

ENTERTAINMENT/RELIGION - A Toronto-based band named "Blurred Vision" has the blessing of Pink Floyd to do a cover song and music video of Pink Floyd's "The Wall"... with a slight lyric change: "Hey, Ayatollah, leave those kids alone!", a reference to Iran's tyrranical religious theocracy.

Co-founders and brothers Sohl on bass guitar and Sepp on guitar/singer are garnering attention across the world with their new variation on the old Pink Floyd favourite. Normally Pink Floyd has been against people using their song because they wanted it to be for the right reasons and not for a band just hoping to make a profit. The new protest song isn't about making money and is focused on rebelling against Iran's older generation, and the video utilizes footage from student protests against Iran's fraudulent election of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (who according to exit polls should have lost by a long shot). The band also donates much of their profits to human rights organizations operating in Iran.




"Blurred Vision" was formed in 2007 by brothers Sepp and Sohl who fled Iran in 1986 with their family in 1986. Their last name has been kept private for fear of retribution against their family members still living in Iran.

"We did a show in Toronto in September and while we were performing we decided let's play 'Another Brick in the Wall' just for the hell of it and as the chorus line came up I just decided to sing 'hey Ayatollah' instead of 'hey teacher' and when I sang that line the crowd went insane," says Sepp. They later released the music video in February.

The fact Pink Floyd has now endorsed the song has boosted international attention for the song, but its the attention in Iran that they're most interested in.

"We get a lot of e-mails, especially from the younger guys, and I remember we were in London for a film festival where we were there to receive an award for best video and Sohl was translating an e-mail into English. And as he was translating he started crying. The e-mail said, 'It is you guys out there that can keep this going for us, that can keep our voice alive. We're here sort of isolated from the rest of the world, we've been shut down and shut off from the rest of the world and all we can say is just keep our voice alive, keep going to allow us to reach this point of freedom,'" says Sepp.

The members of "Blurred Vision" hope their videos and music will circumvent internet censorship in Iran so that many Iranians can see their message of hope and freedom.

Meanwhile in Iran supporters of the Ayatollah and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are not happy about the music at all and instead are accusing the band of promoting anti-Iranian propaganda and working for the U.S. government. The Ayatollah recently made threats to crackdown on music in Iran's youth culture and banning all music in an attempt to ban subversive lyrics.

The band was also worried about Pink Floyd founder Roger Waters and his approval.

"We were nervous because we're thinking we're coming out with our first release as a Pink Floyd cover and along the lines of musicians and music fans the Floyd can't be touched," says Sepp. "… so we laid the track down and right away we knew that we had to get it over to Roger because he was such a hero to us."

Weeks later Waters gave the band the "green light."

"We got the e-mail back from the Roger Waters camp and it said you have Roger Water's blessing and not only that but this track is now in your hands it's now yours as its title "Hey Ayatollah, leave those kids alone," says Sepp. "For me and Sohl it was one of the most unbelievable moments in our musical lives."

"I think it's great that these guys are using the song to protest against the repressive and brutal regime in Iran," says Waters. "I am proud to be a small part of this resistance." "I think The Blurred Vision video is very accomplished and makes its point powerfully," he adds.

Their next song due to be released is titled "Democracy".

"Subversive lyrics are more deeply felt by people who have had their freedoms restricted and taken away."