Someone sent me a meme of Jesus bungee jumping from a crucifix. A month later, I read a book that  took this meme to a whole other level – thatJesus suffering on a cross was only first used as a religious symbol around the year 960 c.e.

Dorian Gray was above it all, privileged and pampered and proud, without good promise or purpose. Wilde’s implication is that conscience is necessary for the soul to survive.“What does it profit a person if, in gaining the whole world, loses the soul?”

If a woman is denied the right to choose for herself whether or not to complete a pregnancy, in what sense can she, or any of us, claim rights of any kind? 

In the fourteenth century, a German priest, Conrad of Megenberg, wrote “The Book of Nature”.   It was based on the assumption, shared by some theologians in that era, that God’s revelation was shown equally in nature and in scripture.  It was presumed that the two “books” were seamlessly compatible. 

Christians have taken it upon themselves to spread spiritual literacy by sending missionaries to the far reaches of the planet. However, refocusing on promoting educational literacy within our own nation would be to our next generation’s benefit.

“Trans lives are real lives. Trans deaths are real deaths. God works through other people. Maybe you can be those other people.” We are those other people.

I am a physical being with an immortal soul! I have lived many, many times on this earthly plane. Now, today, in our Aquarian Age, is the right time; the consciousness of my life as well as the lives of my fellow human beings. I want to help us all live in Light and Love.

As we grapple with the existential crisis of human-caused climate change, we will have a hard time making the transition away from fossil fuels if we show disrespect to the people in this industry.  We must carefully craft our language to attract rather than insult the people who labor still to this day, extracting the fuels that power our vehicles and warm our houses. 

The poor of the planet stare us in the face. Disparity of wealth, in our country and elsewhere, is an outrage that cannot be endured. The numbers are literally unbelievable. The earth provides, but greed monopolizes the table, a select few taking it all while the many stare and starve.

The idea of Adam and Eve as representing consciousness and unconsciousness, as discussed in the Adam and Eve essays Part 1 and 2, was not neglected in later writings of the Bible. It was repeated again and again. For example, in the “begetting” chapters of Genesis we see an interesting pattern. It’s written that many sons and daughters were begotten but only certain ones are mentioned by name.(Gen. 4:17-5:32) This has metaphorical meaning and relates to the three states of being, the three types of consciousness, and reincarnation. The names and the numbers in these “begetting” chapters are a treasure house of Cabalistic information but is beyond the scope of this essay and my capabilities.

The Parliament of the World’s Religions is thrilled to announce the launch of the Climate Commitments Project. This web-based resource is the virtual face of the Climate Commitments Project, our effort to coordinate and strengthen interfaith and faith-based climate action campaigns.

Can we convince white people that their future will be better without racism? Can we convince them that there is a place for them in a more open, diverse, inclusive world?

During the three hours we spent in the Old City, I heard lots of nice stories—myths about God forming Adam, about God declaring Jerusalem as Israel’s eternal capital, about Muhammad flying to heaven, and about Jesus’s crucifixion and burial. The problem with these nice stories is that people fight over them.

When you reside at the intersections of multiple identities, anniversaries of your civil rights struggles can be both bitter and sweet. And, May 17th was a reminder.

I believe every adult must be her or his own Messiah or Christ and choose a foundation stone to live her or his life by. One could choose money, power, crime, sex, pornography, drugs, a religion, or a cult—to name a few.

For me, the historical Jesus is the guru who provides my foundation stone, agape.

Religious Naturalism (RN) has two central aspects. One is a naturalist view of how things happen in the world—in which the natural world is all there is, and that nothing other than natural may cause events in the world. From nature we came, in nature we are, to nature we go… The other is appreciation of religion with a view that nature can be a focus of religious attention – the ‘cosmic religious feeling’ as Einstein called it.

When was the last time you participated in something sacred with 1.5 billion people? The thought of that may sound exciting or possibly a little daunting, but I can tell you it is enlightening and deeply rewarding.

Sexual abuse in the church erupted in the 1990s when it was reported on in the Boston Globe and Hollywood brought it to the world’s attention. However, this isn’t merely a recent problem; the history of sexual abuse goes back centuries.