But as scholars can testify, what gives meaning to some is an anathema to others. Just ask the four young graduate students who gave a presentation at the American Academy of Religion on the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.
The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster grew out of a backlash against biblical creationists in Kansas who wanted intelligent design taught in public schools as an alternative to evolution. The movement's founder dashed off a letter to the state school board demanding his theory also be taught: that the world was created by a Flying Spaghetti Monster.
Fueled by the Internet, the craze became a pop culture hit. Its followers are known as “Pastafarians.” Its icon is a spoof of Michelangelo's “Creation” portrait, with Adam reaching out to touch a noodle.
Spoof? Why is this faith any less valid than any of the others?
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I mowed the rest of the lawn after I returned home from work today.
I like this bit "Religion is faith-based, while psychiatry is science-based". Once upon a time scientists were deemed heretics, such as Galileo for thinking that the earth revolved around the sun.Shrinking religion
SURVEY | A third of psychiatrists do not believe in God -- so where does that leave religious patients?
September 3, 2007
A new survey has found that psychiatrists are much less religious than other doctors.Decades after Sigmund Freud declared religion an "illusion," the rift between religion and psychiatry seems to be as wide as ever.
The survey found that 17 percent of psychiatrists have no religious affiliation, compared with 10 percent of other doctors.
One-third of psychiatrists do not believe in God and fewer than one-half believe in life after death. Only 29 percent attend religious services twice a month or more, compared with 47 percent of other doctors.
"Religious patients who prefer to see like-minded psychiatrists may have difficulty finding a match," University of Chicago researcher Dr. Farr Curlin and colleagues wrote in the journal Psychiatric Services.
Researchers asked non-psychiatrist doctors how they would refer a hypothetical patient who is deep in grief two months after the death of his wife. Religious doctors were more willing to refer patients to clergy members or religious counselors and less willing to refer to psychiatrists.
Researchers surveyed 1,144 doctors, including 100 psychiatrists. Twenty-nine percent of psychiatrists were Jewish, compared with 13 percent of other doctors.
Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, knocked religion. While psychiatrists have largely replaced Freud's talk therapy with drug therapy, Freud "remains a very dominant figure within psychiatry," said Dr. Harold G. Koenig, a Duke University psychiatrist and co-author of the study.
Religion is faith-based, while psychiatry is science-based. Some psychiatrists have expressed fears that religious influences might destabilize patients, Koenig said.
Koenig has heard anecdotal reports that as recently as the early 1990s, patients in at least one psychiatric ward were prohibited from having Bibles, and chaplains could not visit without a psychiatrist's permission.
Clergy as competition?
Some psychiatrists also might see the clergy as competition, Koenig said, although as many as 80 percent of patients with mental disorders could benefit by seeing clergy members.Some studies have shown practicing religion can be good for your mental health. And in recent years, there has been a movement to merge psychiatry and religion. Christianpsychiatry.com connects patients to psychiatrists and other providers who believe prayer "can be a powerful adjunct to their treatment."
Despite such fledgling cooperation between religion and psychiatry, "the long-standing tension seems to be an enduring one," Curlin said.
Kindness, compassion break out at Princes ParkI find the last two points confusing. I could never let any living being suffer whether they deserve it or not.
Michael Lallo
June 10, 2007
JUDGING by the hushed awe, the crowd of 20,000 expected a profound utterance from the Dalai Lama.Instead, the exiled Buddhist spiritual leader of Tibet tweaked his nipples.
"What do you call these things where milk comes out of?" he asked, trying to illustrate the bond between mother and child.
But his cheeky grin suggested he already knew the answer.
Indeed, it was a playful mood that dominated the Dalai Lama's free public lecture yesterday at Princes Park.
If he was annoyed at having being snubbed by Melbourne Lord Mayor John So, who refused to meet him yesterday morning, he did not show it.
After an effusive introduction from actress Kerrie Armstrong, His Holiness — who claims to be the 14th reincarnation of the Bodhisattva of Compassion — took his seat. Barely a minute later, he was back on his feet, preferring to stand.
He pointedly avoided issuing specific instructions, instead urging the world's 6 billion people to adopt an attitude of "unbiased compassion".
"Limited compassion is based on others' attitudes towards you," he explained. "As soon as their attitude changes, hatred will come."
There were few surprises throughout the lecture, with the religious leader sticking to his usual themes of tolerance, kindness and compassion, and with an environmental focus. But his response to written questions raised a few eyebrows, as he appeared to advocate euthanasia in certain circumstances.
"If a human has no hope of recovery and is in a coma, it can be very expensive, and the rest of their family can suffer immensely," he said.
But sick pets, he said, must never be put down. "The suffering of the animal is due to previous karma. They have to experience their suffering, so they can live out their karma."
Buddhism | 96% | ||
Satanism | 83% | ||
Paganism | 79% | ||
Hinduism | 71% | ||
agnosticism | 63% | ||
Islam | 63% | ||
atheism | 58% | ||
Christianity | 50% | ||
Judaism | 46% |
"It must be clearly acknowledged that the church does not have sure knowledge about the salvation of unbaptized infants who die,"See - Catholic News Service of 20 April 2007
