Jet-setting Thai monk makes a bumpy landing … in prison
Back in 2013, Buddhist monk Wirapol Sukphol caused outrage when he appeared in a YouTube video that showed him enjoying the high life. He was pictured in his monk’s robes aboard a private jet wearing...
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Victims of Buddhist abuse voice concerns to Dalai Lama
Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, reportedly had to endure a ‘complicated’ meeting in Holland on Friday after he agreed to meet four victims of alleged sexual abuse carried out by Buddhist...
View ArticleUK to investigate child sexual abuse in more faith organisations
The UK’s Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) is to widen its probe to include a range of religious organisations including the Jehovah’s Witnesses. The new investigation is separate...
View ArticleJesus’s ‘aroma of love’ failed to reach the nostrils of a UK priest
WHILE the toxic fall-out over the Catholic Church’s hugely divisive ‘pagan’ Amazon Synod rages on and on (see here and here), the Church of England has become enmeshed in a more parochial spat over...
View ArticleA tranquil Trump? Don’t tell Buddhists, it’ll drive them insane.
BUDDHISTS are very protective of their brand, and get pretty pissed off by the use of their imagery to promote a wide range products and even venues such as bars and eateries. So when I spotted a...
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The case of Richard Dawkins: cultural affiliation with a religious community...
image credit: Karl Withakay. image used under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Every couple of years, whenever he declares that he is a ‘cultural Christian’,...
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The roots of political Buddhism in Burma
Photograph taken in 2014 during an event organized by the pro-democracy group All Burma Federation of Student Unions (ABFSU) featuring Venerable Wirathu, a Buddhist monk leader (front, robed, centre)....
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Can Religion Save Humanity? Part One
As a past and present adherent of two major religions—initially, I was a Christian missionary and now I am a Buddhist priest—I have long pondered the meaning and significance of religion. However,...
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From stardust to sentience: How scientific literacy can improve your ability...
nasa’s image of the cosmic microwave background, the afterglow of the big bang. more information here.It’s not uncommon to hear religious people refer to faith as a source of comfort. In fact, there...
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Awry in the Orient: some problems with Eastern philosophies
‘The Oriental religio-philosophical persuasion—again, loosely defined—actively works to undercut or at least bypass [rational, step-by-step thought].’ cartoon by nicholas E. Meyer.Much of the...
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Wellspring of spot-on forecasts: a review of ‘H. G. Wells and the...
Although it covers a lot of ground, H. G. Wells and the Twenty-First Century by Bill Cooke reads like a brisk intellectual romp. Cooke achieves this by organising his material deftly into departments,...
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Feminism and religion are incompatible
This is an edited version of Maryam Namazie’s contribution to a Cambridge Union debate: ‘This House Believes Feminism is Incompatible with Religion’, held on 14 November 2024. Others speaking in...
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Buddhism: The Religion That Wasn’t—And Now Is (Part One)
One of the questions that has long troubled students of Buddhism is whether or not it should be considered a ‘religion’ on par with other world religions such as Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism,...
View ArticleCities of Rage
If you want the wise man to be as angry as the atrocity of men’s crimes requires, he must not only be angry, but must go mad with rage. – Seneca, De Ira Suddenly the world seems an angrier place. One...
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