The Pope Defends the Vatican’s Actions During World War II

Pope Benedict XVI made his first visit to Rome’s main synagogue at the weekend. During the visit a Jewish Leader confronted the Pope by referring to the Catholic Churches silence during the Holocaust.

The Pope had to concede to the remark by stating that “unfortunately, many remained indifferent”, but he did also state that the Vatican itself did help Jews in a “discreet way”. The criticism mainly fell on Pope Pius who was head of the Catholic Church throughout the WW II period, and with this visit Pope Benedict was hoping to bring about reconciliation between the two religions.

Some Jewish leaders seem set to rock this precarious boat though as they call for the Vatican to make public some of its secret archives, in order to understand the actions of Pius XII during the holocaust more closely.

This issue is not likely to just go away and so Pope Benedict XVI may have to go a lot further than visiting the main Synagogue in Rome to appease the Jewish people.

Christmas Cards go cheap Before Christmas!

Many people in the UK and world leave their Christmas shopping to the last minute and this in turn becomes a very big headache.

Lots of people flock to places like the Trafford Centre and City Centre of their home towns and begin to buy hundreds and thousands of Christmas cards and gifts!

This in turn leads to people forgetting to buy for certain close friends and thus this leads to regret for a whole year!!

Now to the main topic. If you notice, the prices of Christmas cards and Gifts are very high during the last days before Christmas.

So if you are going to buy lots of gifts and cards for friends and family then buy them early… Very early!

By buying all your gifts early, you will be organised, there will be no stress and headache later on, you will potentially save hundreds of pounds, you will be more relaxed and calm during the new year period.

Many people spend thousands of pounds on Christmas cards and gifts but is something to think about. Is buying an expensive card for someone really that worth it? Think about it, you give someone a good quality card but that person is going to have another couple of hundred cards and your card will probably end up just being ‘another one’!!

Religion and sex

Religion and sex is a massive subject around the world and allot of religions ban or stop you having sex before marriage. The idea behind this would drive me mad as what would happen if you never get married, would that mean you would never have sex?

I think this is why you see lots of sex scandals with vicars and even sometime children or did I see that at the movies, either way sex and religion will always be in the news and I’m glad for once I’m not religious.

What are your experiences, have you had the same issues? Let me know your thoughts?

Church on Sunday

Are you religious? Do you follow a god? I know I don’t really have time to do this but how do people fit this into there life and actually make it part of there life. Some people treat it a routine like going to church on a Sunday is like getting up and doing your teeth every day. Again like in my lats blog football is like this and people get up not matter how hung over they are and drag themselves round a mud filled field every Sunday morning.

I still think this is commitment juts like visiting a church every Sunday.

Football culture

Football today is such a big part of life and it now has a few different types of cultures. Not only the culture of religion but its own cultures in how people follow a certain team. If you think about it the likes of Everton or Manchester Untied are almost worshipped all over the world and can be seen as some sycophantic religion but could the very method of football really influence people into following a religious type of scheme. I reckon it could.

What is the strangest almost religious following you have seen that is not connected to religion?

Where has our right to choose gone?

Following on from my last blog about choices, one thing that really irritates me is why people think they have the right to actualcome to your door and start preaching to you about how you should go to church or turn to religion. It seems to me these days everyone wants to advise us on everything we should and shouldn’t do. What we should eat, drink, how we should spend our money. Now I’m not saying that I don’t appreciate advice but I would like to be able to ask for it when I need it not be preached at or told what I am doing is right or wrong.

Being ‘Religious’ – an excuse for everything??

My parents decided not to christen me as a baby on the basis that I should make that decision for myself once I was older and had the information to make an informed independent decision about it and based on what I have seen and done in my life so far I have decided to live by a set of morals rather than subscribe to a religion – treat others as I would want to be treated, listen, try not to be selfish or to judge, just generally try and be a ‘good’ person. I have seen situations where religion has really helped someone through a crisis but what really frustrates and angers me is when I meet individuals who have the opinion that because they are religious they then almost use it an excuse for everything, they can pretty much treat people in a completely inappropriate way but it’s ok because they have a faith. I think more people should concentrate on just being a ‘good’ person.

Some of the Worlds Craziest Religions?

The Jedi Church or Jediism
Yes, you read that right, Jedi. Light sabers, robes and The Force. Those Jedi. They exist, though if they have light sabers, they’re not admitting to it.

Oneida Community
In 1848 John Humphrey Noyes founded a Utopian commune based on the idea that Jesus Christ had already returned to mankind in the year 70 AD, meaning they were free to live a perfect life without sin on Earth as well as in Heaven.

Discordianism
Discordianism is a religion based on the idea that Chaos is the only force in the universe and that disorder and order are merely illusions.

Shakers
The Shakers or “Shaking Quakers” were an offshoot of the Quaker faith, which itself was an offshoot of Protestantism. The name is taken from a mocking referral to their demonstrative style of worship that included ritual acts of shouting, trembling, shaking, singing, dancing and speaking in tongues.

Is Religion Dying?

Many people may argue the case with this statement but research is showing this is the truth. Alot of research has been carried out to look into this especially in America where reports are stating that religious observance is at an all-time low.

Two thirds of Americans no longer attend religious services with any regularity and ten percent assert they do not believe in God at all. Fifteen percent of Americans say they have no religion, double the percentage in 1990.

All though this is just research carried out in America it is happening everywhere and proof of this in the United Kingdom Is by the amount of local community churches being shut down and few numbers actually attending mass.

Faith has helped keep many countries’ strong and we should not turn our backs on history or we will come to regret the future. The role of religion has been enormously beneficial, and its value must not be ignored.

What Defines a Culture?

This is a question which many, many people have asked and in turn many, many people have answered.

What defines a culture?

There are many different aspects which distinguishes cultures between them. Some of these factors  are major such as the people, leaders, food, clothes etc. and some of them are minor such as the perfume, walking stick, homes, villages and towns etc.

This is the basic answer to this question however this is not the end of the answer either.

People have gone in to so much detail with regards to this questions that books and books have been written on this.