BY: SWIKAR OLI Science is showing that the spiritual experience of watching the sun cascade through a ceiling of trees is being preferred to the long-winded sermons of synagogue or Sunday mass. A Baylor University study confirmed that people who…
Pope Francis is crucifying tax-evading churches that don’t help the needy
BY: SWIKAR OLI With each speech, Pope Francis is looking less and less like his predecessors and increasingly like a political leader. His latest target? Money-hungry churches. The pope told the Portuguese Catholic broadcaster Renascenza in a recent interview that…
This village has a homemade-rocket war once a year to keep the peace (Video)
BY: MELISSA GONZALEZ “For about a month people see some tension. There is a state of unrest. Everyone knows that something is going on.” In the small village of Vrontados the month of March is no more than a grand…
25 activists are biking across America to fight persecution of meditation in China
BY: JESSICA BEUKER I find it difficult to imagine a world where my core beliefs are subject to persecution. A world where I have to walk on egg shells every single day. Where I can’t freely say what I think…
The Church of Cannabis is now a legally recognized religion and weed is its holy sacrament
BY: MATTHEW CHIN In Indianapolis, Indiana, following the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, a controversial law that has been known to deliberately suppress LGBT rights, has unintentionally helped The First Church of Cannabis become a legitimate establishment. The RFRA states that…
Raëlians believe that alien scientists designed humans. I went to one of their meetings.
BY: EMMA MCINTOSH I’m 15 minutes early for the November Raëlian meditation gathering. I have no idea what to expect. Aside from a few visits to church as a kid, I’ve never attended a spiritual meeting, let alone one for…
Forget Everything You’ve Heard: Satanism Sounds More Like Activism Than Blasphemy
BY: MICHAEL LYONS Satanists are making their way into our schools! Satanists are out to get our children! Satanists are trying to convert our nation’s kids to the dangerous, infective belief in critical thought… oh, the humanity! This isn’t an…
People swim with rotting corpses in Varanasi to cleanse themselves of sin
BY: ALEXANDER DOWNHAM Western Judeo-Christian values have morphed death into an aspect of life we run from. But in Varanasi, India, death is something to anticipate and embrace. Varanasi – one of Hinduism’s seven holiest cities – was built between…
From Devout Catholic To Wiccan Witch— Why I Traded In A Cross For A Pentagram
BY: VANESSA NIGRO The moon hangs high over Toronto’s Serena Gundy Park, a thriving forest tucked away in Leaside, one of Toronto’s wealthiest neighborhoods. As people begin to file in, the tall trees that separate the woods from the street…
I got legally ordained as a priest in 5 minutes
BY: KESTREL After spending five minutes on the website of the Universal Life Church of Modesto, California, I now apparently know enough to officiate weddings and funerals. While waiting for my toast to pop on a Thursday afternoon, I killed…