What Makes People Tick?

The Times of Israel reports that Pope Francis spoke out about anti-Semitism: In comments made to veteran Portuguese-Israeli journalist Henrique Cymerman Thursday, Francis was quoted as saying that “anyone who does not recognize the Jewish people and the State of Israel — and their right to exist — is guilty of anti-Semitism.” Source: ‘Not recognizing Israel as Jewish is anti-Semitic, Pope says’ | The Times of Israel | 28 May 2015 Below, the Tweet from international journalist Henrique Cymerman: In an email we got from Pope Francis:"Whoever does not recognize the Jewish People and the State of Israel falls in antisemitism" — Henrique Cymerman (@Henrique_B_C) May 28, 2015 Seventy years after the end of the Holocaust, as the internet connects and unites the world and people are able to make up their own minds based on the information freely available to them online, isn't it about time that we all kick anti-Semitism to the curb? The Nazis and those who helped th...

Source : Getty Images Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The world's three main monotheistic religions. First came monotheistic Judaism in a polytheistic world. Then came the Jewish Jesus whose teachings inspired Christianity. Then came Islam which accepts all the Jewish prophets and Jesus' virgin birth and teachings. These three religions are connected not only through acceptance of the same prophets and basic teachings but also through locations that matter to them and many very similar rituals, prayers and aspirations. When one examines the similarities between these three religious groups, the differences between them somehow seem to fade away into nothing. The Jewish Torah consists of the Biblical books Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. Together with several other books by or about prophets and some containing wisdom or songs or teachings, these books together make up the Tanakh - the full "Jewish Bible". Christians rearrange the books and ...

The Guardian reported yesterday (25 May 2014) that the head of the worldwide Catholic Church, Pope Francis, visited the security barrier separating Israel from Palestine at Bethlehem to speak and pray there. "It is an image that will define Pope Francis's first official visit to the Holy Land. Head bowed in prayer, the leader of the Catholic church pressed his palm against the graffiti-covered concrete of Israel's imposing "separation wall", a Palestinian girl holding a flag by his side. It was, as his aides conceded later, a silent statement against a symbol of division and conflict." Source :  Pope Francis offers prayers at Israeli separation wall in Bethlehem The Guardian

According to USA Today, novelist Anne Rice, famous for her books on vampires ( Interview with the Vampire, Queen of the Damned ), creator of the ever-interesting Lestat and sister of noted novelist Alice Borchardt, is rejecting Christianity while sticking with Christ. On her Facebook page, the author said the following: For those who care, and I understand if you don't: Today I quit being a Christian. I'm out. I remain committed to Christ as always but not to being "Christian" or to being part of Christianity. It's simply impossible for me to "belong" to this quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous group. For ten years, I've tried. I've failed. I'm an outsider. My conscience will allow nothing else. - Anne Rice's Facebook page Anne Rice grew up a Catholic, married Stan Rice (an atheist) in 1961 and started writing her vampire books while living in San Francisco after the death of her daughter Michele to leukemia i...