What Makes People Tick?

 Is there one great truth? One thing, or several things, that connect all religions? Is there one great universal truth? If there is... What is the great universal truth?  Certainly there are themes that seem universal, that come back in many different creeds and many different religions. But really, is there one universal truth that we can glean from the world's religions and spiritual systems? Trust and believe in something greater than yourself. Be kind to the needy. Be kind to the poor. Be kind to the orphans. Be kind to widows. Love your neighbour as yourself. Treat others as you'd want to be treated yourself. Don't lie. Don't kill. Treat your parents well. Have faith. Be kind. Do good. Show kindness. Be compassionate. Treat others well. Be kind to those who are less fortunate than you are. Those are themes that seem to come back time and again in the world's major religions.  Knowing only what I know, I want to write that the one great universal truth is this:...

 I'm quite certain that I'm not the only one who's recently learnt about Adriana Rosie's social media channels where she writes about being a non-Jewish nanny for Jewish families in Florida in the US. It was an article from the Times of Israel ( ‘Non-Jewish Nanny’ to Orthodox kids gains TikTok fame with cute culture-shock videos ) that got me reading about what she does. And honestly, I've really enjoyed going through this young woman's Every Single Instagram Post. Check it out for yourself:  Adriana Rosie @nonjewishnanny .  While I usually prefer using Instagram to check out photos as opposed to videos (one of the reasons I'm not on TikTok...), I have to admit that I've just been eating up the content, and have really enjoyed learning about all her experiences. This is someone who's respectful of a community with many customs, rules and regulations that may not make sense to, or seem strange to outsiders, and opens up that community to the wider wor...

One of the reasons for not blogging for quite some time is, simply put, that real life intervened. I changed jobs, my long-term relationship ended, I started studying again... All of this, as well as me questioning whether blogging was still what I wanted to do with my time, led to not posting. Not posting for a month leads to not posting for a year, leads to not posting for almost three years. Which brings us to the here and now.  While I still have no interest in making this a personal blog, I do hope to get back to blogging about things that interest me. Things like psychology and anthropology, religion and spirituality, coaching and counseling, education and conservation, global warming and world peace. I'd also like to write about things that are perhaps a little less mainstream yet that very much interest me. Things like the possibility of alien life, parapsychology, meditation, telepathy, mindfulness, reincarnation, yoga and such. Simply put, I've been a little afraid to...

Lately, I've been reading a lot of books focusing on religion and spirituality. Books written by believers and practitioners, but also books written by outsiders and scholars - religious tourists, sociologists, anthropologists... One thing that strikes me over and over is that so many accounts from different religions have common elements or are even a re-telling of the same story but updated or changed to reflect the history, religion, language or culture of the ones telling the story. Reading accounts from different religions in regions that, as far as we know, never interacted before white Europeans started sailing around the world, laying claim to lands that were never theirs to lay claim to, and seeing how similar these accounts are, how many common factors there are, it makes me realise that when it comes to how we view religion and the divine, when it comes to the stories we tell regarding not just our own creation but the creation of the world and all living beings, we are ...

Mary of Magdala, or Mary Magdalene, is possibly one of history's most misunderstood women. A follower of Jesus, she is mentioned in the Christian Bible a number of times. Many think of her as a whore or a prostitute, despite the fact that she isn't actually called anything like that. Ever. I recently came across an article that described the Gospel of Mary Magdalene and was fascinated by what I read. Having read it, now it's time to share it with others. In the age of #YesAllWomen and #MeToo, I believe that it is important to look at how women are portrayed today, and how they were portrayed in the past. Mary, the Magdalene, is a woman branded by history as something she probably wasn't at all - a prostitute, an 'easy' woman, a whore as modern-day people might describe her. Yet upon reading the Gospel of Mary Magdalene , one's views may change, if only a little. While it's never been an official or unofficial gospel, the fragmented pieces of writing ...

The Dalai Lama writes an amazingly inspiring and insightful piece which puts into eloquent words that which I stumblingly hope to confer to the world in my own way through this blog - we are all human, we all think and feel, we all need to learn to share our planet and we all deserve to live with dignity and respect. I originally started writing this post in February 2015, then attempted to continue it later that year, before abandoning it again. It is now October 2017 and after resetting every password for this blog and the associated Twitter account, I've come back to it after barely thinking about it for more than two years. There are things I want to say, things I want to speak out about, things I want to write about... Doing that under my own name isn't always the smartest idea in this day and age, which is why I created this blog in the first place. What I write about however isn't all that controversial - equality for all, humans from different backgrounds underst...

Serabit el Khadim is a mountain in the Sinai peninsula in Egypt. Near it are two other peaks with names that, to those who read the Torah / Pentateuch, may sound familiar: Jebel Saniya and Jebel Ghorabi. There is a temple to the goddess Hathor on Serabit el-Khadim. After reading about the location in a fantasy fiction book that mentioned prominent archaeologist Flinders Petrie as well as the temple to Hathor, I became intrigued and wanted to learn more about this desert location. The book also mentioned the possibility that this location had been where Moses received the Ten Commandments, something that most definitely intrigued me as well. I am personally interested in the story of Moses and the Exodus from Egypt and enjoy learning about the period of our world's history in which this Exodus may have taken place. Unlike many, I do not believe that Rameses II was the Pharaoh of the Exodus, believing it to be much more likely that the Exodus occurred around the time of Akhenaten...

I am a firm believer in the need for all religious systems to be open to changing (their interpretations and explanations) with the times, for people to be free to choose the religion they want to follow and to choose their level of commitment to that religion. I also believe that as long as one sticks to some basic rules most of humanity shares, we should all be free to live our lives as we please. I wasn't born into a religious family, have never been formally accepted by any religion as 'theirs' and have never converted to any religion. Simply put: I do not officially belong to any religion. If one must label me by religion, it is fair to call me someone who believes what Noahides believe. That is to say that I believe in the God of the Torah, the Bible and the Qur'an - The God of Abraham, Moses, David, Jesus, Muhammad and many, many people around the world today. To find out what God wants from me, I turn to the source, to the Jewish Bible. While I most certainly ...

Religion pic.twitter.com/FmByPLkuUu — Mahatma K. Gandhi (@GandhiWisdom) June 19, 2015

To all those who are fasting this Ramadan - May you have an easy fast. I pray that God will hear and answer the prayers of those praying for peace, love and light. Ramadan Kareem. May you have an easy fast! pic.twitter.com/75k040BBdQ — MAGEN DAVID ADOM (@Mdais) June 21, 2015

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...

I firmly believe that all people are equal because we are all human. Whether one believes in a Big Bang and gradual evolution or believes that we were created by a Higher Power and the first of us were Adam and Eve - one cannot deny that we are all equal, all the same, all human, all part of the same family. We are all individuals - We are all people who think, dream, imagine, smile, laugh, love and cry. We all feel emotions, we all have families and friends we love, we all have hopes and dreams and aspirations. While we are all unique, different and individual, we are also all human. In the end we all want the same for those we love and care about - we all want them to be happy, safe, loved and protected. I myself want the same for my family and friends - I want them to be happy, to be free, to be able to speak their minds, to choose their own path in life, to know they are safe, to be free from persecu...

Terrible. At least 15 attacks took place in France after the #CharlieHebdo massacre. And it will continue. pic.twitter.com/AzrD4pRjFC — Emran Feroz (@Emran_Feroz) January 9, 2015

ISIS, Hamas, Al-Qaeda, the Taliban, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, the Muslim Brotherhood, Boko Haram, the al-Nusra front... No doubt there are groups just as bloodthirsty that are not on this list because I can't think of them off the top of my head. These are all names of organisations I wish I'd never heard of. Because these names belong to terrorist groups that seem to find it necessary to kill, hurt, harm and maim; to execute people, to enslave and rape women, to terrorise and kill and cause destruction in an effort to further their own cause.  The cause they are attempting to further (to impose / to enforce) is Islam. Or rather - their own radical and violent interpretation of Islam with current actions seemingly geared entirely toward the spread of (their version of) Islam through any means. While I am a student of the world's peoples and religions and consider myself someone who attempts to walk in another's shoes to understand them and learn what it'...

Source: Propaganda Materials - Flyers , Church of the FSM One learns something new every day... Today, I'd like to tell you about something I first heard of some time ago. The first time I heard of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, I thought it was a joke. Even today, I still wonder if this Church is only a farce or actually captures the essence of belief in the Divine. Back to the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster and let me assure you, Yes, you read that right . First thought up as an argument against teaching Creationism and Intelligent Design in schools in the USA, this idea has turned into an actual religion. Once upon a time, there was a Flying Spaghetti Monster who created the Heavens and the Earth...  No wait, stop laughing. I'm serious. This comes from the Church's website: Q: How do Pastafarians believe our world was created?   A: We believe the Flying Spaghetti Monster created the world much as it exists today, but for reasons unkno...

Source :  The Happy Nomads -  Rainy Day Hikes and Emily the Cow “War is over ... If you want it.” ― John Lennon Dreaming of peace is easy. Working towards achieving peace -- true and lasting global peace based on respect for all of humanity and all living things, mutual understanding between peoples and common goals the world over -- is a lot harder than just dreaming of it. Yet peace is something worth dreaming of and also worth fighting for, or rather - It is something worth struggling for, worth working towards and worth supporting unconditionally. “If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there'd be peace.” ― John Lennon True . Sad but true. Perhaps more true today than it was when John Lennon lived, over thirty years ago. Imagine if, instead of demanding things like television sets, mobile phones and music players we start demanding justice, equality, understanding, cooperation, liberty, religious freedom and peace for a...

Source : Pew Research Center Sometimes you need to read the numbers and see the statistics to understand just how often something happens. Take harassment or discrimination based on one's religion, for example. Pew Research reports that in Europe, 51% of Christians, 69% of Jews and 71% of Muslims face harassment. In other parts of the world, the numbers are just as shocking. Take the Middle East and North Africa where 65% of Christians, 70% of Jews and 75% of Muslims face religious harassment. "In nearly three out of every four countries of the world, religious groups experience harassment by individuals or groups in society. The harassment and intimidation take many forms, including physical or verbal assaults; desecration of holy sites; and discrimination against religious groups in employment, education and housing." Source : Social Harassment of Religious Groups , Pew Research Center

Headscarves, hijabs, chadors, niqabs, burkas, you name it - In the West they're a hot topic representing freedom and faith to some while they're seen as a sign of oppression by others. In the Middle East they're everywhere, it seems. Covering the body in proper Islamic fashion is mandatory in countries like Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and Iran. Interpretations vary across the board, however roughly speaking this means that women wear loose-fitting non-see through clothing with only hands and face showing (some include feet, some don't) and the neck, head and hair covered. Some Iranian women have recently turned to Facebook to express their dissatisfaction with the mandatory head- and hair covering. A Facebook post by Iranian journalist Masih Alinejad started the movement, as reported by Vocativ (found through George Takei 's Facebook page ) which has attracted quite a following and a lot of talk since. Iranian women are posting photos of themselves with uncovered h...

Source: Countries with Sharia Rule Intellectual Takeout The Sultanate of Brunei is a tiny oil-rich country in East Asia with a population of about 440,000 people. Roughly seventy percent of it's inhabitants are Muslim. Brunei's ruler announced in 2013 that the country would be gradually adopting Sharia law. Sharia is the Islamic code of law based on the social and religious rules as laid out in the Muslim holy book, the Koran (Qur'an). CNN reports that during a ceremony last week "the Sultan of Brunei, Hassanel Bolkiah, announced the commencement of the first phase of the sharia-based penal code, according to the government's official website."

They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I say that is equally true about trends and fashion. What serves as inspiration for one person is sacred religious imagery to another... Fashion designer Roberto Cavalli has used religious imagery in the past and it appears he is now doing so again. The logo for his Just Cavalli brand looks an awful lot like a Sufi religious symbol, as Chris Dickman reports. "In 2004 Roberto Cavalli was taken to task for a line of underwear and swimwear ... based on representations of Hindu goddesses. This shocked the Hindu community to the extent that the line had to be withdrawn...  Ten years later and Roberto Cavalli [does it] again, this time in the form of a logo for its Just Cavalli brand. The design [bears a] marked resemblance to the registered logo employed by the MTO Shahmaghsoudi School of Islamic Sufism . Sufism is a branch of Islam, with the school having more than 500,000 students in centers worldwide. ... The school's emblem ....