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Tag: god

  • Leah Messer: ‘Teen Mom 2’ Star Finds Religion

    Leah Messer of Teen Mom 2 fame has reportedly turned to religion. The 22-year-old wife and mom has a lot to work through, including an ongoing drug problem. Her husband, Jeremy Calvert, also believes she cheated on him with an ex. And to top things off, Leah Messer is in the midst of a custody battle with ex-husband Corey Simms over the couple’s twins, Ali and Aleeah.

    “She started going to a church that embraces forgiveness and recovery. She’s determined to make a complete turn around,” a source told RadarOnline. “She’s finally ready to clean up the wreckage of her past.”

    “For the first time, she’s admitting that money and the spotlight of fame made her do some things that she regrets,” the source added. “She’s determined to get the help she needs and come out of this a new and better person.”

    Unfortunately it doesn’t sound like Leah Messer has received enough divine intervention quite yet. She reportedly believes that if she were to become pregnant she could possibly salvage her marriage.

    “She thinks a baby boy would make him happy,” another source explains. “Leah knows Jeremy would never leave her if she got pregnant again. He’s too much of a gentleman.”

    Does that sound like a form of entrapment to you?

    Finding religion is a wonderful thing if it’s done for the right reasons. It sounds far more like Leah is trying to impress her husband and maybe even his family, too. Jeremy Calvert’s family is deeply religious and won’t allow their son to even consider filing for divorce–even though Leah Messer may have cheated on him.

    Do you think Leah is truly finding answers in worshiping God at church? Or is she trying to convince her husband and his parents that she’s someone she isn’t. If that’s the case, it will definitely backfire. Trying to be someone you’re not hardly ever wins in the end.

  • Stephen Hawking Says He’s An Athiest

    Stephen Hawking Says He’s An Athiest

    Stephen Hawking is a man who loves to talk science and very rarely religion. While Hawking references God often in reports and findings, he recently admitted that he is an atheist and doesn’t believe in God.

    While attending the Starmus festival in the Canary Islands, Hawking was interviewed by the Spanish paper El Mundo. He talked about the origins of the universe and said that he doesn’t think the universe was created by God or any other divine power.

    “Before we understand science, it is natural to believe that God created the universe. But now science offers a more convincing explanation. What I meant by ‘we would know the mind of God’ is, we would know everything that God would know, if there were a God, which there isn’t. I’m an atheist,” he said.

    Hawking has talked about religion and science before and believes that God and other deities were created by humans to make sense of space, time and the world before science came along to explain it.

    He said that while science and religion will constantly oppose each other, science will eventually win because it is based on facts and evidence instead of authority.

    While Hawking may not believe that God exists, he does believe in aliens or otherworldly beings. He says that meeting aliens may not be a good thing and thinks such an encounter would be similar to what the Native Americans experienced when Christopher Columbus came to America.

    He also claims that space travel could help save humanity.

    “It could prevent the disappearance of humanity by colonizing other planets,” he told El Mundo.

    Why do you think Hawking is so quick to dismiss God and religion, but so eager to believe in extraterrestrials?

  • Google Has a Jesus-Shaped Hole in Its Graph

    We already know that Google hates America, so it should be no surprise that the largest search engine in the world also hates Jesus.

    Search Engine Roundtable’s Barry Schwartz posted about a thread on the Google Web Search Help forum, in which one Google user says that he’s noticed something amiss with Google’s knowledge graph results. Apparently, Jesus doesn’t get his own knowledge graph result, but other prominent religious figures like Muhammad, Moses, and Buddha do.

    “Why the absence of Jesus?” asks Steve.

    I don’t know, Steve. You might be asking a bigger question than you think. But before tackling anything like that, let’s make sure Google is really throwing Jesus this major diss.

    Nope, no knowledge graph there.

    You won’t find a knowledge graph in searches for Jesus Christ, Christ, or Jesus of Nazareth either. In fact, for that latter search, Google suggests you see results about the 1977 television miniseries, Jesus of Nazareth, which I’m positive is what most people who search that phrase are looking for in the first place. Good on you, Google.

    Ok, so maybe Google just stays away from religious figures in knowledge graph results – just to play it safe.

    Nope.

    You’ll also find knowledge graphs for Moses, Buddha, and biblical figures like Judas Iscariot, King David, Solomon, and many more – even Adam and Eve.

    So, once again, where’s Jesus?

    Much of Google’s knowledge graph pulls from Wikipedia, and Jesus has quite the thorough Wikipedia page. The snippet from Wikipedia that would appear in a hypothetical knowledge graph box isn’t controversial, really:

    Jesus, also referred to as Jesus of Nazareth, is the central figure of Christianity, whom the teachings of most Christian denominations hold to be the Son of God. Christianity regards Jesus as the awaited Messiah of the Old Testament and refers to him as Jesus Christ, a name that is also used in non-Christian contexts.

    Yeah, that about sums it up. So why has Google purposefully removed Jesus’ knowledge graph?

    It turns out, Google is pretty inconsistent when it comes to religious figures and the knowledge graph. While you find graphs for Buddha, Muhammad, and Moses, you won’t find a graph for Vishnu, the Supreme God of Vaishnavism, one of the three main sects of Hinduism or Shiva, another popular Hindu deity. You won’t find a graph for Kirshna either.

    There’s no knowledge graph for God, Allah, or Yahweh either. What do Jesus, Vishnu, Allah, and these left-out entities have in common?

    They’re all God, or gods. Sure, Jesus Christ is also believed to be a human, the son of God. But in Christian teachings, Jesus is also God himself. It looks like Google is simply shying away from assigning any sort of god their own knowledge graph.

    “Possibly because of the ‘controversy’ surrounding Jesus. Everyone accepts who Muhammad, Moses and Buddha are, but not every-one accepts Jesus is the Son of God. If they define him as a prophet, Christians could take offense, if they define him as the Son of God, Muslims could take offense…. that is one argument it might be better to stay out off (if you are Google),” one Google user replies to Steve’s original question.

    Jesus doesn’t have a graph because Google isn’t touching that with a 39 and a half-foot pole. Google’s just staying away from deities. Even do a search for ancient deities – Ra, Zeus – no knowledge graph.

    Or, Google hates Jesus. You’ll most definitely find a graph result for The Big Bang.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Nun Birth in Italy Quite the Shocker

    In “oops” news, a nun who didn’t know she was pregnant gave birth to a nine pound baby boy Wednesday, in the small, central Italian city of Rieti.

    The 31-year-old nun, originally from El Salvador, said she started having stomach pains Wednesday morning and called an ambulance. A few hours later she was in a hospital recovering from labor.

    “I did not know I was pregnant,” she stated. “I only felt a stomach pain.”

    The new mother named the baby Francesco, or Francis, which is the pope’s title and one of the most popular names in Italy. The moniker is also likely in honor of St. Francis of Assisi, the country’s national patron saint.

    Those in the hospital began to take a collection of items for the nun and her son, including clothes and other donations.

    Many took to Twitter to voice their opinions about the news:

    The nun belongs to the “Little Disciples of Jesus” convent, which takes care of a home for the elderly. Her fellow nuns were “surprised” to hear of the news she had given birth.

    Simone Petrangeli, the mayor of Rieti, has asked the public and the media to respect the nun’s privacy. Rieti, a small town of only about 47,700, has gained international attention with the news of the nun’s new baby.

    Local pastor Don Fabrizio Borrello stated that the nun plans on keeping and caring for the baby.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Mikhail Kalashnikov Mourned the Deaths Caused by His Invention

    The deceased Russian designer of the Ak-47 may have just felt guilty months before his death in December.

    According to a heartfelt letter to Russia’s Orthodox Patriarch in April 2013, Mikhail Kalashnikov pondered on the notion that he may be guilty in the eyes of God.

    The head churchman accepted the plea with immense support, for the Russian Orthodox Church honors and recognizes those who protect the state.

    In 2006, Kalashnikov wrote a letter to the United Nations addressing the sorrow he felt in regards to how the rifle was a major culprit to war casualties.

    However, in 2007 his interview with the Associated Press portrayed such indifference.

    When asked if he sleeps well at night, he was confident that it didn’t trouble him.

    “I sleep well. It’s the politicians who are to blame for failing to come to an agreement and resorting to violence,” he said.

    The pioneer usually blamed politicians for the usage of his machine gun in war and combat, but in a revealing repentance letter to his church before his death at 94, it shows a different side of him:

    “If my rifle took lives, does it mean that I, Mikhail Kalashnikov, aged 93, a peasant woman’s son, an Orthodox Christian in faith, is guilty of those people’s deaths, even if they were enemies.”

    His daughter Elena disclosed that she believes a priest helped her father write the letter being that she has assisted him in the past.

    “I have been in charge of his letters in the recent years but I did not take part in this one,’” she told Daily Mail.

    His last written thoughts on the matter displayed just how much Kalashnikov was concerned about the destructive purpose that the Ak-47 served:

    “The longer I live, the more this question drills itself into my brain. And the more I wonder why the Lord allowed man to have the devilish desires of envy, greed and aggression.”

    Although Kalashnikov was born into a Christian home, he matured into adulthood with atheist beliefs. It was not until age 91 that he decided to rededicate his life to God, which may have been what led to his change of heart.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Candace Cameron and Her Struggle With Bulimia

    Candace Cameron, the 37-year-old actress best known for her role as T.J. Tanner on the television show, Full House, recently discussed her struggle with bulimia in an interview with Yahoo’s OMG! Insider co-anchor, Thea Andrews.

    While discussing her book, Balancing It All, Cameron opened up that while she managed to avoid addictions and other pitfalls like so many other child actors, she fell into the incessant cycle of binging and purging after she married former NHL player, Valeri Bure, and moved to Canada in 1996 to support his career as a hockey player.

    She told Andrews that bulimia entered her life when she started using food to comfort her as she navigated the waters of being a new wife, and keeping her own career as an actress afloat. The binging and purging soon got the better of her and she realized she needed to do something about the food disorder.

    “Clearly it wasn’t a healthy way to deal with things. That’s really when my faith was kicked up a notch, and I sought comfort in my relationship with God and not with food,” she told Andrews in the interview.

    Never a very thin actress like many of her contemporaries, Cameron credits the producers and cast of Full House for protecting her with body image when she was young.

    “I think I was very protected by my parents and the producers. They all had a sensitivity about it,” she said in the interview. “Even the one episode of Full House where D.J. goes on a crash diet for a few days … they asked me would I feel comfortable doing an episode about that.”

    Known as being very vocal about her faith and her Christian walk, Cameron went on to explain how her eating disorder strengthened her faith and relationship with God.

    Watch the video below where she talks about her struggle with Bulimia.

    Image via Twitter

  • Pope Francis Reaches Out to Atheists

    Pope Francis Reaches Out to Atheists

    Eugenio Scalfari, a self-described “non-believer”, co-founder and former editor of the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, asked in two letters some theological questions for Pope Francis. In one of Scalfari’s questions to the Pope, he asked whether or not “God forgives those who do not believe and do not seek faith.”

    On Wednesday, Scalfari received a three paged, 2,500-word letter straight from Pope Francis himself, answering those questions, saying that an “open dialogue free of prejudices [between Christians and atheists is] necessary and precious.” Pope Francis’ letter was published in La Repubblica newspaper under the byline “Francesco.”

    It would seem that according to Pope Francis, God doesn’t so much judge a person by their title alone, but by their moral actions decided by a good conscience; those who don’t necessarily believe are not alienated from God’s forgiveness.

    “Given – and this is the fundamental thing – that God’s mercy has no limits, if He is approached with a sincere and repentant heart,” the Pope penned, “the question for those who do not believe in God is to abide by their own conscience. There is sin, also for those who have no faith, in going against one’s conscience. Listening to it and abiding by it means making up one’s mind about what is good and evil.”

    The Pope added that, “Sin, even for those who have no faith, is when one goes against their conscience. To listen and to obey to [one’s conscience] means to decide oneself in relation to what’s perceived as good and evil. And this decision is fundamental to determining the good or evil of our actions.”

    According to The Guardian, Robert Mickens, the Vatican correspondent for the Catholic journal The Tablet, said that the Pope’s letter was further evidence of his attempts to shed the negative image posed by the Catholic Church in the past years. Mickens said that, “Francis is still a conservative. But what this is all about is him seeking to have a more meaningful dialogue with the world.”

    Perhaps Pope Francis, when reflecting on the questions Scalfari posed, was drawing from 1 Samuel 16:7, which reads:

    “But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”

     

    (Image source: WikiMedia Commons)

  • High School Runner Points At God, Gets Team Disqualified

    A high school track team from Columbus, Texas was disqualified when a runner pointed to the sky after crossing the finish line. The issue is being discussed as possible religious discrimination, though the reason given for disqualification was not based on religion, but because the gesture was deemed “an unsporting act”.

    I’m not sure that Tim Tebow has even been penalized for this before, despite doing it all the time (though he has drawn taunting flags in the past).

    FOX 26 has a report on the outrage that has ensued (via caintv):

    Houston weather, traffic, news | FOX 26 | MyFoxHouston

    The University Interscholastic League, responsible for handing out the penalty, has issued a statement on the matter, saying:

    The UIL is composed of four geographic regions across the state of Texas, each of which are divided into six conferences in UIL track and field. A total of 24 regional track meets are held statewide and conducted by local meet officials, selected by regional sites.

    At the Region IV Conference 3A Track & Field regional meet held on Saturday, April 27 at Texas A&M Kingsville, a relay team from Columbus High School was disqualified by local meet officials for an unsporting act at the conclusion of the boys 4 x100 meter relay.

    The meet official indicated the athlete crossed the finish line and gestured upward with his arm and finger and behaved disrespectfully toward meet officials, in their opinion. In the judgment of the official, this was a violation of NFHS track & field rule 4-6-1. The regional meet referee concurred with this decision and the student was subsequently disqualified. There is no indication that the decision was made because of any religious expression. This was a judgment call, as are many decisions of meet officials in all activities.

    According to NFHS rules, once the meet is concluded, the results become final. Neither the UIL nor NFHS have rules that prohibit religious expression.

    The UIL takes situations such as these very seriously, and is continuing to investigate the matter fully.

  • Hawking: Big Bang Didn’t Need God’s Help

    Hawking: Big Bang Didn’t Need God’s Help

    Stephen Hawking knows a thing or two about the Big Bang. He spent his life researching it and other mysteries of the cosmos. After all this time, he’s more convinced than ever that a divine being had no part in it.

    Space reports that Hawking was giving a free lecture titled, “The Origin of the Universe” at the California Institute of Technology. The lecture was mostly about prevailing theories on how the universe was formed, but he first examined how religion frames the creation of the universe. At one point, he even questioned what a divine being would be doing before the creation of the universe:

    What was God doing before the divine creation? Was he preparing hell for people who asked such questions?”

    Hawking avoided a debate on religion versus science for most of the night, but he did recall a moment earlier in his life when Pope John Paul II called him out in the 80s for trying to explain the origins of the universe. The Pope said that science shouldn’t study the moment of creation. Hawking said that he was just glad that he wasn’t “thrown into an inquisition.”

    At the end of the lecture, Hawking reiterated a previous point he made in saying that humanity needs to leave earth sooner rather than later. He predicts that the human race won’t be able to survie another 1,000 years on “our fragile planet.”

  • Kanye West ‘I Am God’ Rumor Not True, Says Report

    Kanye West certainly has a way with titles and names, or at least with attracting rumors about them.

    Last week West and his girlfriend, reality TV actress and amateur porn star Kim Kardashian, made headlines over a tabloid report that stated West wants to name their forthcoming child “North” (get it?). Now, a separate claim made by The Sun has now gained traction in more respectable media outlets.

    The claim is that West is preparing to name his next album I Am God. BBC News reported the rumor again this week, repeating the claim that the name is “half tongue-in-cheek.” Now, E! News is debunking the blasphemous rumor with an anonymous source of its own. The entertainment news outlet states that an unnamed source claims the rumor “is not true.”

    As for the baby name claim, that might not be so true either. During an Extra interview this week Kardashian deftly side-stepped the rumor, stating that around half of the couple’s chosen names don’t begin with a ‘k’ and that they “still have time” to decide on a name. She did say, though, that West “wants something that’s unique.”

  • Einstein Letter on God to Be Auctioned on Ebay

    Einstein Letter on God to Be Auctioned on Ebay

    On January 3, 1954, Albert Einstein mailed a letter from Princeton, New Jersey to Eric B. Gutkind in Germany. The letter was Einstein’s response to Gutkind’s book, Choose Life: The Biblical Call to Revolt, which Gutkind had mailed to him. The letter contains a look at Einstein’s views on religion and the concept of god, as well as his short rebuttal of Gutkind’s book. This was just over one year before Einstein passed away.

    The letter is now scheduled to be up for auction on eBay from October 8th through the 18th. The opening bid for the letter will $3 million.

    The artifact is so highly priced because it contains some of the only candid, straightforward words Einstein laid down regarding his views on religion and god. Though Jewish, he regarded religions as “childish superstitions,” according to his letter. From the text of the letter:

    The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weakness, the Bible a collection of honorable, but still purely primitive, legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this.

    The letter goes on to address Einsteins’s Jewish heritage, and touches on his views of the Jewish people as “chosen” by God:

    For me the Jewish religion like all other religions is an incarnation of the most childish superstitions. And the Jewish people to whom I gladly belong and with whose mentality I have a deep affinity have no different quality for me than all other people. As far as my experience goes, they are also no better than other human groups, although they are protected from the worst cancers by a lack of power. Otherwise I cannot see anything ‘chosen’ about them.

    The auction is being managed by the Auction Cause auction management agency. The company stated in its auction preview that the letter has been stored at a “professional academic institution” in a temperature, humidity, and light-controlled environment. It also said that the authenticity of the letter has been thoroughly established. Those who wish to bid on the letter can pre-qualify to bid at the Auction Cause website.

  • Google Maps Locates God(s) in Switzerland

    Google Maps Locates God(s) in Switzerland

    Some peculiar things have been spotted by Google Maps users over the years. There was rumored discovery of Atlantis, some hilarious captures of people falling, and, well, lots of other major weird. Now, prepare to add another page to the Google Maps black casebook.

    If you type in the coordinates “47.110579 9.227568” in the Google Maps search bar. You’ll be located along the southern shore of Walensee Lake in Switzerland. Upon searching for the coordinates, you’ll see a green arrow. Click on the green arrow and select the “more” drop-down menu to change to Street View. Once you’re on the ground level, you’ll be looking out over the road barrier toward the lake. Simply click on the map and drag it to the right so that you’ll be facing northeast. Then look up.

    You should see this:


    View Larger Map

    While this is probably an optical illusion created from the combination of the Street View’s stitching together of images and the remnants of an object that got mostly blurred out, it’s still kinda weird to see a duo of gods hanging out on top of clouds.

    Maybe we shouldn’t be zombieing up our neighbors after all. Or, maybe the Good Lords are just fans of primo chocolate.