by: Joe Brewer  |  Cognitive Policy Works truthout.org Self-interest fundamentalism was the economic religion of the 20th Century. We are now in the midst of an economic reformation on par with the Enlightenment as we enter the new millennium. Have you noticed that a lot of people seem to think that appeals to self-interest lead to a moral and just society? No, I’m not merely talking about economists. Self-interest evangelicals have been spreading the good news for decades in public policy programs, political science departments, and financial institutions too. Converts can be found in environmental organizations that tell us we’ll save on … Continue reading The Death of Self-Interest Fundamentalism

Editor’s note: Arsalan Iftikhar is an international human rights lawyer, founder of TheMuslimGuy.com and legal fellow for the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding in Washington. (CNN) — Free speech issues and portrayals of Islam needlessly stirred a hornet’s nest recently when “South Park” depicted the Prophet Mohammed disguised in a bear suit in the 200th episode of the popular Comedy Central TV show. But what many people don’t realize is that the show’s creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, already used an image of Mohammed on “South Park” without any strife whatsoever in a July 2001 episode called “Super … Continue reading No-name radicals vs. ‘South Park’ just a distraction

Inside every tiny seed, perfectly encoded, is a detailed blueprint of the adult plant. At the time of the big bang, some 14 billion years ago so the scientists say, the entire universe was contained within a single, infinitesimally small, point. And, like the seed, that tiny point held the master plan of everything we experience and witness, and the very much more that escapes our attention. Yet within these miracles of both micro- and macrocosm the unfoldment of reality is but loosely pre-determined. In the case of life there is room for mutation, minor variations on the parent that … Continue reading The Miracle of the Seed

by T Stokes In Tony’s visit to the Vatican just before the war on Iraq, we are informed that Tony told the pope that he had quote; “gods permission to attack Iraq and kill muslims”. This statement has now been eclipsed by his words of March 3rd 2006 when he again said in the news that god told him to launch this horrific racist and terrorist attack, George Bush has used the same lame excuse. The mass murderer Peter Sutcliffe also said god told him to go kill people, Doctor Harold Shipman also made the same claim. Many have questioned … Continue reading Tony Blair and the 30 Pieces of Silver

the Demiurge and the Wisdom Dialogue by Mark Gaffney They teach the insidious doctrine that there is another God besides the Creator. —Irenaeus, Against Heresies For many heretics have said that the God Of the Old Testament is one, and the God of the New Testament is another. —Ambrose, On the Holy Spirit, I, 4 In the first centuries of our era, Gnostic Christians overthrew the Jewish God Yahweh and attributed the work of Creation to a lesser deity or demiurge, known as Ialdabaoth (also spelled Yaldabaoth, or Jaldabaoth). The word has been translated as: “begetter of Sabaoth,” a pejorative … Continue reading The Gnostic Revolt Against the God of Judaism

People engage with the concept of Spirituality in many different ways and degrees of intensity. Perhaps they are inspired by organized religion, or an unrelated Web search leads them that way by chance, a particular title catches their eye at the bookstore, they visit a psychic (from need, curiosity or both), they attend a Spiritualist meeting… It’s not a question of whether we should be Spiritual, or how Spiritual we should be. Weare Spiritual and can’t be anything else. On earth, knowledge of our Spiritual essence is hidden or diminished. Most likely this is to force us to focus on … Continue reading How Spiritual Should I Be?

From time immemorial humankind has tried to gain advance knowledge of things to come. The Old Testament of the Bible has numerous books of prophecy, though strangely many Christian fundamentalists now denounce fortune telling as a sin. Today many of us consult psychics, hoping for a glimpse of what tomorrow has in store. Popular newspapers and magazines invariably feature a horoscope column, and who wouldn’t like a sneak preview of next week’s winning lottery numbers. Does the future already exist? Is it really possible to tell the future? To answer that question we need to examine the fundamental nature of reality. … Continue reading Telling the Future