THE challenge for religious leaders in years to come is to tackle violence and terrorism committed in God’s name … and to reach out to people who have no faith. That was the message brought yesterday by Pope Ratzinger to Assisi, the scene of a global inter-religious junket. There the Pope told a mishmash of [...]
TWO girls – one aged 13 and the other four – are dead as a result of their parents’ superstitious belief in demonic possession. Japanese teenager Tomomi Maishigi  died in August after her father and a Buddhist monk performed a ‘waterfall service’ on the girl, who was thought to be possessed by “an evil spirit”. [...]
FEWER than half of Americans know that the Dalai Lama, who is wrapping up a two-week visit to Washington, is Buddhist. According to this report, the US Religious Knowledge Survey conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life shows that only 47 percent of Americans correctly identified the Dalai Lama as Buddhist. Pew [...]
Continue reading about The land of the dumb: fewer than half Americans know Dalai Lama’s faith
AN Â Indonesian court yesterday ordered a local branch of the Paris-based Buddha Bar chain to close after convicting the licence holder of blasphemy. According to this report, it also ordered licensee PT Nireta Vista Creative, the official Jakarta tourism agency and Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo to pay damages of one billion rupiah (110,000 dollars) to [...]
BUDDHISTS “all over the world” have had their “sentiments hurt” by a new range of “blasphemous” Keds sneakers bearing the image of the Dalai Lama. Now, we all imagine that Buddhists are a laidback, tolerant lot whose philosophy is in no way as red in tooth and claw as say, Islam, whose followers exist in [...]
Continue reading about Buddhist kicks off over Keds, warns of possible violence and bad karma
SUPERSTITION has raised its silly head in Thailand and India this week. From the BBC we learn that’s there’s been a bit of a hoo-ha at Thailand’s main international airport, where a plan has been unveiled to move 12 large statues of spirit demons to new positions in the concourse. And from Andy, over at [...]
The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
