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It has long been said by theologians that man is created to worship, and if they won’t worship the one true God, they will fabricate something else to worship. Hence the plethora of false and fringe religions that have arisen over the years. However, it is one thing for some people to believe in these…

Amanda Yates Garcia is a witch. No, she doesn’t wear a pointy black hat or ride a broom, but her business is booming in Southern California. She sells her magical services to clients struggling with heartache, aging, work stress, or other emotional problems. Her hour-long “elemental divination” sessions…

There is an interesting debate occurring in France. The French government owns all church building built before 1905. There are thousands of government-owned church buildings that are standing empty and unused. “Only 6 percent of French people attend Mass every Sunday, and rural churches are ‘falling…

Ellen DeGeneres recently purchased a Los Angeles mansion for $40 million. A source says Ellen is totally freaked out by strange noises in the mansion, including footsteps, doors opening and closing, and a woman crying. “DeGeneres suspects the property is haunted by its former owner and . . . . plans…

Some Japanese people are having plastic surgery to alter their palms. Since they believe that the lines on their palms govern their lives, they are turning to a simple 10-minute $10,000 operation to change their fate. Jim L. Wilson and Rodger Russell The Week, July 26, 2013 p. 12 ISA 44:15-17 HCSB It…

Archeologists digging in an ancient garbage dump dating to the 5th and 6th centuries say they are puzzled by what they have uncovered. Professors Oren Tal and Moshe Ajami say the dig outside of modern Tel Aviv has yielded the usual fragments of pottery and glass, as well as animal bones. They admit they…

A Russian man has come up with a unique plan to avoid paying his traffic tickets. The unidentified man said there was no reason to pay his fines because the world is going to end in December 2012 anyway. After a minor traffic accident the man was fined 1,000 rubles ($32), but showed debt collectors several…

Polls taken over the past several years have revealed a strange trend in America. While faith in organized religion has dropped to an all-time low, spirituality is at an all-time high. Similar polls have shown that 80 percent of Americans identify with a religious denomination, while 58 percent say they…

Nathan Thornburgh was a staff journalist at Time magazine when he felt he was missing something in his life. He quit his job to be a full time father to his two children. Fulfillment still avoided Nathan and he began to check out the self-fulfillment path. Attending a self-fulfillment seminar, The Landmark…

The ACLU is suing a North Carolina high school that suspended a student for having a nose ring. “Ariana Lacono, 14, says she and her mother belong to the Church of Body Modification.” Her lawsuit contends, “She should be able to attend public school without being forced to renounce her family’s religious…

The refusal of people to make distinctions is leaving room for religions that really are not religions at all. The British Government recently decided that some “self-proclaimed Druids—a ‘bunch of eccentrics’ who like to dress up in robes and prance around Stonehenge, chanting at the sun—belong to a…

Americans like to pick and choose their religious beliefs. Julia Roberts has chosen Hinduism. What does she base her choice on? Well, it combines the best of her mother’s Catholicism and her father’s Baptist beliefs. Mostly she just likes the idea of reincarnation. --The Week, August 27, 2010 p. 8Illustration…

The gospel and religion are not synonyms. The things people preach and practice in religion can be crazy, even if very interesting. The leader of a Florida religious sect pressures followers to drink the mucus of giant African snails. Charles Stewart is practicing the African religion Ifa Orisha. “I…

After a devastating earthquake rocked the island of Haiti in 2010, many Haitians say they were awed by the power of the quake. They say it is a power greater than anything they see in voodoo. Other survivors are grateful for life, and want to trust their lives to the God who displayed his even more awesome…

Russell Carney, a Psychology professor at Southwest Missouri State University, told the Associated Press in 1992 that he had developed a technique for improving memory. Here is his suggestion for how to remember that Degas did a particular painting in 1865. “First, think of an object that sounds like…

A survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life discovered that many people who call themselves Christian also have practices considered New Age or Cultic. Pew says “two in three adults believe in or cite an experience with at least one supernatural phenomenon” These include: 26% who find ‘spiritual…

One of the fastest growing religions in the United States is Wicca. In a recent survey, “nearly 2.8 million people now identify with dozens of new religious movements, calling themselves Wiccan, pagan, or “Spiritualist,’ which the survey does not define.” “Wicca, a contemporary form of paganism that…

There is no accounting for what some people believe. Police in Nigeria have arrested a goat on suspicion of car theft. While a group of vigilantes pursued a pair of auto crooks, one of the crooks escaped. According to a representative for the vigilantes, the other turned into a goat. So the police are…

FALSE GODS Any affection for this world is misplaced One hundred decoys were placed on the Izu peninsula of Japan to attract endangered albatrosses and encourage them to breed. For more than two years, a 5-year-old albatross named Deko tried to woo a wooden decoy by building fancy nests and fighting…

RELIGION "At certain points in church history, Easter was a forty-day celebration. Forty days is too much for our busy culture, so we've shortened it to four Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter Sunday. But even this is becoming too much for the modern Christian, so we watch "The Robe"…