Homework:

Why do people feel the need to visit holy places?
What benefits would a religious believer gain from such a visit?

Teaching the theory of Intelligent Design in Science lessons is no more valid than teaching Alchemy in a Chemistry lesson.

Discuss

Why/Why not?

Tibetan Buddhist Chanting

Speaking in Tongues

Whirling Dervishes

Hindu Meditation

Snake Handling Church Service

“Is it pointless to think about things which cannot be proven?”

The Church of Scientology

The group’s French branch immediately announced it would appeal against the verdict.

The court convicted the Church of Scientology’s French office, its library and six of its leaders of organised fraud. Investigators said the group pressured members into paying large sums of money for questionable financial gain and used “commercial harassment” against recruits.

The group was fined €400,000 ($600,000) and the library €200,000. Four of the leaders were given suspended sentences of between 10 months and two years. The other two were given fines of €1,000 and €2,000.

However, the court did not order the Church of Scientology to shut down, ruling that it would be likely to continue its activities anyway “outside any legal framework.”

Prosecutors had urged that the group be dissolved in France and fined €2 million ($3 million).

The verdict is “an Inquisition of modern times,” said Scientology spokeswoman Agnes Bron, referring to efforts to rout out heretics of the Roman Catholic Church in centuries past.

The head of an association that helps victims of sects, Catherine Picard, called the verdict “intelligent.”

“Scientology can no longer hide behind freedom of conscience,” she said.

The Los Angeles-based Church of Scientology, founded in 1954 by the late science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard, has been active for decades in Europe, but has struggled to gain status as a religion. It is considered a sect in France and has faced prosecution and difficulties in registering its activities in many countries.

Defence lawyer Patrick Maisonneuve said during the trial that neither the Church of Scientology nor the six leaders on trial had gained financially from the group’s practices.

The original complaint in the case dates back more than a decade, when a young woman said she took out loans and spent the equivalent of €21,000 on books, courses and “purification packages” after being recruited in 1998. When she sought reimbursement and to leave the group, its leadership refused. She was among three eventual plaintiffs.

Olivier Morice, lawyer for civil parties in the case, said the verdict was “historic” because it was the first time in France that the Church of Scientology has been convicted of organised fraud.

Investigating judge Jean-Christophe Hullin spent years examining the group’s activities, and in his indictment criticised what he called the Scientologists’ “obsession” with financial gain and practices he said were aimed at plunging members into a “state of subjection.”

The Church of Scientology teaches that technology can expand the mind and help solve problems. It claims 10 million members around the world, including celebrity devotees Tom Cruise and John Travolta.

Belgium, Germany and other European countries have been criticised by the US State Department for labeling Scientology as a cult or sect and enacting laws to restrict its operations.

see also: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/scientology-fined-163545000-in-first-conviction-for-fraud-1810519.html

Pilot students: your homework was to consider the topic and then comment on this post, answering the question:

Does it matter to a believer whether the stories are true or not?

Post your answer, along with the justification for it, as a comment on this post.

This story is from March this year, but is relevant to several of our courses.

Pope Benedict XVI, who is making his first papal visit to Africa, has said that handing out condoms is not the answer in the fight against HIV/Aids. The pontiff, who preaches marital fidelity and abstinence, said the practice only increased the problem.

“A Christian can never remain silent,” he said, after being greeted on arrival in Cameroon by President Paul Biya.

The Pope is also due to visit Angola on his week-long trip, where thousands are expected to attend open-air Masses. Some 22 million people are infected with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa, according to UN figures for 2007. This amounts to about two-thirds of the global total.

According to Vatican figures, the number of Catholics in Africa has been rising steadily in recent years. Baptised Catholics made up 17% of the African population in 2006, compared with 12% in 1978, the Vatican says.

Pope Benedict said on the eve of his trip that he wanted to wrap his arms around the entire continent, with “its painful wounds, its enormous potential and hopes”. HIV/Aids was, he argued, “a tragedy that cannot be overcome by money alone, that cannot be overcome through the distribution of condoms, which can even increase the problem”. The solution lay, he said, in a “spiritual and human awakening” and “friendship for those who suffer”.

Speaking at the airport in Cameroon’s capital, Yaounde, the Pope called on Christians to speak up in the face of violence, poverty, hunger, corruption and abuse of power.

While in Africa, the pontiff is expected to talk to young people about the Aids epidemic and explain to them why the Catholic Church recommends sexual abstinence as the best way to prevent the spread of the disease. He gave a similar message to African bishops who visited the Vatican in 2005, when he told them that abstinence and fidelity, not condoms, were the means to tackle the epidemic.

Rebecca Hodes, speaking for the Treatment Action Campaign says the Pope’s message reveals the Church’s ignorance in this matter.

“It is a grave disappointment. We had hoped with the new Pope we would see less of these kind of alienating comments which show a sense of ignorance and irrelevance. The Pope has about a million followers globally and sending out these messages has a harmful impact on Catholic believers in Africa. It goes against all the education campaigns. Condoms are one of the best mechanisms we have in preventing the spread of HIV. Condoms work.”

There are lots of opinions surrounding the issue and lots of reasons, both religious and secular (non-religious) for supporting one view or another.

The year 11 students have been asked to comment on this post, summing up their own opinion on the topic, giving reasons for that belief.  Remember year 11s, you must write a minimum of 60 words, but are welcome to write more.  You can also reply to other students and debate the issue.

If you’re not in this group, you are still welcome to comment and join in the debate.

Should euthanasia be legal in the UK?

over to you …

“We don’t see things as they are, we see things as we are.”
Anais Nin (1903-1977)

Anais Nin