What do wellness, MLM, and religion have in common? First of all it is not possible to have wellness without a set of beliefs. Your religion is your set of beliefs. Multilevel marketing, done correctly, is also intricately interconnected with your beliefs. For the past 12 years I have been involved in a wellness related multilevel marketing program. I have religiously shared my program with others.

100 years ago the American people were the healthiest people on earth. We experienced a level of wellness that was the envy of the world. Wellness involves the total health of the whole being, physically, mentally, emotionally, socially, and spiritually. It is our religion, or belief system that governs our wellness. When you find a product that you believe has been very beneficial to you, it is only natural to desire to share it with those we love.

I would like to challenge your thinking on what I think are some myths about multilevel marketing and religion. The first myth is that multilevel marketing is a get rich quick pyramid program. The second myth is that religion is about forcing our beliefs on others.

In a pyramid scheme the person to the top of the pyramid gets the most money. If you follow that logic almost any company is a pyramid scheme. The people who do the most physical labor received the least money. As you move up in management you make more money. The CEO our president makes the most money. The truth is in a good multilevel marketing program any individual is able to outperform those above him. This is accomplished by sharing your beliefs and testimony of what the products have done for you. Because we all have our own religious beliefs, most people don’t care. Multilevel marketing can be very discouraging because most people don’t share your beliefs.

The second myth is really rather closely related. If you are passionate about the products that you represent, it is only natural that you wish to share them with others. When an individual does not believe you they perceive that you are trying to force something on them that they do not want. This same thing is true in a church religious setting. Regardless to what church, denomination, or faith you adhere to, even if you’re an atheist, there is considerable divergence and beliefs. We tend to place labels on people as being conservative or liberal. Often those who follow old traditions and standards are considered conservative and those that are younger and have less ties to the traditions and standards are considered more liberal.

My experiences has been that when I promote a product it all depends on the individual’s particular situation at that time. To enjoy true wellness it is important to understand the role of prevention as a relates to degenerative disease. When one faces a wellness crisis it is often too late to take preventative measures.

I believe that one of the greatest problems with multilevel marketing is that many people present their wellness product as some kind of magic bullet our panacea. The truth is there are no magic bullets or panaceas. While the wellness product may be very beneficial, it is only a component of true wellness. I have been sick only one day in the last 15 years and know exactly why I got sick that time. It was not because I skipped my vitamins, but it was because I seriously compromise my immune system.

I have a sincere desire to help people achieve a greater level of wellness. I understand that if any one of our five domains, physical, mental, social, emotional, or spiritual are compromise it will affect every other domain. Simply put if you are experiencing an emotional crisis, it will impact you physically, mentally, socially, and spiritually as well. What you eat impact every domain. The food that we partake of is what our whole being derives its energy from. We receive energy through all of our five senses, taste, touch, sight, hearing, and smell. The source of their energy will determine whether it has a positive or negative effect on our being.

Copyright (c) 2013 Whole Life Ministry

I cried near the end. I don’t do that too often with novels anymore, so that was a nice surprise. The story carries the reader through to the conclusion with no break in the action. I liked the main character, despite some of her foolish teenage decisions.

The story of Esther, living in Jerusalem in the early 1900s, takes us into the lives of the Jewish people adhering to strict rules at a time when the plight of the women was to have as many children as possible to provide more Jews to populate the area. Esther rebels against such a future, wanting to be an artist after realizing her talent. Through a series of adventures, she gives up her art work, marries, has children and finds her love of painting again, only to have it, once more, vanish from her life. We live through the heart-wrenching choices she makes and wonder if we would do the same.

We watch her grow from a young rebellious woman in Israel to a married, mature rebellious adult in Paris. We smell the odors, see the sights, hear the sounds, taste the foods and touch the fabrics she so loves, as the novel becomes a sensory experience into her two worlds.

We sympathize with this young woman who questions her faith and its strict rules, wondering what God wants her to do and not accepting the rules that are imposed. We learn about the Jewish customs and traditions of this time when women were held hostage to a male-dominated culture. Esther tries doing the right thing and not following the heat of her passion; she tries to honor the religious beliefs that she loves, until it is too late to resist. There is joy, there is sorrow. We remember how difficult it has been for women even as late as the early 20th century who wanted to pursue their own passions and how difficult it has been for women to choose between a religious belief and a personal destiny. Esther reminds us of those choices, good and bad. And yes, the role of religion is also good and bad.

We watch the progress in history as religions and cultures change to allow a woman to be a voice. As I read this, I wondered at the next step in women’s evolution. Will we one day be the ones to choose and decide. We believe we have achieved that now, but I often wonder as I remember how it was and observe how this is still a man’s world.

I’m reminded, as I get older, of the choices I made, the ones where I walked away from temptations and feel good about that now. I have few regrets. Perhaps I was lucky. And you?

The beginning of a relationship can be exciting and, at the same time, awkward. It's exciting for obvious reasons: you are spending time with and getting to know someone you find interesting and attractive. It's awkward, however, because in spite of the extent of their digital footprint, or whether they like to share their innermost feelings with friends on social media, the person you are dating is usually someone you barely know. That, of course, is the point of dating. Dating allows you to get to know someone and to identify whether you are compatible, have mutual interests, and whether you have "chemistry."

Dating, however, also allows you to identify red flags. Red flags are those things that could potentially have a negative impact on the relationship at some point, or may cause you to end the relationship altogether.

Red flags can fall into one of three categories: Little things, possible deal breakers, and deal-breakers.

Little Things

These are traits, habits, or circumstances that may be mildly annoying or concerning, but which can be overcome by correcting the issue or learning to accept it. These may include things such as phrases a person uses, to eating or bathroom habits.

Possible Deal Breakers

Unlike the little things, possible deal breakers usually relate to standards, expectations or beliefs that may be non-negotiable, and therefore, deal breakers. Examples of possible deal breakers include having differing positions related to political views, religious beliefs, whether to have a family, and / or other issues related to whatever "baggage" each partner brings into the relationship. The baggage a person brings to a relationship may include things such as physical or mental health issues, addictions, employment or financial problems, prior legal history, or prior relationships. Whether any of these issues are problematic will depend on the extent of your knowledge, individual preferences, beliefs, ability, and preparedness to deal with these issues.

Deal Breakers

Some red flags can signal some pretty serious issues and can be signs of bigger problems to come. Early signs of jealousy, possessiveness, mistreatment, anger, mental or physical abuse should never be ignored, nor taken lightly, as they may be just the tip of the iceberg. These should be, without question, absolute deal breakers.

As previously noted, it is important to not ignore any red flags that may be raised at any point in the relationship. Regardless of the type of red flags you may encounter, however, determining whether that red flag is something you can overcome is an individual decision.

Most scientists believe that Man arose in Africa and journeyed across the globe over millennia. So, if Africa was where humanity began, it must also be where religion began. Where and when is not quite established, but it seems religion evolved from a search for understanding with burial being central to worship and belief as early as 2 million – 200,000 years ago, with the start of hominisation – the process of becoming human. Little is known of the original ‘mother religion’, although we do know that all religions have common features – oral tradition, the belief in a spiritual power, the existence of a ‘life after death’ and beliefs surrounding burial.

99% of time since humans emerged, they have been hunter-gatherers. Communities survived in small groups and lived on what nature had to offer. These communities adapted to the world around them – the desert, the tropics. Across the vast continent of Africa a diverse scope for traditional religious development was possible. Men and women were equal in these societies, and the San people of southern Africa are a prime example, where religion was interwoven into life of the group. There were no religious specialists, and oral tradition was the most important.

About 10,000 years ago, humans started to tend livestock and cultivate plants. In these large groups, there is evidence of the inequalities of males and females. Different jobs were assigned to the genders as societies became more complex. Religious specialists emerged (healers) and religion became a semi-separate institution. The earliest forms of ‘state religion’ emerged and the leader of the group (the chief or the king) played an important role in certain rituals. Giving of gifts to divinities (especially blood and the life of sacrificed animals) and oral tradition, featured heavily.

6,000 years ago larger cities, states and empires evolved in different parts of the world. In Africa this occurred along the River Nile. People, goods, religious beliefs and ideas travelled long distances and entered new societies. More developments in inequalities arose – not only between men and women, but also between the rich and the poor.

In these cities, temples were constructed, and system of full time religious leaders developed. In many societies religion of the common populace was seen as superstition and magic, and often suppressed or feared.

Today religion in Africa is as diverse and unique as its historical journey. The influence of the more modern religions have absorbed and evolved the religious landscape, with most countries showing an increase in especially Catholicism.

In the future, the complexities of secularisation, the deep traditional beliefs and the impact of the West, will have more of a profound impact on religion in Africa. Social life has become more complex, and the modern individual faces many conflicting roles in daily living. Religion, in many cultures, has become more private and socially more ‘invisible’. African religion has also become pluriform (not a scared whole) and science has provided a modern base.

Africa has a unique religious history and an exciting evolution ahead.

Of all of those Big Questions central to philosophical concepts that surround life, the universe and everything, the realms of theology and religions and the nature of deities continue to fascinate. Opinions proliferate in books, articles, videos, conversations in bars and pubs, and in fact anywhere and everywhere two or more humans are in proximity. There’s the pro side; there’s the anti-side. There aren’t too many fence-sitters. I’m in the anti-camp as the following religious short pieces illustrate.

Contents:

Does God Intervene In Human Affairs?

You Know God Exists (Nudge-Nudge, Wink-Wink)

God in the Bible

In Defence of Santa

What Can Science Say About God’s Scientific Literacy?

Atheist’s Motives

Religious Belief Systems versus Truth

Chin-Wagging in the Bible Negates the Bible

What Does Not Constitute Evidence for God’s Existence

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Does God Intervene In Human Affairs?

God – assuming a real God of course and that’s pretty doubtful – may or may not intervene in human affairs, but His middlemen (and almost without exception all these middlemen were in fact men) certainly do. These middlemen are the collective powers-that-be behind God’s trilogy of major monotheistic religions and boy do they have an awful lot to answer for.

These religions under the leadership of God’s middlemen have been throughout recorded history the biggest contributor to the suppression of women; the biggest contributor to population issues (be fruitful and multiply); the biggest contributor to environmental issues (humans having total dominion over all of the Earth); the biggest contributor to wars and rumours of wars; the biggest contributor to imposing moral standards on everyone that falls within their sphere of influence and by inflicting severe, cruel and unusual punishments (i.e. – torture) for infractions up through and including capital punishment; the biggest contributor to child abuse (especially sexual abuse) and neglect; and the especially the biggest contributor to dictating all things that happen behind closed doors in the bedroom.

And all those middlemen end up leading the great unwashed up the garden path by promising salvation and a happy-ever-after eternal life (with or without halos, wings and harps) – promises they can’t actually meet. As a result, many of the great unwashed don’t make the fullest and most productive uses of the time in the one life they do actually have on the grounds that they feel there is not much point to this short, nasty and brutish life if there’s a better and eternal one to follow.

Finally, as one of numerous examples, the treatment dished out to the Aztecs and the Incas by the invading and conquering Christian Conquistadors will forever remain a dark and very bloody stain on Christianity. In short, religion and intolerance go cheek-by-jowl.

So God may not have intervened directly to bring these things about, but His middlemen sure accomplished His will.

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You Know God Exists (Nudge-Nudge, Wink-Wink)

Within the scope of people who claim that God exists, you usually get metaphysical arguments that ‘prove’ that existence. Arguments like how there must have been a first cause; how life, the Universe and everything is designed and fine-tuned; where did morality come from if not from God, how God is a necessary being, etc. But then again…

You can get some real theist “nut-jobs” like, for example, Christian apologist Sye Ten Bruggencate who gives an absolute proof of God’s actual existence as follows. Everyone knows that God actually exists, therefore God actually must exist. And the actual evidence for that according to Bruggencate is stated explicitly in the Bible (Romans 1: 18-21) and you will not question this for God will not be questioned (Romans 9: 20) or mocked (Galatians 6:7). God exists because you know God exists because the Bible says so. So there! Case closed!

So the Bible is absolutely true since it is God’s absolute word. Of course how do you know that God didn’t lie to you? Well the obvious answer according to Bruggencate is that God doesn’t lie. So there! Take that you non-believers and stick it up your – wherever.

Anyway, I gather this must be knowledge you are born with. Maybe it comes as value-adding when you get your officially heaven-issued soul. Anyway, the ‘fact’ that everyone knows that God actually exists certainly comes as news to me. At birth I thought we were all blank slates and dry sponges ready to absorb and assimilate whatever version of reality (nature and nurture) that reality throws at us. A blank slate means no preconceived concepts of anything, including God.

Anyway, I don’t know that God actually exists. I’m sure a newborn baby hasn’t a clue. An elderly person with an advanced state of dementia isn’t even aware of his / her own existence and that of his / her immediate family far less that of the actual existence of an invisible magic man in the sky. Humans living 50,000 years ago didn’t apparently know about God (no cave paintings of an elderly bearded male sitting up in the clouds surrounded by winged angels) and even when writing came to pass the first gods that were written about bore no similarity to the Christian God by any stretch of the imagination. Further, if everybody knew innately that there was just such a God, and only that God, then why have hundreds of other religions come up with drastically differing variation on the theme of deities? How did they arise and evolve? And if we all innately know that God exists, what’s the point in sending out missionaries and putting Bibles in hotel rooms?

If you argue that there are other gods that need to be taken into consideration, well there’s a ready answer for that too. There are no other gods according to Bruggencate (the Bible differs on this point in numerous chapters and verses), just idols and admitting that other ‘idols’ exist is idolatry and that’s an absolute no-no because God, who you absolutely know exists, says so.

But apparently if you don’t know that God exists then you have actually and deliberately suppressed this absolute bit of factual knowledge given to you (presumably by God Himself) for one evil or sinful reason or other.

If you have even half a rational mind to think original thoughts with then I think one can easily dismiss Sye Ten Bruggencate. But don’t take my word for it. Watch Bruggencate rant and rave and all but foam at the mouth in debates, interviews and lectures on YouTube. Wow!

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God In The Bible

One of the more ludicrous facets involving the God Hypothesis is that during the era where all those Biblical events were allegedly unfolding, Australia was populated; Africa (south of the equator) was populated; the Americas were populated; Asia was populated; Northern Europe was populated and Russia was populated. Yet, an alleged omni-present God [and later on, Jesus] totally ignored these regions and their populations. So the obvious conclusion is that God was just a mythological invention by the Near East and Middle East locals, albeit slightly evolved in concept from the local theological mythologies that preceded the God Hypothesis. Nothing new there. Every populated region on the globe during Biblical times (and often before) developed their own non-Biblical brand of theology and associated deities and no specific region can logically claim to state that they have absolute claim to theological truth and that all else that originates from other regions is mythological by comparison. And just to add insult to injury, neither Father, Son nor Holy Ghost has been sighted now for thousands of years – oops.

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In Defence of Santa

Obviously Santa Claus isn’t real, yet you’d be very hard pressed to actually prove that to the satisfaction of everyone else on this planet. So arguing against that rather non-provable proof, just for the sake of argument…

Santa is real. You can post actual physical letters in actual physical mailboxes to Santa himself. You can’t write and post letters to mythical persons.

We’ve all seen pictures of Santa holding a bottle of a well known soft drink and since this well known soft drink is certainly real, well Santa must be real too by association.

There are millions of photographs of Santa with (for example) children sitting in his lap and dozens of movies starring Santa. “Photography is truth. Cinema is truth at twenty-four times per second” (Jean-Luc Godard).

Santa has an established historical record going back many centuries. I’ve even seen a non-fictional biography of Santa in the bookstores.

Ask your typical WASP 5-year-old, or for that matter nearly any 5-year-old if Santa is real. You know the answer you’ll get, and parents will reinforce the child’s answer. I mean on Xmas Day kids will find presents under the Xmas tree with Santa’s name on the gift tag. What more proof do you need to establish Santa’s bona-fides?

There are millions of Xmas cards with images of Santa on them. You can buy all manner of sorts of Xmas kitsch with Santa’s image on them; even Santa masks for use on Halloween.

You can see Santa standing on the street corners collecting for charities. You can meet and greet Santa in the lead up to Xmas in department stores and in shopping malls. Santa answers to the name “Santa” and there are signage posts pointing the way to Santa.

But how you ask can Santa possibly do what Santa does on Xmas Eve? Isn’t that physically impossible? No, all things are possible in the realm of the supernatural and Santa is surely a supernatural being who is all-powerful and can invoke MAGIC to accomplish his Xmas Eve feats.

Further, Santa is surely all-knowing too. That’s because he keeps a list and checks it twice so he knows if you’ve been naughty or nice – so be good for goodness sake!

And finally, Santa, by all accounts, is way, way, way more omni-benevolent, all-loving, all-just, and all-merciful than any god, specifically God. If you’re a 5-year-old, what’s God done for you lately? Finally, I’ve never heard it said that Santa condones stoning children to death or letting loose bears on them.

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What Can Science Say About God’s Scientific Literacy?

Since the Bible is alleged to be God’s holy word, then events in the Bible reflect God’s doings and of course His holy word. If some of those events fall within the realm of science (like within the physical and biological sciences) then God is subject at least in part to what science has to say about these ‘scientific’ Biblical events.

The Bible is literally true, and therefore must be 100% scientifically true as well because the Bible is the word of God (2 Timothy 3: 16). If you swallow that hook, line and sinker then you swallow the following claims that I’m sure professional physical and biological scientists would take some serious issue with.

Starting with the physical sciences:

*Life, the Universe and everything created in just six days roughly 6000 years ago.

*The ordering of the creations in Genesis 1 is totally at odds with what science has discovered. Genesis would have us believe that the Earth was created before the Sun and the stars.

*Forty days and nights of worldwide rain.

*A worldwide flood for which there is no evidence.

*Noah’s Ark – and how did kangaroos get to and from the Ark?

*Alchemy – A woman being turned into a pillar of salt.

*A non-consuming burning bush that defies basic chemistry.

*The parting of the Red (Reed) Sea.

*Manna from heaven.

*Trumpets and shouting blowing the rock walls of Jericho down.

*The Sun & Moon commanded to stand still in the sky, and doing so.

*Walking on water.

*More alchemy – turning water into wine.

*The magical multiplication of loaves and fishes.

*Unexplained hours of darkness (during the crucifixion).

Let’s not neglect the biological sciences:

*Adam was created from just plain dust.

*Eve was created from a male (Adam’s) rib – therefore Eve should have been male.

*We have a serpent / snake that talks.

*There’s human lifespans in excess of 900 years.

*Bats are identified as birds.

*Death to all of the ancient Egyptian first born.

*Over 600,000 people wandering aimlessly about in the wilderness for forty years.

*Becoming pregnant at 90 years of age.

*A talking donkey.

*The relationship between hair length and physical strength.

*Jonah’s whale-of-a-tale of being in the ‘whale’ for three days and surviving to tell the tale.

*All manner of weird and wonderful highly problematical creatures including the four-winged cherubim, the six-winged seraphim, the cockatrice (or basilisk), the dragon, a flying horse, locusts (but most certainly not your normal garden variety), the behemoth, lambs with horns, giants (the Nephilim), the satyr, unicorns, the leviathan, sea monsters, and a weird composite beast that arises from the sea in Revelation 13: 1-2.

*A virgin birth – therefore Jesus should have been born female.

*Walking zombies.

*Resurrections from the dead.

So if the Bible is God’s holy word then God has no comprehension of the laws, principles and relationships in and of the sciences He presumably created. On the other hand, if the Bible was written by humans for humans based on the common scientific understandings – plus a goodly dose of artistic license – and literacy of those times, then things are far more coherent.

In conclusion, I think that science has an awful lot to say about God, God’s holy word and what was alleged in 2 Timothy 3: 16. Don’t you? Now are you going to put your trust in hundreds of geographically isolated and unknown authors who probably were just herders and farmers with little actual formal education or scientific literacy; unnamed authors who cobbled together these Biblical texts (some of which were later rejected) over many hundreds of years; authors all living over thousands of years ago – OR – modern day highly educated professional scientists who have to get their work peer-reviewed by other highly educated professional scientists?

Addendum: There’s at least one other well-known scientific anomaly in the New Testament, and that is the ‘Star’ of Bethlehem. It’s bleedingly obvious based on the lone description in Matthew 2 that the ‘star’ can’t be astronomical since it ends up standing still which it can’t do if the Earth rotates, so for all practical purposes one may as well call it a UFO and be done with it.

Speaking of stars, the Bible relates that in the End Times the “stars will fall from heaven” (Matthew 24: 29; Mark 13: 25; Revelation 6: 13) which might have seemed plausible to the great unwashed back in Biblical times, but is total nonsense in our modern astronomy.

There’s even more stellar nonsense in Joel 2: 10; and Joel 3: 15 – “The stars shall withdraw their shining”.

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Atheist’s Motives

Why do or why should atheists make their atheistic points of view and put them out into the public square for all the world to see? What motivates them apart from being convinced of their own worldviews? Here’s a trilogy of reasons.

Religious beliefs have caused over the millennia massive harm to both human and animal species. Anything that can assist in reducing those sets of beliefs and the numbers who hold them and thus the resulting atrocities done in the name of those beliefs by those people can only be a positive thing or achievement.

Many countries have legislated their national brand of religion as the absolute law of the land (i.e. – the Middle East; parts of Asia, etc.) and other countries like the United States are trying to accomplish the same. There are many on the religious right side of American politics who are hell bent on ending the separation of church and state and turning the USA into a theocracy and thus shoving their religious beliefs and values down everyone else’s throats. I rather suspect but can’t actually yet prove that the current American Veep (Pence) is a political case in point. That’s gotta end.

Anything that decreases belief systems that appear more important than the actual truth of those belief systems in favor of belief systems based on actual evidence is a worthwhile objective.

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Religious Belief Systems Versus Truth

Since I’ve raised the issue immediately above, I need explain why often belief systems are more important than the actual truth of those beliefs. This phenomena, by the way, isn’t just confined to the religious-minded. We probably all have at least one belief we’d cling tenaciously to even if we were presented with logical arguments why it was incorrect. Anyway, the focus here is on religious beliefs. We could easily hold those religious beliefs, contrary to rational arguments and evidence to the contrary, because (and I don’t pretend that this is an exhaustive list):

*We might get a sense of comfort and well-being and contentment inherent in those beliefs.

*We might feel the need to grasp at straws – just in case.

*Perhaps our professed belief systems elevate us and give us extra status in the eyes of others (family, neighbours, friends, fellow workers, etc.) and in the general community at large.

*Perhaps our belief systems give us an extra sense of worth, say by contributing to the collection plate every Sunday or otherwise serving in some capacity within the religious establishment’s structure.

*Perhaps we have invested so much time and effort and money into establishing and exhibiting our beliefs that it’s just impossible to do a 180 degree turnaround.

Does the above justify believing without evidence? IMHO no. Obviously true believers will agree to disagree.

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Chin-Wagging In The Bible Negates The Bible

The major piece of suggestive evidence that the Bible is just a work of pure historical fiction is that it contains, like all good works of fiction, massive amounts of oral dialogues and monologues with nobody ever identified as being present and accounted for as scribes writing down these conversations, these duets and arias. In that sense there are more parallels between the Bible and say the Iliad and Odyssey, the Epic of Gilgamesh (all historical fiction), or even the alleged plays of Shakespeare (some of which is historical fiction) than with say any nonfictional account of ancient Greek history or even a biography of Cleopatra. There are no monologues or dialogues given in the latter because there’s no record of there being actual oral conversations that were written down in real time and which have survived to the present day.

I mean we have no idea what Alexander the Great, any of the Roman emperors, Socrates*, Erik the Red, Leif Erikson, Pythagoras, Pericles, or Euclid said in any oral conversations they had. Yet we ‘know’ what Adam and Eve said. Really?

We have no idea what Kheops (Cheops), Thutmose III, Hatshepsut, Akhenaten, Nefertiti, Tutankhamun, Rameses the Great, or Cleopatra VII ever uttered, and that applies to all of the ancient Egyptian Kings and Pharaohs. Yet we ‘know’ what an unnamed Pharaoh in the Biblical Book of Exodus said. Really?

Now we know what these bona-fide ancient historical people actually wrote down, or what they formally instructed their scribes to write down, but as to what they actually said, as in normal conversations, or what they may have muttered to themselves, we know not.

*Though Plato invented many dialogues that Socrates had with other characters in order to illustrate his various philosophical issues and points. In a similar way, Hollywood films or novels that feature the character Cleopatra or Alexander the Great obviously include invented dialogues on their behalf.

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What Does Not Constitute Evidence For God’s Existence

Faith or belief. If you have faith or belief then that faith or belief is based without sufficient evidence. If you know something, then presumably that is based on actual evidence that you can share with others.

Personal experiences. Personal experiences are just that, personal. They convey no evidence relating to that experience to anyone else who hasn’t shared that experience, an unlikely happening since, by definition, the experience was personal. Further, spiritual experiences are not confined to God, Jesus or the Virgin Mary. All manner of other deities from Osiris to Shiva to Apollo and Odin have been personally experienced. That also applies to extraterrestrials as well as having visions and communications with the deceased.

The Bible. The Bible is just another holy book, one of many such holy books. The Bible is also just a book and anyone can write words in a book. Libraries and bookstores are full of such books, often called fiction. While the Bible is IMHO historical fiction (like “Gone with the Wind”) there is no actual independently verifiable evidence for any of the alleged supernatural events as related in Biblical texts.

Metaphysical, theological, philosophical arguments. These are indeed just arguments, pure thought experiments, and have never had any satisfactory resolutions – at least to the satisfaction of all who argue. It’s on the other hand hard to argue against evidence. One can argue about which theory of gravity best explains gravity, but nobody argues that gravity doesn’t actually exist.

Appeal to authority. Authority figures aren’t infallible. They can be wrong. Even the Pope can’t absolutely prove that the Christian God exists.

Majority rules. Even if a billion people believe in a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing. Billions have believed that the Sun goes around the Earth, but that belief system has now gone by the boards.

Need for agency. When faced with a mystery, people often resort to an explanation by an agent. The common example is: lightning is a mystery, therefore Thor / Zeus done it. Those that propose that lightning is the product of Thor’s hammer and/or Zeus and his thunderbolts would be expected to produce some more substantial than just “Thor did it” or that “Zeus did it”. They just might be expected to demonstrate that Thor and/or Zeus first existed and secondly had the means and temperament to hurl lightning bolts around.

God of the Gaps: Just because some phenomena hasn’t yet been fully explained (like where something actually came from) doesn’t automatically mean God done it. God is not the default position and when you don’t know something then your answer is “I don’t know”.

It amazes me how many Christians refer to nonbelievers as evil, atheists and even as the recipients of hardened hearts. To these believers, God has hardened their hearts and won’t let them see the light.

Wait a minute, a loving God wouldn’t do that. God didn’t harden their hearts, the devil did or was it the individuals themselves. God is a loving God, like most Christians, even though some of these people are judgmental and uninformed.

I really don’t know why some people will take the time to do scientific and academic research about a topic like religion, while others won’t. The only thing I can think of is that God has hardened their brains somehow. Remember, we can always blame stuff like this on the devil, demons or some other evil force, to protect the creator.

By hardening their brains, Christians live in a world that’s protected by an impenetrable shield. This magic shield reduces the amount of knowledge about the truth, while providing them with a dreamlike fantasy world to live in that’s full of problems, while offering them hope of an eternal life after death.

I don’t really know how to get Christians and other religions all over the world motivated, to examine the missing facts about their religious beliefs and doctrine. You need to quit blaming people like me, atheists and other nonbelievers about our lack of knowledge, when most of the time, all we’re doing is providing you with facts, supported with satisfactory scientific evidence.

Here is a small list of facts that you should examine, if you believe in any religion.

1. Were you raised to believe in your religion and never question your beliefs?

2. How many generations before you, believed in your religion and never questioned their beliefs?

3. Are you religiously geographically challenged, in other words, were you raised in a community of like-minded religious believers?

4. Have you done any type of research into other religions?

5. If your religious beliefs are right, does that make other religious beliefs wrong?

6. Did your god create everything and does this really make a lot of sense to you?

7. Why would your God create a wonderful world, but allowed greed, starvation and ignorance?

8. Why wouldn’t your God destroy every nonbeliever and eliminate the competition?

9. Are your religious books full of deception, contradictions and inerrancy?

10. Do you believe everything that others tell you and then spread these rumors unto others, without taking the time to do any research with an open mind?

I’m not writing this article to be cruel, I’m writing this article to get people motivated to do a little research about their religious beliefs with an open mind. Why would you want to spend the rest of your life believing in something that might not be true?

Your journey to the truth starts by asking the right questions.

As surprising as it may sound to you, all of us are biased to some extent. Common biases exist against people based on their gender (most often against women), religious beliefs (particularly against Muslims in the post 9/11 era), sexual orientation (against those in the LGBT community), or race (especially Caucasians against African Americans and vice versa). Some of us are biased towards different political sides, prone to making harsh judgements dependent on whether someone identifies as Democratic or Republican. In spite of this, being biased is not something to feel particularly guilty about. These viewpoints represent ways that we as human beings make sense of the world based on a variety of information, often filtered through fear and extrapolated across entire populations, that we then interpret into beliefs to make us feel safe. Bias creates for us a sense of familiarity and alignment with our environments and the people in them. It becomes a real issue of discrimination when it is used as a reason for preventing people from being their greatest selves based on mistaken or unjust conclusions about them. Because bias is such a wide ranging issue across society, in this article I'd like to focus solely on its effect in the workplace. Let's first discuss what the definition of bias is and where some of these prejudices come from.

The definition of "bias" (in the context of this article) according to the Oxford Dictionary is:
• (noun) Inclination or prejudice for or against one person or group, especially in a way considered to be unfair.

Biases develop through unconscious means, almost subliminally. We are all for the most part products of our upbringing, the sum of our experiences with our families, friends, and communities. The way that we see the world develops through a kind of subjective "lens" over time. Thus, our worldviews are indicative of the social and cultural groups that we associate ourselves with (or are most often born into). We then adapt to internalize the moods, perceptions, and traditions of them. Within that process we also tend to develop the belief that there is something inferior about other cultural groups, which in turn justifies our prejudices and inherent wish to see those like "us" succeed and attain benefit. Again, being biased is not the real issue here, it's when we have failed to address our biases to the point that they are affecting someone else's livelihood. We all must give people a fair chance regardless of their personal, physical, religious, or racial identity. Bias almost always has a way of trickling down into the choices that we make about other people and affecting them adversely.

This leads me back to the more direct goal of this article, which is identifying the effects of implicit bias in the workplace. It is first worth noting that the bulk of where most of us spend our time is at work. This is compounded by the interesting factor that our work environments are also the most likely place for us to be coming into contact with a wide array of people, thereby giving us great opportunities to be mindful of our biases and resulting choices. For example, in management talent acquisition and assessment are by far the most important areas of an organization. The way people are identified in terms of recruitment, evaluating their skills, determining job assignments and promotions, even simply who gets dismissed or retained, are all considerations rife with opportunities for implicit bias. A specific instance of this could be where an individual who identifies with the LGBT community might encounter unfairness when being considered within those equations. Management might have contrary beliefs about how sex and gender should exist, believing that their way of living is "right" and the LGBT lifestyle is "wrong", resulting in what they feel is justified bias. Although there is a theoretical measure of freedom present for those in charge to feel that way personally, the real issue is their resulting negative treatment towards such individuals. They might not be given certain leadership roles, or would have to endure insulting remarks regarding the LGBT community, perhaps even be terminated under exaggerated or false pretenses as a result of their sexual preference. Such treatment would affect the way they feel, see themselves and the company, causing low productivity, resentment, and eventual departure. In a just, unbiased reality this individual might have contributed greatly to positive outcomes for clients, the company, and society as a whole, regardless of their sexual preference.

Another example of bias involves Muslims, who presently experience severe prejudice across our society. The nationally traumatic events of September 11, 2001, were claimed by the terrorists who committed them as a "religious act", made by supposedly "devout Muslims" drawn to violent action out of religious and social obligation, as part of a "jihad" or "Holy War". As a result of this most egregious act, all Muslims have been generalized into being responsible for it, causing both unfair treatment and an all around misunderstanding of the Islamic faith. Anti-Muslim sentiment has built to the point that when most Americans hear the term "War On Terror" they automatically think of a war on all Muslims. This distortion is contradicted by a key instance where Muslims face misinterpretation: their customary act of praying five times a day, a practice called "salat". This practice is the second highest spiritual obligation that a Muslim adheres to and ironically, its personal importance is entirely about achieving peace. By engaging in prayer five times a day, they are essentially practicing a "jihad" or "spiritual struggle" within themselves. In essence, they are asking Allah to give them strength to endure life and its many emotional, spiritual and societal woes. Thus, their faith provides them with a regular source of peace and joy, a feeling of resilience and a sense of renewal throughout their day. So, what most Americans would consider stereotypically as a consistent meditation on hate and evil directed at America is in actuality a deeply healthy psychological and spiritual cause for good. With a proper understanding of true Islamic religious belief, I believe a lot of negative bias against Muslims could be invalidated, resulting in newfound respect and the strengthening of the humanistic bonds of all faiths. This is important in regards to the workplace for several reasons. First of all, to recognize and be mindful of this extreme societal bias represents an aspect of inclusion and understanding that promotes harmony, teamwork and productivity. Secondly, because their prayer occurs during the workday, it emphasizes not just understanding but support in the workplace of the religious rights and values ​​of those outside of traditional mainstream American Judeo-Christian culture. America has always been an important work in progress, and bias resulting from September of 2001 can only be replaced by the reality of our present mutual search for our highest selves, an endeavor I feel is best conducted within the diverse and personally invested environments of our work lives.

My last example involving bias is one that seemingly exists toward middle-aged white men. Part of the issue is as a result of the word "diversity". When many middle-aged white men hear the word "diversity" they automatically think it's about their jobs being obligatorily passed to minorities or women. This is simply not the case. "Diversity" is a policy that encourages culture and inclusion, meaning an approach that involves utilizing everyone's unique talents, regardless of their race, sex and or religious adherence. It is often mistaken as a false belief that a group or person is simply being given unwarranted consideration as part of an unfair bias against middle-aged white men. The roots of this scenario are historically documented. Decades ago, it was not unfamiliar to see the workforce populated by mostly privileged white men, especially the top executive positions and upper management. Many middle-aged white men have stated that in recent decades they have often witnessed those like them being passed up for advancement or promotions in favor of minorities or women, regardless of the fact that based on qualifications the positions would have gone to the white candidates . This is in response to the program Affirmative Action, which operates on the government mandated goal of encouraging institutions to mirror society at large. Again, middle-aged white men have felt an ironic backlash as a result of this attempt. In regards to bias in the workplace, this program ensures opportunities for individuals that have been discriminated against for decades. Whereas bias finds its origins in a selfish distortion of facts and opinion into unfair treatment, diversity is a policy seeking to promote fair action against a proven historical, systemic bias. In an ideal situation diversity would happen in the workplace naturally, but until it can this policy is in place to empower those who have been consistently dismissed entirely for too long.

In closing, it is rare to work at a place and not experience some kind of implicit bias, I've experienced it personally. We all share some of the same kinds of unconscious biases towards one another. In fact, I previously stated that being biased is not necessarily a bad thing. Where it manifests as a deeply negative influence is where we allow it to affect how we see others who may be better prepared for a particular job, and we choose to overlook them because of some inferior conclusion of them. It is vital for all of us that we seek to be mindful of the places and aspects of our lives in which we have authority over this. By identifying those we can take action to moderate our behavior appropriately, further enabling us to take part in the greater push to encourage humanity and mutual respect. Great mutual benefit resides in our willingness to be aware of our biases and our work to make choices that ensure fair, positive results.

I am a firm believer that in the very near future companies who are serious about diversity will have an incredible edge over their competitors. Just as bias extends from one group against another, I think the marketplace will develop its own kind of bias, one that values ​​companies that embrace diversity over those that don't. That in itself would represent a long overdue karmic shift, empowering all of us to reach our greatest potential.

Religious tolerance means accepting others religions in their own way. You have to accept religious beliefs of others and practices, even though you cannot agree with their practices or beliefs. Religious tolerance is important because it helps us to honor and appreciate the differences between our religious practices. Religions sometimes separate us in terms of practices, but at the same time it keeps us together. Religious tolerance is the road to world peace. In order to build global peace we have to avoid violence and follow morals that are preached by the religions.

Both believers and non-believers are living in the same society. So, it is important to have religious tolerance to maintain peace among people all around the world. By knowing the essence of other religions, you will come to know almost all the religions are preaching the same morale. Human rights violations are due to religious intolerance and such violations aggravate misunderstanding between people. This will arise several threats to the security globally and regionally. Solutions for religious intolerance can be found in the teachings of any religion and in all spiritual teachings all around the world.

Each religious community has a responsibility of their own so that their preaching should help in ending conflicts and strengthen the security so that fear is replaced by trust. Responsibility of each individual is important in each religion. If you have to feel oneness and find humanity in the mind of each individual, there should be a universality of religious expressions. Hence, unity in diversity is important in religious tolerance. It is important to have the feeling of oneness and humanity to maintain cooperation and peace within our globe.

Religious intolerance always hinders love and peace. Religious intolerance is mostly because of ignorance and limited knowledge. Education can help you to enhance the spiritual values inside the human beings. Through education also you can develop religious tolerance because only government laws cannot help to stop the religious intolerance.

Religious intolerance is due to the differences in opinions of people of different religions. If you want to inculcate principles and values to mind and hearts of people, then only education can provide enough information that are accurate. Education will also correct the misconceptions in the mind of people. Education enables us to show not only tolerance towards different religions, but also to appreciate different beliefs genuinely from our heart. Education teaches us not to think emotionally, but intellectually. The curriculum of education should consist of the comparative study of various spiritual traditions and scriptures in order to know the essence of each religion. Through proper understanding of each religion, you will know the similarities on ethical matters.

Most of the ancient wars are fought between people and countries because of the religious intolerance. People usually did not believe in other religious groups. But in this modern world, you have to be logical and realize that those old beliefs were wrong. There are many definitions on God in different scriptures, but all of them say about a single entity which is God. Each country has its own responsibility for maintaining world peace. We should not allow the people to destroy themselves and torture others physically and mentally in the name of God.

You should eliminate disparity, prejudice and hostility towards other religions even if you don’t have any belief in those. You should understand other scriptures, their ideas and essence so that you will know that all religious scriptures are preaching the same thing. Religious intolerance never helps you to reach anywhere. Hence, it is important to have religious tolerance to maintain world peace and security.

The masque or tableaux of Africa is indeed rich in variety. This variety together with the sights and sounds of Africa come alive in this most recent book by VS Naipaul, 'The Masque of Africa.' It's also a book that explores the tensions prevalent in Africa between the old and the new; not least the result of the continent having several subcultures and religions not all of which are adequately encompassed by the nation states covering it.

However unlike some of Naipaul's earlier books that are social and political in orientation this one is oriented towards understanding tribal beliefs and customs, including dietary habits. Not least in this direction is the uneasy co-existence between traditional African religious beliefs and the later intrusions of Islam and Christianity. The inability to address the inherent fault lines inherent in the African socio religious landscape have led to recurrent outbursts of tribal and racial violence. These spasmodic outbursts have often led to civil wars and mass destitution. It's important to note in this sense that whether we are considering generational, religious or racial cleavages they are all prevalent in Africa.

As 'The Masque of Africa' makes clear tribal religion and customs are very much alive and have not died out with the arrival of Christianity and Islam. There is thus an inane rivalry between such belief patterns not the least because traditional patterns of life are often coming under challenge by modernity as in many other parts of the developing world but this doesn't necessarily mean that the result is a foregone conclusion in favor of one over the other. Often traditional patterns and ways of living continue to manifest themselves vocally which is not necessarily in consonance with the national structures in Africa. Matters are not helped either by the fact that state structures themselves are often themselves the manifestation of dominant tribes. However that is not unique about Africa but can equally be found in other regions such as the Middle East. What is unique about Africa is that despite the apparent commonalities of underdevelopment and poverty that are common to so many African countries nevertheless to paint all of them with the same brush would be a mistake. To take just one instance for example as VS Naipaul himself points managing racial tensions has led to civil war in Zimbabwe while in South Africa it has led to a managed if compromised transition to black majority rule.

Therefore understanding the complexities of Africa is a long journey but even the longest journey begins with a single step and how better to begin that journey than through reading a nobel laureate?

When the slaves were brought to Cuba they also brought their religious beliefs with them. There were 4 major Groups of Africans that were brought as slaves to Cuba. The Bantu people from the Congo Basin were the largest population of the slaves imported to Cuba. There was approximately 400,000 Bantu people brought to Cuba as slaves. The next group was from Nigeria. They were the Yoruba people from Southwestern Nigeria. An estimated 275,000 slaves were imported to Cuba from Nigeria from 1820 to 1860, which corresponded to the fall of the Oyo Empire. The next were the Carabali also known as Abakua people who were basically Igbo and Ijaw people from Southeastern Nigeria. They arrived in Cuba in the late 1700’s to early 1800’s at a population of 240,000. The last of the main groups to come to Cuba as slaves from Africa were the Arara people. They were of Fon, Ewe, Popo and Makhi origin. They came from Dahomey and its surrounding areas in a population of 200,000. There were other groups from Africa as well but in small amounts compared to these 4 groups.

The Bantu Afro-Cuban religion was called “palo” or sticks by the Spaniards. This is because the Spaniards noticed that the Bantu were always gathering Sticks and Barks for their purposes. “Santeria” which is actually a derogatory term, is a term that was used by the Spaniards to depict any one that they believed put saints before god.

Contrary to Christian and European comprehension of African religious beliefs, the Afro-Cuban religions in their various forms all have a supreme “god” like the Christians and Europeans understand god to be. For the Bantu god is called Nsambi and to the Yoruba/Lucumi people god is called Olodumare. Like Christians who have saints that are god’s emissaries, all of the Afro-Cuban religions have deities that are god’s emissaries. The difference is that Afro Cuban religions believe in the forces of nature and that the deities control nature as well as peoples lives. They also incorporate the concept of ancestors and their purpose of spiritual existence is with the living as part of their religious belief systems as well.

In Cuba during slavery, the free people of color created cabildos or houses to preserve their cultural and religious practices. So one would find for example a Lucumi/Yoruba cabildo, A Myombe Bantu Cabildo, An Arara Cabildo etc. The fact that many of the slaves were forced to practice Christianity enabled them to camouflage their religious practices under the guise of Christianity. This is where the misnomer of “Santeria” came into being; it was a blanket term for the Afro-Cuban Religions particularly of Lucumi origin. After slavery the whites still discouraged the practice of the African religions but the Cabildos kept the Afro Cuban religions in tact. Despite all the attempts to under mind the African religions in Cuba, Afro-Cuban religions survived until this day.