Catholic Bishop of Syracuse Decries Doctrine of Discovery, Suggests Pope Do the Same

SYRACUSE, NEW YORK, July 1, 2021 (RNS): The Catholic bishop of Syracuse, New York, is speaking out against the Doctrine of Discovery and revealing plans to ask Pope Francis to repudiate theological teachings used for centuries to justify the subjugation of Indigenous peoples. In an interview with Religion News Service on Wednesday (June 30), Bishop Douglas J. Lucia explained he…

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Telangana Temple Declared World Heritage Site

INDIA, July 30, 2021 (Unesco): Rudreshwara, popularly known as Ramappa Temple, has been added to UNESCO’s list of World Heritage Sites. The ornate temple is located in the village of Palampet approximately 124 miles north-east of Hyderabad, in the State of Telangana. It is the main Shiva temple in a walled complex built during the Kakatiyan period (1123–1323 CE) under…

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Two-Thirds of Allotted Funds for Ganga Clean-Up Released

INDIA, July 27, 2021 (The Hindu): The National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG), which was conceived as a US$2.68 billion program in 2014 to clean up the river has so far been allocated $2.02 billion. Of this only $1.4 billion, or about two-thirds, has been released by the Finance Ministry to the NMCG, a body under the Jal Shakti Ministry,…

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Meet the Maithil Women Artists of Nepal

KAUAI, HAWAII, July 28, 2021 (Hinduism Today by Claire Burkert): In 1988, in a mud wattle home in southern Nepal, I photographed a painting of Lord Siva. The artist, an elderly woman named Sita Devi, had chosen to paint Siva in hopes that He would bless the marriage of her nephew and his new wife. The image covered most of…

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Sangameswaram Temple Submerged in Water

ANDHRA PRADESH, INDIA, July 25, 2021 (The Hindu): The Sangameswaram Shiva temple was fully submerged in the backwaters of the Srisailam reservoir on Saturday when the water level in the dam rose above 855 feet, with close to 300,000 cusecs (cubic feet) of inflows recorded from the Jurala reservoir. The submergence of the temple is an annual feature. While the…

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Panpsychism, the Idea That Inanimate Objects Have Consciousness, Gains Steam in Science Communities

UNITED STATES, July 23 2021 (Salon by Matthew Rozsa): Dr. Martin Picard is an associate professor of behavioral medicine at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, specializing in both psychiatry and neurology. Together, expertise in these two fields suits one well to understanding the essence of what makes one human. Picard is particularly knowledgeable about mitochondria, a structure found within nearly…

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A Step Beyond SBNR

KAUAI, HAWAII, July 24, 2021 (Hinduism Today by Reiley Wilson): I had always thought of myself as spiritual but not religious (SBNR). Growing up, I attended a Lutheran church and I was taught gnostic teachings at home by my mother. I did not believe in what the church was preaching, yet I continued to attend with my parents as I…

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Quote of the Day

I am sorry to say that there is too much point to the wisecrack that life is extinct on other planets because their scientists were more advanced than ours. John F. Kennedy, (1917-1963) Former US president

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