NASA hires religious experts to prepare for alien contact
https://www.indy100.com/science-tech/nas...t-b1983352
EXCEPTS: A priest, a rabbi and an imam are among 24 theologians hired by NASA to prepare humanity for the growing possibility of alien contact.
[...] In his forthcoming book, Astrobiology and Christian Doctrine, Rev Dr Andrew Davison considered the possibility of God creating life elsewhere in the universe. He noted that “non-religious people also seem to overestimate the challenges that religious people... would experience if faced with evidence of alien life.”
[...] If extraterrestrial life were to be discovered, a “large number of people would turn to their religions traditions for guidance”, according to The Times.
Carl Pilcher, former head of NASA’s Astrobiology Institute, explained that theologians were hired to “consider the implications of applying the tools of late 20th (and early 21st) century science to questions that had been considered in religious traditions for hundreds or thousands of years”. (MORE - missing details)
India blocks Mother Teresa charity from receiving foreign funds amid wider crackdown on religious minorities
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/...-religious
RELEASE: India has blocked Mother Teresa’s charity from receiving foreign funds, a move linked by critics to a wider crackdown on minority religions. The Home Ministry announced the decision yesterday, saying it had identified “adverse inputs” to the Missionaries of Charity, without elaborating.
The work of Mother Teresa, a Macedonian who moved to India in 1950 and died in 1997, has long been controversial in the country, with Hindu organisations accusing her mission of seeking to convert people to Christianity under the guise of charity.
But the Home Ministry’s decision comes as Indian states ruled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu chauvinist BJP are passing a range of laws attacking minority religions, including restrictions on marriage between adherents of different faiths. The BJP accuses Muslims, without evidence, of an organised forced conversion-by-marriage programme it terms “love jihad.”
The southern state of Karnataka has recorded a sharp rise in threats of violence against Christians this year, with the People’s Union of Civil Liberties recording 39 attacks on Christian places of worship in the state by gangs linked to the RSS, the street-fighter wing of the BJP.
It has recently passed an anti-conversion law slammed by India’s communists as “a direct attack on the rights of religious minorities.” The legislation imposes terms of imprisonment of between three and 10 years for “forced conversions,” but the experience of similar legislation passed in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Madhya Pradesh suggests it will be used to persecute religious minorities and crack down on interfaith marriages.
https://www.indy100.com/science-tech/nas...t-b1983352
EXCEPTS: A priest, a rabbi and an imam are among 24 theologians hired by NASA to prepare humanity for the growing possibility of alien contact.
[...] In his forthcoming book, Astrobiology and Christian Doctrine, Rev Dr Andrew Davison considered the possibility of God creating life elsewhere in the universe. He noted that “non-religious people also seem to overestimate the challenges that religious people... would experience if faced with evidence of alien life.”
[...] If extraterrestrial life were to be discovered, a “large number of people would turn to their religions traditions for guidance”, according to The Times.
Carl Pilcher, former head of NASA’s Astrobiology Institute, explained that theologians were hired to “consider the implications of applying the tools of late 20th (and early 21st) century science to questions that had been considered in religious traditions for hundreds or thousands of years”. (MORE - missing details)
India blocks Mother Teresa charity from receiving foreign funds amid wider crackdown on religious minorities
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/...-religious
RELEASE: India has blocked Mother Teresa’s charity from receiving foreign funds, a move linked by critics to a wider crackdown on minority religions. The Home Ministry announced the decision yesterday, saying it had identified “adverse inputs” to the Missionaries of Charity, without elaborating.
The work of Mother Teresa, a Macedonian who moved to India in 1950 and died in 1997, has long been controversial in the country, with Hindu organisations accusing her mission of seeking to convert people to Christianity under the guise of charity.
But the Home Ministry’s decision comes as Indian states ruled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu chauvinist BJP are passing a range of laws attacking minority religions, including restrictions on marriage between adherents of different faiths. The BJP accuses Muslims, without evidence, of an organised forced conversion-by-marriage programme it terms “love jihad.”
The southern state of Karnataka has recorded a sharp rise in threats of violence against Christians this year, with the People’s Union of Civil Liberties recording 39 attacks on Christian places of worship in the state by gangs linked to the RSS, the street-fighter wing of the BJP.
It has recently passed an anti-conversion law slammed by India’s communists as “a direct attack on the rights of religious minorities.” The legislation imposes terms of imprisonment of between three and 10 years for “forced conversions,” but the experience of similar legislation passed in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Madhya Pradesh suggests it will be used to persecute religious minorities and crack down on interfaith marriages.