Recent content by Sitaram

I think I know the passage to which you refer, in 1st KINGS Chapter 18. Here is one paraphrased account: http://www.chabad.org/library/article.asp?AID=111833

SFG75 has posted here http://www.bookandreader.com/forums/showthread.php?p=212919#post212919 regarding children's books on Halloween. I made one post there regarding Nietzsche and the "Will to Power" (ghosts are powerful in one sense.) I wanted to mention the "Witch of Endor" episode in the...

Children love dinosaurs and the supernatural because they admire power. No one tells a Tyrannosaurus Rex to go to bed early. No one tells a vampire or werewolf to finish all their vegetables before they can have desert. Plus, the supernatural is not even bound by laws of nature such as...

Legal Tender (part 2, conclusion) Mahendra: you were speaking of a in individual reading bible alone with out beruacratic support Mahendra: .. Sitaram: protestant reformation recognizes the power of the individual believer to interpret scripture Sitaram: so, you see, Christianity...

Here is this morning's internet dialogue in Yahoo chat between myself and a professor of folklore in South India, posted with his permission. I have done only minor editing. Our dialogue explores the synergy between faith and doubt, and the cyclic nature of the spiritual pendulum between...

Your post brings to my mind an interesting comment, which has to do with Pharoah and Moses in the Old Testament. When God tells Moses to do various things (a commission if you will), then Moses asks God a very reasonable quetion regarding why anyone should believe him. God then tells Moses...

Thanks for two great video clips! Food for thought! (or rather, should I make some joke about cannon fodder)? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannon_fodder

It is difficult to legislate taste or compassion. One solution, for an adult, is to fall madly in love with a person of a different color. Suddenly, you no longer see color, or race, you just see that person, as an individual, different from any other. Then, everyone who resembles that person...

A public school teacher was arrested today at John F. Kennedy International Airport as he attempted to board a flight while in possession of a ruler, a protractor, a set square, a slide rule and a calculator. At a morning press conference, Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez said he believes...

Interesting ruling! Perhaps publishers rights should be like patents on pharmaceuticals. Patent protection is limited to a certain number of years, and then it enters public domain. At least, this is my understanding, though I am no lawyer. I am under the impression that a legal contract...

Samsara is sometimes called the "10,001" things. In Zen, it has something to do with that Koan: Student: "What is Buddha nature?" Master: "Have you eaten your breakfast." Student: "Yes." Master: "Go wash your bowl." Camus in “The Myth of Sysiphus” conjectures that the happy moments...

Occlith, fabulous photo. Just like what I saw during an eclipse around 1970. Yes, religion is kindness. The Epistle of James says (paraphrasing from memory): "True religion is simply this: to comfort widows and orphans in their need, and to remain unspotted from the world." Micah 6:8...

Direstraits, Thanks for your kind words of resonance. I am often refreshed by the humor of your appealing icon, cousin to Chiquita, who periodically reinvents himself. We should all try to reinvent ourselves from time to time.

We were meant to use things and love people. But, instead, we love things and use people.

Someone has written to me, asking advice regarding their aging father, a victim of Alzheimer's, dad's savings account of one million dollars, and four siblings who are in conflict with one another regarding the money and their father's circumstances. Here is my advice: Lincoln said "Most...