Browsing: Religion

A Brief History On February 18, 1954, Los Angeles, California hosted the establishment of a new religion, a controversial organization some refer to as a cult. Digging Deeper Digging deeper, we find The Church of Scientology founded in December of 1953 and its first church opened two months later in Los Angeles. Founder L. Ron Hubbard (more formally, Lafayette Ronald Hubbard) was a science-fiction writer and a self-help proponent of his system he called Dianetics.  Hubbard’s best known science-fiction story is Battlefield Earth which was also made into a movie by the same name in 2000, starring church member John…

A Brief History Whether you know this Greek Hero as Herakles, Heracles, or Hercules, and whether you picture him as played by Arnold Schwarzenneger or Kevin Sorbo, this man who has come to symbolize all that is strong and heroic did not always have it so good himself. Digging Deeper Born of the God Zeus and a mortal mother, this demi-god was hated by Hera, Queen of the Gods and wife of Zeus, although at first his true identity was hidden from Hera, who nursed him as a baby.  Possessing incredible strength even then, the little Hercules sucked so hard…

A Brief History On January 3, 1521, Roman Catholic (Augustinian) priest and reformer Martin Luther was ex-communicated from the church by Pope Leo X.   440 years later, on January 3, 1962, Pope John XXIII ex-communicated Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, an avowed communist and therefore an atheist. Digging Deeper The reasons for each of these men to be ex-communicated from the church are obvious, since Luther went against church dogma and policy and ignored numerous warnings to desist in his heretical teachings. Luther made the unforgivable sin of going against church policy of selling indulgences, a money making scheme by which…

A Brief History On January 1, 1950, a new method of designating what year it is (or was) went into effect with the BP system, meaning “Before Present.”  The Anno Domini (“the year of our Lord”) choice of a starting date for modern counting of years was proposed by the colorfully named Dionysius Exiguus (a monk from what is now modern Bulgaria or Romania) back in 525 AD.  (Yes, you can use the letters with or without the periods.) Digging Deeper The Lord referred to in AD is Jesus Christ, which of course seems to slight people of any religion…

A Brief History On December 20, 217 AD, reigning Pope Saint Zephyrinus died, replaced by Callixtus I as his successor.  Not only did “Z” as we will call him have a name that strikes us today as a bit unusual, his actual birth name was Zepheniah. Digging Deeper The names Zephyrinus and Callixtus are just not chosen by new popes often, especially in more recent years, but in the old days such names were probably not so uncommon.  Zephyrinus was Pope from 199 to 217, and was considered a martyr even though he did not die in defense of the…