The Early Christians
	The early Christians included men and women, slaves and free people, rich and poor, Jews and Greeks. The first Christians were Jews only. They inhabited the cities of Galilee (a region of Israel). They were poor people, like Jesus, most of them woodworkers. Some were friends of John the Baptist, a great fearless prophet. All these people spoke Aramaic, a Semitic language related to Hebrew, which by those times had already bee ... [read more >>]
	01 April 2008, 16:41GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

There Are Already More Muslisms Than Catholics
	Islam is conquering the world, and not by sword but by number. There are already more Muslims than Roman Catholics, turning the Islamic religion into the world's largest religious denomination, as signaled by L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper. The world's Catholics may make 1.13 bill ... [read more >>]
	01 April 2008, 05:26GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Crusaders Had Sex With the Natives
	Those thousands of knights went to the Middle East during the 11th-13th centuries to free the Holy Land from the hands of the Muslims, but despite their religiosity, they found some moments to have some hanky-panky. In the end, their wives from England, France, Germany and Italy were far away and many ended mixing with the inhabitants. In a recent research published in the American Journal of Human Genetics, DNA "forensic ... [read more >>]
	28 March 2008, 17:41GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

A World's Wonder: Rock Carved Cities
	This is the Turkish World's Wonder. In the residual relief made of tuffs and basalt lava, persecuted Christians carved churches, monasteries and dwellings. Goreme National Park, with a surface of 9,576 hectares, is located in central Anatolia, between the volcanic mountains Hasan and Erciyes, in the Nevsehir Province, 83 km (52 mi) off Nigde. In the volcanic rocks, erosion carved mighty shapes protected by the basalt cov ... [read more >>]
	20 March 2008, 09:55GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

7 Things About Tibetans
	1. Tibet is a large territory (about one third that of the US) comprising a large part of the Himalaya mountain chain. It is the highest country in the world, most of the territory being located at altitudes of 3,000-4,000 m (10,000-13,330 ft), while the mountain peaks overpass 8,000 m (26,660 ft). It would be a cold, wild and uninhabitable territory but, because of its location at the same altitude with Sahara, the plains and the valleys ... [read more >>]
	20 February 2008, 14:31GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

How Did the Islam Conquer the World?
	Arabia is mostly made of desert, inhabited mainly by nomad tribes during the 7th century. On the shores of the Red Sea and Indian Ocean, fertile areas with many flourishing settlements were found, but the products were mainly local. The trade roads led to Syria and Mesopotamia (Iraq). Prosperous oases were found on the commercial routes, like Mecca and Medina, and the agriculture in the arid areas was possible using waterwheels and irrigat ... [read more >>]
	02 February 2008, 03:59GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

What Are the Totems?
	The word "totem" comes from the Ojibwa, an Algonquin language from the north of the Great Lakes of North America. "Ototeman" would mean "he is of my clan". The totem would express the belonging to a clan. Totem was an animal or plant, rarely an object, believed by a tribe to be its ancestor or protector, and therefore being worshiped. The wood carved totem poles of the tribes of western coast of North Ame ... [read more >>]
	31 January 2008, 07:27GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Yearly Price Tag on Religious Faith
	Faith is the sole purpose of some people’s life. They are called hermits, sometimes saints and they are pure human beings that do not take into consideration the small traps life has laid before them. They have faith that their deity will protect them. Those people were once the object of adoration for many, but as technology advanced other preoccupations took over the religious part of everybody’s lives. As a direct result, f ... [read more >>]
	18 January 2008, 11:06GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Experts Ask Whether It’s a Swear or Not? OMG!
	The subtitle actually underlines the difference between the generation that probably asked the question in the title and the generation that was raised using the Internet as a second language. Big difference, let me tell you that up front. Come to think of it, the OMG! IM-speak acronym shows, like nothing else can, the level of thought that people put into religion these days. There are people who would still consider it as a ... [read more >>]
	04 January 2008, 08:44GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Will Smith Has Given Scientology the Boot
	I have been wondering for some time now whether Will Smith and his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith were going to join the Scientology camp, at the warm recommendation of their close friend Tom Cruise. But it would seem that it's no joy for the ardent followers of what has grown to be regarded as a "bizarre sci-fi cult" - Will and his wife proved that despite allowing their kids to start their acting careers at very early ages, they ... [read more >>]
	04 December 2007, 09:03GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Quakers: Why Pennsylvania and Philadelphia?
	Quakers or the Religious Society of Friends appeared during the 17th century in England, a society created by George Fox (1624-1691), the son of a weaver from Leicestershire. Fox pretended to have heard a miraculous voice and thought he could communicate directly with God, receiving wisdom directly, without a human intermediary. The society was founded in 1652. They were called quakers because before receiving the divine revelations, t ... [read more >>]
	29 November 2007, 10:15GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Three Bizarre Hindu Beliefs
	Each day, about 1,000 worshipers and about 70 tourists visit the temple of Karni Mata, Deshnoke, India. Why? Because in this temple, about 300 rats wander freely while the believers bring their offerings to these idols. The rats are adored and any necessity that they might have is satisfied by the ecstatic prayers. The priests of the temple and the rats eat from the same dishes and drink the same water. The priests say these rats are g ... [read more >>]
	21 November 2007, 14:06GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

The Real Da Vinci Code Found!
	The real Da Vinci code has been found, but this time it comes with a different view than the one we know from Dan Brown's book or some Hollywood movies. Giovanni Maria Pala, 45, an Italian musician and computer technician from Lecce (southern Italy) has uncovered (at least he says so) musical notes encoded in the famous Da Vinci's "Last Supper", which could possibly accompany the 15th century wall painting. "It sou ... [read more >>]
	12 November 2007, 05:05GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Biblical Whore or Victim of Ancient Misogynism?
	The priest may have told you not to follow the Biblical example of Jezebel, the lewd and wicked ancient queen, but an old stone tells more about the Old Testaments' vicious girl. The stone was found in Israel in 1964, and linked to Queen Jezebel, but only recently did the researchers solve the puzzle of the seal's engraved markings typical to royal objects. "The lion-sphinx with female head and female Isis-Hath ... [read more >>]
	09 November 2007, 04:40GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Black Cats and Halloween: Urban Legend or Reality?
	Black cat owners, beware! Here comes the Halloween! The time when the mind of many crazy people out there gets… unleashed. At the Iowa City Animal Care and Adoption Center, people are still shocked by what they saw the day after the 2004 Halloween: a black cat duct-taped to an 8-ft (2.5 m)-tall crucifix. These rare events fuel the myth of the black cats’ satanic sacrifice connected to Halloween, and a general fright amongst U.S. animal ... [read more >>]
	30 October 2007, 07:43GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

African Masks: What's Their Purpose?
	In an African forest, a man heads to a tree bearing an ax. He has to accomplish a religious mission, done in Africa countless times along the millennia. Inside the tree lives a deeply respected spirit. To be protected against its rage, the man has first visited a wizard. Than he underwent a purification ceremony and made a sacrifice for the spirit of the tree. After the first blow, the sticks his lips of the cut, sucking a little sap ... [read more >>]
	29 October 2007, 15:06GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Living Dead: Hindu Widows
	They are "the outcast of the outcast": the Hindu widows. In the past, they used to end up in the pyre of their husband, but today the practice is forbidden by the Indian government. Upper-caste widows may not remarry, so many are abandoned by their families after the death of their husband in Vrindavan, "the City of the Widows", a pain ghetto on southern Delhi. Even their abandonment and marginalization co ... [read more >>]
	27 October 2007, 09:34GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Why Bali?
	Bali is a fiesta for the senses. There are kilometers of dreamlike beaches (with white sand in the south and black sand in the north and west) and crystalline waters, edging coral reefs, which contrast with the exuberant green of the picturesque terraces of paddy fields, in a equatorial island of just 5,632 km² (2,000 square mi), 153 km x 112 km (92 mi x 70 mi). Impressive volcanic landscapes and the silvery bright of the mou ... [read more >>]
	06 October 2007, 05:40GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

How Did Tibet Change After 56 Years of Chinese Influence?
	The mysterious Tibet is experiencing a cultural shock between the Lamaist Buddhism, with its spiritual leader Dalai Lama, who fled in 1959, and the Chinese modernization, the emergent power which is changing Tibet as it had not made it since the People's Army put an end to the theocracy in 1951. The spirit against the matter. In October 1950, the Chinese army crossed Yangtze river, advanced over the settlement of Chamdo and cut th ... [read more >>]
	29 September 2007, 05:48GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Why Does Sharia, the Law of Horror, Catch On amongst Africans?
	Amina Lawal was saved in 2002 from stoning to death. And after that, lawyers used the notion of "extended pregnancy," arguing that under Sharia law, a five year interval is possible between human conception and birth. Her guilt: having sex out of the wedlock. She gave birth to a child while being divorced. Amina was denounced by her ex father in law, in the northern Nigerian state of Katsina. She defended herself in front ... [read more >>]
	08 September 2007, 07:38GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

What Is the Kanamara (Iron Penis) Festival?
	The Japanese may seem sober at a first glance, but you must know more about their traditions to see a little bit how crazy they can go. If, while traveling to Japan, you stumble upon a crowd carrying a huge ten ft (3 m) pink statue of a penis, calm down: it is the Kanamara (Iron Phallus) Festival, held at the beginning of April on a Sunday at Wakamiya Hachimangu Shrine in Kawasaki Japan in the honor of the Kanamara Sama (Lord Iron Penis). ... [read more >>]
	23 July 2007, 14:11GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Why Don't Scientists Believe in God?
	There is some ridiculous trying to show that science does cope with religion. But the result is a bogus science. Real science is not based on predetermined facts. And scientists indeed are less religious than the general population, as revealed by a new research, but the cause has little to do with science itself or academic pressures. The result defies the idea that science by itself induces the lack of faith among scientists, showing tha ... [read more >>]
	02 July 2007, 02:47GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

What's Really in the Mind of the Suicide Bomber?
	Would you blow yourself up just to "get" 72 virgins? You may not, but others will. Still, do not think that suicide bombers are mad or somehow mentally affected: they can actually be very rational in their pursuit of the 'benefits' of being part of a strict and close-knit religious organization, as found by Dr David Stevens, of the School of Politics and International Relations, of the University of Nottingham. He di ... [read more >>]
	21 June 2007, 07:29GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

The Primitive Drum Machine
	What you see in this picture can easily be named a drum machine. Now, I know it has a very poor resemblance to a Boss Dr. Rhythm or some other well-known drum-stations; nevertheless, it is a drum-machine as it clearly features both a machine (see the motor on the left) and a drum. Even more, to see how complex things can be right from the beginning of technology, this technological marvel sports 2 bells as well! This pic was s ... [read more >>]
	18 April 2007, 04:47GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

HIV, Sexuality and Religion
	There may be nothing religious on the way HIV transmits itself, but HIV-positive people who pay attention to religion are less likely to transmit the virus than other HIV patients. The RAND Corporation research assessed religiosity of the subjects, assigned them to a particular religious group, if they preferred spending time with people of the same religion and how often they attended religious services on a sample of 1,421 HIV patien ... [read more >>]
	04 April 2007, 06:25GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

How Did Religion and Atheism Evolve?
	Different philosophies, atheism and religion may impose different ways of life or not, as there are intermediary shades, because in most cases, there is no perfectly homogeneous religiosity or atheism. Faithful people can be from bigots to those who do not practice any rite or cult accessories, but they do believe in an impersonal divine abstraction (deists, pantheists and so on), as also amongst atheists there are various hues, from r ... [read more >>]
	10 March 2007, 08:20GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia