Sublime

The traditional religion of Rome was significantly different from religion as we usually understand it now. So much modern religious vocabulary – including the word ‘religion’, as well as ‘pontiff’ – is borrowed from Latin that it tends to obscure some of the major differences between ancient Roman religion and our own. In Rome there was no

Rather, the term implies a creed that assumes an inherent sameness in all religious faiths. The leveling of differences, so the argument goes, will, in turn, help reduce friction and confrontations in public spaces and agendas.8

In Islam, interest on monetary debt (riba, الربا) is unlawful (haram, حرام) on ethical grounds,

Here’s another weird example of the privileging of religion. On 21 February 2006 the United States Supreme Court ruled, in accordance with the Constitution, that a church in New Mexico should be exempt from the law, which everybody else has to obey, against the taking of hallucinogenic drugs.8 Faithful members of the Centro Espirita Beneficiente

Do not revile those [beings] whom they invoke instead of God, lest they, in their hostility, revile God and out of ignorance.

If you call yourself a Christian, and you want things to be fair, and you want God’s rewards given out only to the deserving and the upstanding and the religious, well, honestly, Jesus has got to be a complete embarrassment to you. In fact, to so many upstanding Christians, He is. He has always been offensive, and remains offensive, to those who