Halloween is over, the first Christmas commercials are on TV, big chain stores are already decorating for the big one at the end of the year and I’m about ready gag!
But this below made me chuckle!
In the Globe and Mail (Canada’s supposedly national newspaper) today this little tidbit for something else for the holidays!
“The rise in demand for Viagra during [the Muslim festival of] Eid reflects a worldwide trend for increased Viagra sales during holiday periods and festivals,” says Dr. Ahmed El Hakim, Pfizer’s Middle East director of health policy and external affairs. “There are similar patterns in Christian countries over Christmas.”
It seems different religous groups share a common idea for celebration
And this one from Ireland: Call me when I’m dead
Keeping the cellphone
A growing number of people in Ireland are taking their cellphones to their graves, according to the country’s undertakers. The country has a tradition of people being buried with some of their favourite possessions. Families burying phones with their loved ones are encouraged to either turn them off or switch them to silent or vibration alert. “Obviously, you don’t want a phone ringing inside a coffin during a funeral,” said Peter Flanagan of Kirwan’s funeral homes in Dublin. Another funeral director, Keith Massey, added: “Some people are superstitious and insist the phone is turned off so that if they do wake up they will have battery power when the phone is turned on again.”
Shakers (formally known as The United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing, or Believers) are all celibate, so they wouldn’t need Viagra. They’ve traditionally kept their numbers going through adoption and conversions. (Their numbers are currently declining rapidly, though–there are fewer than a dozen Believers still living and all are over 50 years of age and reside at the last remaining active Shaker village in Sabbathday Lake, Maine.)
If I remember correctly from my comparative religions class, it was a nickname stuck on them because of their tendency to tremble with religious ecstasy during worship.
I’ve just read the Wikipedia article you took your answer from and I’m even more confused now.
If The United Society of Believers in Christs Second Appearing don’t recognise him as a deity then how is he going to pull off a second coming?
Another thing I find strange - and I did not know about the celibacy issue - is what is the point in trying to repress the most primeval of human desires, procreation.
Where is the wrong in going forth and multiplying?
I’m actually offended that you think I took that from Wikipedia. I did not. I told you from my experience and own readings on the matter. I did not consult Wikipedia or any other source at all. I am a student of religion. I’ve read dozens of books on Shaker history and theology. I should know these things.
They believe(d) in the divine nature of Christ as Lord in a very similar sense that most Protestants did/do. The Wikipedia article is simply wrong (imagine that!). Some non-Shaker Christians do say, however, that they place(d) far too much significance/faith in their founder, Ann Lee (also sometimes spelled Ann Lees). I’ve often seen her referred to by such names as “The Divine Mother” or “Heavenly Mother,” right along side Christ described in the same way but with “Father” instead of “Mother.”
This is not the Shaker answer, but my own personal answer is that there are too many people on earth as it is now. Billions of them are starving. We do not need to create more of us.
That makes me sad. Whoever wrote the article probably stole something I wrote somewhere else…it’s really similar. I find myself constantly telling people about the Sabbathday Lake Shaker community because they mention Believers in connection with their furniture, and invariably think that Shakers are extinct when they’re actually not, so I’ve posted randomly all over the place for a long time, saying basically the same thing.
The Shakers got their start in the US right near here north of Albany NY. Apart from the celibacy thing, they were a remarkable group of people. Very inventive architecturally, etc. There’s a Shaker museum over in Mass which is fascinating, if you’re ever visiting in the Berkshire area.
I don’t know… seems like enough differences to not even be a
paraphrasing. I mean, how many ways are there to word that
summary?
Cran, did you know wikipedia is publicly editable? If there is an error
in that article, you should click the “edit” link in that section and fix it!
(The caveat to this is that no one should use wikipedia as their only
source of info for anything.)
Yes, I knew that. That kinda makes me hesitant to change anything, though, because it could just be changed again in two seconds.
You should also never use Wikipedia as a source for an academic paper of any sort. I know people who’ve done this, and cited Wikipedia multiple times on research papers. Needless to say, the professors virtually bit their heads off.
Well, I’ve seen that sentence stating that there are fewer than a dozen left living in Sabbathday Lake, Maine, since I was about 5 years old, so they must the most long-lived twelve persons on the face of the earth.
I think it more likely, Cran, that you have absorbed what you read and, like most of us, are now unable to tell that it did not spring fully formed from your brain in a burst of new and inspired creation.
You’ve been a religion major for what, two months now? I think it’s safe to say that you’re not required to know everything yet. You can make that claim when you have a PhD, and by that time you’ll realize why you shouldn’t.
So I guess the question is “Who’s shakin’ tonight?”
