A religious experience (sometimes known as a spiritual experience, sacred experience, or mystical experience) is a subjective experience which is interpreted within a religious framework. The concept originated in the 19th century, as a defense against the growing rationalism of western society. William James popularized the concept.
Many religious and mystical traditions see religious experiences (particularly that knowledge that comes with them) as revelations caused by divine agency rather than ordinary natural processes. They are considered real encounters with God or gods, or real contact with higher-order realities of which humans are not ordinarily aware.
Skeptics or scientists may hold that religious experience is an evolved feature of the human brain amenable to normal scientific study. The commonalities and differences between religious experiences across different cultures have enabled scholars to categorize them for academic study.
~~Origins~~
The notion of “religious experience” can be traced back to William James, who used a term called “religious experience” in his book, The Varieties of Religious Experience. The origins of the use of this term can be dated further back.
In the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, several historical figures put forth very influential views that religion and its beliefs can be grounded in experience itself. While Kant held that moral experience justified religious beliefs, John Wesley in addition to stressing individual moral exertion thought that the religious experiences in the Methodist movement (paralleling the Romantic Movement) were foundational to religious commitment as a way of life.
Wayne Proudfoot traces the roots of the notion of “religious experience” to the German theologian Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768–1834), who argued that religion is based on a feeling of the infinite. The notion of “religious experience” was used by Schleiermacher and Albert Ritschl to defend religion against the growing scientific and secular citique, and defend the view that human (moral and religious) experience justifies religious beliefs.
Such religious empiricism would be later seen as highly problematic and was — during the period in-between world wars — famously rejected by Karl Barth. In the 20th century, religious as well as moral experience as justification for religious beliefs still holds sway. Some influential modern scholars holding this liberal theological view are Charles Raven and the Oxford physicist/theologian Charles Coulson.
The notion of “religious experience” was adopted by many scholars of religion, of which William James was the most influential.
I have opened a shop at cafepress with merchandise from this blog. They are just simple items with a simple design and they don’t cost a whole bunch either. All proceedings from this shop will go towards the MCM causes. I hope to ad some more design choices soon
Men’s Fitted T-Shirt 4.3 oz. 100% ultra-fine combed ring-spun jersey Made in the USA, by American Apparel Lean fit, size up for looser fit in body Machine Wash Cold with Like Colors, Tumble Dry Low
Above Tee for example will cost you $21.59 / €18.00 / £15.00 / AUD $27.00 / CAD $27.50
Unstructured 100% brushed cotton canvas Baseball Cap Adjustable hook/loop tape closure adjusts from 20″ to 24″ Crown measures 3 1/4″ Low Profile Brim with sweatband Hand wash with warm water and mild detergent Hang Dry
Above baseball cap will come down to $17.99 / €15.00 / £12.50 / AUD $22.50 / CAD $23.00
Chairwoman offers unequivocal apology with announcement: “We must do better.”
by Sam Machkovech – Apr 3 2014, 9:30pm +0200
Less than two weeks after drawing controversy over his appointment as CEO of the Mozilla Corporation, Brendan Eich has resigned from the position.
In a post at Mozilla’s official blog, executive chairwoman Mitchell Baker confirmed the news with an unequivocal apology on the company’s behalf. “Mozilla prides itself on being held to a different standard and, this past week, we didn’t live up to it,” Baker wrote. “We didn’t act like you’d expect Mozilla to act. We didn’t move fast enough to engage with people once the controversy started. We’re sorry. We must do better.”
The action comes days after dating site OKCupid became the
Here’s a list of the upcoming anime for spring 2014. Most titles start 4/6 so get ready!
I’m most excited for the return of Fairy Tail! Also excited for the new Anime Black Bullet & No Game No life! Of course I won’t just review the Anime that I myself like and also I won’t be able to review them all. If there is an Anime in particular that you may be curious about and want me to review it, feel free to let me know in the comments below!
She is one of my favorites of all time. I was in my early teens when her records and her movies were coming out. I wouldn’t miss any of her movies. All her LPs (remember what those are?) had a spot in my collections. She’s still strong and healthy. Those blue, piercing eyes and the blonde hair. Perfect combination! Memories!!
Happy birthday, Doris!!
Doris Day (born Doris Mary Ann Kappelhoff; April 3, 1922) is an American actress, singer, and animal rights activist.
Day began her career as a big band singer in 1939. Her popularity began to rise after her first hit recording, “Sentimental Journey“, in 1945. After leaving Les Brown & His Band of Renown to try a solo career, she started her long-lasting partnership with Columbia Records, which would remain her only recording label. The contract lasted from 1947 to 1967, and included more than 650 recordings, making Day one of the most popular and acclaimed singers of the 20th century. In 1948, after being persuaded by Sammy Cahn, Jule Styne and her agent at the time, Al Levy, she auditioned for Michael Curtiz, which led to her being cast in the female lead role in Romance on the High Seas.
Over the course of her career, Day appeared in 39 films. She was ranked the biggest box-office star, the only woman on that list, for four years (1960, 1962, 1963 and 1964) ranking in the top 10 for ten years (1951–1952 and 1959–1966). She became the top-ranking female box-office star of all time and is currently ranked sixth among the top 10 box office performers (male and female), as of 2012. She received an Academy Award nomination for her performance in Pillow Talk, won three Henrietta Awards (World Film Favorite), received the Los Angeles Film Critics Association’s Career Achievement Award and, in 1989, received the Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement in motion pictures. Day made her last film in 1968.
Day has released 31 albums, and her songs have spent a total of 460 weeks in the Top 40 charts. She has been awarded a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and a Legend Award from the Society of Singers. In 2011, she released her 29th studio album, My Heart, which debuted at No. 9 on the UK Top 40 charts. As of January 2014, Day is the oldest living artist to score a UK Top 10 with an album featuring new material.
Her strong commitment to animal welfare began in 1971, when she co-founded “Actors and Others for Animals”. She started her own non-profit organization in the late 1970s, the Doris Day Animal Foundation and, later, the Doris Day Animal League.
Day is retired from acting and performing, but has continued her work in animal rights causes and animal welfare. She currently lives in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California.
Doris Day
Publicity photo, 1957
BornDoris Mary Ann Kappelhoff
April 3, 1922 (age 92) Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.NationalityAmericanOccupationActress, singer, animal rights activistYears active1939–present
1948–1973 (acting)
Doris Mary Ann Kappelhoff was born in Cincinnati to Alma Sophia (née Welz, a housewife) and William Kappelhoff (a music teacher and choir master) on April 3, 1922.All of her grandparents were German immigrants.
The youngest of three siblings, she had two older brothers: Richard (who died before her birth) and Paul, several years older. Due to her father’s alleged infidelity, her parents separated. She developed an early interest in dance, and in the mid-1930s formed a dance duo with Jerry Doherty that performed locally in Cincinnati. A car accident on October 13, 1937, injured her legs and curtailed her prospects as a professional dancer
~~Career~~
~~Early career (1938–1947)~~
While recovering, Day started to sing along with the radio and discovered a talent that she didn’t know she had. Day said: “During this long, boring period, I used to while away a lot of time listening to the radio, sometimes singing along with the likes of Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, Tommy Dorsey and Glenn Miller. But the one radio voice I listened to above others belonged to Ella Fitzgerald. There was a quality to her voice that fascinated me, and I’d sing along with her, trying to catch the subtle ways she shaded her voice, the casual yet clean way she sang the words.” Observing her daughter rekindled Alma’s interest in show business, and she decided to give Doris singing lessons. She engaged a teacher, Grace Raine. After three lessons, Raine told Alma that Doris had “tremendous potential”, which led Alma to give her daughter three lessons a week for the price of one.
Years later, Day said that Raine had the biggest effect on her singing style and career.[12] During the eight months of singing lessons, Day had her first professional jobs as a vocalist in the WLW radio program, Carlin’s Carnival and in a local restaurant, the Charlie Yee’s Shanghai Inn. It was during her radio performances that Day first caught the attention of Barney Rapp, who sought a girl vocalist and asked if Day would like to audition for the job. According to Rapp, he had auditioned about 200 singers when Day got the job.
It was while working for Rapp in 1939 that she adopted the stage name “Day” (at Rapp’s suggestion). Rapp felt that “Kappelhoff” was too long for marquees, and he admired her rendition of the song “Day After Day.” This was the origin of her stage name.
After working with Rapp, Day worked with bandleaders Jimmy James, Bob Crosby, and Les Brown. It was while working with Brown that Day scored her first hit recording, “Sentimental Journey“, released in early 1945. It soon became an anthem of the desire of World War II demobilizing troops to return home. This song is still associated with Day, and she re-recorded it on several occasions, including a version in her 1971 television special.
At one point in 1945–46, Day (as vocalist with the Les Brown Band) had six other Top Ten hits on the Billboard chart: “My Dreams Are Getting Better All the Time,” “‘Tain’t Me,” “Till The End of Time,” “You Won’t Be Satisfied (Until You Break My Heart),” “The Whole World is Singing My Song,” and “I Got the Sun in the Mornin’.” By the time she left Brown’s band in August 1946, she was the highest paid female band vocalist in the world.
~~Animal welfare activism~~
Day’s interest in animal welfare and related issues apparently dates to her teen years. While recovering from an automobile accident, she took her dog Tiny for a walk without a leash. Tiny ran into the street and was killed by a passing car. Day later confessed guilt and loneliness about Tiny’s untimely death. In 1971, she co-founded Actors and Others for Animals and appeared in a series of newspaper advertisements denouncing the wearing of fur, alongside Mary Tyler Moore, Angie Dickinson, and Jayne Meadows. Day’s friend, Cleveland Amory, wrote about these events in Man Kind? Our Incredible War on Wildlife, 1974.
In 1978, Day founded her own Doris Day Pet Foundation, now the Doris Day Animal Foundation. A non-profit 501(c)(3) grant-giving public charity, DDAF funds other non-profit causes throughout the US that share DDAF’s mission of helping animals and the people who love them.
The Doris Day Animal Foundation continues to operate independently under Day’s personal supervision.
To complement the Doris Day Animal Foundation, Day formed the Doris Day Animal League in 1987, a national non-profit citizen’s lobbying organization whose mission is to reduce pain and suffering and protect animals through legislative initiatives. Day actively lobbied the United States Congress in support of legislation designed to safeguard animal welfare on a number of occasions and in 1995 she originated the annual Spay Day USA.
The Doris Day Animal League merged into The Humane Society of the United States in 2006. Staff members of DDAL took positions within The HSUS, and Day recorded public service announcements for the organization. The HSUS now manages World Spay Day, the annual one-day spay/neuter event that Day originated.
A facility to help abused and neglected horses opened in 2011 and bears her name — the Doris Day Horse Rescue and Adoption Center, located in Murchison, Texas, on the grounds of an animal sanctuary started by her late friend, author Cleveland Amory. Day contributed $250,000 toward the founding of the center.
~Left To Die In A Trash Heap, Abandoned Dog Gets Remarkable Second Chance~
A moving video of the extraordinary recovery – and resilience – of an abandoned dog who was left to die in a trash heap is reminding us this week of the healing power of love, friendship and second chances.
On Nov. 15, 2013, when Eldad Hagar first laid eyes on Miley, an abandoned dog living among piles of trash on the outskirts of Los Angeles, his heart broke.
“When I got there, I almost couldn’t believe what I was seeing,” Hagar, the co-founder of animal rescue organization Hope For Paws, told The Huffington Post of his first encounter with the pup. “It’s almost as if this place was struck by a tsunami.”
Miley, covered in mange and infections, was so lifeless and defeated that Hagar, who recorded the dog’s rescue on camera, says she “didn’t even have the energy” to run away from him as he approached her.
Hagar says he rushed to Miley’s side after he heard about the pooch’s plight from a local resident. The tipster told him that Miley had been living in the trash heap for at least a few months. It is believed that she was abandoned by her owners.
Though he knew that Miley wouldn’t be in good shape, Hagar says he was still shocked when he finally made contact with her. Her physical deterioration was “definitely one of the worst cases” he’d ever seen, he said.
He knew he had to get Miley to a hospital right away.
Gaining the pup’s trust was no easy feat, however. Hagar says he offered her food and sat with her in the pile of trash for an hour before she was finally ready to leave with him. Then he got her into his car to be brought to the vet.
“She was very lucky we rescued her when we did, because her condition would have continued to deteriorate until she would have died a miserable and painful death,” Hagar said.
After examining Miley, veterinarian Dr. Lisa Youn discovered that the pooch wasn’t just suffering from mange and bacterial infections, but parasites and malnutrition, as well.
“She was in so much pain,” Hagar said.
Over the next two weeks, Miley got intensive medical care and was treated with antibiotics, medicine for parasites and frequent medicated baths. Slowly but surely, her spirits began to lift.
It wasn’t, however, until Miley found a best friend that her recovery took a dramatic turn for the better. Miley met Frankie the chihuahua after he was rescued from a sewer tunnel by Hagar and a friend. The tiny dog had almost drowned, Hagar said, because of a spell of heavy rain.
“He was so scared of everything,” Hagar wrote of Frankie in the video. “Miley took Frankie under her wing and they quickly became really good friends.”
Miley and Frankie, who are wonderfully affectionate with each other, are said to be doing well.
The “worst part is behind them,” Hagar told the HuffPost, adding that Miley should be “100 percent” in a few months.
A homeless dog living in a trash pile gets rescued, and then does something amazing!
~~Please share~~
~~Published on Dec 12, 2013~~
Please make a small donation to Hope For Paws and help us start 2014 strong with many more rescues. A $5 donation from many people would make all the difference to so many animals: HopeForPaws.org
Environmental Investigation Agency Interpol urges global action to stop tiger trade Global police body Interpol on Thursday called for concerted international action to stem the highly lucrative ti…
Why Do Chinese Oligarchs Secretly Love Illegal Tiger Meat?
A forbidden practice becomes popular among China’s ruling class: watching the animals die before eating them.
China’s wealthy “dragons” like to dine on tigers. In fact, they’ll even watch them die first and then boast about it on social media. Unfortunately, police don’t consider this behavior worth “liking” and so it became the center of a scandal last week when authorities busted an illegal tiger-eating dinner club in Guangdong province.
According to a March 26 report in the state-run regional newspaper the Nanfang Daily, police crashed the party of wealthy businessmen and government officials in the city of Leizhou just as they prepared to nibble on a freshly slaughtered cat. The raid occurred after a drunken dinner guest accidentally posted several grisly pictures of the event on social media, the Nanfang Daily reported.
Men’s Fitted T-Shirt 4.3 oz. 100% ultra-fine combed ring-spun jersey Made in the USA, by American Apparel Lean fit, size up for looser fit in body Machine Wash Cold with Like Colors, Tumble Dry Low 
