Rapture?

by Stella

You may have heard about the theory about "the end of the world" set to take place today, May 21, at 6 pm, but what is it really? Harold Camping, an 89-year-old retired engineer and Christian radio evangelist who falsely predicted Rapture in 1994, claims that meticulous calculations point to today as the date of Rapture. Rapture is when true believers will rise into Heaven and be saved from suffering a massive earthquake that sweeps around the world, God's way of dealing with non-believers.

One question people have been asking is what time zone the 6 pm prediction is for. Well, the mighty earthquake will start in the Pacific Ocean at their 6pm and follow the time zones around the world.

Many Christians have been preparing for the rapture by saying goodbye to friends and family, and holding signs to inform people of Christ's return to earth. Have you seen this one by Harold Camping's Family Radio?

Anyone who accepts Christ as the messiah will be raptured, and Camping estimates these people to be around 200 million. Camping also claims that gay-rights movements are a sign given by God of the rapture, signifying that our world will be destroyed as Sodom was.

Atheists are not letting the rapture slide by unnoticed. Many are throwing after-rapture parties, and some have even started businesses to take care of believers' pets after they are raptured.

Which ever position you take, we will find out the truth at 6 pm today.

Works Cited

Betz, Dean. "The End-of-the-world FAQ Sheet : Hot Topics." SFGate. Web. 21 May 2011. .

Boyett, Jason. "Is Judgement Day May 21?" Beliefnet. 11 May 2011. Web. 21 May 2011. .

McGreal, Chris. "The Rapture: Judgment Day Imminent … If US Engineer Has Calculated Right."Guardian.co.uk. 20 May 2011. Web. 21 May 2011. .

Happy Easter

By Stella

As many of you probably know, Easter celebrates the resurrection of Jesus after he was crucified on Good Friday. This is the ending of Holy Week, which includes Palm Sunday, Holy Monday, Holy Tuesday, Holy Wednesday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter Sunday. This is also the last week of Lent. Some traditions are less obvious, such as Easter eggs and the Easter bunny.

Easter eggs represent life and resurrection in the Christian community and painting them has to do with Jesus’s blood as he was crucified. Now, Easter eggs are mass produced and made of various sweets such as chocolate and marshmallows, but in many countries, especially in Europe, eggs are still intricately designed with scenes of life and beautiful patterns. The Easter bunny is another symbol of life. First recorded in Germany, the Easter bunny brings Easter eggs to children during Easter. Children make (or more modernly buy) brightly colored baskets for the Easter bunny to put eggs in. Peeps are a very modern tradition, starting to be mass produced in the 1950’s. Along with bunnies and eggs, chicks also represent life and being born.

This is an Easter basket consisting of Easter grass, chocolate eggs, peeps, colored eggs, a stuffed bunny, and a chocolate bunny.

Religion & Prejudice

By Gabbie

How does religion affect prejudice? Are religious people as a whole more, or less, prone to being prejudiced? Or is this only true of specific religious groups?

I’m not going to try to directly answer any of these questions; instead I’m going to let the statistics speak for themselves. This survey was taken of high-school students aged 14-17. The survey was not large enough for this to be considered conclusive evidence, but these are still hard percentages that send a very interesting message.

In the first section, the questions were general-knowledge questions such as “the HIV virus can be spread by coughing or sneezing,” to which the respondents were asked to answer TRUE or FALSE. Answering incorrectly is defined as answering one or mor

e of the five questions incorrectly, while answering correctly is defined as answered none of the five questions incorrectly. I consider this section to be significant because ignorance feeds prejudice; someone who does not understand HIV is much more likely to fear or discriminate against people with HIV, as will become apparent from examining all four tables in

conjunction. This section includes the first two tables, below.

The next section includes the other two tables, and involved statements such as “Nations should be allowed to deny entry to immigrants with HIV,” “Governments should be able to publicize names of HIV+ citizens,” “If I found out that someone I knew had HIV, I would be angry, or place blame on him/her,” and “If I found out that someone I knew had HIV, I would avoid that person or stop spending time with him/her.” Respondents were asked to answer AGREE or DISAGREE, and agreeing was defined as answering AGREE to at least one statement of the nine that were given, while disagreeing meant answering DISAGREE to all of them. In the first of these two tables, the discrepancies between different demographics, though present, are much less marked than in any of the four tables; I think that the more important thing to note is that for every group, a huge percentage agreed with the statements.

If you looked at all four tables together, as I suggested, then you noticed that the group of which the highest percentage answered incorrectly to general-knowledge questions also had the highest percentage of members who agreed with discriminatory statements, and the group where the highest percentage answered correctly had the lowest percentage of members agreeing with those statements. Therefore I hope that, besides conveying a message about religion and prejudice, this data also speaks of something else: that ignorance is the foundation of prejudice and discrimination.

The Origin of Music

By Stella

You might laugh at church music and Christian rock, but the truth is that most forms of music have their roots in religion. Western music, originating in Europe, developed from hymns and chants that eventually acquired melodies and became polyphonic (containing multiple notes). Early composers, such as Hildegard of Bingen (1098), set lyrics to hymns. Later, composers such as Tomas Tallis and William Byrd would branch away from religious seculars, and music would become a part of ceremonies and other royal events. Many kings and queens had their own composers. As music progressed, it moved beyond vocals and began to include many different musical instruments. During the Baroque Era, beginning in the 1600s,symphonies were written. This was the time of composers such as Antonio Vivaldi and J.S. Bach. Many pieces were still religious, such as masses and choral hymns, and most churches had organs for composers and musicians to use. Over the years, music evolved to include more instruments, composers writing massive symphonies and operas.

In Africa, music also originated from religion. In traditional African religion, music was used for ceremonies and for communication. This music used various percussion instruments, vocals, and wind instruments, and was usually accompanied by dancing. In the 1800s, when slavery was still prevalent, slaves who had been brought from Africa learned to play western music. This fusion of western music with traditional African music led to the birth of ragtime, Dixieland, and eventually jazz. Jazz evolved into rock and roll, and eventually pop.

Even today, music is a large part of religion, and vice versa. Many people still put passages from the Bible into song, or write songs with religious meanings. In most churches, hymns and songs are a very large part of ceremony and tradition. Whether you listen to pop or rock, jazz or classical, know that religion was the origin of the song you’re listening to.