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The Aztecs had many beliefs. They believed the sun fought darkness every night and rose to save mankind. They believed the earth was flat. They believed that if they fed the sun blood, it would rise. They also believed in 13 heavens and 9 hells.
The Aztecs respected their gods very much. They put their greatest efforts into making strong, beautiful temples to please their gods. Their arts had a part in their religion. They drew pictures that told about their gods. They recorded religious events with hieroglyphics and even number symbols. The Aztecs worshipped about 1,000 gods! But they worshipped the sun god the most. Religious ceremonies took place in a temple called a teocalli. This temple had sacred pools for ceremonial cleansing, gardens, living quarters for a priest, and racks to hold the skulls of victims. Religion played a great part in Aztec life.
Sacrifice was one of the main events in the Aztec religion. Priests made human sacrifices to make the sun god happy. Aztecs fought in wars to capture men to sacrifice. On God’s Feast Day, they killed their slaves for the gods. Human sacrifices were offerings to the sun and earth so that food would grow.
On the night of the O’ Nothing Days, O’ priests would dress up as the supreme gods and wait on the top of an extinct volcano. When the evening star reached the top of the sky, the priests would stretch the captive over an altar, or a special stone. Then the high priest would light a fire on the victim’s heart and tear it out. After the heart is cut, the priest would hold the heart to the sun, then put it in a sacred dish. Finally, the bodies were rolled down the temple stairs to lie in a heap. Even after that, most victims were happy to die because they thought they would go straight to heaven.
The Aztecs strongly believed in the afterlife. It was the way the Aztecs died rather than the way they lived that determined whether they would go to the sun god or go to the dark and dismal underworld. If a person died a normal death, his or her soul would have to pass through the nine lives of the underworld before reaching Mictlan, the realm of the dead. A warrior who died in battle or a woman that died in childbirth would go straight to the sun god in the sky.
The head of the gods was Huizilopochtlid, god of war and god of sun. This god had told the Aztecs to wander until they found an eagle with a serpent in its mouth perched on a cactus growing from a rock. When they found this, they claimed the area around it, which is now known as Tenochtitlan.
The Aztecs worshipped Tlaloc, the rain god, in the main temple. This god was very important to farmers because drought was a threat in the area.
Quetzalcoatl was a feathered snake who represented arts, crafts, and self-sacrifice.
Priests and priestesses were very important people. They acted as doctors, and taught science, art, writing, music, dance, history, and counting. They also had to know astronomy and astrology. They had to perform difficult ceremonies.
Religion played an important part in Aztecs’ lives, and human sacrifice was used to pay homage to their gods.

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The word rune has a long and clandestine history. The Old Norse called it runir meaning secret or hidden lore. In Old English it became rün, a secret consultation. Finally the Gothic language titled it as runa, dark sayings, or whispers. These dark whispers are not malicious by any stretch of the imagination. Rather, the runes are like a friend, confiding his secrets to you, and rune casting is the best way to get your new friend talking.

Each rune symbol represents both a letter of the alphabet and an idea (see sidebar), but these are a far cry from their true meaning. This only comes from using the runes, over and over and over again. I don’t mean be a fanatic about it. For goodness sake have a life, but allow these messages and the stories they represent to enter into your life.

I don’t put in for the various meditations and soul searchings that many of the books I’ve read suggest when working with runes. I’m a pragmatist. How can I get these things to work for me? What I’ve found is that the runes, as a divination source, are far more practical and straightforward than say the Tarot, which for me resulted in an abysmal failure. I tried various divinatory techniques with the runes, kept what I liked, threw away the rest.

One that I use most often and with tremendous success is rune casting. What’s best about this method is that I don’t even need to have my bag of runes on me to practice it. Once I threw a casting in the parking lot of McDonalds with a bundle of coffee stirrers. I’ve found that there is a bond that develops between you, the caster, and the runes themselves. Often you must read into the casting to find its true meaning, sometimes going by gut reaction.

The manner for casting is pretty simple. If you’ve purchased or made a set of runes, make sure they’re all inside a pouch. Reach inside with the question posed clearly in mind. It helps to be brutally specific here. The more loopholes you allow the runes, the more they’ll take. This method works best with questions that can be answered with a qualified yes or no. Don’t ask how or why because the runes won’t tell you. As in everything in life, you’ll have to figure those out for yourself. Reach inside, grasp a handful of runes, and toss them onto the ground or table. Now a word of caution here, toss does not mean hurl with the force of a two-year-old with his ball. You don’t want to loose any of the runes, just scatter them randomly. Let them decide how to land. The basic interpretation is simple, if more runes are turned face up, the answer is positive (yes), if more are turned down, negative (no). The trick comes in qualifying the answer. What’s the ratio of upright to overturned runes? If you have, say four to one or five to two, the answer is a very sure yes. If they’re all turned face up, then you have little doubt in the matter. The same goes for face down. When the ratio is close or dead even, then you’re stuck with a qualified maybe. Don’t be disappointed. This only means that your fate isn’t decided yet.

Finally you can interpret the meanings of the upright runes themselves. The most important rune to see is Ehwaz, because it confirms without a doubt those runes around it. It can push a maybe over to yes or confirm a negative result for sure. For the rest of the runes, examine their meanings in relation to your question. Would they help push it farther toward yes, like Gebo, or Sowulo, or do they cast doubt, like Naudhiz or Isa. Some of this will come more easily with a better knowledge of the runes. The most important thing to remember is to accept the answer. Don’t rephrase the question and ask again. No one likes to be pestered, and neither do the runes. You can ask on a different and more specific aspect. But if the answer is no, then it’s written on the chalkboard. Accept it.

If you don’t have runes to cast, you can also use a set of nine sticks, or coffee stirrers or straws, anything about the same size. This method is little more unpredictable and sometimes yields nothing more than a vague notion. I’ve used it for a quick spot check when away from home. Cast the sticks out just like the runes and then examine them. Because the rune signs are all made up of straight lines, sometimes the sticks will form the shapes of a rune. Be careful though, not every crossed stick is Gebo or Naudhiz. When a rune is created, it’ll be rather obvious. If you get nothing, then you’re left with another maybe. In this method you typically see only a single rune, and must interpret the answer from that rune’s meaning. Usually this will not give you a yes or no answer, rather a quality regarding your question. Like I said, it’s not rocket science, but it can help guide you in a clutch.

Rune casting is like inviting a new person over for diner. The first time you meet will be awkward. You may struggle for things to say. But the more often you two meet, the closer you’ll become, until soon you’ll find yourself rather comfortable with those crazy looking symbols. Then you might feel a gentle rush of air by your ear as you catch just a snippet of those dark whispers. The secrets of the runes.

The Elder Futhark
Just like our alphabet is named after the first and second letters (apha + beta), the runic system is named for the first six letters. The Futhark is divided into three sections of eight letters each called Aett.

The first Aett.
Fehu (F)
Financial strength and prosperity in the present and near future. Possessions won and earned. Cattle, originally a form of movable wealth.

Uruz (U, OO)
Physical strength and speed, like the great European wild ox. This can relate to either the enquirer or others.

Thurisaz (Th)
Conflicts and complexities of an aggressive nature. Unreliability. A tendency toward sudden change. The thorn that both protects and harms.

Ansuz (A)
Blessings and stability. The divine stability of faith. The ash tree Yggdrasil that links all the worlds of creation.

Raido (R)
Travel, both physical and those of lifestyle. A wheel to guide you forward, and the road you travel. The right move for you at the right time.

Kenaz (K, C, Q)
The torch, a fire under human control. The ability to generate and create, teach and learn. A transforming and regenerating force.

Gebo (G)
Gifts, both of sacrifice and generosity. The act of exchange. Giving, receiving, and the gift itself. Includes contracts, relationships, and sex.

Wunjo (W, V)
Joy and pleasure with the possibility of going over the top. Intoxication. If restrained, the meaning is general success and recognition of worth.

The second Aett.
Hagalaz (H)
Uncontrolled forces, either within (the unconscious) or without (the physical world). The hailstone, which falls violently, destroying crops and property, only to melt away. Transformation.

Naudhiz (N)
Restriction caused by need. If heeded early enough, it can lead to change. Two sticks of wood used to kindle a fire.

Isa (I)
Static existence representing right now. Delays, a halt of progress, the termination of a relationship. Ice.

Jera (J)
The promise of success. A completion at the proper time. The results of earlier efforts realized. The cycles of the year.

Eihwaz (Y, -ew)
General increase in personal power. Protection from detrimental forces. Both death and regeneration. The yew tree, whose bark is poisonous.

Pertho (P)
The ability to distinguish the valuable from the worthless. The dice cup. Memory, recollection, and problem solving.

Algiz (Z)
Powerful protection from evil. Keeping hold of success and maintaining a position earned. The elk, whose antlers strike fear into enemies.

Sowulo (S)
Power directed in a devastatingly straightforward way. A victory of light over darkness. The rays of the sun.

The third Aett.
Teiwaz (T)
Success tempered with sacrifice. They god Tyr, who had to sacrifice his hand to capture the Fenris wolf. Victory only if you are in the right.

Berkana (B)
A new beginning. Birth and general fertility. The birch tree, whose white bark represents purity.

Ehwaz (E)
A partnership based on trust and loyalty. Two horses facing each other. The ability to carry a project forward into completion. When cast with other runes, it conforms their meaning without a doubt.

Mannaz (M)
Mutual support. Man and his ability to speak and think rationally. Everything concerned with language.

Laguz (L)
Clears blockages and accelerates things already taking place. The ebb and flow of the tide.

Inguz (Ng, -ing)
The culmination of previous efforts. Stored energy released violently. Male fertility.
Dagaz (D)

Security and certainty. Health, prosperity and new beginnings. Dawn and twilight as the balance between light and dark.

Othala (O)
Inheritance and personal wealth. Maintaining the existing state of things. It originally referred to “own earth” or the land that was passed down through family.

Works Cited List
King, Bernard. The Elements of the Runes. Shaftesbury: Element Books Limited, 1993.

Pennick, Nigel. The Complete Illustrated Guide to Runes. Shaftesbury: Element Books Limited, 1999.

Thorsson, Edred. FUTHARK: A Handbook of Rune Magic. York Beach: Samuel Weiser, Inc, 1999.
By Tim Kane

By Marci Hamilton
Author of Justice Denied

Ignorance is the enemy of liberty. That truth has never been so forcefully made as it has been with the rescue of the hundreds of children from the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints compound in Eldorado, Texas.

As the clergy abuse crisis within the Roman Catholic Church has proved, Americans are all too willing to ignore evidence of child abuse when it occurs in the context of religious organizations. Until very recently, willed denial was the primary response to this devastating and systemic set of issues. Parents punished children who told them they had been sexually abused by priests, prosecutors declined to investigate, and newspapers failed to cover. Why? Because we as Americans just do not want to believe that religious groups are capable of such base behavior. As we succumb to the romanticism of religious liberty, we leave the vulnerable in desperate straits.

That is why the Supreme Court’s 1990 decision in Employment Div. v. Smith is both wise and necessary. In that case, the Court held that Native American Church members could not receive unemployment benefits if they used the illegal drug peyote, even if the drug was used during a church service. Why? Because “[o]ur cases do not, at their farthest reach, support the proposition that a stance of conscientious opposition relieves an objector from any colliding duty fixed by a democratic government.”

Some misguidedly criticized the decision, because it was purportedly based on “targeting” of the Native American Church. Religious and civil rights groups lobbied to enact the Religious Freedom Restoration Act to eliminate the Smith decision, because they argued that religious excuses should trump most “colliding” obligations. The children at risk in religious compounds prove how wrong they are.

The capture, trial, and conviction of Warren Jeffs, the prophet of the FLDS, along with books like Under the Banner of Heaven provided all the information anyone should need to know that the children within the FLDS are in extreme danger on a daily basis. Whether it is the adolescent girls being given to middle-aged men for sex or the boys being abandoned on street corners to keep the numbers in the men’s favor, leaving aside the poverty and educational neglect, this is an organization whose abuse bona fides have been clear for years. But the vast majority of Americans have simply ignored the evidence in their midst.

It is this willed ignorance that has kept these children in a religious cult that deprives them of basic liberty everyday. Now, the government is taking the right steps while the FLDS’s lawyers argue that their constitutional rights have been infringed. They argue they have a right to autonomy and treat the removal of women and children as though it is a massive constitutional invasion. To scare the courts, they argued yesterday that the raid on the compound was the equivalent of a raid on the Vatican. Given the Catholic Church’s problems with child sex abuse, this seems like an unfortunate comparison to make. In any event, even the Vatican would not be safe from authorities if hundreds of children were being abused on the premises.

Their constitutional arguments are just cover to deflect the public discussion away from the devastating conditions under which women and children have been living within the sect. In their arguments, liberty is an oxymoron. They hope that Americans will return to their daily lives, and simply set aside the knowledge they now have of the oppression of these children.

For children, ignorance combined with calls of religious autonomy are the handmaiden of tyranny.

Professor Marci Hamilton is a leading church/state expert who specializes on the issue of whether religious practices that violate the law should be accommodated. Professor Hamilton is a visiting professor at Princeton University this year and holds the Paul R. Verkuil Chair in Public Law at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. She is the author of God vs. the Gavel: Religion and the Rule of Law (Cambridge 2005, 2007) and the forthcoming Justice Denied: What America Must Do to Protect Its Children (Cambridge 2008).
Hamilton represents numerous survivors of childhood sexual abuse, especially in circumstances where the abuse was made possible by religious organizations. Read her blog articles here
By Buzzle Staff and Agencies

The word cannibal has been derived from the Spanish name Caribales or Canibales. This name was used for human eating Carib people, who lived in West Indies, when Christopher Columbus set his foot on this island. Although there are reports of cannibalism in the human species, most of them lack first hand evidence. Although there are evidence of human beings eating parts of other human beings’ bodies, instances of full blown cannibalism are not documented.

History of Cannibalism

Prehistoric Times
Discovery of butchered human bones in Neanderthal and other Lower/Middle Paleolithic sites, have led anthropologists to conclude that cannibalism did exist during the prehistoric times. Such inferences are based on the presence of similar butchering techniques for both human and animal remains, identical pattern of breaking the long bones to extract the bone marrow and splitting of the skull to extract the brain. Cannibalism during the Lower/Middle Paleolithic ages is supposed to have been triggered due to food shortage.

Early and Modern History
Archaeologists have unearthed evidence of cannibalism in ancient societies of Africa, North and South America, and the Pacific Islands. Although cannibalism has generally not been found in state-level societies, the Aztecs were an exception. Sacrificing human beings to their gods and later devouring them, believing that this would bring them closer to their deities, was a common practice in the Aztec culture. However, reports of cannibalism soared during the early modern era, when the European tourists traveled to the New World and brought home stories of cannibalism being practiced by the local tribes. As a result, cannibalism was reported in a number of native American tribes and the populations that lived in the Pacific Islands. Although not every report was false, most of the reports from these times are treated with a great deal of skepticism, as cannibalism was used to justify the annihilation of the natives. Also the Europeans of those times had a pre-conceived notion that the natives of the newly discovered lands were ‘savages’ and hence were necessarily cannibals.

Recent Times
Cannibalism has been reported from as recent times as the World War II. German soldiers who were sent to the prisoners of war camps in Siberia or Central Asia, are believed to have resorted to cannibalism. It is believed that during the Great Leap Forward in 1960s, when the rural China was badly hit by drought and famine, Chinese people were forced to eat the flesh of their fellow men. Although most of the cases of cannibalism in modern societies have been a result of food shortages, there have been stray cases of cannibalism carried out by certain mentally ill people.

Reasons for Cannibalism

Cultural: Cannibalism has been practised by certain populations as a part of their ritual. Certain tribes are known to have eaten parts of their deceased relatives as an act of veneration. This kind of cannibalism is known as endocannibalism. Exocannibalism refers to the act of eating outsiders, especially the defeated enemies with the aim of gaining their abilities or to emphasize one’s superiority over the vanquished.
Starvation: There is considerable evidence of human beings resorting to cannibalism during food shortage, due to famine or when shipwrecked or marooned. Two very well documented cases are the Donner Party, that was isolated in the Sierra Nevada ranges, in the winters of 1846 – 1847. And the second case being the crash of the Uruguay rugby team over the Andes in 1972. In both the cases cannibalism helped certain members of the team to survive rather than die of starvation.
As a Mode of Regular Supply of Food: This refers to routine cannibalism, in which human flesh is considered to a part of the diet. Cannibalism among the Aztecs of Mexico, has been justified by some scholars, a rich source of protein for the Aztec population. However, this view has been countered on the ground that population density of the Aztec society was much lower than earlier thought and so the population never ran short of protein source.
Sadistic Cannibalism: This refers to cannibalism that is driven by sadistic pleasure or psychopathological reasons. A famous case of this form of cannibalism is that of Jeffry Dahmer of United States. An otherwise normal looking individual, Dahmer was charged for murder and ingestion of seventeen individuals in 1991. He was believed to have killed children and keep their flesh in packets in the freezer, which he later cooked and ate.

Though there are lot of reports on cannibalism throughout history and from almost all parts of the world, the credibility of most of them have been put under the scanner, as cannibalism has often been used to denigrate a population or to establish the superiority of one group over the other.

Our memory of things and our ability to remember is incredible. Certain sounds, certain smells, certain words, certain days, certain times of the year can evoke poignant memories, or they can evoke a wistful feeling of wanting to go back in time to when days were simpler, life was richer and not so hectic, or days were happier. Or our remembrances of things are so incredibly painful that remembering moves us to tears. In wanting to hold onto the past, our memory can become so grandiose that what really was is not the way that it was.

How often do we make mountains out of molehills? How often in our wanting to preserve the past do we make more out of the past than is necessary? I believe sometimes we enhance the past to make the present more tolerable…that maybe things in the present are not as we would like them to be, so remembering the past and the familiar things associated with the past brings us some kind of comfort.

Memories. The high price associated with keeping ourselves stuck in the past. “That’s not the way I’ve done it before..” “Oh…that would not be a good idea…(translated, I couldn’t deal with the change from the familiarity of the past), “I remember when we did this…” and so on and so on. Please don’t hear me saying that memories are bad…quite the contrary – memories are good…and memories are helpful. Staying stuck in the past and clinging on to the past is what I am talking about. When one clings to the past in a way that it inhibits growth in the present and future, then there is a high price for memories. The past begins to paralyze and keeps anything good from happening. For example, there is an old adage that says, “you can’t go home again.” Why is that? Because as we age, it is difficult for our parents to see us as adults and it’s difficult for us to see our parents age. Each of us wants to cling to the past and the way we remember how life used to be.

When one can put memories in perspective so that they encourage growth – then the price of memories is priceless. Example: Several years ago a Family Ministry Team was formed. At the outset, the ministry team planned activities for preschoolers and children and their families. It was interesting to see the attendance at these activities during the first year of “doing things differently” in regards to intergenerational fellowships. However, the second year…because people remembered and had memories of the activity, attendance increased. Why? Because people talked about their memories of the event the next year, which sparked enthusiasm, a wish to participate and a desire to create their own memories.

A friend of mine told me recently that she had been thinking and remembering her grandmother quite a bit. Her grandmother was a wonderful woman – somewhat of an institution in the town she lived, a very strong, religious, moral, loving and kind woman. In the summer, she always had tomatoes on the windowsill in her big country kitchen. Maybe it is the time of the year for my friend that is evoking these memories. She seemed somewhat bittersweet in her memory recall of her grandmother. I could almost see what was written on her mind – “I wish she were still here.” But you know, my friend’s memories of her grandmother don’t paralyze her, they help her…because even though her grandmother is not here physically, she is very present in my friend’s mind and what an awesome mentor her grandmother is, even now. The memories of her grandmother have become a model for her life.

The church at Philippi really didn’t have any problems to speak of. Paul’s admonition and warning to them was to keep looking forward, and not to “rest on their laurels” so to speak! In some ways, I think Paul was saying, none of us have arrived yet…and if we think we have, then we need to examine ourselves.

Bringing this message closer to home, many churches are standing on the brink of many decisions. They talk about contemporary services, discuss capital improvements and what to do with aging buildings, they have in place social programs to reach in and reach out to people who come to the church. There are many good things that are happening and there are many challenging decisions that churches will always face. To what extent will memories factor in their decision making? Will memories of the past be so strong that they paralyze church leaders from moving forward? Or we will they take to heart Paul’s prophetic words of wisdom and see that we are not all we should be? Will they be able to see that in order to become all that it can be, the church needs to take care to not look behind, but look forward to what lies ahead and the endless possibilities for growth, discipleship, and ministry?

In our spiritual life, our personal life, and in our careers, we all need to take a long look at what price memories play in our decisions. Do we pay a high price for memories? I would hope our memories enhance the present, which allows us to dream and look to the future and press towards the goal, which is in Jesus Christ.

For a long time it was thought that memory was infallible, meaning that the stored information is kept intact and it can also be actualized with the same accuracy. The recent studies have proven however the fact that our memory is fragile and it has an outstanding capacity to invent. These details lead to question the accuracy and fidelity of the actualization, especially under its specific forms of reproduction and recognition.

The type of memory which is concerned with storing the information is called the episodic memory. Its content is made of experiences associated with spatial and temporal characteristics plugged together around an emotional knot. The episodic memory has as an important feature the so called interference. This term refers to the influence the gathered cognitions have one over the other and which eventually results in the alteration of the original acquisition. The alteration is not only produced by the interference, but also by the inevitable oblivion and by the imagination.

Therefore, the episodic memory is the source of the witness’ testimonies in a trial, for the remembered information represents the former events located in a spatio- temporal frame. Since the testimonies are made on oath, is it possible for the witness to have a false memory and that this memory may appear unwittingly? If so, which would be the causes to produce such a phenomenon?

The answer to the first question is an affirmative one, according to the psychologists. The false memory can be built up unconsciously throughout the phenomena presented above: interference, oblivion and imagination. In this way, the witness can present his testimony honestly, without knowing that its accuracy was altered by a series of factors he does not know anything about.

It has been proven that the interference between the memorized items belonging to the same category is very strong. So, if the eye-witness changed ideas after the accident with another witness, and this last one, for the sake of making the story more intriguing, added new non-existing details, our eye-witness would remember them and in his episodic memory the process of interference occurs.

Also, because of the gaps produced in the memory by the inevitable passing of time, the witness might fill these gaps, unconsciously with his imagination. The products of his own imagination are very familiar to his mind and this familiarity gives him the assurance that all those details came from the experience he had at the scene of the accident.

In addition, this false memory can also be created with the contribution of the prosecutor. He can take advantage of the process called “imagination inflation” and by this he can manipulate the memories of the witness. The lawyer can resort to verbal tricks in order to obtain the wanted information, namely that which goes in the direction of the accusation part.

For example, in the moment when the witness does not remember the answer to a certain question, the prosecutor can use such vivid descriptions of the crime scene that the witness can imagine himself there. This leads to the point where his imagination begins to build up the answers according to the prosecutor’s expectations. The lawyer can use specific wording in order to induce the answer and to influence its meaning: “Isn’t it that…?” or “Do you remember when…? “. Another verbal trick very often used is the one with replacing certain words with their synonyms, synonyms with a drastic meaning and also, the using of intensifiers: instead of the verb “to touch”, the lawyer can use the verb ” to strike against”, or instead of the collocation “spot of blood”, he can use ” puddle of blood” .

In conclusion, the fragility of the memory leads to the fragility of the reproduction of information. Therefore, false memories can be created as in this case presented above. In daily life these false memories have no devastating effects, maybe they don’t even make a difference, but in the judicial case such an inaccurate reproduction can lead to distructions of lives, accusing or absolving wrongly. Because of this, the entire judicial system should be very informed in this direction and a strong suggestion for the witnesses would be to take notes the moment they see an accident, before being influenced by the others’ opinions.

A self-help group founded by Robert de Grimston in London led to the evolution of a belief system based on change. De Grimston, called “The Teacher,” believed that God, as well as the entire universe, is constantly in a state of change, and therefore is still not complete. “The Process” is defined by change – in specific, the change required to avoid the judgment that is expected when the world ends.

Church members, called Processeans, traveled throughout Europe and North America during the late 1960s and early ‘70s, gathering like-minded followers and organizing administrative, traveling, and open chapters for meetings. Church leaders penned books to use as reference texts, including Exit, For Christ is Come, and As it Is,. By the mid-1970s, there were several Process church chapters in the United States and Canada, with their headquarters located in Washington, D.C. All of the chapters in operation dispersed donations of free clothing and food, and Processeans adopted various projects and were given grants by state and local government agencies.

In areas with extreme poverty-stricken areas, chapters established mass feeding operations that continued for years. Ministers and lay members of the church worked with community action programs and assisted the Salvation Army and Red Cross in responding to disaster situations. Prison ministries were set up in some chapters, and the Process regularly welcomed everyone to join in the church, which legally ordained women to be priests. In fact, in the ruling body of the church and the administration and operational functions, there was an equal balance of the sexes.

The beliefs of The Process Church were decidedly unique; the three gods worshiped in services represented the basic patterns of humanity. The god Jehovah was considered to be a wrathful God of retribution and vengeance, who demanded courage, discipline, and ruthlessness from followers. The second god, Lucifer, was mistakenly confused with Satan, according to Processeans. They claimed that Lucifer urges people to enjoy life to the fullest, to be gentle, kind, and loving, and to value success. The third god, Satan, was the receiver of transcendent souls who leads human to a subhuman, depraved existence, as well as to a superhuman, ascetic life. The Processeans considered Christ to be the transcendent “unifier of all” whose purpose was to reconcile the missions of the three gods. Services were traditionally held in a room with a Christian cross posted on one wall, with the opposite wall holding a Goat of Mendes – a Satanic symbol featuring the head of a goat inside a pentagram.

In 1974, de Grimston slowly began to distance himself from the church as disputes arose between his ideals and the ruling body of the church, to the point that de Grimston was dismissed as the chief theologian. Afterward, the ruling body legally dissolved the entire Process Church. Disappointed and disgruntled, de Grimston tried to reorganize a new Processean group in Massachusetts, but he failed and returned to England.

In 1979, a loosely knit organization under new leadership emerged as The Process. A rigorous expansion effort began in 1987, establishing private chapters where individuals launched programs designed to help homeless people become self-sufficient. In 1988, a secular organization called The Society of Processeans was created. But then, amid still more disputes, the faith and teachings surrounding The Process were declared to be obsolete in 1993. The church archives were destroyed and the church itself was dissolved. However, Processeans still exist, members still pursue the beliefs of the church, and the group is maintained as a self-help organization, although their future is uncertain.

The seven deadly sins are the objectionable vices as defined by the early Catholic church, which can result in the eternal damnation of the person who commits them. These sins are also referred to as the Capital Vices or Cardinal Sins. Even though, we being humans are most susceptible to them, not many of us know what are the seven deadly sins actually. Our ignorance about these sins have resulted in a great deal of misconceptions about them. For instance, some people feel that these are the seven sins which the Lord can never forgive, however, it is clearly mentioned in the holy Bible that unbelief (the rejection in the belief of God) is the only sin which cannot be forgiven, as it questions the basic existence of the almighty.

What are the Seven Deadly Sins?

The seven Cardinal Sins as defined by the early Catholic church were pride, envy, gluttony, lust, anger, greed, and sloth. Each of these sins were associated with a particular demon. These demons were believed to tempt the individual to stray away from the path of the God, and commit these sins. These demons were the Satan, Mammon, Asmodeus. Leviathan, Belphegor and Beelzebub. Given below is the list of these seven deadly sins, and information of the demons associated with them.

Pride: Excessive belief in one’s own abilities, which eventually interferes in your recognition of the Lord is a sin. This sin, which is quite often associated with the Satan, is believed to be the basis for all the other sins to follow. Interestingly, if you are bothered by other persons pride, it only mean you have a lot of pride in yourself.

Envy: The desire for other person’s traits or abilities which makes you resent the good things others receive is also a sin. This sin, which is quite often associated with Leviathan, is as sinful as pride itself.

Gluttony: The unreasonable desire to get more than what you require amounts to gluttony which is again a deadly sin. Even though it is referred to as gluttony, it is not only restricted to food but also includes entertainment, goods etc. This demon associated with this sin is Beelzebub.

Lust: One of the most severe sin, the lust is craving for the various pleasures of the body. Even though this sin is mostly associated with sex, it also includes the unreasonable hunger for power. The demon associated with lust is Asmodeus.

Anger: Rejecting love, and opting for fury instead, is again a sinful act, which can subject a person to eternal damnation. Also known as wrath, anger is the second deadly sin associated with Satan, the first being pride.

Greed: While lust is craving for the pleasures of the body, greed is unreasonable craving for material wealth or gain, in the process of which the person tends to ignore the realm of the spiritual. Also known as avarice or covetousness, greed is associated with the Mammon.

Sloth: In simple words, sloth is the tendency of an individual to refrain from the physical or spiritual tasks in life. Such laziness that often amounts to a deadly sin is associated with Belphegor.

Being aware of what are the seven deadly sins can help a person to live a pure life free of all these sins. Interestingly enough, these seven deadly sins don’t feature as a list in the Bible, but instead feature individually in this sacred book. These cardinal sins are far more severe than the venial sins, i.e. the other small sins which we humans tend to commit. The venial sins, also known as the lesser sins, might not bar the person’s way to the heaven, but the cardinal sins are bound to send the person to hell, if you don’t resort to true repentance and forgiveness on time.

The attraction that a male feels towards a woman is very much determined by her physical aspect. Women are also attracted by good looking men, but the physical aspect is less important for a woman when coming to choose a partner, comparing to other features, such as success. Moreover, men prefer younger women, and women prefer slightly older men. This trend is typical for the medium of the population, and of course there are exceptions, according to Gauss’ Curve, but why do the differences exist?

The answer lies within the social roles and in the process of social learning. When talking about the social roles, there is a distinctive feature that exists in the American society and all over the world, and this is the fact that women have less power than men and also have a lower social status. In the United States, women gain 25% less than men do and also occupy less political positions. Another characteristic of the social roles in the modern society is the work division by sexes. For example, only 3.4% of the plane pilots and 1.2% of the carpenters are women, and only 2.9% of the social care workers and 1.9% of the dentists’ assistants are men. So, because of low access for women to important jobs which offer big salaries, are we still to wonder why successful men are more attractive for them?

An important aspect of the role of women is beauty and heterosexual attraction. The beauty of women is highly visible in the American society and it is used for selling every kind of products, from mattresses to sport cars. Young women early learn that they ought to be pretty, and young men early learn that they ought to elect beautiful partners. The sex roles have another unwritten rule which specifies that the formation of pairs of certain different ages is acceptable.

How and why every new generation of children adopts the behaviors which fit the specific sex roles? The answer can be found in the process of social learning. The violation of the sex roles receives, especially during adolescence, severe punishments. For example, John invites Anna, which is a friendly person, at a dance class. Because she is not very pretty, John’s friends begin to rudely and without mercy annoy him. John will never make the same mistake again. Justin, one of John’s friends, observes what happens and he decides that in the future he will be very cautious when inviting a girl to the dance classes. According to the cognitive theory of social learning, Justin only has to see the punishment applied to John and learn that boys shouldn’t date unattractive girls.

Another perspective that tries to explain the formation of couples is the evolutionary perspective. Some scientists do not agree with it because they say that evolutionists don’t point out the mechanisms that lead to certain predispositions. Another argument against the evolutionist explanation for this issue lies in the opposition of the two theories they have. On one hand, they say that male’s capacity to produce many hundreds of offspring draws man into promiscuity, but on the other hand they state that the need to be assured that the descendants will survive until they are capable of reproduction creates an opposite need for monogamy. In other words, the evolution theory can be used to explain both the promiscuity of men and also their fidelity.

Furthermore, there is another perspective that points out two different categories of partner relating. The first one presumes that the partner is elected with no intention of commitment, just for hedonistic purposes. When this is the situation, physical attraction plays the most important role and can all be reduced to the evolutionary perspective.

The second category talks about those who begin a relationship with the desire of permanence and commitment. For these people, physical attraction does not mean a Hollywood body and look, but rather physical attraction is emphasized by what lies within the person’s soul. They know that appearance is not enough when trying to form a long-term relationship and that this is only the spark that starts a fire which is preserved by respect, fidelity, love and patience.

In conclusion, it is well known that attraction is a component in the process of partner selection and is known that men are attracted by physical features and women by abstract ones. These differences can be explained through a series of perspectives and the two most popular are the social theory and the evolutionary one, with arguments pro and against. So it is all a question of mentality.