Blog Heap of Links for the day 15 May 2011

agents arrested Hafiz Muhammad Sher Ali Khan, the 76-year-old imam of the Miami Mosque, more commonly known as Flagler Mosque. They charged that he and his family had funneled more than $50,000 to Pakistani terrorists over the past three years.

A blast on a passenger bus killed at least seven persons in Pakistan's eastern Punjab province Saturday evening... Around 20 passengers were also injured... three women and a child were among the dead... police did not confirm the suicide attack... Motives... unclear... No group has claimed responsibility....

In a literal application of the sharia law of an eye for an eye, Iran is ready for the first time to blind a man with acid, after he was found guilty of doing the same to a woman who refused to marry him. Majid Movahedi, 30, is scheduled to be rendered unconscious in Tehran's judiciary hospital at noon on Saturday while Ameneh Bahrami, his victim, drops acid in both his eyes. [See http://mindfulwebworks.com/radical/vengeance-is-not-justice for Mindful's response to praise for this barbarism.]

Martin Gardner's recent book, Urantia: The Great Cult Mystery, is designed to undermine the credibility of The Urantia Book. To accomplish this purpose Gardner deals almost entirely with the human concept carriers of the spiritual truths, not the spiritual truths themselves. In actuality, history may show that it helped to focus attention on the real spiritual quality of the Fifth Epochal Revelation (which he totally ignores) that will ensure its recognition and appreciation for centuries to come. Although Gardner's book abounds with misinformation, erroneous assumptions, and fantastic speculations, it may be fortuitous that it appeared early in the Urantia movement.

The guy who displayed the placard insisted that he didn’t write the message, but was "just helping out" and is actually a member of the JDL. (JDL stands for Jewish Defense League) The text says: "St. Marks Church taken over by Neo Nazis (Drug Trafficking Frank Morales, Urantia Cultist Les Jamieson, Eminem wannabee Luke Rudkowski) and their sympathizers (Tom Foti etc…) Time for a boycott! Death to Nazism! Long live Globalism…" [Honestly, I have no idea nor much interest what this is all about, but pass it along.]

An In-Depth Timeline Showing the Possible Use by the Intelligence Community of "Synthetic Telepathy" in the Urantia Movement, Teaching Mission (TeaM), A Course in Miracles (ACIM), Findhorn, and Other Religious/Cultic Organizations. [Sort-of intriguing]

What happens when religious community degenerates into dangerous cult?

…a bold young man with long auburn curls and intense brown eyes. He had lived as a fruitarian in the jungles in Ecuador with a spiritual teacher named Johnny Lovewisdom. He knew about living on the land, gardening and smuggling various herbs. Every time we would pass the cannabis filled "peace pipe," he would bring out this big blue book and start telling me about The Urantia Book. I knew Jesus was groovy, but didn’t want to feel limited by any one teacher.

Three Histories of the Urantia Book by Matthew Rapaport

After a low-key announcement on television, Republican congressman Ron Paul of Texas was drowned out by cheers and applause as he kicked off his third presidential campaign yesterday in the state with the earliest primary.

"I think things could have been done somewhat differently," Paul said this week. "I would suggest the way they got Khalid [Sheikh] Mohammed. We went and cooperated with Pakistan. They arrested him, actually, and turned him over to us, and he's been in prison. Why can't we work with the government? ... "I think respect for the rule of law and world law and international law. What if he'd been in a hotel in London? We wanted to keep it secret, so would we have sent the airplane, you know the helicopters in to London, because they were afraid the information would get out?" [Oof! Why Ron Paul should never be President.]