DANCE, The.  The human dance evolved originally as a form of sympathetic magic with repetitive movements, designed, like some of the cave art, to induce the supposed mystical powers of the universe to bestow a boon.  Primitive dancers were almost invariably naked except for masks and drawings of dancers often emphasize the phallus, which seems to imply the dance was a sexual stimulant as well. It was a ritualistic approach to life, involving the group rather than the individual. Thracian orgiasts danced, then copulated on the hillside with their companions, purging the emotions and assuring the fertility of the crops through sympathetic magic. 

Dance forms part of some modern WITCHCRAFT ceremonies and also of some modern Christian activities. However, many evangelical and fundamentalist Christians will have nothing to do with dancing and there have been many instances in past times when condemnation of the evils of dancing have thundered forth from pulpits. The preachers have expressed alarm at the strong sexual elements evident in many forms of dance. Meanwhile those of more liberal religious outlook do embrace this art form in their worship and in their general lives. And groups as the SHAKERS, of fundamentalist hue, happily perform dance ceremonies.

DARBY, John Nelson.  See under: BRETHREN, The.

DARWIN, Charles.  For most of Western Christendom there has always been but one Book - The Bible. Until, that is, the year 1859, when there was published a work which, one might hope, will prove to have as massive an impact, long-term, on the human race as the Bible itself, and with far greater justification. And this book was written by a man who had trained for the ministry of the Church of England, a man from the Establishment, one of 'God's Englishmen'. But by the time The Origin of Species had been written, Charles Darwin had lost all orthodox belief. One who had penetrated the secrets of the world order as Darwin had must needs lose most of the old certainties. 

This quiet, thoughtful, English naturalist never intended to be a revolutionary. He set out on his journey of discovery without the slightest hint that his work was to unleash almost single-handedly the destruction of the old order of things. True, he was not alone in working this revolution but it was Darwin's name and writings that proved to be strong catalysts for the flood of unbelief that has poured from the liberated minds and pens of thoughtful people ever since.

Dr Richard Dawkins, author of The Selfish Gene, commented that Darwin had provided the world with an 'elegant and brilliant solution' explaining how the extraordinary variety of living things came into existence.  There is no need to defend Darwin, he said, 'because there is no conceivable doubt that the fact of evolution is true.  Species turn into other species . . . The Darwinian view of life is so important, so exciting, it is a tragedy is anyone dies without knowing why they existed.'  Creationists, he added, were humans 'who utter things which I wouldn't dignify with the word argument.'

Following a major destructive episode when a fierce storm, given the name Cyclone Tracy, hit the Australian northern city of Darwin in the early 1970s, Mr Arthur Fletcher, described as 'a leading Christadelphian,' placed the following advertisement in the Northern Territory News: 'People of Darwin - save your city. The name Darwin is a memorial to Charles Robert Darwin, author of The Origin of Species, promoting the theory of evolution. Darwin was thus the enemy of the Bible. God has shown his wrath. Repent. Change your city's name lest a worse fate befall you.'

DAVIDIAN SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST CHURCH.  In the early 1930s a Bulgarian refugee and Seventh-Day Adventist, Victor Houteff, founded a breakaway group in Texas, known then as the Davidian SDA Church. Houtoff had upset mainstream SDA members with a book he wrote claiming the church was corrupt. Houteff set up headquarters in Waco and for a time attracted members. However, prior to his death in 1955 the sect had began to decline. 

After his death his wife Florence led the group. In 1959 she told her followers that the kingdom of God would be ushered in on Easter Day. As with many similar movements in the past (and surely there will be more) the faithful moved to Waco, selling up all their possessions, and awaited the big event. As we now know the date passed and nothing happened. Many unhappy disciples returned from whence they had come, trying to pick up the pieces of their lives again. A small core remained, however, and these formed the nucleus of what later became known as the BRANCH DAVIDIANS.  See also: SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTISM.

DAYTON MONKEY TRIAL. In March 1924, the State of Tennessee, in the face of science and rationality, passed a law making it illegal to teach the theory of evolution in the schools. The text ran:

It is unlawful for any teacher in any of the universities, normals and all other public schools of the state, to teach any theory that denies the story of the divine creation of man as taught in the Bible, and to teach instead that man has descended from a lower order of animals.

In May, 1924 John Thomas Scopes, a biology teacher, fell foul of the religious bigots by teaching the possibility of evolution. He was arrested and in July put on trial. From New York Scopes received support from the American Civil Liberties Union, whose director, Roger N. Baldwin, had gone to the Tennessee press and promised the defence of anyone who deliberately broke the new law. Scopes had acted deliberately on that promise. He was defended by Clarence Darrow and prosecuted by William Jennings Bryan, a Fundamentalist Christian. The two men were among the greatest lawyers the USA has ever produced. Darrow was assisted, curiously, by a Catholic, Dudley Field Malone, a liberal, and a specialist in civil liberties law, Arthur Garfield Hays.

The world read in their newspapers the reams of rhetoric poured forth from these eloquent men throughout an 11-day trial. Towards the end Darrow cross-examined Bryan on his doctrinal position and grilled him so severely that Bryan was near collapse. However, the real point at issue was whether Scopes had broken the Tennessee law and he lost his case. He was fined $100. Five days later Bryan dropped dead. 

DEAN, James.  American film star James Dean was, according to a book published in 1994, a homosexual. Paul Alexander in Boulevarde of Broken Dreams (New York, Little Brown) asserted this.  No criticism of Dean's sexual orientation is implied here; what is of real interest is the suggested origins of Dean's interest. As a teenager Dean was, according to Alexander, introduced to gay sex through a Wesleyan preacher, James DeWeerd in Fairmont, Indiana. They had an affair that lasted for several years.   

DEATH, fear of.  It is surprising how many religious people fear death when religion asserts a felicitous situation in the supposed afterlife. We have all heard the children's prayer: 'If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.' Best prepare the kiddies for the possibility that they might not see the night out! Then there is the curious insistence that Christians and others have that the dead body is recovered. Bodies are carted halfway around the world for a 'decent burial'.  Great expense is incurred in these operations. One would think that the disposal of the physical body is unimportant if the soul lives on!

DEATH OF A PRINCESS.  A BBC film, produced in 1980,  based on the execution of a Saudi princess and her lover under Islamic law for moral offence.  Strong pressure was exerted on governments around the world to ban the film and it was [as at mid-1980] only shown in Britain, USA, Holland and Australia.  The Australian Government, especially Mr Doug Anthony, leader of the then Country Party (now known as the National Party), to his everlasting discredit, sought to dissuade local television from showing the film but Channel 7 went ahead and ignored Anthony.  

DEATH SENTENCES.  While Islamic clerics are well known for their habit of pronouncing death sentences (fatwas) on anyone who upsets them they are not the only ones. In June 1994 a Jewish rabbi did likewise. Rabbi Shlomo Goren issued a 'formal rabbinic ruling' declaring: 'There is no doubt that Yasser Arafat [the PLO leader] deserves death according to Israeli and international law. It is, therefore, commanded to kill Arafat, and there is no need to wait to bring him to trial. Every [Jew] is commanded to kill Arafat.' The rabbi later told reporters that anyone who carried out the order would receive a blessing.
 
Islamics and Jews sentence-givers were joined by some Christians a few years back. A fundamentalist preacher in Los Angeles, leading his congregation in prayer, asked God to take the life of Supreme Court Justice William Brennan for upholding a woman's right to abortion. The church then hired a plane to carry a banner through the sky reading: 'Pray for death of baby-killer Brennan' over a law-school graduation ceremony where Brennan was speaker. Other Christians in the USA have executed judgment by shooting down workers in abortion clinics (see further under: ABORTION CLINIC ATTACKS). It is curious limitation of divine power that none of the deities seem able to execute their enemies; they apparently require aid from humans acting as judge and jury to carry out their dirty work.

DE CHARDIN, Pierre Teilhard. De Chardin was a Jesuit palaeontologist and philosopher known widely for his writings. Sir Peter Medowar, scientist and Nobel prize-winner, reviewing de Chardin's notable work, The Phenomenon of Man, commented: 'His book stands square in the tradition of Naturphilosophie, a philosophical indoor pastime of German origin which does not seem even by accident (although there is a great deal of it) to have contributed anything of permanent value to the storehouse of human thought.'  Medowar said that de Chardin practised an unexacting kind of science, but had 'no grasp of what makes a logical argument or what makes for proof.'  His 'all but unintelligible style' is 'construed as prima facie evidence of profundity.' 

DECLINE OF RELIGION. 

At 8.30 am Mass at Sacred Heart church, Cabramatta (Sydney, Australia), on Sunday a priest had just elevated the Host and said: 'This is my body. This is my blood' when a cellular phone rang in the pocket of a male worshipper.  The man took the phone out, answered it, then gave it to his wife, who continued the conversation.  Seeing the service was being disturbed, he then took his wife to the vestry, to finish the conversation. After good-byes, they returned to the Mass. [Sydney Morning Herald, June 18, 1991]

Alarm bells are sounding in many of the mainstream churches. An article by Linda Morris, Religious Affairs Writer in The Sydney Morning Herald [12 October 2007] reported that the Uniting Church in NSW is one-third the size it was 15 years earlier and it appeared the congregations would decline further in coming years.
 
Surveys quoted in 1991 showed that an increasing number of Christians are shunning restrictions on artificial birth control methods and extramarital sex.  In 1991 the US Presbyterian Church published, prior to the church's annual meeting, a report, Keeping Body and Soul Together. In this period more than 30,000 copies were sold.  The report from a church taskforce urged the church to endorse sex outside marriage and between homosexual partners.
 
The United Methodists discussed in 1992 a move to delete from their Book of Discipline a clause describing homosexuality as 'incompatible with Christian teaching'.  Reformed Jews in the USA now accept homosexual rabbis in some synagogues.  During the last 30 years there has been a steady decline in membership of all the mainstream US churches.  

DEE, Dr John.  Born 1527, died 1608.  Dee was an English mathematician, geographer and astrologer. He was born in London and became one of the original Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge. In 1555 Dee was brought before the Star Chamber, accused of practising sorcery against Queen Mary by working magic to cause her death. He was acquitted and later became one of the favourites of Queen Elizabeth although he eventually died in poverty.
 
Dee was particularly interested in the search for the fabled north-west passage to the Far East and also published numerous learned works in the fields of logic, astrology, mathematics, geography and navigation. However his life is of special interest to students of the occult sciences for his work in alchemy and other magical activities. He claimed to have found in the ruins of Glastonbury Abbey the Elixir and also that he possessed a magic crystal used to determine the future.  Dee was later involved in curious episodes in Poland and Bohemia, where he was accused of conspiring with another English alchemist, Edward Kelley, in allegedly fraudulent crystal gazing and magical practices. Kelley at one point convinced Dee that there should be a community of wives (i.e. shared wives).   

DENOMINATIONS. See especially notes under: HIDDEN BELIEVERS.

DERRY, Bishop of.  See under: HERVEY, Frederick Augustus.

DERVISHES, The. A group of Islamic sects, of mystical nature. Included are the Turning Dervishes and the Howling Dervishes. The former group are more open in admitting foreigners to view their ceremonies, the latter more secretive. The Howling Dervishes especially forbid Christians to enter their places of worship.

A visitor to Turkey in the early part of the 19th century, a Miss Pardoe, did manage to persuade someone to let her watch the Whirling Dervishes at Broussa. She wrote an account of what she saw in The City of the Sultan and Domestic Manners of the Turks (London, in 2 volumes, 1837):

The throng which pressed into the chapel was immense, and the heat most oppressive . . . At length a low chanting commenced in the court, and a train of Dervishes, headed by a High Priest, slowly ascended to the chapel . . . As he stepped upon the rug, with the palms of his hands turned upwards, and the attendant Dervishes cast themselves upon the earth, and laid their foreheads in the dust, I felt a thrill of pity for the ill-judged zeal and blind delusion which was rapidly wearing him to the grave . . .  [A description of lengthy prayers follows.]

The ceremony was at this point, when the Chief of the Turning Dervishes, accompanied by his two principal Priests, arrived to assist at the service of his fellow-Dervish . . . The chanting was then resumed, and after a time increased in quickness; which at intervals,as the name of Allah was pronounced, some solitary individual uttered a howl, which I can compare to nothing but the cry of the wild beast.

Things had progressed thus far, when suddenly a strong voice shouted, 'Allah Il Allah!' and a powerful man sprang from the floor, as though he had been struck in the heart, fell forward upon his head, and by a violent spasm rolled over, and lay flat on his back, with his arms crossed on his breast, and his whole frame rigid as though he had stiffened into death.  His turban had fallen off, and the one long lock of hair pendent from the centre of his head was scattered over the floor - his mouth was slightly open, and his eyes fixed - in short, the convulsion was a terrific one; and it was not before the lapse of several minutes that two of the fraternity, who hastened to his assistance, succeeded in unclasping his hands, and changing his position.

Having ultimately raised him from the floor, still in a state of insensibility, they carried him to the crimson rug, and laid him at the feet of the High Priest, who stroked down his beard, and laid his right hand upon his breast; they then continued to use all their efforts to produce re-animation; and having ultimately succeeded, they seated him once more in his place, and left him to recover himself as he might.

The howling still continued at intervals, and as the chanting and the motion increased in violence, these miserable fanatics appeared to become maddened by their exertions; when, at a certain point of the ceremony, four of the fraternity, who had green scarfs flung over their left shoulders, advanced, one by one, to the seat of the High Priest, and there slowly, and with much parade, transferred them first to their necks, and afterwards to their waists, and ultimately took their stand, two on each side of the mihrab, or recess . . .  [More prayers followed, and turbans and other items of clothing were removed.]

To this prayer succeeded another low sustained wail . . . The Dervishes, springing to their feet, stood in a circle about their chief; and then commenced the painful portion of their service.  The measure of the chant was regulated by the High Priest, who clapped his hands from time to time to increase the speed: himself and his four green-girdled assistants uttering the words of the prayer, while the fraternity, rocking themselves to and fro, kept up their continual groan, rising and falling with the voice of the choir.  Howl succeeded to howl, as the exhaustion consequent on this violent bodily exertion began to produce its effect; until at length strong men fell on the earth on all sides like children, shrieking and groaning in their agony - some struggling to free themselves from the grasp of those who endeavoured to restrain them, and others trembling in all their limbs, and sobbing out their anguish like infants.

I never witnessed such a scene; nor should I have conceived it possible for human beings to have gratuitously subjected themselves to the agony which these misguided wretches visibly endured . . . In short, the scene resembled rather the orgies of a band of demons than an offering of worship to a God of peace and love!
 
At this period of the ceremony, the muffled flutes used by the Turning Dervishes were heard, accompanied by the low sound of the small Arabian drums; and a majestic-looking man, clad entirely in white, with a black girdle, rose, at a signal from his chief, and commenced his evolutions . . . [More musical instruments joined in, played by youths.]  Groans, howls, and yells, such as may haunt the ear of midnight traveller in the wilderness, filled up the diapason; while the struggles of the convulsion-smitten, and their wild shrieks , completed the horror of the scene.  It was impossible to bear it longer; and we hurried from the latticed apartment just as three more tottering wretches were falling on the earth, howling out the sacred name of Allah, in tones better suited to a Satanic invocation!

DESTRUCTIVE ACTS.  In CE 387 the Christians of Rome burnt down a Jewish synagogue. Maximus the Usurper ordered the Christians to rebuild it. The Christian Bishop of Milan, Ambrose, denounced the ruler for this action and had the decree revoked by Theodosius. In 395 CE the Christians at Osrhoene, a city of Mesopotamia, also burned down the Jewish synagogue. Theodosius ordered the Christians to rebuild it. Again Ambrose interfered and persuaded the Emperor, with a fierce letter of denunciation, to revoke his edict, which he did.
 
To compel Christians to build a Jewish synagogue, thundered Ambrose, 'the home of perfidy, the dwelling-place of impiety,' was monstrous. He conveniently overlooked the monstrous act of the Christians in burning a Jewish building down! In 423 CE the Christians of Antioch burned down and plundered the local synagogue. Again Theodosius ordered them to rebuild it and again a saint of the Church interfered, this time the completely insane SIMEON STYLITES, who from his high parrot-perch, persuaded the Emperor to again withdraw his order.
   
Mind you, the Jews themselves at times harried the Christians, but with a little less ferocity. It is said that at the feast of Purim in particular, the ceremonies involved, among other activities, erecting a gibbet in the street, to which was fastened a mock-figure of Haman.  At each mention of his name the worshippers would hurl abuse at the hanging figure. It is reported, but with no great degree of certainty, that once in the the city of Inmestar, of Chalcis, near Antioch, in 412 CE, on the occasion of such a feast, the Jews fashioned their gibbet in the shape of a cross and seizing a young Christian boy from his own home, fastened him to the cross in a mock crucifixion. As he hung there they whipped him so severely that he died under the lashing. A furious fight broke out with the Christians as a result of this event.

Whether this actually happened or not is uncertain but the story or a similar one has been perpetuated ever since and has kept reappearing in various eras like some urban legend. It was firmly believed through the centuries by a great many Christians that Jews often kidnapped young Christian boys and crucified them.  At the very least this provided a convenient excuse to persecute the Jews.
 
In Egypt, around the year 415 CE, Bishop Cyril of Alexandria wielded a wide influence. One of the Christians, an Alexandrian schoolmaster, Hierax, was publicly scourged for some misdemeanour, having been delivered up to the Prefect of the City by the Jews. Cyril was furious and soon open warfare broke out between the Christians and the Jews.  There was slaughter all around, as good Jews and good Christians killed one another, even the Prefect being wounded. The worst deed was the killing of Hypatia, a young lady of the city, a heathen and a great beauty, who was torn from her chariot by the Christian mob and hacked to pieces with oyster shells! The Christians hoped thereby to please Cyril.

Chilperic, youngest son of Clotaire 1, forcibly compelled Jews in his dominion to convert to Christianity on pain of instant death. Most continued to worship as Jews in secret. Justinian enacted all kinds of repressive measures against the Jews. In the early 6th century an impostor, Meir by name, arose among the Jews of Persia, probably asserting he was the Messiah. He claimed to work miracles, among them that a fiery column always accompanied his marches. He was hanged by the Persians. In 602 CE the Emperor Mauritius was murdered by Phocas. Chosroes declared war and marched on Constantinople, joined by the Jews, who had risen against Phocas. These people now found the way open to revenge themselves on the Christians. They overran Galilee and Peraea and assaulted Jerusalem, slaughtering the whole Christian population of 90,000. Eventually the Jews in turn were put back in their place by the Romans.

DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM, The.  The early Jewish rabbis indulged in flights of fancy such as have become more than familiar in the annals of the later Catholic saints. Around the time of the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE, the rabbis wrote of streams of blood issuing from the city in such torrents as to carry heavy stones the whole way from the city to the sea. The ground for up to 30 km around was said to be completely covered with corpses. There was, indeed, great slaughter in the land but not quite to this extent. Dion Cassius, a more sober historian, estimated half a million perished under the fury of the Roman onslaught.

Rabbi Akiba appears to have been in command when Jerusalem was captured and was treated with the utmost severity by Rufus. He was kept starved and thirsty in a dungeon before being executed. Some writers say he was flayed alive, then slain, others that he was torn to pieces with iron combs.
 
The Emperor Julian in the 4th century gave permission for the Jews to rebuild their Temple in Jerusalem, on Mount Moriah. It was an almost universal belief among Christians that the Temple would never be rebuilt (founded on Daniel 9: 26-27?).  Funds now poured in and building commenced. Thousands, rich and poor, volunteered their labour. Even ladies joined in the work. The building advanced rapidly until, according to historians, it was suddenly interrupted by flames bursting from the ground, accompanied by earthquakes. So say Socrates, Sozomen and Theodoret. But Cyril made no mention of such miracles. To all this were added fiery crosses appearing in the air, which also appeared on the clothing of fugitives fleeing the construction site!
 
It does appear that some kind of explosion occurred, which had the effect of driving off the workers. Another historian, Milman, said to crave impartiality in his works, thought there was merit in a belief, first suggested by German historians, that a vault below the Temple, long closed and filled with foul air (methane?), exploded, the air catching fire as it came in contact with flames used by workmen. Others dispute this.  We will never know the truth. Something, however, did cause work to cease on the Temple. But we are reading history recorded in the 4th century CE - the very period when the New Testament with all its miracles and wonders - was being codified. The people in those days were certainly incredulous - even historians.

DEVIL, The. The Devil is also known as Satan. Freud thought that the Devil 'is nothing else than the personification of the repressed instinctual life.' He also commented on another occasion that the Devil was a father-substitute for those who were unlucky, or lacked sufficient ability or effectiveness to make a living. The Devil-Made-Me-Do-It Syndrome, one might say.

Much nonsense gets peddled about the Devil. Scotus Erigena, Irish theologian of the 9th century, believed Satan himself must ultimately be redeemed, since otherwise GOD could not in the end conquer and destroy sin. He cited ORIGEN in support. To many believers the Devil was but the chief of a host of evil creatures known as devils or, by the Muslims, as JINNS. Johann Wier (1515-88), physician to Duke of Cleves, worked out that there were exactly 7,409,127 devils, and they were led by 79 princes.

DIANA. The virgin moon goddess, also known as Hecate. Dr Margaret Murray connected the witch cult with the worship of Diana and believed there had always been covens consisting of 12 members plus a leader. In one era in the Middle Ages it was recorded that the Bishop of Exeter found monks from Frithelstock Priory worshipping a maiden, described as being in a state of the 'unchaste Diana' in the woods. 

DIASPORA.  See under: LOST TRIBES OF ISRAEL, The.

DIETING WITH JESUS. A book published by an Evangelical Christian is entitled, The Jesus System for Weight Control. This work, one of a number on the topic, promises it is 'God's answer to fat' - a system in which you 'pray your weight away'.  Perhaps we could say: 'Praise the Lord, and pass the fat away.'

DIGWEED, Ernest. Digweed was an earnest English Christian businessman, something of a recluse, who lived in Portsmouth, Hampshire. In 1976 he died and his will specified that his entire estate, then valued at £26,107, was to go to Jesus Christ, when the latter returned.  Mr Digweed left instructions in his will to place the capital in government bonds at 12.5%.  According to Mr Digweed, Jesus would return in 1999 and would then have a nice little nest-egg to help him in his work, about $700,000 in all.

The money was deposited in the Portsmouth branch of the Trustees Savings Bank and for years after Mr Digweed's death various claimants sought to prove they were the rightful heirs! None was able to perform a miracle or otherwise prove they had a right to take possession of the money.  Eventually, in 1994, after a long legal battle, a distant cousin of Mr Digweed's managed to persuade a court that he should receive the funds, even although he did not bear the name of Jesus Christ. The Public Trustees Office for its part took the precaution of buying an insurance policy with Lloyd's to cover any loss in the event of the real Jesus Christ turning up and claiming his inheritance. 

DIONYSIUS.  In Sicily, early in the 20th century, torch-races were still being run by naked kouretes in connection with the festa of a saint. These were probably not approved by the religious authorities, who have always taken the fun out of human activities and who generally can't stand nakedness.  The races were a survival of the ancient cult of Dionysius.

DISASTERS.  Earthquakes and many similar disasters are usually described as 'Acts of GOD', which doesn't say much for the deity (or deities)! In 1556 an earthquake collapsed thousands of cave dwellings in China's Shensi province, killing an estimated 830,000 people. In 1755 a series of tremors destroyed Lisbon, killing more than 50,000, inspiring Voltaire to write his Poem on Lisbon Earthquake. Since 1900 there have been 35 or more earthquakes resulting in serious loss of life.  In India in 1905, 20,000 died. The San Francisco earthquake in 1906 killed 700. In Sicily in 1908, 75,000 died. In Italy in 1915, 30,000 died. In 1920 in Kansu, China, 180,000 died. In 1923 in Tokyo and Yokohama, 143,000 died. In Chile in 1939, 30,000 died. In the same year in Turkey, 23,000 died. In India in 1935, 60,000 died. In 1960 in Morocco, 12,000 died. In 1968 in Iran, 12,000 died. In Peru in 1970, 50,000.
 
Obviously the semi-primitive minds that put together the Christian Bible were mightily impressed, like all primitive people, by such powerful phenomena of nature as earthquakes. Thus when Mary Magdalene and 'the other Mary' visited the tomb where the body of Jesus was supposedly laid, 'behold,' writes Matthew, 'there was a great earthquake; for an angel of Yahweh [trans. 'the Lord'] descended from heaven, and came and rolled away the stone, and sat upon it. His appearance was as lightning, and his raiment white as snow:  for fear of him the watchers did quake and become as dead men....'  (Matthew 28:2-4).
    
So says Matthew; but not one word do the other three Gospel writers breathe of this phenomenon! Are we seriously to believe that this staggering event, this encounter with the Other World, a 'great earthquake,' and involving that very same Mary Magdalene who appears in every  one of the four Gospel accounts, fails to gain the tiniest hint of a mention in the other three Gospels? How could a great earthquake pass unnoticed by the three writers? Clearly this is fable pure and simple, written to impress the readers with the staggering nature of the supposed 'resurrection' of the dead body of their deluded prophet.
    
Earthquakes also figure in the Bible's prophesies concerning the End Time. 'There shall be famines and earthquakes in diverse places,' writes Matthew again (Matthew 24: 7), who is himself mightily impressed with these eruptions of nature. At least this prophesy is repeated in Mark and Luke, although John misses the boat. But as earthquakes have occurred throughout recorded history (and no doubt beyond) there is no way of knowing which series of earthquakes point to the End! The Biblical prophets were on pretty safe ground when they promised earthquakes!
 
Finally we have the phenomena of earthquakes that destroy churches and kill worshippers.  There are many such instances, two of the most recent being an earthquake that destroyed a church in Ica, Peru in August 2007. People celebrating evening mass were killed. And in February 2008 in Kigali, Rwanda, many people died when a church there collapsed in an earthquake. Clearly 'acts of GOD' are undiscriminating!

Two historic earthquakes that struck down churches. Left: The Jesuits' Church, Arequipa, Peru, in 1868. Right: The Cathedral of Tito, Italy, in 1857:

Other disasters to strike believers include fire. From a newspaper report in September 1989: 'Twenty-seven school girls were burned to death as they slept in a fire that swept through a dormitory of a Malaysian private religious school. They were aged between 13 and 16 and were boarders at the Madrasah Private School in Alor Setar. They had been caught with 33 other girls in a dormitory with only one stairway to the ground floor.

Religious pilgrimages often prove dangerous to life and limb. From a radio news broadcast, 19 August 1991: 'A Lebanese tourist bus plunged into a ravine in Eastern Turkey yesterday, killing 53 people.  Most of the dead were Sh'ite Muslim pilgrims on their way to shrines in Iraq. The coach, carrying 54 passengers, fell 20 metres after failing to round a bend.' See also under: HAJ PILGRIMAGES.
 
In March 1995 at least 37 Buddhist pilgrims drowned when their overloaded boat capsized in the province of Jiangxi (China). The boat had twice as many passengers on it as it should have  been carrying.

DISCIPLINE, The.  The Discipline was the name given to a small whip, usually made of wire, used by nuns to stir up their libido, normally very depressed by convent life  See further under: MORTIFICATION.

DISEASE AND THE GODS. Some unexplained curiosities may be noted in relation to the divine beneficence. For example, a disease called ichthyosis turns the skin scaly like a fish.  Wyoming has fewer than 1000 cases of cancer per year, while New York has more than 70,000 (1976 figures). Is Wyoming more god-fearing perhaps? The Kuru tribe of New Guinea are the only people on earth stricken with 'laughing sickness' in which victims literally laugh themselves to death. We might well laugh ourselves to death at the absurdities of the belief that GOD is the source of all bounty!

DISPUTES.  Disputes between religious bodies abound. A recent dispute is between Buddhists and Hindus in India, where the Mahabodhi Temple was built during the reign of the Emperor Asoka about 2,500 years ago. The temple is located at Gaya in Bihar State and stands next to the tree believed to be the one under which Gautama Buddha sat when he received 'enlightenment'.  Since the start of the 20th century the site has been controlled by five Hindus and four Buddhists. However in recent times Buddhists have demanded full control and Buddhists around the world began agitating for this to occur.

DIVINE, Father.  See under: FATHER DIVINE.

DIVINE LIGHT MISSION.  Headed by Guru Maharaj Ji. The believers think their guru is a prophet or messiah like Jesus of Nazareth or Muhammad. The religion is an odd mixture of doctrines lifted from the major established faiths, east and west. Some have described the sect as a poor-man's TM. Adherents strongly believe in the existence of the Third Eye, the mystical source of inner illumination. They are taught that when they press their fingers on their closed eyes and experience a sensation of light this signifies the inner illumination. When they put their tongues on the back of their throats they feel not mucus but nectar. And when they put their hands on their wallets they feel like giving money - to the guru.

DIVORCE.  In 1992 figures quoted by a Catholic priest indicated that 40 percent of American Catholics were divorced and remarried without the blessing of their Church.  The Church of Rome, however, has some convenient mechanisms to allow the rich and the famous to divorce and re-marry and some cases in this area are notorious for their cynicism.
 
Divorce is banned to Christians by their own Bible, except under very exceptional circumstances, but this does not stop them divorcing, as always taking and using just those parts of the Bible that are convenient to them. Even fundamentalist Christians who cling to the literal truth of the Word on occasions get divorced and then re-marry. Even ministers of religion can apparently overlook the demands made upon them by the New Testament.

DOBSON, Dr James.  Dr James Dobson, Christian fundamentalist and anti-pornography crusader, wrote the book Dare to Discipline (Tyndale) which as at May 1989 had sold more than two million copies. The book advocates corporal punishment for children. 'Pain is a marvellous purifier,' he writes, 'when children age ten or under attempt "stiff-necked rebellion.". '

'The spanking,' he says, 'should be of sufficient magnitude to cause the child to cry genuinely.' He gives as an example, 'switching' a 15-months-old [sic] on her 'little legs' for going out in the rain barefoot when her mother told her not to. A woman member of a fundamentalist church in Massachusetts where this teaching was adopted was, early in 1989, convicted of beating her two children so severely they were ordered to be removed from her control by a court .
 
The mother said her pastor gave her a paddle to use on her children. Her husband was so incensed at the punishment he sued for divorce.  The woman herself testified she had spanked her two-year-old daughter, who had tried to get out of her car seat, until she was severely bruised. A friend told the court she had seen the woman paddle her 3-year-old girl until there were welts on her thighs. The court gave custody of the children to their father. Dr Dobson also gained extensive publicity for a taped interview with Ted Bundy, the mass murderer.

DODD, Reverend Dr William. An 18th century preacher and writer who won immense popularity. He was born on March 29, 1729. Dr Dodd became known as the Macaroni Parson (Macaroni being a rather absurd 18th century term for a dandy; i.e. one who affected 'Continental' manners). The Reverend Doctor moved in the highest circles of society but mounting debts led to a charge, laid in 1777, of forgery, and Dodd was condemned to death. Dr Johnson, who disliked Dodd personally, went to his defence and petitions carrying 100,000 signatures were raised to save the preacher. A great public debate on the subject of capital punishment followed.
 
Five years previously a Gipsy woman with whom Dodd had an argument had prophesied, 'Well, for all you're so proud, you'll come to be hanged at last!'  Dodd was a campaigner against capital punishment at this time (doubtless he had good reason!) and told friends what the Gipsy had said and also published it in a tract, all long before he was in trouble with the law. Newspapers took up the story as well. In spite of all efforts to save him, he was eventually hanged, at Tyburn, on June 27, 1777.  Doubtless the Gipsy did much business after that. 

DONNE, John.  Noted preacher and Dean of St Paul's Cathedral, London in the 17th century. He began life as a Catholic but converted to the Anglican Church. He is famous, among many reasons, for his sermon in Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions (1624) ending with the oft-quoted words: 'No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of a continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were; any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind.  And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for thee.'
 
Certainly wonderful poetry but the preacher, famous for his eloquence, also wrote fine erotic verse, such as Love's Progress, To His Mistress Going to Bed, and The Extasie,. In Epithalamion Made at Lincoln's Inn Donne entreats the woman: 'Thy two-leaved gates, fair temple, unfold, And these two in thy sacred bosom hold, Till mystically join'd but one they be.'  In To His Mistress Going to Bed,  the poet orders:

Off with that girdle, like heaven's zone glittering,
But a far fairer world encompassing.
Unpin that spangled breast-plate, which you wear,
That th' eyes of busy fools may be stopp'd there . . .
[and on through various outer garments until the woman is fully naked]
. . . Off with thy hose and shoes; then softly tread
In this love's hallow'd temple, this soft bed.
In such white robes heaven's angels used to be
Revealed to men; thou, angel  . . .
    License my roving hands, and let them go
Before, behind, between, above, below . . . 

Until he cries:

Full nakedness! All joys are due to thee;
As souls embodied, bodies unclothed must be
To taste whole joys . . .

The preacher and wordsmith obviously enjoyed pleasures other than the purely sacred.

DOOMSDAY CULTS. There has been a rash of doomsday cults in recent years.  These groups believe in the imminent end of the world, possibly inspired by the nearness of the new century and millennium, as were many with the approach of the year 1,000 CE.
 
Most of these cults are linked theologically to fundamentalist Christianity but other influences have also been at work, including Islam. In September 1995 Malaysia's Islamic Government cracked down on a cult centred in the State of Sabah in the country's north. Some 200 or so plantation workers, mostly from Timor, were participating in ceremonies as they awaited the coming end - prophesied by their leader, self-described as Nabi Petrus ('Peter the Prophet'). Nabi Petrus had told his followers he had spoken to GOD and that the world would end in October. They were instructed to give up their possessions and await the end. Reportedly the doctrines taught by this prophet were a mixture of Christian and Islamic notions.

In 1994 the Malaysian Government banned another sect, one that believed an Islamic 'messiah' was due to appear soon and that doomsday was approaching.  See further under: AL ARQAM. The Japanese had their cult, too.  See further under: AUM SHINRI. And every so often the Koreans throw up another doomsday group, in fact they probably account for the greatest number of such, including the MOONIES.

DOWSERS.  The dowser or water-diviner claims to use non-physical means to locate water underground, generally attributing his powers to ESP. In practice he usually employs a forked stick cut from a living tree or branch, hazel being the favoured wood.  When the dowser is over water the stick is said to bend downwards. In a fascinating book, Water: Miracle of Nature (New York, Macmillan 1953) Thomson King relates how his grandfather was once persuaded to employ a dowser to dig a well.
The dowser told his grandfather the only place water would be found was on the south side of the house. He should dig a well there. His grandfather, however, wanted the well on the north side and so, ignoring the dower's advice, he dug there. He had a very good well. In Australia, a continent where water is very scarce, an analysis by scientists of a series of wells showed that more were successfully dug without the aid of dowsers than with! 

In both England and Australia tests have been carried out on groups of dowsers. In Australia a substantial monetary prize was offered by Mr Dick Smith, a successful businessman and adventurer, to any successful dowser. In both countries the tests demonstrated clearly that the dowsers' results not only conflicted with one another but in the English tests, where actual buried wells were sought, there was no agreement with the water-bearing areas.
 
If dowsers have any success at all it comes from a simple fact. Underground water tends to lie in broad belts or strata. In such situations wells sunk just about anywhere produce water. As I compile these notes I happen to be living on an area built over sand flats and people here can easily sink a bore hole and gain a good supply of water for their gardens. It works without fail! A great place for a dowser to display his talents!

DREAMS AND VISIONS.  Constantine, the first Christian Emperor of Rome, in 312 CE had a vision before the battle for Milvan Bridge. According to Eusebius, who, however, was a somewhat unreliable biographer/historian, Constantine saw the vision of a cross in the sky, bearing the inscription, 'Hoc signo vinces' ('By this sign conquer'). Chinese Emperor Ming-ti had a similar vision when, in 61 CE, through a dream, he was encouraged to introduce Buddhism into China. (See also: Moore, History of Religions, 1914, p.79)

DRURY, Nevill. English-born, Drury has spent the greater part of his life in Australia. He is a noted author in the fields of magic, witchcraft and occult mythology, his works having been published in a number of countries. Among his books is a comprehensive Dictionary of Mysticism and the Occult. In addition to contributing both articles and books to the literature in this field he worked in 1984 with Frank Heimans on a 2-hour international TV documentary, The Occult Experience.

ECO-FEMINISTS.  Appears to be another description for WHITE WITCHES. 

ECUADORIAN MASSACRE, The. In September 1955 a group of hot gospeller Protestant missionaries, working with the Missionary Aviation Fellowship of the USA, began seeking to make contact with some fierce Indians deep in the Ecuadorian jungle, the Aucas. These warriors were even feared by the Jivaro, well known for their habit of shrinking the heads of dead enemies. The Aucas wielded deadly spears and killed all strangers. The Ecuadorian Government had long since given up trying to make contact with them; they had lost too many government officers in the process.

After a long and carefully worked-out plan, involving the dropping of gifts over Auca settlements, and other well thought-out moves, on Friday, January 6, 1956, five missionaries landed their plane on the Curaray River, among the Auca tribespeople.  They were Nate Saint, Pete Fleming, Jim Elliot, Ed McCully and Roger Youderian, the latter a former paratrooper.

They were met by three virtually naked Aucas - an older man and woman and a girl aged about 16. From what the missionaries could make out it seemed the nubile young woman was being offered to them in an apparently friendly gesture. Some language contact could be made as the missionaries had worked with a neighbouring tribe, the Quechuas. Gifts were given and many photographs taken. The two women looked through copies of Time magazine. Finally the Auca man made it clear he wanted to be taken for a flight in the plane and this was done.

They flew over a nearby Auca settlement, so that the villagers could see their man in the plane. Their mouths fell open at the sight! After they returned to the river some hours were spent passing out gifts and trying to get the man to take them to the village by land, but he seemed reluctant. Eventually the day ended and the fliers returned to base with their exciting news.
The next day they went back to their beach site but nobody appeared. They flew over the village and were puzzled to see women and children run as if in terror. Only two men appeared and they seemed frightened. But by the time a third flight had been made and gifts dropped, however, the fears seemed to have evaporated. The five men landed at the beach again on Sunday but when nothing happened by midday they flew over the village; only women and children appeared.

On the return flight to the beach they noted that ten warriors were on their way towards the spot where they had camped by the river. At 12.35 pm they radioed back to base that the men were coming to meet them - at last.  'Pray for us. This is the day!' they told their waiting wives. It WAS indeed but their prayers weren't to be answered! They said they would contact their base again at 4.35 pm.  But 4.35 came and went and there was silence. On the beach lay the bodies of five young Americans, speared and very dead. The plane had been speared, too.
 
On Monday a detachment of Ecuadorian soldiers, missionaries and Quechua Indians was sent to the location. Only four bodies were found; the fifth never located, apparently washed down the river. The wives received the news with Christian calm.  Now missionary efforts were stepped up massively as the Christians of Ecuador and the USA sought to bring the fierce Aucas within the fold of the Gospel.
 
The martyr-complex that afflicts the religious was strongly at work once again. It was estimated at this time that more than 1,000 students from colleges in the USA volunteered for missionary service as a direct result of the tragedy. A news commentator noted: 'For years I have watched them [missionaries] and this I know: the Aucas are marked men - marked not for extinction but for conversion. As such, they haven't a chance. Missionaries, especially those touched by martyrdom, are hard to stop. The blood of the martyrs seems still to be the seed of the Church!'
 
And the Aucas did not have a chance. Like so many other native peoples around the world they, too, were to be infected with the Christian parasite and have their distinctive lifestyle destroyed. They paid a heavy price for the deaths of the five missionaries, but, then, had they received them with friendliness they would have paid the same price!

EARTHQUAKES.  See under: DISASTERS.

EASTER. Easter is celebrated by Western Christians on the dates of the Jewish Passover, which is in turn linked to vestiges of lunar worship clearly evident in the Christian Bible. This is revealed by the manner in which the dates of Easter are determined: Easter Day is on 'the first Sunday after the first full moon following the spring equinox.'
 
Easter is a curious celebration; even the word comes from the name of the Anglo-Saxon goddess of Spring (Eostre) but in religion, as an old verse says, 'any god will do'. According to Bishop Charles Leadbeater of the Liberal Catholic Church, in his book The Hidden Side of Christian Festivals (1920), the name Eostre is in turn just another form of Ishtar, Astaroth, or Astarte, the Queen of Heaven.
 
And Easter, that all-important Christian festival, is celebrated on a date that varies from year to year, sometimes in March and sometimes in April. Christians have, in fact, come to celebrate the death of their prophet Jesus on a varying date! As an acquaintance once remarked, 'Christ is the god who dies from month to month.' And once again we find that primitive religious rites, in the form of worship of lunar deities, have profoundly influenced the development of a 'higher' religion. Moon-worship is clearly evident beneath the surface of the Jewish Old Testament and this has in turn affected the New.

In 1997 it was reported that an effort was being made by Christians on a worldwide basis to unify the date upon which Easter is celebrated.  It was being proposed that a precise astronomical calculation, using Jerusalem as the basis, would be used and that the new system would begin with the Easter of April 15, 2001. There is no word as to what happened to this idea.

EDICT OF NANTES, Revocation of the.  Henry 4th of France issued a tolerating Edict, allowing his Protestant citizens equal rights with Catholics. When Louis 14th ascended the throne he solemnly swore to maintain this edict. However, on October 18, 1685, Louis signed a Revocation order. It was published four days later. His action was heartily approved by the Catholic Church and the greater body of French people.  Behind the scenes the king was influenced by his Catholic mistress, Madame de Maintenon, and his Jesuit confessor, Père la Chaise.  The result of this move was the unleashing of a massive slaughter of the Protestants or Huguenots of France. See further under: HUGUENOTS.

EDWARDS, Jonathan. American evangelical preacher. See further under: REVIVALS. 

ELECTRIFYING CHURCH OF THE NEW LIGHT. In 1992 Pastor Ezra Barnaby was electrifying his congregations in a US middle-west farming community - literally.  Instead of water baptism the church was inducting members with electric shocks - via jumper leads connected to a car battery. The church at that time had 137 members, including 21 children. Anyone between the ages of 3 and 70 would experience the Holy Ghost entering their body via the electric jolt. The pastor himself had been through the ritual, as had his teenage daughters.
 
Four times each year a special service is held. Candidates for electric baptism kneel before the preacher, the cables are touched together to produce sparks, then applied to the kneeling person. The converts tense momentarily as the Spirit enters then everybody bows in prayer. Proclaimed one convert: 'My life hasn't been the same since that wonderful day. I have been truly saved.' 

There appears to be a music album bearing the same name as this church. Any connection is unknown.

ELECTION, Doctrine of. Through several centuries controversy raged between opposing Protestant groups over the questions of freewill and 'election'. The Calvinists (e.g. the Presbyterians and members of the various Reformed Churches) believe in election, put crudely, that the deity chooses to save some and not others. Many others, particularly most (but not all) Methodists and Congregations, believe otherwise, leaving men and women a free choice as to whether they accept or reject salvation. It was as a result of this debate that the following famous statement was made.

'Observing the doctrine of Particular Election . . . and those who preach it to make the Bible clash and contradict itself, by preaching somewhat like this: "You can and you can't - You shall and you shan't - You will and you won't - And you'll be damned if you do - And you'll be damned if you don't.". . .'  (Lorenzo Dow, 1777-1834: Reflections on the Love of GOD - 6 (1836), 30.)

ELFREDA. The story of Elfreda may be apocryphal or may have at least some elements of truth. The story goes that as a child of 4 years Elfreda was put into a convent, her parents hoping she would become a nun when she grew up.  As she developed it was seen that she was a striking beauty and because of this the nuns treated her cruelly, loading her with penances, punishments and abuse. In time she fell in love with a monk in a nearby monastery and she became pregnant.
 
The nuns considered whether she would be burnt at the stake, flayed alive or torn with red-hot pincers. In the end they stripped her naked, beat her with rods, loaded her with chains, and threw her into a dungeon. In the end she had her baby and was rescued 'miraculously' from her predicament. Well, that's how the story goes.

ELIZABETH, Saint. A Hungarian Catholic saint who was happily married.  Like so many of the saints Elizabeth was much given to MORTIFICATION of the flesh and when her husband went off to the Crusades (which, to be fair to the lady, she deeply regretted) she used his absence to exercise to the full her desire for mortification. It was said of her that she whipped herself with particular severity on the evening prior to joining her husband again in bed, doubtless enjoying the sexual encounter all the more as a result! 

ELMER GANTRY.  A work of fiction by Sinclair Lewis. It is aimed at the Bible Belt Fundamentalists, attacking by proxy charlatan leaders of Protestant churches. It was also made into a popular movie with Burt Lancaster as the preacher and Jean Simmons as the leading lady.

ELOHIM CITY. A white supremacist colony located in Oklahoma, USA. Linked to a group known as Christian Identity, a racialist body.

EL SAADAWI, Nawal. Born in 1930, an Egyptian female doctor and writer. In 1972 she was sacked from her position in the Egyptian Ministry of Health as a result of her outspoken comments regarding the position of women in Arab society. Her books include Women and Sex (1972) and The Hidden Face of Eve: Women in the Arab World (1979). Another of her books, the fictional Woman at Point Zero (1978), was banned in Egypt. In 1981 as a direct result of her writings she was imprisoned for some months in the notorious Qanatir Prison.

END TIME DELAYED. Late in 1988 it was reported that fundamentalists in Gary, Indiana, USA, had been waiting in their church for several months for a tornado to strike. Their preacher's wife prophesied in December that the tornado would hit the area in January, smashing everything except the church. Several new dates were set when January passed.

EPISCOPALIAN EMBEZZLER.  In April 1995 the former Treasurer of the American Episcopal Church (the American Anglicans), Ms Ellen F. Cooke, was accused of embezzling $US2.2 million in church funds. Through her lawyers Mrs Cooke issued a statement blaming job stress and 'gender bias' for her predicament and reported that a psychiatrist had in February evaluated her and said she had been subjected to enormous pressures. (One is continually told that the Christian faith harmonizes life and brings peace, et al; apparently not so in the case of Ms Cooke!)

An auditor's report found that money had been diverted into buying a house for the lady in New Jersey and a farm in Virginia. Her children's schooling had been paid for from church funds and jewellery and travel also. The money had, according to the report, been diverted into the Treasurer's personal bank account by ignoring the need for multiple signatures of church cheques. In July 1995 Mrs Cooke was sentenced to five years in prison.

ESP FRAUD. A case of ESP fraud was perpetrated by Dr Walter J. Levy, 26, number one research director at J. B. Rhine's Institute of Parapsychology, North Carolina. Levy set up automated experiments involving rats and mice to overcome a 50-year problem in ESP research - lack of repeatability. Great excitement was generated in parapsychology research circles by the positive results from Levy's experiments. Dr Christopher Scott, statistician, once extremely interested in ESP, later became convinced that fraud and carelessness have always played a large part in parapsychology research. Dr Scott claimed that there was still a lot of the Levy case covered up although Dr Rhine had reportedly acted with alacrity, dismissing Levy when the fraud was uncovered.

Ray Hayman, friend of Randi, the famous magician and debunker, pointed out that 'Forty years ago [1975] parapsychologists claimed bats had ESP and those against them said they were crazy. Now we know the bats have a sophisticated sonar-system.'

EVANGELISTIC MEETINGS. The lights are dimmed and the organ is playing.  A robed choir sways to and fro on the platform as they intone the hymns. Assistant preachers warm up the crowd with short addresses that lack any depth of intellectual content but are heavy in the emotional department. The music is rhythmical, insistent, insinuating. Eventually the evangelist arrives on the platform with a flourish and the choir bursts forth in exultant song. The stage is now set for the preaching of the word.

At every possible point during his address the evangelist involves the audience. They stand, they sit, they shout, they repeat texts. They are told to wave their arms above their heads. As the address reaches its climax the music starts up again, providing an additional boost of emotionalism as the demand goes forth, to repent, be saved, trust in Jesus . . .  There is now no place for thought, no place for weighing up the pros and cons of the message, a response, an emotional response is demanded of the listener. There is, after all, no logic whatever, in the message of the Gospel.  See fuller account under: REVIVALS.

EVIL SPIRITS.  Most religions believe in both good and bad spirits and the term 'evil spirits' has come to be associated with invisible beings given over to perpetrating evil actions among humans. Many primitive religions, e.g. those of the Chinese and Australian Aboriginals, hold a belief in such spirits. The Muslims describe such spirits as jinns (a singular evil spirit = jinnee), although in this case they are not necessarily evil. From early Christian times a substantial body of people believed in the existence of such malevolent creatures and even today among many Catholics and fundamentalist Christians such a belief persists. See further under: EXORCISM.   

EVOLUTION.  Professor Stephen Jay Gould has said that human beings, rather than being the ultimate goal of evolution are, like every other species alive today, simply here through chance. Professor Gould is an eminent palaeontologist from Harvard University. He told a meeting at the Australian Museum: 'If you could rewind the tape of life and let it play again, you would get a different set of survivors every time. The chance of getting humanity again is close to nil. We are very lucky to be here.'

The Professor's view stems from the fairly recent discovery that, 530 million years ago, the world was teeming with a myriad sea creatures. A plethora of life forms is preserved as fossils in a Canadian rock formation known as the Burgess Shale. Professor Gould said these represented 25 different basic biological designs or body-plans. Only four designs survived; the others died out for no known reason. All creatures on the earth are derived from those four body-plans.  These creatures were known as: Wiwaxia (crawled on its belly); Hallucigenia (seven sets of spines on its back); Opabinia (five eyes and a nozzle like vacuum cleaner inlet); Pikaia (rod on back that evolved into spinal chord). It was this wormlike latter creature from which humans ultimately evolved. And a footnote: The human foetus is said to pass through a stage endowed with a tail and gill-slits.

EXCLUSIVE BRETHREN.  See under: BRETHREN, The.

EXORCISM.
Exorcism is a ritual whereby it is supposed EVIL SPIRITS are driven from a person or object by a variety of means. Notwithstanding the insights into human behaviour provided by psychiatric studies today there are still substantial numbers of people who believe in the existence of such spirits and/or the necessity of driving them out of the person by one means or another. However, exorcism rituals are often deadly. Some accounts follow:

* Four people - three males and one female - were sent to trial in Melbourne for beating an 18-year-old girl, Carol Baglin, to death 'to rid her body of evil.' The magistrate commented that he thought they had acted 'with the highest motives,' as 'there is no evidence of malice, no evidence of intent to do the girl injury.' Miss Balgin was an unemployed model and public servant. She died on February 24, 1973. [Outcome of case unknown.]

* A 24-year old girl was whipped to death by two Voodoo priests trying to 'drive out the devils possessing her soul' in the Dominican Republic, according to an October 1974 report. The priests were known as exorcists to the local populace. The girl's father called the priests to the village in the northern area of the country. They first forced the girl to swallow potions, shrieking mystical incantations over her. They next cut her with razor blades, struck her and finally flogged her to death.  Police arrested one priest, who possessed potions, a book of magical spells and a box of feathers. They were seeking the other. 

* Demiko Norris, aged just 3 months, died in an exorcism ritual in Damascus, Maryland (USA) in December 1976. His mother Melissa reportedly pummelled her little boy while chanting the slogan: 'Satan, the Lord rebukes you,' in an attempt to drive out the devils she believed inhabited the child.

* Catherine Council, 21, died in a car during an exorcism ritual in New York in January 1977. An occult practitioner known as a 'root doctor' treated the young woman. She was first bound and then a towel was placed about her face, after which she was force-fed with a potion including turpentine and ammonia. The cause of death was listed as asphyxiation and suffocation. The woman's mother was later charged with manslaughter.

* Annelise Michael, a 23-year-old German woman, died in 1978 after a course of exorcism stretching over ten months. Two priests, Father Wilhelm Renz, 67, and Father Ernst Alt, 40, were charged with manslaughter, along with the woman's parents, Josef (60) and Ann (57) Michael. The exorcists tried to drive out demons, one named Hitler and the other named Nero, from her body. Included in their treatment was beating and ritual starvation, resulting in malnutrition, from which the girl died.  She was told she was 'doing penance' for others. She weighed but 32 kg when she gave up the fight for life. All four were found guilty but given suspended sentences of six months. It was revealed during the trial that Annelise suffered from epilepsy.
   
* On or about September 7, 1992, an American court was hearing a case against the parents of Lisa Maree Moralis.  The child had died, aged 5, in 1977, but recent evidence had brought to light allegations that she died as a result of exorcism rituals carried out by her parents. These had been carried out over a period of time. Testifying against the couple was Lisa's older sister, Beatrice Contaro, now aged 22.  She said she was present in the house during the final phase which resulted in the death of her little sister. The child, kept naked all the time, was taken into the bathroom and forced into water in the bath. She heard screaming, crying and moaning as he sister was drowned. The little girl's body was, she claimed, wrapped in a plastic bag and taken by car and dumped. The body has never been found. On October 19 it was announced that the trial had ended and the couple had been found guilty.  [Sentences unknown.]

* In June 1994 it was reported that an Islamic exorcism had brought about the death of a 19-year-old teenager in France. Louisa Lardjourne was suffering psychological problems and her brother, convinced she was possessed by the Devil, called in an imam. It was claimed after the young woman died that she had been tortured.  Police charged three people, including the holy man, over the woman's death. [No further details.]

* In April 1997 in Malibu, USA, two Korean Christian missionaries were found not guilty on murder charges but guilty of involuntary manslaughter in connection with an exorcism ritual. Jae-Whoa Chung, 50, and Sung Soo Choi, 47, had stomped to death Chung's wife, Kyung-Ja Chung, 53, in a ritual known as ansukido, designed to rid her of demons, an amalgam of Korean and Christian superstition. The men claimed that the woman had desired exorcism because the demons within her made her arrogant and disobedient to her husband.  The court found that the woman had been subjected to repeated crushing of her abdomen and chest with the men's hands and feet. Some legal commentators have been disturbed by the appeal to religious belief being accepted by a court.

Commented a defence attorney: 'These are men of God. They were doing the work of God. They were doing what they honestly believed was necessary to drive the demon out.' Sung Soo Choi, the exorcist, advised the husband that to cure his wife they would have to subject her to suffering 'comparable to journeying through hell'. The result: 16 broken ribs, internal organs displaced and crushed and a vein leading to her heart torn. The men claimed the Devil himself had warned them he would not leave the woman without killing her!

(See also the story of Eliana Barbosa under the heading: CRUCIFIXION.)

EXPECTATION SYNDROME. The pattern of human behaviour whereby expectations on the part of an individual influence the outcome, is otherwise termed self-fulfilling prophecy. For a typical example see under SCHIZOPHRENIA. Freud, writing to Jung, referred to 'an enormously intensified alertness on the part of the unconscious, so that one is led like Faust to see a Helen in every woman.' Another aspect is the 'co-operation of chance' which plays a vital part in the formation of delusions and linguistic co-operation in spinning puns. 

FAITH.  'The most costly of all follies is to believe passionately in the palpably not true. It is the chief occupation of mankind.'  (H.L. Mencken)

FAITH HEALING. 
So-called 'faith' or spiritual healing is a common activity in the Christian Church. Activities range from simple prayer services in the more conservative churches through to emotion-charged 'miracle' extravaganzas in many fundamentalist sects.
 
'Jesus: alive and well and healing at the Hordern (a well-known Sydney public hall)' ran one Australian newspaper headline. French Canadian Catholic priest Emilien Tardif was back again two years after a previous visit, peddling his simplistic nostrums.  And why not? The American televangelists shouldn't have the stage all to themselves!  Doubtless some of them do some good, so I cannot knock them altogether. But I do challenge any claim they make that their powers come from some supposed divine source! Nonsense! The faulty logic of such a position should be evident to anyone with a modicum of intelligence.

But belief is a powerful force and when it takes hold logic flies out the window.  Too often the strength of the believer's faith is such as to blind him or her to dangers inherent in the situation. Typical is the case of a 7-year-old girl who died in New Zealand. In November 1990, a mother and father, members of a Christian sect, were acquitted of manslaughter but convicted of 'endangering life' when their little girl died after they stopped giving her insulin. They believed GOD had cured her. They were described as being members of a 'Christian fellowship.'  Sad stories like this have been repeated far too many times over the years.

Let me tell my readers a little story. Bear with me, it has great relevance to my subject. We will go back in time about eighty or so years.  We are in the ancient French city of Nancy. The year is 1920. We are in a building located on an avenue called, very appropriately, rue Jeanne d'Arc, a supposed miracle worker.

In Nancy we are about to behold an interesting series of events. And it would not be at all difficult to imagine oneself watching a procession of unwell people in the tent of an evangelist-healer. Miracles are being worked in Nancy on this day! A healer is at work. Ulcers are cured, stammerers are made to speak normally, neuralgia is disposed of, the lame are made to walk, headaches are banished, nervous people regain their composure.
 

NATURAL CURES

The man working these miracles, although a citizen of Catholic France, is not, however, calling upon the name of the Lord. He is no religious healer but is a chemist; today we would call him a pharmacist. Emile Coué understood the awesome power of the human imagination. He perceived that the human mind could bring on illness and that the same human mind could banish it. Many might laugh today at Coué's simple ways and his famous formula, 'Day by day in every respect I am getting better and better,' but Coué was among the pioneers of what we now call psychosomatic medicine.
 
There were some failures, but innumerable people were cured, positively and permanently. Coué, and those who followed in a similar path, were every bit as successful as the religious faith healers but with this important difference: they did not have the amazing effrontery to attribute their powers to divine intervention.

About twenty years ago an American researcher conducted an exhaustive study of many of the so-called religious faith healers of the day, including that notorious charlatan Oral Roberts, who once visited Australia. The 'cures' were divided into two groups - those, such as were effected by Coué, which worked in the mind and would have worked anyway, regardless of religious faith, and those that were outright frauds. Many people were studied both before they entered the meetings and after they left.
 
For example, a person would be observed before the start of the meeting walking about normally outside a tent or meeting place but would later be seen being wheeled into the hall in a wheelchair! At the appropriate 'command of faith' or whatever mumbo-jumbo was uttered, he would leap from his wheelchair and everyone would applaud. Jim Jones, that evil preacher who led nearly a thousand people to their death in Jonestown, employed similar techniques to convince his naïve disciples.

Follow-up studied were made of many 'healed' people, only to find that they had soon relapsed. Three out of five checked by a Sydney reporter after Roberts's last visit had relapsed. Apparently the excitement and emotional impact of the moment had been sufficient for them to overcome, temporarily, whatever it was that held them back.
 

LOURDES

What about Lourdes, that famous - or, perhaps, infamous - place?  Only some,  very few in fact, who visit the famous shrine of Lourdes go away cured. The deity is selective as to whom he will extend aid. But cures aplenty are claimed and paraded forth as proof of divine assistance. Now there are cures, perhaps quite a few, but they are such as one might expect when dealing with illnesses that have their genesis deep within the human psyche.
 
Above and behind the altar in the Lourdes grotto hang crutches and abdominal belts, discarded by the healed ones, placed there as trophies to the power of GOD. But George Bernard Shaw, in his usual insightful way, remarked once that he considered Lourdes to be a blasphemous place, for they kept there all the crutches and wheelchairs of those who walked away cured, but among these trophies was not to be found one wooden leg, one glass eye, nor one hairpiece. After all, only some diseases and disabilities have their genesis in the mind. Cures there may be, for which we can be thankful, but cures from GOD? I think not!
 
It never has and never will require the co-operation of a deity to work supposed miracles.  Whether we are dealing with lame people made to walk, or statues made to weep, or turning water into wine, human agencies alone, given the will and determination, produce such wonders. The powerful operation of the imagination of man is alone responsible for all that passes for the miraculous in our world.  View of the Lourdes church-grotto where the crutches can be seen hanging on the wall:

 

FAITH MISPLACED.  It is a common trait of religious believers to engage in the activity known as rationalizing. The believing mindset is such that any deviation from an expected outcome is accommodated, no matter how outlandish. We this see this operating in times of disaster, e.g. a mine cave-in. The faithful gather and pray for the trapped miners. Some are saved but some die. GOD obviously saved those rescued. And what of the others? The awkward fact that prayers were not fully answered is now explained away with suggestions such as 'it was their time to go the Lord' or some other specious explanation.

It is hard to find a more stunning example of the blindness of faith than in this quote from the autobiography of a missionary working in China during the Boxer Rebellion: 'The rebels laid siege to Yüh-shan where nine lady missionaries were staying  . . . The Yüh-shan officials said that the prayers of the foreigners had saved the city. The siege was raised. But thirteen missionaries and children were murdered in the neighbouring stations of Ch'ang-shan and Kiu-chao.'  The writer emphasized the statement about prayer by using italics. And then calmly recounted the deaths of those whom prayer had not saved! No italics for that line! (Taken from Pearls of the Pacific by Florence S. H. Young. London, Marshall Bros Ltd, nd, circa 1925.)

The absurdity of religious sentiment was nowhere more evident than at a music concert staged in Italy in September 1995 to raise funds for the suffering children of Bosnia.  While the deity looked down upon his Muslim and Christian followers as they slaughtered, maimed and terrorized thousands of small children, the audience listened to the words and music of Ave Maria.  And American singer Meatloaf commented: 'If one child gets helped, God's looking down on us and God will smile.' How blind can one get?

FALSE DOCUMENTS. From the earliest days of the Christian Church many documents of dubious origin appeared, supporting now one, now another position.  Between the 4th and 8th centuries numerous 'lives' of saints and martyrs were concocted, pure fiction, but soon to become accepted as historic truth. Thus two classic Catholic texts, Acts of the Martyrs, and Lives of the Saints, from which many later histories are taken, are probably two parts dross and one part fact, if they are even that accurate! The process of writing 'history' was still going on as late as the 16th and 17th centuries when St Francis Xavier's biographers rolled up their sleeves and produced a miraculous edifice about the saint's life. See full account under: XAVIER, St Francis.
  
But then forgery would not bother those who wrote into the records the amazing history of Christ! It was common throughout the period of early Church history to produce convenient documents to prove this or that doctrine or support this or that view.  In the 5th century the Greek Church was involved in debate with Rome over the primacy of the latter.  Church authorities at Rome forged a copy of a Greek document to make it appear the Greeks described Pope Leo 1st as 'head of the universal Church.'

Among the most notable are The Acts of St Silvester (forged about 430 CE) and The Constitution of St Silvester (dating from about 500 CE), which purported to show that the Bishop of Rome had received his office as head of the universal Church direct from Constantine. This demonstrates how desperate were the Romans to prove their case. In a much later era forgery continued. In the 9th century the notorious Decretals of Isidore were circulating. This particular collection was fabricated in France in the 9th century and comprised some genuine early papal decisions mixed in with a huge number of forged documents.  The purpose of this forgery was to support Catholic clergy in France and elsewhere in their appeals to Rome, following action being taken against them by local authorities. They were later used, together with other forged documents, at the behest of Gregory 7th (1073-1085) to wrest the investiture of the Pope from the Emperor's hands and to establish the supremacy of the Church over the State.

FALWELL, Reverend Jerry. US televangelist, militantly fundamentalist, his group once being dubbed the Moral Majority, something of a misnomer as it represented but a relatively small proportion of the country's population. In 1987 Falwell became involved in the attempt to clean up the mess left by the fall from grace of another televangelist, Jim BAKKER. Bakker passed over control of his PTL ministry to Falwell, however eventually the two fell out. Not surprising since Bakker is a Pentecostalist and Falwell a Baptist. Falwell cited 'documented evidence' that Bakker had been involved in 'homosexual misconduct' and claimed Bakker was consumed with greed.  Jerry Falwell died in May 2007.

FAMILY OF LOVE.  Fanatical sect arising in the Low Countries in the middle of the 16th century.  Its chief leader was David Joris or George, of Delft, who claimed he was a second David, 'in whom, as the Messiah, born after the Spirit, ancient prophecy would reach its true accomplishment.' He preached a new dispensation of perfect righteousness and perfect love. Another leader, Henry Niclas or Nicholas of Amsterdam, claimed he was greater than either Moses or Christ. Man was, he said, independent of dogma and religion consisted of love.
 
The teaching was, in effect, that of sinless perfectionism, even things forbidden to ordinary mortals being allowed to the pure. This teaching resulted in the group's behaviour eventually degenerating into 'coarse licentiousness.' Around 1522 the sect appeared in Kent, England, and caused considerable problems for church and state authorities; Elizabeth enacted severe laws against the people.
  
In recent times the Family of Love has been used as the name of the group formerly known as the CHILDREN OF GOD. It appears to be a reincarnation of the name THE LOVE FAMILY, a forerunner group with links to the later CHILDREN OF GOD.  Former members of the COG sect apparently wish to distance themselves from the controversies surrounding the latter. 

FAMILY, The.  A secretive sect headed by Ann Hamilton-Byrne, who is believed to have come originally from the USA, centred on Ferny Creek, in the Dandenong Mountains, Victoria (Australia).  It was operating for over ten years during the 1970s and 1980s. It was featured on television current affairs programs, with allegations being made by ex-members of the use of the drug LSD and other drugs and that large sums of money were taken from members. The sect then owned at least two houses in Victoria, a large one at Ferny Creek, and another at Eildon, 130 km north-east of Melbourne.
 
The sect was at the time also accused of physical and mental child abuse, and these accusations led to an official raid on the property at Lake Eildon on August 14, 1987.  The 'family members', aged between 12 and 22, were found to be ignorant of the simplest matters, for example, what a 'milk bar' was, and where Eildon was located.  The children were placed in alternative care; some had already left or been taken away.
     
Ms Hamilton-Byrne claimed she was conducting some sort of 'scientific experiment' in raising children - under conditions of severe discipline and conformity to certain patterns. There was a religious dimension of vague nature, with belief in a traumatic End Time, for which the children were being prepared. They were even dressed alike when they went out into the world. For a long list of infractions of rules they were physically beaten, with various implements, including canes, one in particular being of a three-corned design and said to be particularly cruel, and whips. The beatings often took place in front of the other children.
 
In a program on Channel Nine's Current Affair, a re-enaction of a punishment was shown, in which a child had his or her head held down in a bucket of water. The bucket of water would be placed on a bench, the child made to kneel and one or two of the helpers would hold their hands tightly behind their back while the head was forced into the water. This was punishment for stealing as well as other offences. Children were also allegedly locked up in darkness in a cellar-type room and had their hair dyed. It was also alleged also that various tranquillizer drugs were administered to the children, mainly via their food intake.

Other punishments included being forced to miss meals and being made to take cold showers (Eildon has a cold mountain climate). There were accusations made that children were obtained for the sect by falsifying birth certificates. Eventually, in 1989 Mrs Byrne moved to the United Kingdom and still seemed to be operating the sect there for a time (and was seen on subsequent TV programs). In October 1990 Dr Christabel Mary Wallace, 75, was fined in Melbourne's County Court for falsifying birth records of three children in 1980 and 1984, so that they appeared to be children of Hamilton-Byrne.

Hamilton-Byrne eventually appeared in the USA from where in 1993 Anne and William Hamilton-Byrne were extradited to Australia to face charges relating to 'financial scams and mis-treatment of children.' Mrs Byrne in her few public utterances showed what can only be described as a paranoid idea of having some divine mission or other. It was even claimed she thought she was a reincarnation of the god Jesus Christ.
 
When the Hamilton-Byrnes faced an Australian court they only had to answer a charge over the false birth registration of three children in Australia. The children had been brought up as their own. The couple pleaded guilty and were fined. No charges were laid in connection with allegations of child abuse. The decision by authorities not to proceed with such charges was later bitterly criticized by former sect children.  The charges were dropped, officials claimed, because of concern over alleged offences committed in New Zealand. In May 1995 one of the survivors, 25-year-old Sarah Hamilton-Byrne, now a medical practitioner, wrote a book about her experiences, Unseen, Unheard, Unknown (Penguin).

FANTASY-PRONE INDIVIDUALS.  In June 1991 two Adelaide researchers reported on their findings concerning 'fantasy-prone' individuals who thought they conversed with or had been abducted by aliens. Dr Robert Bartholemew and Mr Keith Basterfield had worked on a theory originally suggested by American psychologists Sheryl Wilson and Theodore Barber in 1981.  It is believed that about 4 percent of the population had a 'fantasy-prone' personality. Such people really believed that what they reported experiencing had in fact occurred. It is suggested that such people generally spent a large amount of time as children in a make-believe world. The same group of people commonly reported out-of-the-body experiences. 

FATHER DIVINE. Father Divine was the name by which George Baker was best known. Born in 1882, Baker, with a Baptist background, established his own religious denomination centred on New York State and claimed to be GOD. The majority of his followers were blacks who pledged money to the organization. A network of 'Heavens' was established on earth by the Father, each staffed by 'angels'. Father Divine also developed a wide range of business and other activities.
 
From time to time the authorities prosecuted Divine, usually without great success.  On one occasion, however, in 1931 a judge handed down a judgment against him and days later dropped dead, although apparently in good health. This event received wide publicity and helped boost the Father's following. Baker/Father Divine made many outrageous claims throughout his lifetime and was ever newsworthy, as he enjoyed a flamboyant lifestyle and sported a whole fleet of limousines purchased, naturally, with the believers' money. However in 1965 he clearly demonstrated that he was not, after all, GOD - putting it simply, he died.       

FEMALES. Most religions treat females as inferior beings. Male Jews even had a prayer in which the deity was thanked for not making the supplicant a female. And the Christian Fathers generally thought woman to be a low form of life.
 
'The whole World was made for man, but the twelfth part of man for woman: Man is the whole World, and the Breath of God; Woman the rib and crooked piece of man.'  (Sir Thomas Browne,1605-82: Religio Medici ).

But who would want to be a woman and live in benighted Iran? Or Saudi Arabia? Or Pakistan? Western Governments for years condemned the regimes of South Africa and other countries but have been strangely silent over the terrible human rights abuses in such countries, especially in relation to women.  In Iran in 1992, for example, police and volunteers (eager males) rounded up women who had been running boutiques and contravening the silly strict dress code that condemns women to go about in sacks. If women voluntarily wore such hideous garments that would be o.k. but many do not wish to do so yet are forced to adopt these symbols of oppression by the males who run society. Shops were closed down and hundreds of women intimidated. Former businesswomen were virtually thrown on the streets, or forced to depend on males for support! This suits Islamic men well, no doubt!

FENG SHUI. An Oriental belief system involving the orientation of buildings and even furniture in a particular direction to ensure harmony and success. In recent times this mystical system has penetrated the West and in my own country practitioners of the art are hired to examine the feng shui of new buildings being constructed. Other practitioners ply their trade among the housewives and yuppies setting up homes. One course promises to give students 'an understanding of the energy dynamics within their houses.'  But long before such beliefs became popular in the West (in the 1960s) an Englishman wrote a book, Bring Out the Magic in Your Mind, in which he urged anyone seeking success to align their beds in a particular direction - I forget which - to achieve their desires.   

FETISHES. A great number of primitive native religions have fetish objects, that is objects that are thought to have some inherent magical powers and are therefore worshipped. These same primitive beliefs are found in Christendom. The Catholic Church has many similar objects, such as the relics found in so many churches, the innumerable saints' parts that are objects of veneration. The Shroud of Turin is a similar fetish object (in recent times found to be a fraud).
 
The Armenian Apostolic Church has, in the village of Echmiadzin, headquarters of the Catholicos (leader of the Church), a square piece of wood, said to be part of Noah's Ark, brought down from Mt Ararat by monks in 4th century CE. It is kept in a glass case. They also claim to have the spear which pierced side of Christ, supposedly brought to Armenia by Saint Bartholemew.
The term 'fetish' is also used in connection with the attachment to certain objects by human beings in a sexual context.

FIELD, John Morton.  An American lay preacher who lived in Kansas in the early part of the 20th century. Field was a pillar of the church at Mustoch and whenever an ordained minister was not available to fill the pulpit, Field stepped in. In 1915 Field fell for a member of the church choir, Gertie Day, and soon discovered to his horror that she was pregnant. In desperation he planned her death, buying some dynamite and setting it under the church. He managed to persuade Gertie to meet him late one night inside the building, where he had lit a fuse that would take 10 minutes to reach the explosive material.
 
While Gertie waited the dynamite exploded and she was killed; Field being by then back in his home. He had been very careful and had even wiped each stick of dynamite lest a fragment remaining showed one of his fingerprints. But he had carelessly used a piece of notepaper with his own handwriting, part of a sermon, to wrap the dynamite and enough of this survived to convict him. It was reported that the text for that sermon was: 'Sinners shall suffer the wrath of God.'  

FIJIAN FIGHTERS.  In March 1995 a battle erupted between rival church groups in the Pacific nation of Fiji. In dispute: who was to be allowed to preach in a particular village church. Villagers on the island of Yaqeta burnt down the home of the Assemblies of God pastor. Seven were arrested and charged with arson.

FILM CENSORSHIP. In response to pressure from Christians, who demand freedom for themselves but not for others, The Last Temptation of Christ (Martin Scorcese) was banned in Queensland (Australia) by the state Censorship Board as it was in several other parts of the world. 

FINANCES.  From columnist Woodrow Wyatt in Illustrated, 3rd November,1956:  'The other day the Archbishop of Canterbury discussed the finances of the Church Commissioners, the men responsible for paying the salaries of clergymen out of their investments . . . What improvement there had been [in payments to clergy] is mainly the result of skilful reinvestment operations by the Church Commissioners. For instance when the Trinidad Oil Company was taken over by an American company, the Church made a profit of £160,000.
 
'The Church is obliged to be a financier in a big way in order to help its clergymen to live.  For the twelve months ended 31 March this year, the income on investments and rents was £11,238,000 - and increase of nearly £750,000 over the previous year.  Today the Church Commissioners' income from all sources is just over half as much again as it was in 1948. But these increases are being achieved without much help from congregations . . . Why is it that the C of E cannot draw, as it did in the past, on the lavish gifts of loyal supporters . . . It is because, whether we admit it or not, the C of E has ceased to be a vital pulsating part in the everyday life of England. Most of its churches are nearly empty on Sunday.  In the main its clergymen seem remote figures detached from reality.'

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s there were continual reports of a serious crisis in the finances of the Anglican Church in Britain. Property investments made in the 1980s had gone sour and a loss of £800 million was recorded on assets of £3 billion.  The clergy received a considerable degree of support from these investments and the losses meant serious cuts in the funds available. The church had been forced to make a play in 'coupon trading', using the dividends to pay clergy. This effectively meant a loss in capital.   

FISH EMBLEM.  The sign of the fish is venerated by many Christians, who believe it was a secret symbol employed by the early worshippers of Jesus. This same sign is engraved on stonework as emblem of the monks of the Chapel of the Holy Innocents, the beautiful church attached to the castle of Gilles de Rais. De Rais, monstrous mass child torturer and murderer, lavished huge sums of money on the beautification of the church.

FLAGELLANTS, The. A religious cult, or perhaps more correctly, a group of cults, that flourished in Europe in the Middle Ages. Members practised self-flagellation and mutual flagellation. In the 13th century plague was stalking the land and Raniero Fasani, known as the Hermit of Umbria, began preaching the doctrine of atonement through self-sacrifice and self-punishment, particularly in the form of self-flagellation. There had prior to this been other small movements centred around flagellation and like these, after a year or two Fasani's movement died out. But others were to follow and from the latter part of the 13th century processions of flagellants began attracting ever-increasing numbers to their ranks. They travelled about the countryside whipping each other on the naked back, ostensibly as an act of penitence.  Men outnumbered women but there were many of the latter and sometimes children in the processions.
 
The penitents generally had their bodies bared to the waist, including the women.  They went barefoot and beat themselves and one another with whips, rods and any other implement that was handy, often drawing blood from the heavy stripes they inflicted. Some, it would seem, went entirely naked. St Justin of Padua, described what he saw:

When all Italy was sullied with crimes of every kind, a certain sudden superstition, hitherto unknown to the world, first seized the inhabitants of Perusa, afterwards the Romans, and then almost all the nations of Italy.  To such a degree were they affected with the fear of God, that noble as well as ignoble persons, young and old, even children five years of age, would go naked about the streets without any sense of shame, walking in public, two and two, in the manner of a solemn procession. Every one of them held in his hand a scourge, made of leather thongs, and with tears and groans they lashed themselves on their backs till the blood ran: all the while weeping and giving tokens of the same bitter affliction, as if they had really been spectators of the passion of our Saviour, imploring the forgiveness of God and his Mother . . .

And not only in the day time, but likewise during the nights, hundreds, thousands, and ten thousands of these penitents ran, notwithstanding the rigour of winter, about the streets, and in churches, with lighted wax candles in their hands, and preceded by priests, who carried crosses and banners along with them, and with humility prostrated themselves before the altars.

The activities of the Flagellants were never officially sanctioned; indeed, there was much official opposition to the cult. There had been no papal permission given. The movement was spontaneous, the people being spurred on in their painful devotions by figures such as St Anthony. Beginning in Italy the movement soon spread across the Alps into Germany and France and into Bohemia and Poland. Governments generally disapproved but nothing could stop the pilgrims. As the plague raged so did the processions multiply.
 
A sort of collective frenzy took hold and, not content with whipping one another and themselves with leather scourges, the penitents began using even more severe implements. The cords were knotted and some even had pointed iron barbs bound into their tips. Here and there groups halted and preachers exhorted the onlookers to repentance. As the Flagellants entered different areas they stirred up opposition, so much so that it was said that in one place two Church parties excommunicated one another! Eventually Pope Clement 6th issued a bull against them. The sect continued to flourish for some years but enthusiasm gradually waned.
 
By 1414, when the movement had all but expired, a man named Conrad claimed a divine revelation had directed him to revive the practices of the Flagellants. There was, he claimed, no salvation but by a new baptism, not of water but of blood, drawn from the backs of the penitents by the whips. So devoted to this doctrine were Conrad's followers that it is reported one mother wanted to scourge her infant children as soon as they had been baptised and had to be restrained by her husband from whipping the babies. This new activity prompted the INQUISITION into action and as a result 91 members of Conrad's sect were burned at the stake at Sangerhusen and many more in other centres.

There was another revival of flagellant groups in France in the 16th century, with various companies known as the White, Black and Grey Penitents going about in whipping parties. In time there was a certain festive air about some of these activities and even jollity. The women who took part were variously dressed at different times and places.  Sometimes they wore masks to hide their identities but were fully clothed, at other times wore only a shift. Sometimes they were near naked. Mostly they were barefoot as a mark of humility. In 1601 the Parlement of Paris proceeded against all whipping brotherhoods and the movement eventually petered out again.

In the years since there have been localized revivals of flagellant processions, some, especially in more recent times, more of a symbolic nature than otherwise.  They have been reported in Italy, Spain, Portugal and later in Mexico and the USA.    

FLOOD, The.  See under: NOAH'S ARK.

FOCUS ON FAMILY.  A right-wing fundamentalist Christian front group in the USA.  Founded in 1977 by Dr James Dobson, well-known for his view that children should be beaten with a rod as specified in the Bible. The organization's headquarters is in Denver, Colorado. Membership as at September 1995 was said to be about 2 million people. Turnover was reported to be about $US50 million in 1995. Programs prepared by Focus were at that time reportedly being broadcast over 4,000 radio stations, 2,500 of them in foreign countries. It has branches in a number of countries, including Japan, Taiwan and Australia.

Focus on Family opposes gay rights and women's reproduction rights and supports the teaching of the creationist superstition in public schools. It even opposes abortion in the case of rape victims or incest and opposes voluntary euthanasia. It has stridently conservative views on teenage sexuality, gender and family. It is very active in the political arena, forever attempting to have it particular moral views imposed on the rest of the community. Other bodies with similar views include the NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR WOMANHOOD and CONCERNED WOMEN OF AMERICA.

FOOD.  Most religions have rules about what foods may or may not be eaten by the faithful. Jews are permitted to eat some meats - those from cloven-footed and cud-chewing animals - but forbidden to indulge in the flesh of pigs, camels, and hares - animals having but one of these distinguishing features. This is surely a curious rule imposed by a deity! There are some primitive religions, however, in the Pacific region, where pig meat is readily consumed. The Muslims, too, are forbidden pig meat but in addition may not consume blood or the meat of any animal that is felled by a blow or strangled. Muslims are also forbidden alcohol; although curiously they are promised (at least male Muslims are) that they will consume wine in Paradise!

The Seventh-Day Adventists are strict vegetarians and do not even eat fish. The Jews may eat animals found in water but only if they have fins and scales. They may also consume some birds but not others, nor may they eat bats. Truly Yahweh imposes some strange rules upon his people. In compensation they are allowed to eat locusts, beetles and grasshoppers! They might do very well as contestants in the TV show Fear Factor! Frazer (The Golden Bough) says that at the time of Isaiah some Jews used to meet in secret to eat the flesh of pigs - and mice!

FORGERIES.  See under: FALSE DOCUMENTS.

FORT, Charles.  See under: FORTEAN SOCIETY.

FORTEAN SOCIETY, The.  Founded by an eccentric American, Charles Fort (born 1872). Fort's hobby was collecting reports of unusual, bizarre and possibly supernatural events. He read newspaper and journals avidly, searched through libraries and diligently accumulated a wealth of such reports. He also wrote four books - Book of the Damned, Wild Talents, Lo!, and New Lands. In these he reproduced the items he had uncovered, often juxtaposed with other items that seemed (in his mind, at least) to be linked with the report. The society that he formed is still in existence today.  Fort died in 1932.

FORTUNE. Dion. Dion Fortune was a psychologist in the Jungian tradition. He was a member, along with Aleister CROWLEY, of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn,  The Order was founded by a group of Freemasons in London in 1888. Dion Fortune was also at one time a member of the THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY.  Eventually he founded his own group, known as the Society of Inner Light.  He was author of several books, both non-fiction and fiction.

FOUNDATION FOR HUMANITY'S ADULTHOOD. Yet another modern cult, with its own peculiar slant on traditional Christianity, yet to hear its self-appointed leader, Jeremy Griffith, speak is to learn nothing new. It is the same old message that centres around the mythical Adam and Eve, their fall, and the redemption of man. But there is one difference with this particular preacher. Never, ever, has the writer heard a religious speaker use as swearwords 'bloody' and 'fucking'. Fuck is a perfectly good English word to describe the sex act (and is given in the Oxford Dictionary) but not very nice as a swearword!

But then such matters rarely trouble the faithful who follow on behind. Like thousands of other prophets who come and go, Mr Griffith managed to persuade a small number of youthful stargazers that he alone has the truth that can set them free. He is clever, too. Has made big use of Mt Everest climber Tim Macartney-Snape (awarded the Order of Australia) as a front man. It appears the mountaineer lost his balance a little when he returned to the lower reaches of earth to live among ordinary mortals and became one of Mr Griffith's first disciples.
 
Using his catch Mr Griffith manages to worm his way into Australia's high schools and universities, there to assault the minds of the impressionable young hearers, all with the help of willing headmasters and officials! But then most of the evangelical groups try hard to get their message into these areas, again often with official assistance.

The Reverend David Millikan has done good service revealing the activities of this and other cults. In an ABC-TV Four Corners program aired on 24 April, 1995, we were shown actual scenes in the Snowy Mountains camp of the believers. Not that one could get very excited about it all. Hard to understand why all those bright young people could follow such a boring man, with his simplistic sermons and his swearwords. The Pentecostalist preachers put on a far better show.

The message? Well, if you can sort it out, it seems that Mr Griffith teaches that man's basic nature was corrupted in the evolutionary stage between intuitive animals and rational humans. He's put all this in a book in 1992, Beyond the Human Condition, free copies of which were sent to hundreds of scientists around the world. Mr Griffith hoped they would endorse his attempts to meld biology and theology. In the event they didn't. Must have peeved the new prophet as he believes he has not only been sent (like John Baptist) by Jesus for these Last Days but he is in fact the only true 'innocent' and enlightened prophet the world has ever seen!
 
Takes one's breath away reading that! Muhammad would not approve. But there's more. Mr Griffith is no slouch when it comes to claims made of himself. He even says he is greater than Jesus! He says that Jesus was good at describing humanity's problems but did not come up with the answers. There go millions of Christians. They could not agree with that claim.

Jeremy Griffith also peddles the traditional Christian view of woman, that she must be subject to the man, clearly enunciated in both the Old and New Testament (yes, in spite of what Christian feminists say). This is very handy when members of the group go walkabout, which they do periodically, to absorb themselves in nature. The woman prepare the meals, cook them, serve them and then clean up. Very convenient for the male layabouts. But Prophet Jeremy probably has a point when he claims that sex has been the most potent means whereby men have 'attacked the native innocence' of women.

The ideal, he says, is seen in the Virgin Mary; all other women are corrupted. A sweeping claim, doubtless disputed by very many women. In any event Mary was no paragon of virtue; rather obviously she was a young lady who had a child out of wedlock. See further under: MARY THE GODDESS.
 
Where did Jeremy Griffith come from? Information is scarce. He seems to have burst upon the Australian religious scene only around the year 1990. As a teenager he studied at the expensive Geelong Grammar School, south of Melbourne (Victoria) but failed to matriculate. He later passed the necessary examinations via a correspondence course and entered New England (NSW) University, studying science.  He failed first-year science there but eventually managed to graduate with a pass degree from Sydney University. Professor Charles Birch, a well-known academic and one of his teachers, was quoted by The Sydney Morning Herald as saying Mr Griffith was intellectually 'scatty'.
 
Jeremy Griffith displays his poor science when he asserts that man evolved as a rational being two million years ago. Man evolved long before this and the 'rationality' (as we call it) he developed evolved also. It is an essential part of man's emerging mind, setting him by long stages above his fellow animals.

The Foundation is registered trust and seems, like all the cults, to have no trouble attracting money from misguided supporters. A new prophet, sent by Jesus of Nazareth? No, another to join Sun Myung Moon, and Joseph Smith and ten thousand others who one day will be remembered only as curious entries in reference works like this one. 

FOUNTAIN OF THE WORLD. This Californian religious group was distinguished by the fact that male members wore long hair and beards and members, both male and female, dressed in long flowing robes. The sect's leader was one Krishna Venta. Venta was born in 1911 although he had another name then, being known as Frank Jessen.  Through the years he adopted two more names - Ben Covic and F.H. Pencovic - for the simple reason that he had a criminal career, seeing the inside of prisons on eight occasions.

Venta established his cult, paying the $15 fee the state demanded for such a right, and set up an outpost at Box Canyon, in San Fernando Valley. There peace and free love reigned supreme under the tutelage of the man believers thought to be the reincarnation of Adam. Venta had many female sex partners, mostly other men's wives, out at his headquarters, where he instructed followers in both religion and sex.  In time he also taught his devoted harem that they should sever their relationships with their existing husbands. This proved to be a fatal error in the prophet's teaching.

In December 1958, the group hit the headlines in an unexpected way. Two disgruntled ex-members stopped the prophet outside the main building. One carried a package. The two men, Venta himself and seven other members were blown to pieces by the suicide bombers. The building itself was badly damaged and the resultant fire spread into the surrounding forests.
 
Following the explosion surviving sect members calmly went about the business of cleaning up, claiming that 'Venta will return - he prophesied that he would be cremated in 1958 - it remains only to await his materialization.' All that investigators could find of the departed prophet were his false teeth. We are all still awaiting his return to claim them. 

FOUR-LEGGED BOY.  See: MISTAKES OF DEITY.

FOX, Margaret and Catharine.  The two youngest children of Mrs and Mrs Fox, who became famous for their participation in Spiritualist activities in the 1850s.  Margaret was born in 1833. When the manifestations began the youngest girl was aged about 12. In one of several public investigations of their performances, a committee of ladies was selected who searched thoroughly the girls' clothing, shoes, stockings and even underwear. The young ladies had to strip for this examination and it was reported that 'the poor girls wept bitterly during this ordeal; still they submitted to it, though shame and indignation wrought up their feelings to so severe a pitch that their sobs and lamentations were heard by some of their friends who had been purposely excluded form the room.'

An interruption in the proceedings occurred when one of their friends, a Quaker lady, burst into the room. There followed, reportedly, a shower of rappings as the girls variously stood barefoot on pillows, glass and other substances 'supposed to be non-conductors of electricity'. Their dresses had been tightly tied to their ankles to prevent deception. They often performed with their hands and legs tied so as to exclude the possibility of movement. However in the end one of the sisters - many years later - confessed that the whole episode had been fraudulent and that the girls had deceived the believers. Some folk, however, still continued to believe, even after these revelations. 

FRANCIS, Saint (Xavier). See under: XAVIER, St Francis.

FREEDOM UNIVERSITY.  Based in Florida, USA and associated with the Gospel Light Baptist Church. Issues doctorates in Christian education via a correspondence course.  The University has been described as a 'degree mill'. In 1997 this institution became the subject of legal debate in Australia when Dr Allen Roberts, a fundamentalist Christian ark-searcher admitted his doctorate had been issued by the university after he completed a 22-months correspondence course. An inquirer telephoning the University at that time reported the following conversation (quoted in The Sydney Morning Herald, 19 April, 1997): 

Inquirer: 'Is this Freedom University?'

Voice: 'Well, no, Freedom University really isn't here. This is the Gospel Light Baptist Church and I am Pastor John Ward. Dewey Painter used to run Freedom University from a trailer round the back. He just used our address as a mail box but it didn't work out.' The inquirer was referred to another person, Joe Ryan, who said he no longer ran the university, which he described as 'kinda external'. 

FREEMAN, Reverend Anthony. In 1993 English Anglican clergyman, Anthony Freeman, of St Mark's, Staplefield, West Sussex, wrote a book, God With Us, in which he said: 'There is nothing out there - or if there is, we can have no knowledge of it.'  Following publication of this enlightening work the Bishop of Chichester, the Right Reverend Dr Eric Kemp, gave the priest a year to consider his position and in July 1994 Mr Freeman was forced to step down from the priesthood. The move prompted a protest letter from 65 priests demanding that the minister should retain his post.     

FUNDAMENTALISM. See under: CHRISTIAN FUNDAMENTALISM, and: ISLAMIC FUNDAMENTALISM.

GABRIEL, Archangel. The chief messenger revealing heavenly secrets to Muhammad was Jibral (Gabriel), who sometimes, so the story goes, merely spoke to the Prophet, at other times appeared in visible form. It was this same Gabriel who came in visions to Daniel, as recorded in the Jewish Old Testament, and who appeared to Mary to announce J