Ben Ferencz, who at the age of 97 is the last living Nuremberg Trials prosecutor, has issued a powerful reminder of the horrors of war, as reported in the Independent in the UK. He said this: “…the Nazi soldiers who committed atrocities were not “savages” but “intelligent, patriotic human being[s]”, and that war can make … More The Horrors of War….
The text from the Holocaust Memorial Service held in Cliftonville Moravian Church on 29/1/17: In our Old Testament lesson, the prophet Micah brings to the fore a community that has suffered much hardship, but has brought justice and mercy to the forefront of their thinking. Interestingly, there is a recognition that with such enormous injustice, … More Holocaust Memorial Day 2017: How Can Life Go On? Looking To Viktor Frankl
Friday past marked Holocaust Memorial Day in the UK, and the International Holocaust Memorial Day across the globe. Each year people come together, from across religious and cultural divides to remember the genocides that have scarred humanity deeply and irrevocably. Many moving commemorative events have taken place; some have been very public events, whilst others … More Holocaust Memorial Day & Mental Health
Viktor & I: An Alexander Vesely Film (2010) Screening on Thursday 26th January, 7.30pm @ The Strand Arts Centre, Belfast Part of Holocaust Memorial Day Viktor & I is about famous Holocaust survivor, Dr. Viktor Frankl, author of ‘Man’s Search for Meaning’. Filmmaker Alexander Vesely travelled the world to document the personal and unique side … More Holocaust Memorial Day: A Unique Insight Into Prof. Viktor Frankl
At the end of the old year and the beginning of the new, I, like so many others, pray for peace. In a world torn apart by conflict and war, peace is sorely needed. And so I pray for peace in Syria, Iraq and South Sudan, as well as the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. And then … More A Peaceful New Year With Thomas Merton
The iconic and heroic figure of Sophie Scholl still speaks to those of us who espouse non-violence in the modern age. Scholl, who was a member of the White Rose resistance movement in Nazi Germany, paid for her activism with her life. Her implacable opposition to the nihilistic ideals of the Nazi party led to … More Examining The Cost of Non-Violent Resistance: The Case Of Sophie Scholl
In this film one encounters a man who lived life to the full, and crucially, lived out his own philosophy. He understood the import of Socrates’ maxim: ‘the unexamined life is not worth living’. Also, like Socrates, Frankl understood what it is to be human and to experience the panopoly of emotions; he experienced the … More Film Review: Viktor Frankl & I
Dr. Michael Stone, a Forensic Psychiatrist from Columbia University, is perhaps best known in popular culture as the the host of the Discovery Channel show, ‘Most Evil’. In ‘Most Evil’, Stone developed and employed a ‘scale of evil’ which took into account a number of factors with the aim of categorizing perpetrators of heinous crimes. … More Dr. Michael Stone: The Psychopathology of ‘Evil’ Children
The prospect of a military strike on Syria by the USA is causing consternation across the globe. The sheer hypocrisy of the US position is staggering; here we have a country that has actually used WMD on a massive scale in Japan during WWII, killing hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians, but now finds it … More Syria, Intervention And The Twisting Of Ethics
Check out Pastor Bob Larson’s website (http://www.boblarson.org/) and you’ll see that he refers to himself as ‘the world’s foremost expert on cults, the occult, and supernatural phenomena’. Quite how he makes this assessment is not clear. Maybe it’s because he travels the world ‘exorcising demons’ in their thousands, embarking on tours around the US, the … More An Encounter With ‘The Teenage Exorcists’
