Errata section --Year 2000

Correction of major errors
in essays on this website

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2000-JUN: 

	Mormons: The membership and number of temples in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were outdated. The data was updated. They are one of the fastest growing religion groups in North America.
	OCRT office: Our office FAX number was changed. It is now (613) 547-9015. [In 2010 it was changed again to (888) 806-6115]
	Homosexuality in the Bible: This essay contained a HTML coding error that made it unreadable for anyone using the Netscape browser, even though it was fine when viewed in Internet Explorer.

2000-JUL:

	Therapeutic Touch: The genders of the subjects 1996 Pennsylvania study were accidentally reversed.
	Glossary: The definition of "religion" was changed from  "Any specific system of belief of deity... to "Any specific system of belief about deity..." to make it more inclusive.
	Harry Potter books: It turns out that the author J.K. Rowling really did not live in an unheated apartment after all. The reports that she did were either public relations hype or an over-active imagination by a reporter.
	Sikhism: Our earlier versions of this essay described the Sikh Rahit Marayada, a Sikh Code of Conduct. The reference texts that we used appear to have been wrong; this code is not current; it appears to have been an early code that never received the support of most Sikhs. Sikhs are now governed by the Reht Maryada -- the Sikh code of conduct and conventions prepared by Sikh scholars and theologians in the 1930's. It is "the only version authorized by the Akal Takht, the seat of supreme temporal authority for Sikhs." It has been accepted by Sikhs throughout the world.
	Hit Counter: The hit counters on a number of our essays and menus reset to 0 sometime about JUL-24. This is the second time in recent months that this has happened. We would prefer to have no information rather than incorrect data. Thus, we removed the counters on all but our home page. We will keep track of that one so that if it gets set to 0 we will be able to reset it to approximately the correct value.
	Alternatives to the Ten Commandments: The Judeo-Christian Ten Commandments cannot be posted in the American public school classrooms, unless they are part of a display that includes laws from other religions and from secular sources. People have suggested alternatives to the Ten Commandments that can be legally placed. One is a secular behavioral code; the other is a code that would probably be acceptable to most religions. Unfortunately, we had a copying error in the second set. We left out a "not" which reversed the meaning of one of the commandments.

2000-AUG:

Description of the Judeo-Christian creation story: In our evolution and creation science menu, we described the creation account as stating that God took precisely six days to create the universe. One of our readers pointed out that this is only one possible interpretation of the account.

2000-SEP:

	Baptism in the Roman Catholic Church: In our essay that compares Roman Catholic with conservative Protestant beliefs and practices, we had written that Roman Catholic baptism occurs during infancy. While it is normally done at this time, it can be scheduled at any time in life.
	Satanic chalices: We had written that members of The Church of Satan do not use gold chalices in order to differentiate themselves from Wiccan practice -- a religion which many of them despise. Apparently they reject gold also because it is used in Christian chalices.

2000-OCT:

Samhain: the Celtic God of the Dead: Many Christian sources (and now secular sources) have claimed that Samhain was a major Celtic deity: the "God of the Dead." We had maintained in our essay about Samhain that no such god existed. Apparently we (and almost all Neopagan sources) were wrong on this matter. There actually was an obscure Celtic hero by that name. But he was in no way a God of the Dead. He was a guy that had a magic cow.

Burial of Moses: Our essay on cremation listed mentioned that Moses' burial was mentioned in Joshua 34:6. But Joshua ends at chapter 24. The correct citation is Deuteronomy 34:6.

2000-NOV:

	Abortion letters from our visitors: We have a list of Emails received from our visitors about abortion.  One wrote that the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guaranteed "persons" the right to life. Actually, it is the Declaration of Independence that states that people have the right to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." Being a series of statements of principle, the Declaration is not a law, and is thus not enforceable.
	Harry Potter's dementors: Relying on media accounts and Internet sources, we described the Dementors as Harry Potter's protectors. In fact, they are "soul suckers" who can suck all of the joy out of one's life. In Harry's world, which of course only exists in fantasy, the best defense for people attacked by Dementors is for them to concentrate on a joyful event in their life, and to cast a specific wand spell.
	Christadelphian belief: We originally explained in our essay on the Christadelphians that they believed in original sin. They do not; some of the information sources that we had used were wrong.

2000-DEC:

	National motto: We made a major goof in our essay on the U.S. national mottos. We had said that the first motto "E Pluribus Unum" meant that one nation was formed out of many cultures. Instead, it has traditionally been interpreted as a single country forged from a number of colonies/states.
	Ritual abuse laws: Our analysis of Idaho's ritual abuse law was in error. We had been provided with the first part of this law. It seemed to criminalize circumcision. A reader supplied us with the second part, which specifically exempted circumcision from the legislation.

Copyright © 2000 to 2010 by Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
Originally written: 2000-JUN-12
Latest update: 2010-APR-23
Author: B.A. Robinson

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