Yesterday evening at the Anabel Taylor Hall, the Interfaith Council at Cornell hosted the fourth annual “I Believe in … Dinner,” an event started by Lee Leviter ’08 to promote interfaith diversity. About 100 guests attended the event, representing over 20 different faiths and religions. Guests sat in assigned seats so that people of different backgrounds were next to each other.

Emily Smith ’10, the chair of ICC, formally started the event by remarking on its importance and purpose.

Ever since that historic moment when God instructed Abraham, the founding patriarch of Judaism and the ancient Israelites, to circumcise himself as a sign of their covenant, Jews have been at the forefront of wooing the ladies. It’s not our fault that, as a collective people, we get more action than a sorority house toilet after dinnertime. It’s in our genes.

I started thinking a few weeks ago about the idea of sin. Fitting, considering that on the holiday of Yom Kippur, Jews apologize for sins committed by our individual selves and on behalf of the larger Jewish community.

Today is Love Your Body Day, another holiday. LYBD is sponsored by National Organization of Women and celebrated across the nation. On its website, NOW writes:

“Women and girls spend billions of dollars every year on cosmetics, fashion, magazines and diet aids. These industries can’t use negative images to sell their products without our assistance.

Together, we can fight back.”

Cornell students enjoyed a night of delicious food and stimulating discussion at a Jewish-Muslim Dialogue Dinner last night.

With Rosh Hashanah and the end of Ramadan coinciding together this year, Jewish and Muslim students on campus gathered in the One World Room at Annabel Taylor Hall in the hopes of bridging a dialogue between the two communities. Cornell Hillel, Muslim Education Cultural Association (MECA), Cornell Israel Public Affairs Committee and the Islamic Alliance for Justice were the four hosts of the dinner.

ISTANBUL — As a university student coming to Turkey, I knew there was a chance of encountering today’s incarnation of the brutal and bloody struggle for this country’s soul. While I had that knowledge, I never thought I would actually see it. When I saw it, it took me a few hours to comprehend what actually took place. Here I will relay to you what I saw, what I think it means and why it is important. This is not simple subject matter to write about and I do not claim to be an expert in any way on the topic. I can only record and observe. The following is just that.

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Arabs across the ideological spectrum, from secular-minded liberals to Muslim hard-liners, are denouncing a top Saudi cleric's edict that it was permissible to kill the owners of satellite TV stations that show "immoral" content.

Many expressed worry the recent comments by Sheik Saleh al-Lihedan — chief of the kingdom's highest tribunal, the Supreme Judiciary Council — would fuel terrorism, encouraging attacks on station employees and owners.

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Just when you thought that the hundreds of pages of reading, weekly chemistry lab reports, lengthy econ problem sets and dreaded history oral presentations were too much for your brain (which is slowly returning from summer vacation) to handle, stop feeling sorry for yourself, because compared to some Ithaca residents, your intellectual to-do list is as mundane as the mid-day talk shows on National Public Radio.

Today’s college students are more preoccupied than ever. Between classes, exams, parties, Facebook, Twitter, career planning in accordance with the recession and the fascinating rituals of Zen Booze-ism, religion seems to have receded into the background.

Simultaneously, in the “real world," religion is losing ground. According to the Guardian, in Japan, although 75 percent of the population label themselves as “Buddhist," temples are often empty and transformed into tourist attractions, and monasteries are running low on cash. A Survey by Christian Research show that by 2050, Sunday church attendance in the UK will fall by over 90% to less than 88,000, compared to just under a million at the moment, reported the Guardian.

Hate the religious right? Consider the religious right the source of hate?

While I do not have such a strong opinion, during the pinnacle of the religious right’s influence, I could not find anything in the Bible about giving judicial nominations an up or down vote or why God would smite Ariel Sharon with a stroke for dividing Israel’s land.

I actually happen to be a conservative and a Christian, but I consider the two parts neither to be equivalent nor mutually exclusive. I may have wanted an up or down vote for judges as a conservative, but I had no opinion of it as a Christian.

Certainly many reading this could cite more examples of the religious right overstepping their bounds. But is only the religious right or just religion capable of this?