April 2008
2 posts
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Case Closed for Free Will? →
Researchers have found patterns of brain activity that predict people’s decisions up to 10 seconds before they’re aware they’ve made a choice.
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What's New? →
There is to be no science debate. The candidates will instead talk about the importance their religious faith has in their lives.
March 2008
9 posts
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Intelligent Design Movie Is Not for Heathens →
I hope it goes without saying that evolutionary theory is not a “theory” in the colloquial sense of “hypothesis” or “conjecture”. Rather, it’s a well-corroborated system of theoretical knowledge - so well-corroborated, in fact, that its basic picture of the development of life over hundreds of millions of years is as indubitable as the heliocentric picture of the Solar System. The entirety of...
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Rethinking the Meat-Guzzler →
Though some 800 million people on the planet now suffer from hunger or malnutrition, the majority of corn and soy grown in the world feeds cattle, pigs and chickens. This despite the inherent inefficiencies: about two to five times more grain is required to produce the same amount of calories through livestock as through direct grain consumption, according to Rosamond Naylor, an associate...
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A global threat multiplier →
European action to avoid a dysfunctional global condition requires an unprecedented commitment to prevent climate change and ameliorate those effects that cannot now be avoided, especially in poorer countries.Perhaps a grand plan is called for?
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Religion is Owed no Respect →
Here the focus will be on why tolerance is often downplayed in favour of respect. Tolerance is in fact much more important and can go along with lack of respect, and even disrespect.
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Letting go of Jesus →
Perhaps I should add that when I got to Harvard Divinity School in the 1970s I was told by the reigning professor of theology, who out of deference will remain anonymous, that my way of speaking about God was too literal—almost as though I “believed the metaphor was a real thing.” A journey into the light.
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“If you like the idea of eternal life, you haven’t thought about it enough”
– anon
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Fewer confessions and new sins →
Talking to course members at the end of the seminar organised by the Apostolic Penitentiary, the Vatican department in charge of fixing the punishments and indulgences handed down to sinners, Pope Benedict added his own personal voice of disquiet. “We are losing the notion of sin,” he said. “If people do not confess regularly, they risk slowing their spiritual rhythm,”...
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Reason and Dogma are not Compatible
A blogger on Scienceblogs reformulates what has become a common critique against the current renaissance of robust examination of religious beliefs and the psychological basis of those beliefs. We dislike it [Dawkins’ book The God Delusion] because no matter what other beliefs an intelligent person may hold, so long as they accept the importance of science and the need for a secular society,...
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Rush hour of the gods →
In India, the recent increase in affluence is matched by a corresponding increase in religious belief within the burgeoning middle class - despite these beliefs standing in direct contradiction to the very source of this new-found affluence. Why?
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Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life →
Although many rationalists have taken the increase in nonbelievers as an unmitigated good, notice that three quarters of the non-religious in the table haven’t thought their beliefs through any more than most religious people have.
February 2008
15 posts
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At the elite colleges - dim white kids →
15 percent of freshmen enrolled at America’s highly selective colleges are white teens who failed to meet their institutions’ minimum admissions standards And yet we don’t hear many complaints about this from those who continually criticize affirmative action programs as being unfair. I wonder why not?
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Beware of Billionaires Bearing Gifts →
The shameful hoarding of wealth by a handful of universities mirrors what is happening in general throughout the United States.
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Sour times: The sea is becoming more acidic. That... →
CO2 + H20 -> H2CO3 Hey denialists: go on - deny the chemistry. You know you want to.
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And now here is the virus forecast →
The world is getting smaller; new diseases are emerging. Only scientific techniques can combat their spread.
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“A cynic is not merely one who reads bitter lessons from the past, he is one who...”
– Sidney J. Harris
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And The Winner Is... →
Are we about to enter an new age of religious peace? “A common worry is that intense competition for souls could produce another era in which religious conflict leads to religious war—only this time with nuclear weapons. If we are really in for anything like the kind of zeal that accompanied earlier periods of religious expansion, we might as well say goodbye to the Enlightenment and its...
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Pakistanis dream of a peaceful life as hardliners... →
The ban on music in public places has been rescinded. People are smiling in the streets; the Islamists’ fears that people would no longer be cowed were borne out.
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Dinner with Darwin →
What would you ask one of the greatest scientists of all time?
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UN's Ban says free speech must respect religion →
Spot the contradiction.
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Vaccine Safety: Vaccines Are One of Public... →
Note: smallpox killed at least 300 million people during the first 80 years of the 20th century - until it was eradicated worldwide following a systematic, science-based immunization campaign.
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Research Paper: Filling-In and Suppression of... →
Executive Summary: People believe what they want to believe - here’s how.
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Catholicism: Exorcists in Big Demand Down Under →
Read the comments and weep.
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Statement of Intent
This is a new blog that will consist mainly of interesting links, quotes, news items, articles, scientific papers and even the occasional original post by the nlightnmnt authors. Our values: reason, critical thinking, science, personal integrity and self-discipline. Our enemies: dogma, groupthink, moral relativism, selfishness and cynicism.