Archive for September, 2008
Obama effigy found hanging from Ore. campus tree
NEWBERG, Ore. (AP) - Officials of a small Christian university say a life-size cardboard reproduction of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama was hung from a tree on the campus, an act with racial undertones that outraged students and school leaders alike.
George Fox University President Robin Baker said a custodian discovered the effigy early Tuesday and […]
Sam Harris on Sarah Palin
Let me confess that I was genuinely unnerved by Sarah Palin’s performance at the Republican convention. Given her audience and the needs of the moment, I believe Governor Palin’s speech was the most effective political communication I have ever witnessed. Here, finally, was a performer who—being maternal, wounded, righteous and sexy—could stride past the frontal […]
21Sep2008 | Admin | 3 comments | Continued
Islam, Christianity and Buddhism
As occasionally happens, someone has noticed that some people 1) don’t believe in god, and 2) some people buy books on the subject. This is, in the current hysterical climate of ultra-religious fervor that has swept the nation, newsworthy. (see here)
This article proposes to have a quick, inoffensive glance at a little ripple of atheism […]
Ex-Preacher Now Preaches Atheism
John Loftus, an ex-evangelical preacher and author of the book “Why I Became an Atheist,” told both believers and non-believers why he considers Christianity to be a false system of beliefs Saturday.
His lecture, received by a diverse crowd, summarized his life’s journey from preacher to atheist in Ballantine Hall.
To begin the talk, Loftus discussed his […]
How to Convert an Atheist
[…] Until scientists have all of the answers, these people will still huddle into that epistemic void, and try to pass off their religious beliefs as some sort of healthy skepticism. In the spirit of proving the religious wrong, I have devised a list of things that would convince me that someone’s religion is true. […]
20Sep2008 | Admin | 0 comments | Continued
Student of ‘gay Jesus’ fame aims at Islam
Jason Hawk | The Chronicle-Telegram
ELYRIA — The student whose “gay Jesus” poster stirred protest last month at Lorain County Community College is back at it again, but this time he’s not trying to knock Christianity down a peg.
Aaron Weaver, head of the campus Activists for Atheism club, has decided to turn his attention to another […]
Scientific Inquiry into Near Death Experiences
A fellow at New York City’s Weill Cornell Medical Center, Dr. Sam Parnia is one of the world’s leading experts on the scientific study of death. Last week Parnia and his colleagues at the Human Consciousness Project announced their first major undertaking: a 3-year exploration of the biology behind “out-of-body” experiences. The study, known as […]
20Sep2008 | Admin | 0 comments | Continued
Religious mother let ‘emaciated’ son die
A WOMAN has pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of her four-year-old son after she denied him medical treatment on religious grounds.
The boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, died of pneumonia and the kidney disease pyelonephritis on August 29, 2003.
The woman appeared composed as she entered a guilty plea to Justice Stephen Rothman in […]
Britain Adopts Islamic Law, Gives Sharia Courts Full Power to Rule on Civil Cases
Islamic law has been officially adopted in Britain, with sharia courts given powers to rule on Muslim civil cases.
The government has quietly sanctioned the powers for sharia judges to rule on cases ranging from divorce and financial disputes to those involving domestic violence.
Rulings issued by a network of five sharia courts are enforceable with […]
Cleric: Church owes Darwin an apology
LONDON, England (AP) — The Church of England owes Charles Darwin an apology for its hostile 19th-century reaction to the naturalist’s theory of evolution, a cleric wrote on an Anglican Web site launched Monday.
The Rev. Malcolm Brown, who heads the church’s public affairs department, issued the statement to mark Darwin’s bicentenary and the 150th anniversary […]
New Baylor survey challenges beliefs about beliefs
By Eileen Flynn
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Friday, September 19, 2008
Megachurches can be as intimate as small churches, if not more so? Atheism isn’t on the rise despite best-selling books saying God is a myth? Significant percentages of people believe in miraculous healing and say they’re heard God’s voice?
That’s what a new survey says.
Baylor University’s Institute […]
Psychology of Supernaturalism; why humans are so screwed up
Psychology of the Supernatural
Sometime during the upper Paleolithic era 50,000 to 100,000 years ago, humans experienced cognitive changes that created the ability to use our modern symbolic language.
These cognitive changes were only possible because a virtual space had been created in the minds of archaic humans.
The need for greater impulse control (niceness) in archaic […]
Sarah as “Psychopath”?
Sarah Palin is a classic “psychopath” as defined by Lowen psychodynamics, a system that analyzes the inner forces that affect behavior. This is NOT the same as the psychiatric definition of psychopath as a person suffering from “a chronic mental disorder with abnormal or violent social behavior.” In the mid-1930s, Alexander Lowen, MD, (who studied […]
13Sep2008 | Admin | 1 comment | Continued
Sarah Palin’s Religion: What Do Sarah Palin’s Churches & Pastors Preach?
In principle, the sermons preached in a politician’s church shouldn’t be a political issue, but religious believers themselves insist on making their religion an issue so those sermons and teachings can’t be ignored. If politicians are going to present their religion and religious beliefs to the voting public as part of their qualifications for office, […]
13Sep2008 | Admin | 1 comment | Continued
‘Big Bang’ experiment starts well
Scientists have hailed a successful switch-on for an enormous experiment which will recreate the conditions a few moments after the Big Bang.
They have now fired two beams of particles called protons around the 27km-long tunnel which houses the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).
The £5bn machine on the Swiss-French border is designed to smash protons together with […]
Women Drugged, Sexually Assaulted in ‘Prayer Sessions’
SYDNEY, Australia — Two men were arrested Friday and charged with 230 sex offenses police said they committed during prayer sessions with a woman who believed one of the men could cure her of a religious curse.
The men, aged 61 and 38 years, are highly regarded members of Sydney’s Greek Orthodox and Coptic Orthodox communities, New […]
Anglicans back Darwin over ‘noisy’ creationists
The Church of England expressed deep concerns last night about the spread of creationist views as it prepared to unveil a website promoting the evolutionary views of Charles Darwin.
Anglican leaders fear that “noisy” advocates of a literal interpretation of the Bible - especially in the United States, where even the Republican vice-presidential candidate, Sarah Palin, […]
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