AASFSHNR

"Is it moral to take one innocent life in order to save ten?" - Eivind from Bookmarklet

That depends upon your definitions of moral and innocent. :^) - Friar Ticket to Ride

But in truth, I say "No." - Friar Ticket to Ride

Violence widens as anti-Western anger grows Protesters in several Muslim nations express ire at the West, with a KFC torched in Lebanon, attacks on U.K. and Germany embassies in Sudan, and demonstrations in Egypt. - Eddy63

I wish the protesters would articulate better why they're so angry. Middle eastern youth have plenty of good reasons to be angry in general, and angry with many western countries in particular. A couple of US based idiots making a sad little movie is not one of them. - Eivind

"Bill Nye, 'The Science Guy' thinks Creationism isn’t appropriate for children. At one point in this video, Nye explains that when he is confronted with an adult who seems stuck on Creationism as their primary reality tunnel, he tells them they can 'deny evolution and live in your world that’s completely inconsistent with everything we observe in the universe, that’s fine, but don’t make your kids do it because we need them. We need scientifically literate voters and taxpayers for the future.'" - Tinfoil 2.0

"Seek not to understand that you may believe, but believe that you may understand. ~ Saint Augustine. Sounds pretty zen right? Now stop. Think...Hold on a minute, having no "understanding" of anything means everything is justified if only you "believe". A wiser man explained, "A casual stroll through the insane asylum shows us that faith proves nothing." ~ except insanity < that was my addition - sofarsoShawn from iPhone

God as a Drug: The Rise of American Megachurches ScienceDaily (Aug. 19, 2012) — American megachurches use stagecraft, sensory pageantry, charismatic leadership and an upbeat, unchallenging vision of Christianity to provide their congregants with a powerful emotional religious experience, according to research from the University of Washington. "Membership in megachurches is one of the leading ways American Christians worship these days, so, therefore, these churches should be understood," said James Wellman, associate professor of American religion at the University of Washington. "Our study shows that -- contrary to public opinion that tends to pass off the megachurch movement as consumerist religion -- megachurches are doing a pretty effective job for their members. In fact, megachurch members speak eloquently of their spiritual growth." Wellman and co-authors Katie E. Corcoran and Kate Stockly-Meyerdirk, University of Washington graduate students in sociology and comparative... more... - sofarsoShawn from Bookmarklet

lol best keep off the roads today - sofarsoShawn from iPhone

""Moon, a South Korean multi-millionaire businessman, discovered his vocation as the “second Messiah” in 1936, when he claimed to have met Jesus Christ on a Korean hillside, recognising Him from His picture. Jesus informed Moon that He had been unable to complete His mission on earth due to unforeseen circumstances, so Moon (Jesus went on) had been chosen to succeed Him and to establish the Kingdom of Heaven upon Earth."" - Eivind from Bookmarklet

The second one looks a lot like my hipster cousin John. - CarlC, spelling expert from Android

"FOR OVER A DECADE, efforts have been made in several venues at the United Nations to promote the concept that States have an obligation to adopt and enforce laws against the “defamation of religions.” Some of the countries that support these efforts already have such legislation in place in the form of blasphemy or similar laws that prohibit injuring religious sentiments or insulting religious figures and leaders. Those who support the concept of “defamation of religions” argue that prohibitions such as these are necessary to fight incitement to discrimination, hostility, and violence, as well as to protect freedom of religion. But the facts tell a very different story. Such laws risk promoting an atmosphere of intolerance by providing a context in which governments can restrict freedom of expression, thought, and religion, and can result in devastating consequences for those holding religious views that differ from the majority religion, as well as for adherents to minority faiths.... more... - Eivind

"Religious belief is very common in Homo sapiens, with almost all cultures having some kind of supernatural belief that is important to their sense of identity, although that’s about the only unifying characteristic of these ideas. Within the spectrum of human society is a similarly broad spectrum of religious beliefs. These range from the simple “animal spirits” who are responsible for the unexplained (but not much else) to a “High” or “King” God who takes an active role in the world, dictating morals of a people he created. [...] However, anthropologists have managed to identify certain factors which seem to be associated with the rise of complex religious beliefs (such as the “high” god). Notably, social and economic complexity. For example, animal sacrifice and altars in the Near East are consistently preceded by groups acquiring surplus food (and the economic and social changes associated with such an acquisition). However, not much has been figured out beyond that. Increasing social complexity is correlated with more complex religious ideas, but why?" - Eivind from Bookmarklet

The article, which is about the period around the neolithic revolution, associates the two, but concludes that religious change probably followed social change rather than the other way around: "A lot of early sites in the “Fertile Crescent” are Tells. These are made of people creating clay houses, knocking them down when they fall into disrepair and then building a new house on-top of... more... - Eivind

"Peter Turchin’s Historical Dynamics: Why States Rise and Fall showed up a little sooner than I’d thought it would, and it was an even quicker read than War and Peace and War: The Rise and Fall of Empires (see review). There isn’t really anything new verbal in the more technical treatment, but the book is about half the length because so much of the text was condensed into simple differential equations and figures which displayed the results of simulations. The figure to the left was one that I found particularly interesting, the differential equations which this is based on are:" - Maitani from Bookmarklet

Hindus invented the missionary religion http://www.brownpundits.com/2012... - Maitani

"A veteran Republican says the religious right has taken over, and turned his party into anti-intellectual nuts... This article is an excerpt from the book "The Party Is Over: How Republicans Went Crazy, Democrats Became Useless and the Middle Class Got Shafted," available from Viking." - Tinfoil 2.0

"All around us now is a prevailing anti-intellectualism and hostility to science. Politicized religion is the sheet anchor of the dreary forty-year-old culture wars. The Constitution notwithstanding, there is now a de facto religious test for the presidency: Major candidates are encouraged (or coerced) to share their feelings about their faith in a revelatory speech... And some in the media seem to have internalized the GOP’s premise that the religion of a candidate is a matter for public debate." - Tinfoil 2.0

"Some liberal writers have opined that the socioeconomic gulf separating the business wing of the GOP and the religious right make it an unstable coalition that could crack. I am not so sure. There is no basic disagreement on which direction the two factions want to take the country, merely how far it should go. The plutocrats would drag us back to the Gilded Age; the theocrats to the... more... - Tinfoil 2.0

"Hermeneutics", yes, that's the bullshit term us zealots of the doctrine of the faith, came up with, it's all just a ruse so we can lawyer our way out of what is clearly bigoted hate speech. We even claim it's a science. So take that book learning! (G+ Alida Brandenburg) - sofarsoShawn

"In short, if this is not a country that remains—despite its Chick-fil-A boycotts—one steeped deeply and intractably in Christianity, I’d hate to see what kind of stringent theocracy a true Christian nation would resemble. ... Regardless of their motives, their behavior is far from what one would expect from a true lamb of Christ... many Christians don't appear to care too much about authentic Christianity anymore." - Tinfoil 2.0

What some of these religious nutters need to understand is that it lends no legitimacy to their political views that the Bible says so or that it's part of their religion. It's just as much discrimination and oppression with those labels as it would have been without. - Eivind

I eat my crow gladly; I've been schooled by a man of the cloth, yeah you'd of thought? Not me in the slightest, what a spanking! THe reasonable irrationality of religion, "What I really need to do is to get clear about 'what am I to do', not what I must know". - Therein that quote you could say he renders unto Athens what is *Athens and to Jerusalem what is J*erusalem. A dichotomy once understood is fair and just. Quite convincingly he argues the rational is not part of religion but since when has that ever been the sole claim on truth? I've grown...I hope for the better ~ NOTES* Athens represents logic, the Greeks, Jerusalem the obverse, the rationality of religion. - sofarsoShawn

Fear and Trembling is one of my favorite books, and I have used his four vignettes on Abraham and the binding of Isaac as devotional reflection pieces since around 1986. - Friar Ticket to Ride

keep your socialist hands off my ammo! - sofarsoShawn

exactly my thought - Eddy63

but God was just playing a practical joke silly! - sofarsoShawn

be in one ba-doom boom Tssssss - sofarsoShawn

"The term "rationalist" appears to be a dirty word to him (along with the three other adjectives used). It's not surprising then that the arguments made in the article seem to be largely lacking in reason and logic." Zing! :) - Eivind from Bookmarklet

After having read the original article by Dickey and her response, I tend to agree with Sheryl White. :^) - Friar Ticket to Ride

I'm glad :) - Eivind

"THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH—The Lord our God, Divine Creator and Ruler of the Universe, announced Wednesday that He considered mountains, not mankind, to be far and away the most impressive thing He had ever brought into being." - Maitani from Bookmarklet

he spoke briefly on the matter at Ridley Scott's opening of Prometheus. Looked a bit angry while addressing us. - Adriano

"BIRMINGHAM, AL—A new trend in the religious upbringing of children has recently emerged in the heart of the Bible Belt. "Home-churching," the individual, family-based worship of Jesus Christ, is steadily gaining in popularity, as more parents seek an alternative to what they consider the overly humanist content of organized worship." - Eivind from Bookmarklet

I have proudly home-churched all of my children, much to their grandparents' chagrin. - Kelli H.

OMG funny as hell!!!!! - Austin Thompson

"OMG! In a brand new episode of “Mr. Deity,” Hitch, contrary to all his expectations, shows up at the Pearly Gates—with a long list of demands for God." - Maitani from Bookmarklet

:) - Eivind

From the Psych Today article: "The good news for nonbelievers is that, for the first time ever, more than half the American population would vote for a qualified, open atheist for president. A recent Gallup poll shows that 54 percent of Americans would not consider a candidate’s atheism to be a disqualification for holding the nation's highest office." - Stephen Mack #TeamMomo from Bookmarklet

That's the point of the OUT Campaign. But then again, it's why there needs to be an OUT Campaign. It's all a circle (dislike of atheists>atheists hide>people "don't know" atheists>dislike remains) that takes people being ok with facing discrimination (and sometimes death threats) to shift the circle until it falls apart. - Heather

"It is a terrible thing when a once-noble phrase gets beaten to a meaningless pulp. The time has now come to rescue the phrase "religious freedom" from its abusers. In the writings and speeches of Catholic bishops and evangelical leaders in recent months, "religious freedom" has come to mean something close to its opposite. It now stands for "religious privilege". It is a coded way for them to state their demand that religious institutions should be allowed special powers that exempt them from the laws of the land." - Eivind from Bookmarklet

"There is a precedent in the past for a system that grants religious institutions special rights to control land and labor, that cedes to them a monopoly on the indoctrination of other people's children, and that allows them to decide on matters of individual and public health. It was called feudalism. It worked out well for the church. For the serfs, not so much." - Eivind

I have thought for some time that the inevitable result of libertarianism taken too far is feudalism. - Mary B: #TeamMonique from iPhone

http://www.youtube.com/watch... - Eddy63

http://www.youtube.com/watch... - Eddy63

Avocat du diable?? // Devil's advocate, uncertain?? - sofarsoShawn from Bookmarklet

I need to join a philosophy forum, I recognize not the place - sofarsoShawn

like whoa, there's heaps & heaps, I've found my peoples - sofarsoShawn

"Mention creationism, and many scientists think of the United States, where efforts to limit the teaching of evolution have made headway in a couple of states1. But the successes are modest compared with those in South Korea, where the anti-evolution sentiment seems to be winning its battle with mainstream science. A petition to remove references to evolution from high-school textbooks claimed victory last month after the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MEST) revealed that many of the publishers would produce revised editions that exclude examples of the evolution of the horse or of avian ancestor Archaeopteryx. The move has alarmed biologists, who say that they were not consulted. “The ministry just sent the petition out to the publishing companies and let them judge,” says Dayk Jang, an evolutionary scientist at Seoul National University. The campaign was led by the Society for Textbook Revise (STR), which aims to delete the “error” of evolution from textbooks to... more... - Eivind from Bookmarklet

Wow, that's about the population size of Estonia. - Eivind