Why Reason Rally? - Ashley F. Miller - ashleyfmiller.wordpress.com

By ASHLEY F. MILLER - ASHLEYFMILLER.WORDPRESS.COM
Added: Sat, 24 Mar 2012 02:03:44 UTC

I have posted so much about the Reason Rally in the last few weeks, but I have one last thing I want to talk about: why I care so much about this event.

Many of my friends talk about this event as a rallying of the troops, a way to build morale and group identity among secular America. Plus, it’s a big party with others like us! This is important, absolutely, and I wouldn’t want to take anything away from those who are going for this reason, but it is not why I am going. I am going to demand a voice.

I came to the atheist movement in a somewhat circuitous fashion. I’ve been a non-believer since I was eight. I found my teeth in my mother’s jewelry box and, having already been quite suspicious of the entire thing, concluded that there was no Tooth Fairy and, therefore, no Easter Bunny, no Santa Claus, no Jesus, and no God.

I didn’t become vocal about my atheism until after reading Hitchens’ “God is Not Great”, but even though I cared deeply about secularism, it was not my primary cause. I was more interested in being an activist, and I didn’t see any opportunities for activism for secular causes. Instead, I spent my time fighting for civil rights for LGBT, women, and minorities. When I lived in California and campaigned against Prop 8, the gay marriage ban, I finally met atheists and skeptics who were fighting, actively, for political change.

Secularists need to join one another, not only to create community and acceptance, but to demand it. I am incredibly lucky that, despite being from South Carolina and the Bible Belt, my family tolerates my non-belief — mostly in the hope that I’ll get over it, but still. There are so many people I know, including those who are active locally, who cannot speak publically about their lack of belief for fear of losing their families and their jobs. There are so many people I know who have been mistreated by the religious, so many children hurt and abused because the law gives special rights to religion, and many others who feel they can never make an impact politically unless they kowtow to the Christian Fundamentalist majority in our state and our country.
Read more

TAGGED: CONFERENCES

---

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Higgs’ View: The Real Reason People Doubt Richard Dawkins is an Ape - Faye Flam - philly.com

By FAYE FLAM - PHILLY.COM
Added: Sat, 24 Mar 2012 01:58:11 UTC

The latest chatter in the evolution blogosphere is brewing over an unlikely contention that Richard Dawkins is not an ape. Professor Dawkins says he’s an ape, which puts him in the same category as the rest of us human beings. A piece in the Washington Times contends that he’s not an ape and neither are other people who do crosswords and like Shakespeare.  

Higgs has a theory he thinks explains both the Washington Times editorial and the more general problem with acceptance of evolution.

Higgs: While many people have written interesting blog posts here, here, here and here about the ape-hood of Richard Dawkins, I humbly suggest there's one more important point to be made. This  episode has helped confirm my suspicion that you humans are embarrassed by your relatives. You don’t like other apes very much. You think they’re ugly and you imagine they’re smelly even though most of you have never sniffed a gorilla.

Think about it. Animals make one of the most popular monikers for American sports teams, such as, say, the Philadelphia Eagles. But when has there ever been a team named after any non-human primate? Can you imagine the Cleveland Gorillas playing the Chicago Baboons? Not going to happen.

In the Washington Times piece in question, the writer made much of the fact that humans can read, and enjoy Shakespeare, and do crosswords and whatnot. But the DNA doesn’t lie, and it shows people are more closely related to chimpanzees than chimpanzees are to gorillas. So you can’t very well put chimps and gorillas into the same category and not include yourselves, can you?

Read more

TAGGED: EVOLUTION, RICHARD DAWKINS

---

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

A vision for a secular America - Sean Faircloth - http://www.washingtonpost.com/

By SEAN FAIRCLOTH - HTTP://WWW.WASHINGTONPOST.COM/
Added: Sat, 24 Mar 2012 12:01:09 UTC

The Reason Rally is necessary because secular Americans want to restore the values of our nation’s founders. As one of the speakers at the Reason Rally, I offer a specific vision and plan for a secular America.

In 2012 the Religious Right has veto power over one of two major political parties in the most powerful nation on earth. To win the Republican nomination all candidates must pledge allegiance to One Nation Under a Religious Right God. Yet Mr. Conservative, Barry Goldwater, said, “I don’t have any respect for the Religious Right.” Why the change?

Shortly after the 1980 Republican convention, Ronald Reagan, stood before evangelical ministers in Dallas, declaring, “I know that you cannot endorse me” but “I endorse you.” This pivotal declaration, the culmination of effective organizing by the Religious Right, led to our current unprecedented moment in history.

Often unnoticed by the media, theocratic laws, as I document in my book, have already been passed in Congress and legislatures throughout America.

In the 1970s the Religious Right got organized, winning seats on school boards, city councils, and in legislatures. Religious bias in government is widespread:

-- theocratic laws endangering children (religious bias in faith-healing, vaccination, corporal punishment)

-- Stem cell research still thwarted by religion

-- “Faith based initiatives” discriminating with tax money

-- Vouchers funding schools discriminating with tax money

-- Government money for Scouts discriminating against gay people and the non-religious. (Girl Scouts don’t discriminate.)

-- Religious bias in land use planning

-- Religious bias in schools and textbooks

-- Student loans funneling tax money to creationist colleges

-- Religious bias impeding end of life autonomy

These laws harm thousands of people, religious and non-religious. Due to a federal loophole, there’s a separate legal standard in over 35 states for the misnamed “faith-healing” of children. Hundreds of children every year experience horrible suffering in the name of faith.

Read More

TAGGED: HARM, POLITICS, RELIGION

---

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Yet another flea - Richard Dawkins' God Delusion [NOOK Book] - Klaus Nürnberger - B&N Nook

By KLAUS NüRNBERGER - B&N NOOK
Added: Wed, 21 Mar 2012 13:12:11 UTC

Overview

Is evolving Nature all there is - a self-generated, self-propelled, and self-contained mechanism? Are human beings, as the peak of nature, sovereign owners and masters of their lives and their world? That is the stance taken by Richard Dawkins, naturalist, biologist and atheist. Or is evolving reality derived from, dependent on and empowered by God, the transcendent Source and Destiny of reality? Does this God reach out to humans as a person because humans are persons? That is the conviction of the Christian faith and the stance taken by the author of this book.

TAGGED: BOOKS, FLEAS

---

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Study reveals why our ancestors switched to bipedal power - - - PhysOrg.com

By - - PHYSORG.COM
Added: Wed, 21 Mar 2012 13:25:18 UTC

A chimpanzee moving bipedally during the study. Credit: Prof. W C M McGrew.

Our earliest ancestors may have started walking on two limbs instead of four in a bid to monopolise resources and to carry as much food as possible in one go, researchers have found.

A study published in the journal Current Biology this week, investigated the behaviour of modern-day chimpanzees as they competed for food resources, in an effort to understand why our “hominin”, or “human-like” ancestors became bipedal.

Its findings suggest that chimpanzees switch to moving on two limbs instead of four in situations where they need to monopolize a resource, usually because it may not occur in plentiful supply in their habitat, making it hard for them to predict when they will see it again. Standing on two legs allows them to carry much more in one go because it frees up their hands.

The joint University of Cambridge and Kyoto University team of biological anthropologists, led by PhD student Susana Carvalho and Professor Tetsuro Matsuzawa, conclude that our earliest hominin ancestors may have lived in shifting environmental conditions in which certain resources were not always easy to come by. Over time, intense bursts of bipedal activity may have led to anatomical changes that in turn became the subject of natural selection where competition for food or other resources was strong.

Professor William McGrew, from the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge, said: “Bipedality as the key human adaptation may be an evolutionary product of this strategy persisting over time. Ultimately, it set our ancestors on a separate evolutionary path.”
Read more

TAGGED: BEHAVIOR, EVOLUTION

---

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Military A-Week: How to put ATHEIST on your records (all branches) - Justin Griffith - Rock Beyond Belief

By JUSTIN GRIFFITH - ROCK BEYOND BELIEF
Added: Wed, 21 Mar 2012 14:45:36 UTC

Yesterday I told you why it was IMPORTANT to stand up and be counted as an “ATHEIST” and not a “NO-REL-PREF”. Today, I’m going to tell you how.

Army: Walk in to your unit’s S-1 office. Ask them to update your ERB or ORB. Tell them you want to fix your religious preference. Tell them you want “ATHEIST”. If they say anything about it not being an option, calmly explain that they are mistaken, and to check the list (it’s alphabetical for them.) If you still need more ‘proof’, here is the regulation: AR 680-29 (page 41). I made a cheat sheet for you.

Read more

---

Bloggers and activists,

The vast majority of military atheists do not have 'ATHEIST' on their records. Most of us were told (incorrectly) that you must instead use “NO-REL-PREF” which means No Religious Preference. This hasn’t been true for over a decade. It’s time to overcome this climate of fear. The silence is part of the problem.

PLEASE help get the word out about this: < a href="http://freethoughtblogs.com/rockbeyondbelief/2012/03/20/a-week-for-the-military-demand-atheist-on-your-records/">http://freethoughtblogs.com/rockbeyondbelief/2012/03/20/a-week-for-the-military-demand-atheist-on-your-records/

Don’t back down brothers and sisters. Out of those closets.

If you have NO-REL-PREF on your records, you are wrong. Go to S-1 today.

You walk right in. Tell them you want to update your records. Tell them your religious preference is wrong. They will type a few things. When they get to the correct screen, they’ll ask you what you want instead of NO-REL-PREF. You look them in the eye and tell them “ATHEIST”. That’s it. Nothing else to it. It takes two minutes.

"ATHEIST" is on the list, despite what 99% of us were told at MEPS and boot camp. You can purchase dogtags to match if your unit does not have a machine. A few bucks, and again, a few minutes.

The Wiccans did it a decade ago. They used to be looked down upon as satanic puppy stabbers. Now they’re world of warcraft nerds. I’ll take that kind of upgrade. Perhaps we can be the military’s bookworms?

Whatever your fear is, it’s part of the problem, rational or not. When we come out in great numbers, we will change some opinions. More importantly, we will change the conversation. Just 18 months ago, nobody thought Rock Beyond Belief was possible (myself included). We’ve got a breakthrough on our hands. Stand up and be counted. See you at Fort Bragg.

“If you’re scared to die, you better not be scared to live.”
Read more

TAGGED: ATHEISM

---

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Americans United's Barry Lynn interviews Sean Faircloth - Barry Lynn - Culture Shocks

By BARRY LYNN - CULTURE SHOCKS
Added: Tue, 20 Mar 2012 14:27:25 UTC

Sean Faircloth, with the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science, discusses his new book, Attack of the Theocrats, which examines the crumbling of the wall of separation between church and state—and offers a specific and sensible plan for rebuilding it.

Listen or download

Continue to website

---

Book Description
Copies on sale at the RDFRS store which inlcude a free DVD
and Amazon Kindle or Barnes and Noble Nook
At no time in American history has the United States had such a high percentage of theocratic members of Congress-those who expressly endorse religious bias in law. Just as ominously, at no other time have religious fundamentalists effectively had veto power over one of the country's two major political parties. As Sean Faircloth argues, this has led to the crumbling of the country's most cherished founding principle-the wall separating church and state-and presages yet even more crumbling. Faircloth, a former politician and current executive director of the Secular Coalition for America, moves beyond the symbolism to explore the many ways federal and state legal codes privilege religion in law. He goes on to demonstrate how religious bias in law harms all Americans-financially, militarily, physically, socially, and educationally. Sounding a much-needed alarm for all who care about the future direction of the country, Faircloth offers an inspiring vision for returning America to its secular roots.

TAGGED: INTERVIEWS

---

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Why I'm saying no to a smear - Dr Margaret McCartney - The Independent

By DR MARGARET MCCARTNEY - THE INDEPENDENT
Added: Tue, 20 Mar 2012 18:46:04 UTC

Renew travel card. Book haircut. Go for screening test. Buy cinema tickets. Meet friends." You may have spotted the odd one out – for this is not a list of things to do at the weekend, but the front cover of the NHS Scotland's "Cervical Screening Test" information booklet.

Here's a confession. I am a GP, and I don't go for cervical smears. Nor do I know what my cholesterol level is, and when I reach 50 and am invited to mammography screening, I won't be turning up. I haven't decided about bowel-cancer screening, but at the moment, on the evidence, I'm unconvinced.

Why? Part of the problem is the trivialisation of the choices that are offered to us when it comes to screening tests. It's important to be clear – screening tests are for people who are well and who have no symptoms for disease. So if you have bleeding between periods, or a change in your bowel habit, you don't need screening tests – you need diagnostic tests.

Screening tests are different. Because they aim to find disease you don't know about, the trade-off between benefits and harms tends to be more nuanced compared with tests done to investigate symptoms. Cervical screening does prevent deaths from cervical cancer. But to get that reduction, you have to follow up and/or treat all the women who have cell changes on their screening test. However, most cervical-cell changes found at screening will not lead to cervical cancer. The problem is we can't predict which will, so all need further monitoring or treatment. A study from Bristol in 2003 found that 1,000 women have to be screened for 35 years to prevent one death from cervical cancer; and to prevent that death, 80 women have to have further investigation, with 50 women having treatment to their cervices. Four out of five women found at screening to have "high-grade" changes in their cervix did not go on to develop invasive cancer.

Clearly, there is a benefit – but overall, it's small. That potential for good has to be weighed against the risks of treatment. It's known that having a cervical biopsy – which is done to get more information about the degree of abnormality – raises the risk of pre-term birth in later pregnancies. And the worry and anxiety that the results cause shouldn't be underestimated.

I'm not against screening, but I am against unthinking screening. I weighed up my personal risk factors for cervical screening (for example, smoking is a risk factor), threw in my own priorities – and decided not to have it. And here's the problem. The NHS persists in sending me red-ink letters despite my written declaration to opt out. I'm made to feel a risk-taker in not having cervical screening – yet I'd also be taking my chances if I had it done.

Read on

TAGGED: CRITICAL THINKING, MEDICINE

---

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Human fossils hint at new species - Johnathan - BBC

By JOHNATHAN - BBC
Added: Fri, 16 Mar 2012 00:24:39 UTC

Thanks to rod-the-farmer for the link.

The remains of what may be a previously unknown human species have been identified in southern China.

The bones, which represent at least five individuals, have been dated to between 11,500 and 14,500 years ago.

But scientists are calling them simply the Red Deer Cave people, after one of the sites where they were unearthed.

The team has told the PLoS One journal that far more detailed analysis of the fossils is required before they can be ascribed to a new human lineage.

"We're trying to be very careful at this stage about definitely classifying them," said study co-leader Darren Curnoe from the University of New South Wales, Australia.

"One of the reasons for that is that in the science of human evolution or palaeoanthropology, we presently don't have a generally agreed, biological definition for our own species (Homo sapiens), believe it or not. And so this is a highly contentious area," he told BBC News.

Much of the material has been in Chinese collections for some time but has only recently been subjected to intense investigation.

Read more

TAGGED: EVOLUTION, PALEONTOLOGY

---

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Australian Atheist Bus Ad Says God Better Have ‘a Good Excuse’ - Hemant Mehta - Friendly Atheist

Chaplain Demands Atheists Canceled At...

Justin Griffith - Press Release

CHAPLAIN DEMANDS ATHEIST FESTIVAL CANCELED AT FORT BRAGG
Chaplain Thinks Organizers Want to Set Fire to Churches

Melvyn Bragg attacks Richard Dawkins'...

Victoria Ward - Daily Telegraph

Melvyn Bragg, the broadcaster, has launched a withering attack on Professor Richard Dawkins, accusing him of “ignorance” and of showing “no respect” for religion.

Westboro Baptist Church to attend...

justin vacula - Scranton Atheism...

Westboro Baptist Church to attend Reason Rally with special message for atheists

Fort Bragg Guarantees Criticism of...

Justin Griffith - Press Release

US ARMY PROTECTS ATHEIST FESTIVAL AT FORT BRAGG
Fort Bragg Guarantees Criticism of Organized Religion and Adherents

Yes, life without God can be bleak....

Julian Baggini - The Guardian

Yes, life without God can be bleak. Atheism is about facing up to that

Atheists likely to outnumber Christians...

Al Webb - The Washington Post

Atheists likely to outnumber Christians in England in 20 years

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Does Conservatism Have to Be Synonymous With Ignorance? - Lawrence M. Krauss - Huffington Post

By LAWRENCE M. KRAUSS - HUFFINGTON POST
Added: Thu, 15 Mar 2012 03:17:29 UTC

The Republican flavor of the past month has been Rick Santorum, who has just won two more Southern primaries, after every other conservative alternative to Mitt Romney was examined and tossed by the Tea Party base of the new Republican Party.

The timing of Santorum's original rise occurred as the Roman Catholic Church created a cause célèbre by objecting to President Obama's proposal that Catholic-run institutions, including hospitals and medical facilities, be required to offer health insurance that provides contraception for women who request it.

The Catholic Church has long been an enemy of emerging technology, especially when it comes to reproductive health, opposing any technology that alters the 'natural' scheme of sex and reproduction. Quixotically, the focus on sex is unique and is, needless to say, inconsistent with the running of hospitals, which by their very nature do daily battle against otherwise naturally occurring disease and death.

That Rick Santorum rigorously followed the Vatican's hard line stance is not surprising. It is a little more surprising, perhaps, that Newt Gingrich was similarly opposed, as in other areas he has never met a futuristic technology he didn't like.

One might have been tempted to ask Newt Gingrich, weeks ago when he still appeared to be a viable candidate, whether he and his Catholic wife practiced contraception during their eight-year affair in order to hide any obvious evidence of their indiscretion.

Read more

TAGGED: POLITICS

---

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Heaven Can Wait - Was I wrong about the afterlife? No. - Christopher Hitchens, as told to Art Levine - Washington Monthly

By CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS, AS TOLD TO ART LEVINE - WASHINGTON MONTHLY
Added: Wed, 14 Mar 2012 23:16:53 UTC

At the end, the manner of my “passing,” as the pious so delicately refer to death, was as much a disappointment to the dewy-eyed acolytes of god-worship as it was to me, although for rather different reasons. For more than a year after I publicly announced in June 2010 that I would begin chemotherapy for esophageal cancer, the stupidest of the faithful either gloated on their subliterate Web sites that my illness was a sign of “God’s revenge” for having blasphemed their Lord and Master, or prayed that I would abandon my contempt for their nonsensical beliefs by undergoing a deathbed conversion. The vulgarity of the idea that a vengeful deity would somehow stoop to inflicting a cancer on me still boggles the mind, especially in the face of the ready explanation supplied for my illness by my long, happy, and prodigious career as a smoker of cigarettes and drinker of spirits.

As for that longed-for conversion, it never came, despite the fervent wishes of such clerical mountebanks as the Reverend Rick Warren. Said reverend, who portrayed himself as my “friend” while consigning homosexuals and nonbelievers to one of Dante’s outer circles of Hell, proclaimed with the arrogant surety of the devout: “I loved & prayed for him constantly & grieve his loss. He knows the Truth now.” Indeed I do, and much better than he. Albert Mohler, the president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, for his part, did not fail to use my death as an opportunity to stoke the fear of damnation among the credulous. Having somehow managed to evolve the thumbs needed to “tweet” his followers on his BlackBerry, he declared that my end—as if death were not a natural process common to all mammals—was “an excruciating reminder of the consequences of unbelief,” while observing with the religionist’s usual condescension that my “brilliance & eloquence” will not matter “in the world to come.”

How would he know?
Read more

TAGGED: CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS

---

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Christians have no right to wear cross at work, says Government - David Barrett, - The Telegraph

By DAVID BARRETT, - THE TELEGRAPH
Added: Sun, 11 Mar 2012 04:06:44 UTC

Christians do not have a right to wear a cross or crucifix openly at work, the Government is to argue in a landmark court case

The Government has refused to say that Christians have a right to display the symbol of their faith at work
Photo: PA

n a highly significant move, ministers will fight a case at the European Court of Human Rights in which two British women will seek to establish their right to display the cross.

It is the first time that the Government has been forced to state whether it backs the right of Christians to wear the symbol at work.

A document seen by The Sunday Telegraph discloses that ministers will argue that because it is not a “requirement” of the Christian faith, employers can ban the wearing of the cross and sack workers who insist on doing so.

The Government’s position received an angry response last night from prominent figures including Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury.

He accused ministers and the courts of “dictating” to Christians and said it was another example of Christianity becoming sidelined in official life.
Read more

---

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Yes, life without God can be bleak. Atheism is about facing up to that - Julian Baggini - The Guardian

By JULIAN BAGGINI - THE GUARDIAN
Added: Sat, 10 Mar 2012 15:55:21 UTC

Attempts to brighten up atheism's image miss its unique selling point – life can be brutal, yet we live in recognition of that

Atheists have to live with the knowledge that there is no salvation, no redemption, no second chances.' Photograph: Frank Baron for the Guardian

The problem with the "atheist" moniker has been recognised for decades. It's too negative, too associated with amoral nihilism. It's understandable then that many would agree with Richard Dawkins that we need a word like "gay" which "should be positive, warm, cheerful, bright". So why not "bright"?

One reason, which I mentioned right at the start of this series, is that it sounds too smug. But there's an even more important reason why we should not choose a word that is "positive, warm, cheerful": although many atheists are all those things, atheism itself is none of them.

Atheists have seemed rather keen in recent years to stress their jolly side. As well as the whole "brights" movement, there's the "happy human" logo used by the International Humanist and Ethical Union, the British Humanist Association and several other humanist groups. Then there were the atheist bus posters telling us that we should stop worrying and enjoy life.

Read more

---

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Science book delayed when someone notices it's written by creationists - GrrlScientist - The Guardian

By GRRLSCIENTIST - THE GUARDIAN
Added: Sat, 10 Mar 2012 17:06:42 UTC

Thanks to CargoUK for the link.

Once again, Evil Scientists have thwarted a plan by those vile Creationists to take over the world

William Dembski, who does not approve of this piece.

Creation Science and its more moderate offspring, Intelligent Design (ID), have never been taken seriously by scientists. This is because most of the actual science is poor, and in ID, at least, is never about the designer. Because of this, ID's supporters have difficulty publishing in the scientific literature, so they have to resort to other methods of getting their message out, like starting their own journal. Their latest ruse is to hold a conference and publish a book of conference proceedings.

This all unravelled last week when someone noticed. A long time ID watcher known online as "sparc" saw that the German publishers, Springer-Verlag, announced a book edited with the title Biological Information: New Perspectives. The editors of the book were well known names: Robert Marks II, Michael Behe, William Dembski, Bruce Gordon, and John Sanford. Despite clearly being an ID book (more on that below), it was being published in the "Intelligent Systems Reference Library" series in Engineering and Applied Science, i.e., not in biology. The more cynical (sensu Sir Humphrey) suspected this was an attempt to get the book through the Springer review process by sending it to an editor less likely to understand the context of the book and its proposal. The senior editor (Marks) is a computer scientist, who apparently is well respected in his field, and it may be that his reputation helped steer the book proposal through the publisher.

After some digging around by ID watchers, the following story has emerged. The book is a collection of papers presented at a meeting held on the campus of Cornell University, in the School of Hotel Administration(!). About 120 people were invited, including roughly 27 speakers. Presumably this was arranged by John Sanford, who is a "courtesy professor" at Cornell (meaning, he was a professor, but retired in 1998, evidently to spend more time with his gene gun).

Read more

---

A good summary

Steven Novella
NeuroLogica blog

We live in an increasingly complex society. There is a proliferation of clever strategies to deceive you, including in areas that require a great deal of expertise to sort out. We can no longer take comfort (if we ever could) in the notion that the trappings of legitimacy are a reasonable guide to what is legitimate. Universities have been infiltrated by all manner of pseudoscience, their good names abused to provide legitimacy for nonsense. False controversies are manufactured to erode confidence in legitimate science, while ideological journals are invented to pretend to be part of the mainstream scientific literature. Docudramas can dress up fiction as if it were fact. The quality of journalism is eroding while it is getting more challenging to separate scientific truth from pseudoscientific fiction. Meanwhile the internet has made the dissemination of information so fast that it’s a challenge just to keep up. It has also drastically reduced the price of pretending to be a legitimate organization – all you need now is a slick website.

The purveyors of pseudoscience are also getting slicker at distorting and getting around the institutions of science and academia, while eroding confidence in those institutions. The two movements that have perhaps been the most successful at this are alternative medicine and creationism, and there is remarkable overlap in their strategies (for example, the use of “health care freedom” laws and “academic freedom” laws respectively).

Recently we learned about creationists infiltrating geologist scientific meetings in order to spread stealth creationism.

From Grrlscientist in The Guardian we now have a story of another clever attempt by creationists to manufacture false trappings of scientific legitimacy. The story starts with a meeting organized at Cornell University of a bunch of intelligent design (ID)/creationists.  How did such a meeting take place? Well, first off it was held in the School of Hotel Administration. It was organized by John Sanford, a young earth creationist who is a courtesy professor at Cornell (i.e. retired). The conference consisted of the usual ID suspects giving the usual information theory, evolution can’t explain the complexity of life nonsense.

Read more

---

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Atheists likely to outnumber Christians in England in 20 years - Al Webb - The Washington Post

By AL WEBB - THE WASHINGTON POST
Added: Sat, 10 Mar 2012 02:40:37 UTC

LONDON — Christianity is waning in England and could be outnumbered by nonbelievers within 20 years, according to a new study.

The study conducted by the British Parliament showed there were 41 million Christians in Britain, down nearly 8 percent since 2004. Meanwhile, the number of nonbelievers stood at 13.4 million, up 49 percent over the same period.

Researchers at the House of Commons Library concluded that Christianity had declined to 69 percent of the population while those with no religion increased to 22 percent.

“If these populations continue to shrink and grow by the same number of people each year,” the study said, “the number of people with no religion will overtake the number of Christians in Great Britain in 20 years.”
Read more

---

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

15 Bible Texts Reveal Why “God’s Own Party” is at War with Women - Valerie Tarico - EXchristian.net

By VALERIE TARICO - EXCHRISTIAN.NET
Added: Sun, 11 Mar 2012 11:29:44 UTC

Why can’t GOP politicians trumpet their religious credentials without assaulting women? Because fundamentalist religion of all stripes has degradation of women at its core. Fundamentalist Christianity is no exception. Progressive Christians believe that the Bible is a human document, a record of humanity’s multi-millennial struggle to understand what is good and what is God and how to live in moral community with each other. But fundamentalists believe that the Bible is the literally perfect word of the Almighty, essentially dictated by God to the writers. To believe that the Bible is the literally perfect word of God is to believe that women are tainted seductresses who must be controlled by men.

Listen to early Church father Tertullian: “You [woman] are the devil’s gateway: you are the unsealer of that (forbidden) tree: you are the first deserter of the divine law: you are she who persuaded him whom the devil was not valiant enough to attack. You destroyed so easily God’s image, man. On account of your desert—that is, death—even the Son of God had to die.”

Or take it from reformer John Calvin: “Woman is more guilty than man, because she was seduced by Satan, and so diverted her husband from obedience to God that she was an instrument of death leading to all perdition. It is necessary that woman recognize this, and that she learn to what she is subjected; and not only against her husband. This is reason enough why today she is placed below and that she bears within her ignominy and shame.”

Both Tertullian, a respected Catholic theologian, and Calvin, a leader of the Protestant Reformation, took their cues on this matter straight from the book of Genesis:

To the woman [God] said, I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labor you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you. -Genesis 3:16

No matter how outrageous Santorum and Gingrich may seem to secularists and moderate people of faith, they are right on target for an intended audience of Bible believing fundamentalists. If you have any doubt, check out these fifteen Bible passages.

1. A wife is a man’s property: You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor. Exodus 20:17

Read more

All verses are quoted the New International Version of the Bible, a favorite of evangelicals.

TAGGED: US POLITICS

---

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Light triggers eyeless hydra to sting prey - George Foulsham - Futurity.org

By GEORGE FOULSHAM - FUTURITY.ORG
Added: Thu, 08 Mar 2012 16:01:50 UTC

Thanks to Mike OHare for the link.

---

"Hydra stinging cells were already known to be touch sensitive and taste sensitive, but no one had ever thought before to look for light sensitivity—probably because they don’t have eyes," says Todd Oakley. "We're the first to have found that. And we found not only that light-sensitivity genes are expressed near hydra stinging cells, but that under different light conditions, these cells have different propensities to be fired." (Credit: David Plachetzki)

Hydra, a freshwater polyp—along with jellyfish, sea anemones, and corals in the Cnidaria family—use stinging cells, or cnidocytes, to catch prey. Hydra tentacles contain barbed, poison-containing cnidocytes that they use to stun animals, such as water fleas and plankton, before eating them alive. They’re also used for self-defense and locomotion.

New research reported in the journal BMC Biology, reveals that light, or the lack thereof, has a direct effect on hydras’ propensity to fire their stinging cells—a discovery that “tells us something completely new about the biology of these animals, and we think this could extend to other cnidarians,” says Todd Oakley, professor of ecology, evolution, and marine biology at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

“Hydra stinging cells were already known to be touch sensitive and taste sensitive, but no one had ever thought before to look for light sensitivity—probably because they don’t have eyes,” he says. “We’re the first to have found that. And we found not only that light-sensitivity genes are expressed near hydra stinging cells, but that under different light conditions, these cells have different propensities to be fired.”

Read on

---

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Making memories: How one protein does it - - - MedicalXpress

By - - MEDICALXPRESS
Added: Thu, 08 Mar 2012 16:23:38 UTC

A neuron (red) accumulates messages (green) when treated with BDNF. Credit: Johns Hopkins Medicine

Studying tiny bits of genetic material that control protein formation in the brain, Johns Hopkins scientists say they have new clues to how memories are made and how drugs might someday be used to stop disruptions in the process that lead to mental illness and brain wasting diseases.

In a report published in the March 2 issue of Cell, the researchers said certain microRNAs—genetic elements that control which proteins get made in cells— are the key to controlling the actions of so-called brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), long linked to brain cell survival, normal learning and memory boosting.

During the learning process, cells in the brain's hippocampus release BDNF, a growth-factor protein that ramps up production of other proteins involved in establishing memories. Yet, by mechanisms that were never understood, BDNF is known to increase production of less than 4 percent of the different proteins in a brain cell.

That led Mollie Meffert, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of biological chemistry and neuroscience at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine to track down how BDNF specifically determines which proteins to turn on, and to uncover the role of regulatory microRNAs.

MicroRNAs are small molecules that bind to and block messages that act as protein blueprints from being translated into proteins. Many microRNAs in a cell shut down protein production, and, conversely, the loss of certain microRNAs can cause higher production of specific proteins.
Read more

---

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Antimatter ‘measured’ for the first time, could reveal building blocks of the universe - Joseph Brean - National Post

By JOSEPH BREAN - NATIONAL POST
Added: Thu, 08 Mar 2012 06:26:17 UTC

Thanks to rod-the-farmer for the link.

Scientists related to Canadian institutions involved with the ALPHA antimater project are gathered by a superconducting magnet. The more obvious vertical cylinder to on the right is a container for liquid helium (a 'dewar').

Canadian-led team at the European nuclear research agency has succeeded in trapping particles of anti-matter long enough to measure how they react to increasing energy, in a groundbreaking experiment that heralds a new age of empirical research on the most bizarre stuff in existence.

“We’re going down a path of trying to study a fiendishly difficult atom, to begin with, and we’ve got to be able to convince the world that we’re really able to manipulate them and to do something that’s going to turn into a precision experiment,” said Mike Hayden, a Simon Fraser University physicist, and a senior author on the paper, out Wednesday in the British science journal Nature. Other Canadian authors are from the universities of Calgary, British Columbia and Victoria, York University, the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, and TRIUMF, Canada’s national particle physics lab in Vancouver.

“This paper marks the transition; we’re saying we’ve done this, we’re ready to go to this next stage.”
Read more

TAGGED: PHYSICS, SPACE

---

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Countless millions of taxpayers’ money spent on discrimination in schools - Terry Sanderson - secularism.org.uk

By TERRY SANDERSON - SECULARISM.ORG.UK
Added: Thu, 08 Mar 2012 11:50:23 UTC

We often complain about the increasing amount of religion in schools, but it is not until you look at the job advertisements in papers like the Times Educational Supplement and the Church Times that you come to realise just how determined the churches are to use schools as recruiting grounds. The TES Jobs Supplement – which is much bigger than the TES itself – reveals the level of religious infiltration in state schools - funded by you and me.

In last week's issue for instance, there were dozens of recruitment ads for Church of England and Catholic schools. One example was St Claire's Catholic Primary School in Coalville, Leicestershire. They need a headteacher and the ad reads: "Our Catholic faith is at the heart of our school. Everything we say and do reflects the Christian message and we are committed to living the Gospel values each and every day."

Croughton All Saints CE Primary School in Northamptonshire is also looking for a headteacher who will "work closely with the Rector and Diocese to ensure that the Christian is embedded throughout the school's activities."

Or what about St Hilda's CE Primary School in Firswood, Manchester that wants a headteacher who is "fired by the church's mission expressed in education, and want to advance the Kingdom of God through church and school working closely together."

St Joseph's & St Teresa's in Doncaster wants a headteacher with a "strong personal faith and a clear vision of Catholic Education". St Bartholomew's CE Primary in Binley,Coventry is looking for a leader "whose vision and professionalism is underpinned by a clear and demonstrable faith."

St Mary's Island CE Primary school asks applicants for the headteacher post to "provide a faith reference" to prove that they will uphold the "Christian leadership that are at the heart of our caring environment".

The St Francis Xavier joint Roman Catholic and CE School is looking for a headteacher, saying: "We live and breathe our values. Respect, dignity, faith and justice are at the heart of our school". Unfortunately, religious discrimination of the most despicable kind is also at the heart of their school as "all applicants must be committed and practising Catholics".

And so it goes on, dozens and dozens of them, all requiring applicants to be of a particular faith and to be able to prove it, presumably with an approving letter from their local priest.

The fact that there are so many such ads may indicate that they are having problems finding enough pious teachers to fill the posts. It also indicates that because the diocese has complete control of them, they are being used as indoctrination centres.

Read on

TAGGED: CHILDREN, EDUCATION, FAITH SCHOOLS, RELIGION

---

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Publication of the gorilla genome opens window onto human evolution - - - wellcome trust

By - - WELLCOME TRUST
Added: Thu, 08 Mar 2012 13:30:01 UTC

The sequence of the gorilla genome is published today, completing the set for the living great apes. The findings provide a unique perspective on our own origins and are an important resource for research into human evolution and biology, as well as gorilla biology and conservation.

While confirming that our closest relative is the chimpanzee, the research reveals that much of the human genome more closely resembles the gorilla than it does the chimpanzee genome. This is the first time scientists have been able to compare the genomes of all four living great apes: humans, chimpanzees, gorillas and orang-utans.

Dr Aylwyn Scally from the team at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, who led the research, explains: "The gorilla genome is important because it sheds light on the time when our ancestors diverged from our closest evolutionary cousins. It also lets us explore the similarities and differences between our genes and those of the gorilla, the largest living primate.

"Using DNA from Kamilah, a female western lowland gorilla, we assembled a gorilla genome sequence and compared it with the genomes of the other great apes. We also sampled DNA sequences from other gorillas in order to explore genetic differences between gorilla species."

The team searched more than 11 000 genes in human, chimpanzee and gorilla for genetic changes important in evolution. Humans and chimpanzees are genetically closest to each other over most of the genome, but the team found many places where this is not the case. 15 per cent of the human genome is closer to the gorilla genome than it is to chimpanzee, and 15 per cent of the chimpanzee genome is closer to the gorilla than human.
Read more

TAGGED: GENETICS

---

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Afghan clerics' guidelines 'a green light for Talibanisation' - Emma Graham-Harrison - The Guardian

By EMMA GRAHAM-HARRISON - THE GUARDIAN
Added: Tue, 06 Mar 2012 18:56:31 UTC

Afghan policewomen at work: guidelines released by the country's top clerics have been described as reminiscent of the Taliban era when women couldn't go out without a male guardian. Photograph: Jalil Rezayee/EPA

Women are subordinate to men, should not mix in work or education and must always have a male guardian when they travel, according to new guidelines from Afghanistan's top clerics which critics say are dangerously reminiscent of the Taliban era.

The edicts appeared in a statement that also encouraged insurgents to join peace talks, fuelling fears that efforts to negotiate an end to a decade of war, now gathering pace after years of false starts and dead ends, will come at a high cost to women.

"There is a link with what is happening all over the country with peace talks and the restrictions they want to put on women's rights," said Afghan MP Fawzia Koofi, who warned that the new rules were a "green light for Talibanisation".

The points agreed at a regular meeting of the Ulema Council of top clerics are not legally binding. But the statement detailing them was published by the president's office with no further comment, a move that has been taken as a tacit seal of approval.

"Ultimately, I don't see a way you can read it as not coming from (Hamid) Karzai," said Heather Barr, Afghanistan researcher at Human Rights Watch. "It's probably not an extreme position for the Ulema Council, but it's an extreme position for Karzai, and not compatible with the constitution, or Afghanistan's obligations under international law."

The clerics renounced the equality of men and women enshrined in the Afghan constitution, suggesting they consider the document that forms the basis of the Afghan state to be flawed from a religious perspective.

Read on

TAGGED: HUMAN RIGHTS, ISLAM, LAW, RELIGION

---

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Rick Santorum’s Virginia Church and Opus Dei - Molly Redden - The New Republic

By MOLLY REDDEN - THE NEW REPUBLIC
Added: Wed, 07 Mar 2012 04:21:28 UTC

Rick Santorum’s Catholic faith is an obvious centerpiece of his campaign for the GOP presidential nomination, and it is rare for him to speak without referencing his religious beliefs. It is also rare, however, to hear him speak about his particular church, St. Catherine of Siena, which he and his family have belonged to for at least a decade. Even his 2005 manifesto on his personal faith and politics, It Takes a Family, did not mention the church. I was curious to learn more about it, so last Friday morning, I attended a 9 a.m. Mass there.

St. Catherine is a modern, low-slung brick building that sits in the affluent and hilly Washington suburb of Great Falls, Virginia. It is a notably conservative congregation—its neat grounds include a “garden for the unborn,” and the schedule offers a Latin Mass each Sunday featuring Gregorian chant sung by a professional choir.

The church claims 3,400 parishioners. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and his wife attend Mass there; at one time or another, so have Redskins quarterbacks, the head of the National Rifle Association, and former FBI director Louis Freeh. (Members of the Branch Davidians once blocked the parking lot with a protest targeted at Freeh after the Waco raid, someone familiar with St. Catherine told me.) The church also suffered brief notoriety eleven years ago when FBI agent Robert Hanssen—then a member of the congregation—was arrested for selling intelligence to Russia. Mostly, the church is home to families with school-aged children—“big families, seven-, eight- or nine-children families,” as one parishioner told me. (None of the half-a-dozen parishioners I interviewed would agree to be quoted by name, and the parish office declined interview requests.) Bishop Anton Justs of Jelgava, Latvia, who oversaw the creation of St. Catherine in 1981 as a reverend in Arlington, wrote in an email that its wealthy congregants are known for generosity. “The Catholic Church Community in Great Falls is very dedicated, intellectual and keeps strongly to Christian values … The people of the parish have been very generous in terms of contributions to the church and humanitarian aid abroad. It has been over 20 years since I left St. Catherine, but people write to me, and at Christmas time enclose a check.”
Read more

TAGGED: US POLITICS

---

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.