religion
pharyngula | August 20, 2008In the reality based community, when you've got a problem, you call an expert with some skills and training to deal with it. In the rest of the world, you call a priest to blame evil spirits and do nothing for a small pile of money. How else to explain asking a wizened old Catholic priest to explain 'perversions' and STDs?
Promiscuity, as well as homosexuality and pornography, says 73 year-old Fr. Jeremy Davies, is a form of sexual perversion and can lead to demonic possession. Offering what may be an explanation for the explosion of homosexuality in recent years, Fr. Davies said, "Among the…
evolvingthoughts | August 19, 2008
The local evangelical students society had me along last night to talk about "Is belief in the Christian God rational?" I was on the negative, although I did ask them which side they wanted me to argue for. It was done in traditional debating format, and I found it incredibly restrictive - speakers were allowed to get away with introducing stuff they hadn't mentioned in their main point piece, and a number of things were left up in the air.
Kudos to the undergraduate organisers Tim and Stewart for having a philosophy lecturer and a graduate student in physics and moral philosophy (…
gregladen | August 19, 2008
I think he looks a little fat in this video, what do you think?
Speaking at the most recent EG conference, author, philosopher, prankster and journalist A.J. Jacobs talks about the year he spent living biblically -- following the rules in the Bible as literally as possible.
A.J. Jacobs' writings stand at the intersection of philosophy, Gonzo journalism and performance art. Stubbornly curious and slyly perceptive, he takes immersive learning to its irrational and profoundly amusing extreme -- extracting wisdom and meaning after long stints as a self-styled guinea pig. For his widely…
oracknows | August 19, 2008Late this afternoon, I happened to be sitting in my office perusing the websites for the latest batch of surgical journals, trying desperately to catch up on my reading, something that I, like most academic surgeons, am chronically behind in, when I happened upon the website of the Archives of Surgery. There, the lead article caught my eye, and I downloaded it for later reading. Then, as I perused a few news sites (yes, I was procrastinating; but who doesn't procrastinate from time to time?), and I came across a story about this very study:
CHICAGO - When it comes to saving lives, God trumps…
gregladen | August 18, 2008And, therefore, health care decisions should take this into account. According to 57 percent of Americans.
An eye-opening survey reveals widespread belief that divine intervention can revive dying patients. And, researchers said, doctors "need to be prepared to deal with families who are waiting for a miracle."
More than half of randomly surveyed adults -- 57 percent -- said God's intervention could save a family member even if physicians declared treatment would be futile. And nearly three-quarters said patients have a right to demand that treatment continue.
CNN
Majority Rules: God can…
gregladen | August 18, 2008This is an important one. Pharyngula is big, but it is not as big as CNN, so it is quite possible that it won't make a dent. All 12 of us must join in to have our opinions heard on this question:
Do you believe God's intervention could save a family member even if doctors say treatment would be futile?
Hurry, while it lasts, as the CNN Homepage.
evolvingthoughts | August 18, 2008
One of my claims is that religion proper arose along with the settlement in sedentary townships made possible by agriculture. The reason why this is religion, and not, say, the shamanic "religions" of nomadic tribes, in my view, is that in the latter, people are all related closely enough to be sure to whom to offer assistance in hard times with the expectation of mutual support later. The crucial role of religion proper, I think, is to mark out those who one can expect aid from, because they have demonstrated the "costly signaling" religion requires (a view of Richard Sosis and colleagues…
pharyngula | August 18, 2008Although I was actually in Guayaquil the day before brave heroes despoiled another cracker&hellip:
In response to criticisms by the nation's Catholic bishops regarding pro-abortion and anti-family language in Ecuador's new proposed Constitution, a group of people entered a chapel in Guayaquil, grabbed the Eucharistic host that was exposed for adoration, tore it apart, spat on it, and stepped on it, according to ACI Prensa.
…I was actually a thousand kilometers away on the island of Santa Cruz when the action went down. Clenched fist salute, anyway!
Note that the quote is from the crazy…
pharyngula | August 18, 2008I've been gone for 11 days now, and I'm not having a happy re-entry. Trying to get out of Quito this morning was a nightmare — we were up at 3:30am to catch a 4:00am shuttle to the airport for a 6:30am flight, and in order to leave Ecuador they make you stand in line for over 2 hours. Do the math, and you'll note that we barely made it. Then our destination was Miami. There's some storm on the way here, the airport is packed with people trying to flee, and our flight is not until 8:30pm…so we're just stuck in an airport concourse all day, hoping our flight will get us out of here tonight.
I…
oracknows | August 18, 2008Back in the spring, when gas prices shot up to well over $4 a gallon in many markets, a level from which they've fallen back somewhat over the last month or so, there was a great wailing and gnashing of teeth. Never before in U.S. history had gasoline cost so much, and we were starting to get a taste of what our European friends have had to put up with for a very long time. But just a taste. After all, I remember from my trip to the U.K. last August that gas was around £1 per liter, which at the time translated to over $7.50 a gallon. For those who lived in isolated areas or had low incomes…
razib | August 18, 2008A personal experience of mine is that many apostates from religion have...issues. On the other hand, people who were raised, or always were, atheists tend to mostly be almost confused by religion. But I was curious as to possible differences between these two groups, and those believe in God, or were unbelievers and now believed in God. So I decided to check the GSS. Here's the bottom line for the GODCHNG variable:
64 DON'T BELIEVE NOW, NEVER HAVE
116 DON'T BELIEVE NOW, USED TO
174 BELIEVE NOW, DIDN'T USED TO
2,610 BELIEVE NOW, ALWAYS HAVE
In the tables below you read from left to right…
pzminion | August 17, 2008LisaJ here again.
Wow. Now here's a story that just disturbed me to no end. Little Javon Thompson's mother, 21 year old Ria Ramkissoon, became a Christian at a young age, but when her local pastor disappointed her by pleading guilty to molesting young boys, she left her church and was taken in instead by what is now being described as a dangerous religious cult (I'd like to make the point that even plain 'ole regular Christianity is a dangerous cult, but that's beside the point). This cult, called 1 Mind Ministries, is headed by a 40 year old, I'm assuming woman, who calls herself Queen…
pzminion | August 16, 2008Johann Hari had a great piece in the Independent this week (with follow-up blog posts here and here) about increasing scrutiny of religion in general, and of Islam in particular.
An author named Sherry Jones has written a book, called The Jewel of Medina, that will never see the light of day because it novelizes the life and times, with particular focus on the marital details, of the prophet Mohammed.
The Jewel of Medina was bought by Random House and primed to be a best-seller - before a University of Texas teacher saw proofs and declared it "a national security issue". Random House had…
gregladen | August 15, 2008
The leader of a religious group that authorities believe preys on children was released from a Pennsylvania prison Friday but won't be required to register as a sex offender, triggering outrage in the community where he plans to live.
George Feigley, now 68, was convicted in 1975 on charges including statutory rape, indecent assault and corrupting the morals of minors.
Because Feigley's 1975 conviction predated the passage of Megan's Law, he will not be required to register as a sex offender. And, having served his maximum sentence, he was not put on parole upon his release.
Feigley's Neo…
evolvingthoughts | August 14, 2008
It's always a Bad Idea to critique a paper on the basis of summaries, but I just can't seem to make Proceedings of the Royal Society let me download this article. Randy Thornhill and Corey Fincher have proposed another explanation for religion, based on the correlation between tropics and diseases, and the variety of religions in the tropics.
Their argument, it appears, is to note that controlling for other factors you get higher numbers of religions in more tropical regions. Promoting within-group solidarity therefore is a way to prevent the spread of diseases, to prevent contagion. As…
gregladen | August 14, 2008On June 29th, 2008, University of Central Florida student and student officer Webster Cook was involved in the incident that has since become known as Crackergate. Mr. Cook, while trying to leave the premises of the the school's Catholic Church with the un-swallowed bread that is believed by some Catholics to be Jesus Christ, was physically assaulted and restrained. Later, Cook filed charges against the Deacon of the church who had physically attacked him, and the Church, for hazing (the most relevant available campus regulation), which prohibits the forced consumption of food by a student…
evolvingthoughts | August 13, 2008
As I sit here, dying slowly and loudly from a dose of gastro and probably 'flu (Australian male: we don't do sick well), trying to distract myself from the efforts of my lower intestines to escape to Jamaica, I came across a name I recall all too well from my 1970s: Francis Schaeffer. Well, actually his son, also known as Francis (Frank) Schaeffer.
Schaeffer pére was a leading evangelical "intellectual" whose ideas and work in large part helped organise what came to be the religious right in the US, although he lived in Switzerland. He is responsible for getting across to the American…
gregladen | August 13, 2008Webster Cook, the kid to made off with a Holy Eucharist from a Catholic Church (see this and links there-outwards) was acquitted after a seven hour trial, according to an email sent by Webster's friend, Ben. Details are expected to emerge later.
gregladen | August 11, 2008... declaring them to be wimps, prudes, and possibly chicken-poop racists.
If you're moderately literate, you've probably heard of The Jewel of Medina, the scandalous book about Aisha, the child bride of Muhammad, which Random House pulled from their publication schedule ... The book had reached the stage of galleys without anyone at Random House batting an eyelash, as far as can be told. The author, Sherry Jones, a journalist, requested that Random House send a review copy to Denise Spellberg, Associate Professor of History and Middle Eastern Studies and the author of one of the…
pzminion | August 11, 2008Monday morning, PST: time for some science with a side of controversy, Danio-style
There's a Department of Health and Human Services document circulating that's got the pro-choice lobby up in arms. Afarensis and The Questionable Authority weighed in on the sociopolitical impact of such a policy last week, but in addition to the significant threat to reproductive rights that it presents, this proposal is yet another example of the complete lack of scientific expertise informing decisions about public health.
At issue is the determination of a time point that marks the beginning of pregnancy…