Anna Corwin is a Ph.D. student in anthropology at UCLA. She has spent a significant amount of time in a Catholic convent trying to figure out why nuns outlive other women and seem to enjoy such healthy aging. She summarizes her observations in this interesting article in Yes! Magazine.” The six tips are as follows: 1. Keep moving – nuns are apparently on their feet most of the day. 2. Practice positive emotions – nuns communicate a sense of love to each other and also in prayer daily. 3. Have a purpose and work for it – many nuns continue…
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Religion
The Unbelievers
The Wikipedia entry for the “new atheism movement” reads as follows: New Atheism is the name given to the ideas promoted by a collection of modern atheist writers who have advocated the view that “religion should not simply be tolerated but should be countered, criticized, and exposed by rational argument wherever its influence arises.” This is not a terrible definition, but it is not particularly good either. What’s unfortunate about it is that it is defines “new atheism” in terms of its negative goal of criticizing or rebutting religion and religious ideas. But new atheism also has a positive goal, which…
Islamophobia and gender equality
A recent article reprinted in Truthout has the provocative title “The biggest lie you’ve told about the oppression of Muslim women.” And what is that biggest lie? According to Lauren Rankin, author of the article and graduate student in Women’s and Gender Studies at Rutgers University, the biggest lie is that Islam is a “violent and misogynistic faith, one from which Muslim women need to be saved.” Rankin adds that those who perpetuate this lie–as Joyce Carol Oates allegedly did in this series of tweets–suffer from a form of racism known as “Islamophobia,” a term that has also recently been…
Propaganda (documentary)
The film “Propaganda” purports to be a film smuggled out of North Korea. The narrator claims that she was approached, while on holiday in South Korea, by two alleged North Korean defectors, who presented her with a DVD originating from North Korea, asking her to translate it and upload it to the internet. The film features a surprisingly accurate analysis of contemporary western media and society. It features quotes from many well-respected intellectuals and manages to connect the dots in a very clear fashion. It does not falsify information or statistics or take any text, audio, or video material out of…
Harris, Greenwald, and elementary logic
An opinion piece written by Murtaza Hussain and posted on the Al Jazeera website last month has given rise to a rather heated and very public dispute between Sam Harris and Glenn Greenwald. The dispute can be found in this vitriolic email exchange, which Harris posted on his blog, this response from Greenwald, published in the Guardian, and this follow-up piece from Harris. All are well worth reading. Those who have skimmed through this material may well wonder why these two well-educated and highly articulate men, who share much in common, can’t seem to agree on anything. What exactly is it that so divides…
Will the Internet bring an end to religion?
Not any time soon, but organized religion is on the decline in many places around the world, and in this interesting article Valerie Tarico argues that the Internet is one of the principal causes of this phenomenon. Here are the six kinds of web content that she thinks are leading the faithful astray: 1. Radically cool science articles and videos; 2. Curated collections of ridiculous beliefs. 3. The kinky, exploitative, and violent side of religion 4. Supportive communities for people coming out of religion. 5. Lifestyles of the fine and faithless. 6. Interspiritual okayness. Could it be that the internet…
Canada’s support for Israel
First the bad news. At the recent vote for an upgrade to the status of the Palestinians (to non-member observer state) at the UN General Assembly, Canada went out of its way to demonstrate that it is as strong (if not stronger) a supporter of Israel and the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories as is the United States. It also made it clear to the world that the Canadian government could not care less about the morality or legality of the occupation, world public opinion, or Canada’s reputation as a good global citizen. Following the lop-sided vote, in which Canada…
Evidence of the existence of God?
Eben Alexander recently wrote this article in Newsweek magazine describing the amazing experiences he had while in a coma, experiences which he claims prove that consciousness survives the brain, that there is life after death, that heaven is real, and that there is a divine and all-loving God. He writes, for instance, the following: In the fall of 2008, however, after seven days in a coma during which the human part of my brain, the neocortex, was inactivated, I experienced something so profound that it gave me a scientific reason to believe in consciousness after death… There is no scientific…
The culture wars come to Korea
The Unites States has had a heavy influence on Korea ever since the end of the Japanese colonial period following WWII. Along with a temporary US military government and a large contingent of US troops has come a heavy dose of American ideology and religion. Not surprisingly, South Korea now finds itself mired in an American style battle between science and religion. Gallup surveys have found that around 40 percent of Americans do not believe in evolution. A 2009 South Korean survey found that about one-third of Koreans don’t believe in evolution and, more shockingly, that 40 percent of biology teachers believe…
The sad state of affairs in Texas
The 2012 political platform of the Republican Party of Texas is available online here. The views expressed in this document are both disturbing and depressing. Below are a few highlights. 1. On Education Controversial Theories – We support objective teaching and equal treatment of all sides of scientific theories. We believe theories such as life origins and environmental change should be taught as challengeable scientific theories subject to change as new data is produced. Teachers and students should be able to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of these theories openly and without fear of retribution or discrimination of any kind. Knowledge-Based Education –…
Singer on religious freedom
Peter Singer has penned an excellent article for Project Syndicate entitled “The Use and Abuse of Religious Freedom.” The background for the article is a recent proposal of the Party for the Animals, the only animal-rights party to be represented in a national parliament. The party has proposed a law requiring that all animals in the Netherlands be stunned before slaughter. In response to this proposal Islamic and Jewish leaders have united and spoken out in defense of their religious freedom, because their religious doctrines prohibit eating meat from animals that are not conscious when killed. But would the proposed law,…
Julian Assange interviews Moazzam Begg and Asim Qureshi (The World Tomorrow)
From the website of the The World Tomorrow: [The fifth episode] of The World Tomorrow takes us to the very heart of America’s War on Terror: Guantanamo Bay. Julian Assange sat down with a former Gitmo prisoner and a rights campaigner fighting for those still trapped behind the wire. Ten years ago the war on terror prompted the opening of the facility. Now, more than three years after President Obama ordered its closure, the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, like the war in Afghanistan, remains with us. Over a year ago, Wikileaks blew the lid on Gitmo by releasing a cache of…
Julian Assange interviews Hassan Nasrallah (The World Tomorrow)
In the world premiere of Julian Assange’s ‘The World Tomorrow‘ on RT, he interviews Hezbollah leader Sayyid Nasrallah, his first appearance in international media in over six years. For interviewing such a “radical” on an English-language Russian news network, Assange predicted that he would be denounced as a traitor. And sure enough Assange’s predictions are being proven true by the reactions of the international corporate media. Episode 1:
Can You Understand the Republican Brain? (Mark Karlin interviews Chris Mooney)
Scientific American lauds author Chris Mooney “as one if the few journalists in the country who specialize in the now dangerous intersection of science and politics.” Having interviewed Mooney about his first book, the highly praised, “The Republican War on Science,” Truthout/BuzzFlash interviews Mooney about his latest release, “The Republican Brain: The Science of Why They Deny Science – and Reality.” Truthout and BuzzFlash readers can directly obtain “The Republican Brain” and support uncompromised journalism by clicking here. Mark Karlin: Progressives often say of Fox that they create facts to bolster their opinions. Is this true of the Republican mind set in general? Chris Mooney: This…
The illusion of free will (lecture by Sam Harris)
Sam Harris gave this talk at the California Institute of Technology in March 2012. In it Harris discusses the illusion of free will (the topic of his most recent book) and its implications for religious belief. The talk was organized by the Skeptics Society.
The Purpose of Purpose (Lecture by Richard Dawkins)
In “The Purpose of Purpose” lecture Richard Dawkins tells an anecdote of Peter Atkins being asked by a member of the Royal Family, “But what about the ‘why question?'” and Atkins replying, “That is a silly question”. Dawkins notes that asking why for inanimate objects like air or rocks is almost always considered inappropriate. But asking why for living organisms was often done in the past. He mentions a number of amusing examples, such as claims that domestic animals provide a means to keep their meat fresh until we have need to eat them, lice were a strong incentive to personal cleanliness,…
A Universe from Nothing (Lecture by Lawrence Krauss)
In this lecture “A Universe from Nothing”, Lawrence Krauss, a good friend of Richard Dawkins and author of many best-selling books on physics and cosmology, discusses the question of “How the universe could have formed from nothing.” Krauss explains the latest scientific knowledge about the origins and future of our universe in a manner that anyone can understand, and he provides powerful answers to the questions theists usually raise in cosmological discussions.
The Fireplace Delusion
In a recent post on his blog, Sam Harris presents an interesting example of the refusal to adjust one’s beliefs in the face of solid scientific evidence. He calls it “The Fireplace Delusion.” Unlike the other cases of intransigence that he has made a career of criticizing, this one has nothing to do with religion. It’s about the refusal to believe (despite clear scientific evidence) that burning wood in campfires or fireplaces is a serious health hazard. The issue is not that the fires might spread (though that too is always a concern) but that the smoke from the fires contains…
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The paranormal challenge
James Randi, retired professional magician (“The Amazing Randi”), author, lecturer, and amateur archaeologist/astronomer, dedicated his life to debunking the paranormal, pseudo-scientific, and supernatural. To do so, he founded the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF) and with the help of generous donors set up the “One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge“. The official description reads as follows: At JREF, we offer a one-million-dollar prize to anyone who can show, under proper observing conditions, evidence of any paranormal, supernatural, or occult power or event. The JREF does not involve itself in the testing procedure, other than helping to design the protocol and approving the conditions…
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