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Technical Difficulties With Automated Blog Posts

[20100131] The blog is still refusing mail from gmail. I've stopped the forwarders. When the mail server stops trying to deliver mail (probably by the 5th). I'll try another strategy.
I'm trying to find the equilibrium between Google News Alerts, Gmail and Blogger to permit automated posting of Google News Alerts to the blog so I can have them for reference and work on other things. My goal is not to focus on one news topic, but to have the varied topics in the news feeds automatically posted in the blog daily or weekly because I can capture more unique data that way.

Suicide Bomb News Feed

The Jihad News Feed

Witch News Feed

Ritual Abuse and Killing News Feed

Faith Heal News Feed

Female Genital Mutilation News

Exorcism News Feed

Child Bride or Marriage News Feed

Church Abuse News Feed

Animal Sacrifice News Feed

Religious Exemption News Feed

Thursday, December 31, 2009

At least 109 girls and women were subjected to rape, genital mutilation or kidnapping

The New York Times
The U.N. report, based on 687 interviews conducted by investigators in Conakry and elsewhere in late November and early December, corroborated witness reports that more than 150 people were killed or went missing during a rally.
At least 109 girls and women were subjected to rape, genital mutilation or kidnapping, with hundreds more subjected to torture and abuse, the report said.
Asked by a legislator what France, the former colonial ruler of Guinea, was doing to ensure that these findings resulted in prosecutions, Kouchner said that the International Criminal Court had taken on the issue of its own accord.
Contributed by Gandolf
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Coconut-Carrying Octopus: Tool Use in an Invertebrate

ScienceDaily (Dec. 15, 2009) — Scientists once thought of tool use as a defining feature of humans. That's until examples of tool use came in from other primates, along with birds and an array of other mammals. Now, a report in the December 14th issue of Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, adds an octopus to the growing list of tool users.
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"There is a fundamental difference between picking up a nearby object and putting it over your head as protection versus collecting, arranging, transporting (awkwardly), and assembling portable armor as required," said Mark Norman of the Museum Victoria in Australia.
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Annise Parker: Openly Gay Mayor Elected In Houston, Texas

Huffington Post
The election battle leading up to Saturday's balloting was marked by fierce campaigning and anti-gay rhetoric. Parker is a lesbian who has never made a secret or issue of her sexual orientation. If she wins, Houston will become the largest U.S. city to ever have an openly gay mayor.
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Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Strange irony of bishops' multiculturalism

Irish Times .Com
There are profound philosophical and practical problems with this version of multiculturalism. Philosophically, it ends up eating its own tail, as respect for one “identity” ends up cancelling out another. If female genital mutilation is a protected part of an African identity, what happens to women’s rights? If it’s okay for imams to preach hatred of homosexuals, is it okay for homosexuals to teach hatred of Muslims? And who gets to define a “tradition” anyway? (Usually, of course, middle-aged or elderly men in dresses.) Most obviously, of course, the purveyors of this ideology in the religious sphere don’t actually believe it themselves. With a very few exceptions, religions are founded on the idea of a unique and superior access to the mind of God. The relativism that they sometimes adopt is merely strategic. If the Catholic bishops actually believed the stuff that they are currently spouting – that everybody’s faith or lack of faith has the same status in a lovely world of pluralism or diversity – they would be Bahais or Unitarians.
Contributed by Gandolf
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New Screening Tool Helps Identify Children at Risk for Developmental Issues

ScienceDaily (Dec. 13, 2009)

"There has long been interest in the use of newborn neurobehavior to forecast the future development of children," said Dr. Lester. "Many babies are considered 'at risk' for having behavioral, emotional or cognitive problems, especially as they reach school age, because of prenatal factors such as prematurity or substance exposure and postnatal factors like poverty or violence."
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Oregon City faith healers say son's death was not a crime

The Oregonian
The Beagleys belong to the Followers of Christ, an Oregon City church that relies solely on spiritual healing and rejects doctors and medicine. The hearing today in Clackamas County Circuit Court will preview some of the prosecution and defense arguments but won't delve into medical evidence.

Attorneys also will revisit issues that arose during the Carl and Raylene Worthington case. The Worthingtons, also Followers of Christ, were accused of manslaughter in the death of their 15-month-old daughter, Ava.
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Both cases involve questions about the rights of parents to treat their children with faith healing and allegations that church members are targeted for prosecution because of their beliefs.
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Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Scientists Decode Memory-Forming Brain Cell Conversations

ScienceDaily (Dec. 16, 2009) — The conversations neurons have as they form and recall memories have been decoded by Medical College of Georgia scientists.

The breakthrough in recognizing in real time the formation and recollection of a memory opens the door to objective, thorough memory studies and eventually better therapies, said Dr. Joe Tsien, neuroscientist and co-director of MCG's Brain & Behavior Discovery Institute. He is corresponding author on the study published Dec. 16 in PLoS ONE.
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"Carlos Magalhaes, confessed to pushing supposedly "blessed" sewing needles deep into the child"

CBS
Magalhaes told detectives the woman would enter into trances and give him commands to insert the needles, police inspector Helder Fernandes Santana said. The stepfather told police the rituals happened every few days for a full month, with him inserting several needles during each session.

The lover, Angelina Ribeiro dos Santos, paid to have the needles blessed by a woman who practiced the Afro-Brazilian religion Candomble, Santana said.

Authorities initially estimated the boy had as many as 50 needles were inside the boy. After batteries of tests were performed, doctors now believe there are closer to 30 needles inside, but they don't know for sure.
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Faulty interpretation

theage.com.au
IT IS because the Catholic Church opposes embryonic stem cell research that xenotransplantation remains the only option for many researchers and sufferers of serious diseases (Letters, 12/12).

Such research offers the potential to one day be able to grow tissue to replace diseased organs, hence curing many of these diseases and significantly reducing the number of animals killed for medical research.

We can only hope that eventually religious organisations will stop using their interpretations of ancient texts to hold back new forms of scientific research. In the meantime, the suffering of human and animals continues unabated.


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Monday, December 28, 2009

Antidepressant May Change Personality While Relieving Symptoms

ScienceDaily (Dec. 12, 2009) — Individuals taking a medication to treat depression may experience changes in their personality separate from the alleviation of depressive symptoms, according to a report in the December issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Two personality traits, neuroticism and extraversion, have been related to depression risk, according to background information in the article. Individuals who are neurotic tend to experience negative emotions and emotional instability, whereas extraversion refers not only to socially outgoing behavior but also to dominance and a tendency to experience positive emotions. Both traits have been linked to the brain's serotonin system, which is also targeted by the class of antidepressants known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs).
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Man urged son to rape cousin, 12

BBC
A man who encouraged his teenage son to marry and rape his 12-year-old cousin has been jailed.

The 54-year-old organised a sham Muslim ceremony between his son, then 16, and the girl at his home in Woolwich, south-east London, in March last year.
...
Scotland Yard child abuse detectives then discovered several relatives of the boy had urged him to rape his cousin.
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Churches to escape property tax

Guardian.co.tt
The bill lists the following as tax-exempt:
1. land used exclusively as churches/cemeteries;
2. school buildings, offices, playgrounds, UWI, COSTATT, UTT, state land;
3. Land used for educational, philantrophic/religious purposes, or owned/occupied by charitable institutions;
4. land used for public hospitals and relief of the poor, whether publicly/privately-owned;
5. land owned/occupied by a foreign government/international organisation of which T&T is a member.
6. Landowners have 21 days in which to file objections to taxed amounts.
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Sunday, December 27, 2009

Study Confirms Association Between Tobacco Smoke and Behavioral Problems in Children

ScienceDaily (Dec. 10, 2009)
"We were able to show that children who are exposed to tobacco smoke prenatally and during the first years of life have a higher risk of developing abnormal behavioral symptoms when they are of school age," said Dr. Joachim Heinrich of the Institute of Epidemiology at Helmholtz Zentrum München. "Moreover, it makes a difference whether the child was exposed to tobacco smoke first after birth or was already confronted with it during prenatal development."
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"crime has manifested in a number of ways, the most prominent of which is human sacrifice"

allafrica.com

This year, crime has manifested in a number of ways, the most prominent of which is human sacrifice. In September, the anti-sacrifice trafficking taskforce chief, Moses Binoga, said out of the 21 people murdered between January and August, 13 were juveniles.
Binoga, who was issuing guidelines to the public to curb ritual murders, said the Police had arrested 91 suspects since January, 32 of whom had been taken to court.

He said most of the victims of child sacrifice have not been under the care of their biological parents and that the killers take advantage of the laxity of the caretakers. Among these cases is that of a prominent city tycoon, Kato Kajubi, who is facing trial in Masaka High Court over child sacrifice.
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Saturday, December 26, 2009

Pilgrims killed in Baghdad bombing

Baghdad, Iraq (CNN)
Two Shiite pilgrims were killed in a roadside bombing in Baghdad on Saturday afternoon, the latest strike targeting people marking Ashura, one of the most important annual holy periods for Shiite Muslims across the globe.

Eight other people were wounded in the strike, which occurred in the New Baghdad district of southeastern Baghdad, Interior Ministry officials said.
The incident comes amid a large troop presence...to protect Shiite pilgrims from attacks.
Hundreds of thousands of the pilgrims are expected in Baghdad and Karbala for the commemoration, which reaches its peak over the next 24 hours.

The period commemorates the martyrdom of Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Mohammed who was killed in battle in Karbala in 680, one of the events that helped create the schism between Sunnis and Shiites, the two main Muslim religious movements.

From Saturday evening until Sunday in Karbala and Baghdad, Shiite pilgrims will be chanting, beating their breasts in penance, cutting themselves with daggers or swords and whipping themselves in synchronized moves until next morning.
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Ex-First Bank Chairman's Son Identified as US Plane Attempted Bomber

Thisdayonline.com
The young man, who yesterday night attempted to ignite an explosive device aboard a North-West Airlines flight going from Amsterdam to Detroit, Michigan in the United States has been identified as Abdul Farouk Umar Abdulmutallab, the 23-year-old son of Alhaji Umaru Mutallab, former First Bank chairman, who just retired from the bank's board a fortnight ago.
The older Mutallab... was said to have noticed the extreme nature of the boy's religious belief and has taken several measures to tame him.
The suspect, Abdulfarouk Muttalab who is an engineering student at the University College, London had been noted for his extreme views on religion since his secondary school days at the British International School, Lome, Togo.

At the secondary school, he was known for preaching about Islam to his school mates and he qwas popularly called ëAlfaí , a local coinage for Islamic scholar. After his secondary school, the young man, family sources said, once relocated to Dubai in  the United Arab Emirates from where he declared to his family members that he did not want to have anything to do with any of them again.
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Why does the Pope need security? Aren't the prayers of the faithful enough?

While I'm glad nothing happened to the Pope on a personal level, logically, they should get rid of security and let faith handle it. It would be like putting his money where his mouth is. If God wants a Pope, he'll provide one, right?
LAtimes.com
Father Federico Lombardi, the pope's spokesman, said it's not realistic to think the Vatican can ensure 100% security for the pontiff because he is regularly surrounded by tens of thousands of people for his weekly audiences, services, papal greetings and other events.

"It seems that they intervened at the earliest possible moment in a situation in which 'zero risk' cannot be achieved," he said of Vatican security officials. They will nonetheless review the episode and "try to learn from experience," Lombardi said.
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Modern Behavior of Early Humans Found Half-Million Years Earlier Than Previously Thought

ScienceDaily (Dec. 23, 2009) — Evidence of sophisticated, human behavior has been discovered by Hebrew University of Jerusalem researchers as early as 750,000 years ago -- some half a million years earlier than has previously been estimated by archaeologists.
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Animal Sacrifices are Atonement, but Christianity uses a Human Sacrifice Instead

Local 5 News

The sacrifices of the Bible were offered not only to atone for sins but also as free will offerings to celebrate some joyous event, and as holiday offerings for the three biblical pilgrim festivals of Passover, Shavuot (Pentecost) and Sukkot (Tabernacles). Each of these three holidays was called, in Hebrew, a hag. The Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca called the Haj takes it name from this word.
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Some theologians consider such animal sacrifices spiritually primitive and in general, I, along with every single animal, agree with them. Although animal sacrifice is arguably the oldest religious ritual on earth, it's based upon a very dubious belief--that the death of an animal can correct your own moral failings.
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The rabbis introduced a daring change in Jewish worship - replacing every sacrifice with a prayer from a newly created prayer book. The prayer times were the same times as the sacrifice times, but no blood was spilled.
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This change was made necessary by historical events but had enormous impact on Judaism and the newly emerging religion of Christianity. Surrogate atonement through animal sacrifice was basically abandoned in favor of the direct and ethically superior command of confession and personal apology to anyone you had hurt. Sins were human acts that needed to be fixed by human actions, inspired, of course, by God's commands to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.
Contributed by Gandolf
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Friday, December 25, 2009

Is the Republic of Guinea a blessing or a curse ?



Inter religious marriages are very common among the people, and these relationships work very well. The country's constitution is monogamous although polygamy is acceptable here. Female genital mutilation is being practiced equally by Moslems and Christians alike. Traditional beliefs go side by side with religion, even among Christians. Tribalism/ racism are on the rise but the nation unites as one people to protect their country. Guineans are known to segregate the 'slaves'/ griot (praise singers) from the upper class. No matter one’s status in life, the cast system affects a lot of people. But most people do get along. I have made Guinea my home for the past 12 years. I’ve witnessed many internal problems escalate, only to dissipate quietly. It's a blessing.
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Deschutes kids forgoing shots

The Bend Bulletin

“Those underimmunized popu- lations are the ones that get diseases,” said Dr. Peter Boehm, a pediatrician at Mosaic Medical Bend.

“Overall, community protection is going up among the young ones,” Young said. “Religious exemption data doesn't tell us specifically which shots (are not given), so we don't know where the vulnerabilities are.”

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Scary Talk about "taking back" Christian America from the Geopolitical Conspiracy

www.newswithviews.com, Rev. Ted Pike
"He enthusiastically agrees with my explanation of why Christian America is losing our God-given freedoms and what can be done to redeem them.
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In my discussion with Coach Daubenmire, we arrive at new, workable, and biblically sound answers and solutions. But they are definitely not what you will hear in the mainstream of either left or right. Nevertheless, now more than ever, telling the whole, undiminished truth and acting upon it is the only effective way to take back America.
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In the same way, we can see the insanity of attempting to hold back an extremely complicated social and geopolitical conspiracy by only providing half the truth. No wonder we are losing!"
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Thursday, December 24, 2009

East Africa’s Albino Underworld

0 comments
ISN

“More than 1,000 have been arrested since 2008. These include witchdoctors, businessmen and women, hired killers, members of the clergy, some police officers (released on bail), parents and relatives of the victims. Hitherto, only seven have been convicted and sentenced to death by hanging [including three] for the killing of a 14-year-old boy. This has not yet been implemented, as President Jakaya Kikwete has yet to sign the execution orders,” Ntetema told ISN Security Watch.
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A response to “The case of an eight year-old Saudi bride”

altmuslimah.com
The Muslim Public Affairs Council spoke out against the practice of child brides in the Muslim world in a December 9th article, “The case of an eight year-old Saudi bride,” published here. This is an area of jurisprudence that has caused contentious debate in both the Muslim and the Western worlds. Many Muslims argue that the issue of child brides is directly related to the life and practice of the Prophet Muhammad (may God’s peace and prayers be upon him).
In Islamic tradition, the Prophet is reported to have married Aisha when she was six years old, and they consummated the marriage when she reached nine years of age. However, many western Muslims and Muslim reformers in the Islamic world have attempted to re-evaluate these traditions in light of modern sensibilities that denounce child brides as repugnant or unfit for modern values. The problem they face in their revision is that this issue is entrenched in Islamic tradition making it difficult to reform. MPAC’s attempt to explain away this phenomenon is more problematic because it fails to give adequate value to the traditions that approve of child brides. MPAC also attempts to play down how wide spread the acceptance of child brides is in the Sunni Islamic legal tradition.
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Yemen: the story of a child bride

BBC
On the face of it Nujood is like any other schoolgirl living in the Yemeni capital Sanaa.

But one thing makes her different: she was divorced by the time she was 10 years old.

When she was married at the age of nine, her husband was 30.

Owen Bennett-Jones met Nujood with her father, mother and several siblings at her Sanaa home and asked her first to describe her wedding day.
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Uganda’s Inhumane Bill

TIMESONLINE

Why this African nation, which this week approved a landmark Bill banning female genital mutilation and has shown commendable past honesty in confronting ignorance about Aids, should now consider such a benighted Bill is no mystery. Prejudice has always been strong in Africa against homosexuality, as it is in the Caribbean. This has been fanned by the row within the Anglican communion over gay clergy and by the tentative attempts by a few gay Africans to call for greater tolerance. But political groups have seen easy advantage in exploiting this prejudice. In the Church, as among those seeking voter support, branding homosexuality as a Western perversion is an easy way to hit out at perceived Western cultural dominance. This link has been encouraged by the recent visit of leaders of US conservative Christian ministries that promote therapy for gays to become heterosexual.
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Toddlers escape from Cape Coral daycare

CBS, WINK
Nicholas Nuzzi says his girlfriend and a neighbor, who live across the street, saw the children cross Miramar Street, a busy two way road where cars routinely zip by at 35+ miles per hour.

DCF confirms they are investigating and adds that there have been "several" complaints of alleged child abuse and neglect against the many schools/daycares that Grace Community Schools runs.

The DCF spokesperson tells WINK News that the schools operate under a religious exemption, meaning they are not licensed or inspected by the State.

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Dysrationalia: Why smart people do dumb things

Globe and Mail

Give this problem a shot before you keep reading, but don't feel badly if you get it wrong.
Bob is in a bar, looking at Susan. But she is looking at Pablo. Bob is married. Pablo is not.
Is a married person looking at an unmarried person? The answer could be (a) yes, (b) no or (c) cannot be determined.


Roughly 80 per cent of people choose (c), but it is not the correct answer, says Keith Stanovich, a professor of human development and applied psychology at the University of Toronto.
He studies why smart people do stupid things - or, in more scientific terms, how intelligence is distinct from rationality. His work offers insight into important cognitive abilities that are not measured by IQ tests. It also suggests that deficits in real-world reasoning can be corrected, whether in adults or in children.

He says most people get the Bob-Susan-Pablo problem wrong because they tend to be "cognitive misers" - they put as little mental effort as possible into solving a problem. In this case, they quickly jump to the conclusion that they don't have enough information rather than making the effort to see if they do.
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Gunman surrenders in hostage ordeal at Virginia post office

It says that the FBI and Virginia State Police negotiated the suspects surrender, so why thank God? What did a God have to do with anything? Which God? Why that God? And if a God had anything to do with it, how did it do it?
CNN-- A daylong hostage standoff ended late Wednesday when an armed, disabled man wheeled himself out of a post office in Wytheville, Virginia, and was taken into custody, police said.
The alleged gunman, identified by police as Warren "Gator" Taylor, 53, of Sullivan County, Tennessee, surrendered in a wheelchair, said Wythe County Sherrif's Office Chief Deputy Keith Dunagan. All three hostages walked out without injury.
Wytheville Mayor Trent Crewe breathed a sigh of relief when the almost nine-hour ordeal finally ended.

"All of them are all right, thank God," Crewe said. "I am elated that it's over."
Negotiators from the FBI and the Virginia State Police negotiated the suspect's surrender and the release of the hostages, said a law enforcement source familiar with the situation.
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Four killed in Pakistan suicide blast

AFP news: PESHAWAR, Pakistan — A suicide bomber targeted a security checkpoint in Pakistan's Peshawar on Thursday, killing four people in the second such attack in as many days in the flashpoint northwestern city.

Attacks are escalating in the city of 2.5 million people on the edge of Pakistan's tribal belt on the Afghan border, an area Washington brands the most dangerous place on Earth and the chief sanctuary of Al-Qaeda.

The bomber targeted a checkpoint in the army cantonment, blowing himself up on one of Peshawar's busiest areas, outside a government office and a church, where Pakistan's Christian minority were preparing to celebrate Christmas.
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Peshawar's is on the frontline of Pakistan's two and a half year campaign of suicide and bomb attacks waged by Islamist militants who have carved out havens in the northwest and who oppose Islamabad's alliance with the United States.
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Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Secretary pushes to repeal tax exemptions


Thanks Boz, 2001 was probably a typo meant to be 2011, since the rest of the article uses 2011 instead of 2001.

Kansas.com
The second-largest line item on Wagnon's list is the exemption for religious organizations. That amounts to $17.9 million in 2010 and $18.6 million in 2001 [2011], records show.
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How We Support Our False Beliefs

ScienceDaily (Aug. 23, 2009)
The findings may illuminate reasons why some people form false beliefs about the pros and cons of health-care reform or regarding President Obama's citizenship, for example.

The study, "There Must Be a Reason: Osama, Saddam and Inferred Justification" calls such unsubstantiated beliefs "a serious challenge to democratic theory and practice" and considers how and why it was maintained by so many voters for so long in the absence of supporting evidence.

Co-author Steven Hoffman, Ph.D., visiting assistant professor of sociology at the University at Buffalo, says, "Our data shows substantial support for a cognitive theory known as 'motivated reasoning,' which suggests that rather than search rationally for information that either confirms or disconfirms a particular belief, people actually seek out information that confirms what they already believe.

"In fact," he says, "for the most part people completely ignore contrary information".

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Manuscript fragment reveals Jewish 'exorcism'

The Jewish Community Online

A fragment of a manuscript measuring 6in by 5in has lifted the veil over the long-vanished world of Jewish exorcism.
The fragment, containing 150 words of a handwritten Sephardi Hebrew prayer of exorcism from the 18th century, is almost certainly unique, according to the academic who discovered it.
Dr Renate Smithuis is the official cataloguer of Manchester’s John Rylands Library Geniza, a treasure trove of 11,000 manuscript fragments rescued from a 1,000-year-old storeroom at the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Cairo, now held at the University of Manchester.
Dr Smithuis, who has collaborated with Prof Gideon Bohak of Tel Aviv University, said: “This is not an account of an exorcism or a story, it is an actual exorcism ritual prayer with the names of the three people involved, recited in a synagogue. When you read it you feel almost as though you are in the synagogue. That’s what makes it so exciting.”

A ghostly trace of the Jewish Occult

Haaretz.com

The 150-word text provides a haunting insight into the often forgotten world of the Jewish occult. While exorcisms are frequently described in Jewish texts from the Middle Ages on, this appears to be the first text that provides the prayer used in a specific exorcism.
Contributed by Gandolf
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Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Brain Cell Mechanism For Decision Making Also Underlies Judgment About Certainty

ScienceDaily.com
The results of this study, according to the authors, advance the understanding of brain cell mechanisms that underlie decision making by coupling for the first time the mechanisms that lead to decision formation and the establishment of a degree of confidence in that decision.

"Our findings suggest that when the brain embraces truth, it does so in a graded way so that even a binary [yes/no, true/false, left/right] choice leaves in its wake a quantity that represents a degree of belief. The neural mechanism of decision making doesn't flip into a fixed point, but instead approximates a probability distribution."
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Increase in parents seeking religious exemptions from immunizations

Bend Bulletin
The health of mothers and children in Deschutes County has improved in recent years, according to indicators such as immunization rates and prenatal care listed in a county report to be released in the next few weeks.

But there are also reasons for concern, according to a draft of the county public health report. These include an increase in the number of children whose parents sought religious exemptions from immunizations

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Sen. Coburn: ‘People Ought To Pray’ That A Senator ‘Can’t Make The Vote Tonight’

ThinkProgress.org
"The Senate is expected to vote very late tonight/early Monday morning “on the first of three motions to close off debate” on the health care bill and proceed to an expected Christmas Eve vote on final passage. Speaking against the health care bill on the Senate floor just moments ago, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) expressed his hope that a Senator of the majority caucus would not be able to make the vote:

What the American people ought to pray is that somebody can’t make the vote tonight. That’s what they ought to pray.

Just a few minutes later, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) interrupted while Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) was speaking to issue a challenge to Coburn:

I have been trying to reach Sen. Coburn. … This statement troubles me, and I’m trying to reach him come back to the floor and explain exactly what he meant about a senator being unable to make the vote tonight. … I’m reaching out to Sen. Coburn. I’ll be on the floor for the next 45 minutes, and I hope that he will join me there."
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Male and Female Circumcision in the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Communities

A Religious Debate, by Doctor Sami Aldeeb Abu-Sahlieh
"Many doctors and religious men were encouraged to start talking about female circumcision; however, the circumcision of males is still an obj ectionable topic. I agree wholeheartedly with Dr. Sami Abu Sahlieh, the author of this book, that the campaign against circumcision should include both sexes, not just females. The crime is one, even if they vary in degree or form. "
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Swiss Minaret Ban a Setback for MidEast Diplomacy

The Layalina Review

“Most Muslims accept the minaret as an architectural conduit for the call to prayer, but most do not seek political power, subscribe to the burqa, tolerate forced marriages, or accept genital mutilation of girls,” comments Ahmed Rehab at the Huffington Post.
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"Sexually Transmitted Disease: Their Witches Connection"

2 comments
Guaranteed to be the craziest thing you've seen all day...
Modern Ghana.com
Witches meet in the coven (assembly of witches) every night (12:00 midnight). They make human beings captive. If your spiritual level is very low they can arrest and take the spirit of that person captive in the night and from there affect all his or her activities and even kill him or her. In their coven, spirit of human captive looks like animals e.g. goat. Anything they do to that animal representing your spirit in their coven, it will affect you physically. Whenever they kill the animal in their coven the human captives will die later. Witches can travel (spiritually) in a split second to any part of the world to attack their victims. This is because they move through the air and there is no barrier in the air. Witches press people at night to suck their blood.
Contributed by Gandolf
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Monday, December 21, 2009

Fired CHOP Couple: Religion Kept Them From Getting Vaccinated

NBC Philadelphia
"Our seasonal flu vaccine policy is stronger than most hospitals in our region – and it should be, because we care for the sickest of sick children," read a statement from CHOP. "Many of the children in our care have never had a chance to have a seasonal flu vaccine themselves so we have to do it for them. Many of our patients are either too young or their immune systems are too weak."

The Cowlays said they refused to get the shot for religious reasons.

"I am a Christian, and my religion prohibits me from receiving vaccines," said Tyrika Cowlay, who was a lab technician. Gary Cowlay worked in environmental services.
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Aggression Among Pre-School Children Is Primarily Among Males And Worsens With Age, Study Finds

ScienceDaily (Mar. 23, 2009) — A study led by Catalan researchers has clearly shown the importance of the first developmental life stages in the development of the symptoms of psychopathological disorders. This research confirms the existence of aggression by pre-school children towards their peers, as well as differences according to age and gender. There is a widespread lack of understanding about this important stage of life, and previous data have shown that 1% of the pre-school age population in Spain already shows symptoms of major depression.
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Contrary to belief, the majority of these symptoms start at a very early age. The problem, according to therapists, is the great lack of understanding among the general public about the importance of such symptoms in children, and the significant limitations in detecting them. “If we can do something at this age, it is possible that we could prevent the problem from becoming really established later on,” says Jané.
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Taking stock of prayers and healing

OregonLive.com
Ryder Stevens is what's known in the Christian Science church as a "practitioner" of prayer-based healing.

When he speaks next week at Lake Oswego High School, perhaps he'll share the story he told me of his own miraculously fast recovery from a high school football injury just days after a doctor told him the injury would take weeks to heal.

A story he's less likely to tell is the long, painful death of 2-year-old Robyn Twitchell, whose screams of pain from a fatal bowel obstruction forced his Boston neighbors to shut their windows but never persuaded his Christian Science parents to call a doctor.
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Sunday, December 20, 2009

Archbishop of Canterbury rebukes Episcopal leaders after L.A. diocese elects gay bishop

LA Now
The spiritual leader of the global Anglican Communion issued an unusually sharp and swift rebuke to Episcopal Church leaders over the election of an openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles. In a terse statement, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams delivered a warning to bishops, clergy and lay representatives of the U.S. church about the confirmation of the Rev. Canon Mary D. Glasspool, a lesbian who has been in a partnered relationship for two decades.

"The election of Mary Glasspool by the Diocese of Los Angeles as suffragan bishop elect raises very serious questions not just for the Episcopal Church and its place in the Anglican Communion, but for the Communion as a whole," Williams said in the statement.
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Supreme Court to deal with rights of religious groups at state schools

Associated Baptist Press
The justices agreed to hear the Christian Legal Society’s appeal of a lower court’s decision saying the group’s student chapter at the University of California’s Hastings College of Law had to, like other school-recognized student groups, follow the university’s non-discrimination policy. The policy includes provisions prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or religion.

In 2004, the chapter asked for exemptions from those two aspects of the non-discrimination rules, saying the national Christian Legal Society’s policies prohibit non-Christians and people who engage in non-marital sex from being voting members or officers of the organization.

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Teenage Birth Rates Higher In More Religious States

Shooting yourself in the foot....
ScienceDaily (Sep. 18, 2009)
Joseph Strayhorn said: "The magnitude of the correlation between religiosity and teen birth rate astonished us. Teen birth is more highly correlated with some of the religiosity items on the Religious Landscapes Survey than some of those items are correlated with each other."
...
According to Strayhorn: "Our findings by themselves do not, of course, permit causal inferences. But, if we may speculate on the most probable explanation, we conjecture that religious communities in the US are more successful in discouraging the use of contraception among their teenagers than they are in discouraging sexual intercourse itself."
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Importing witchdoctors to hunt down witches

0 comments
From the - Island online, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Ivory Coast have all lived through nightmarish civil wars after long-ruling dictators died or were killed and junior officers seized power. Gambia has been ruled for the past fifteen years by a former army lieutenant who now imports witch doctors from Guinea to hunt down the witches who he believes are trying to kill him. And now Guinea has fallen into the hands of the junior officers.
Contributed by Gandolf.
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Saturday, December 19, 2009

Sikh-Americans and Religious Liberty

Pewforum.org. With their distinctive appearance and religious practices, Sikh-Americans often find themselves at the center of workplace discrimination cases and other controversies involving their religious rights.
...
In California, for example, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger recently vetoed a bill that would have required police in the state to receive training about the Sikh religion - including the faith's requirement that believers carry a small sword known as a kirpan.
...
One 1984 case involved a Sikh whose job potentially exposed him to toxic gases. The employer required all employees in this position to be clean shaven because facial hair interferes with the use of a gas mask, and employees might need to use a gas mask in an emergency. The Sikh employee asked for an exemption, but the employer refused. Instead, the employer offered him a lower-paying position that did not involve potential exposure to toxic gases. The employee filed a discrimination lawsuit, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit sided with the employer, ruling that the employer's concern about workplace safety justified the decision not to exempt the Sikh employee from the ban on facial hair.

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Pope Benedict XVI declares Pius XII 'venerable,' angering Jewish groups

NYDailyNews.com
Jewish leaders expressed disgust Saturday when Pope Benedict XVI pushed a controversial predecessor one step closer to sainthood.
The pontiff declared Pius XII "venerable" even though he's been criticized for not doing enough to help Jews during the Holocaust.

Elan Steinberg, vice president of the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and their Descendants, called Benedict's decision "profoundly insensitive and thoughtless."
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Collective Religious Rituals, Not Religious Devotion, Spur Support For Suicide Attacks

ScienceDaily (Feb. 20, 2009) — In a new study in Psychological Science, psychologists Jeremy Ginges and Ian Hansen from the New School for Social Research along with psychologist Ara Norenzayan from the University of British Columbia conducted a series of experiments investigating the relationship between religion and support for acts of parochial altruism, including suicide attacks.

...This study indicates that religious devotion does not cause support for suicide attacks or other forms of parochial altruism. However, the findings suggest that regularly attending religious services may make individuals more prone to supporting acts of parochial altruism (suicide attacks). The researchers theorize that collective religious rituals and services create a sense of community among participants and enhance positive attitudes towards parochially altruistic acts such as suicide attacks. Although, the researchers note, the greater sense of community, developed via religious services, may have many positive consequences. They observe, "Only in particular geopolitical contexts is the parochial altruism associated with such commitments translated into something like suicide attacks."
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L.A. Episcopal Diocese elects openly gay bishop

Los Angeles Times
Reporting from Los Angeles and Riverside - The Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles on Saturday elected the first openly gay bishop since the national church lifted a ban that kept gays out of its highest ordained ministry, a move that deepened divisions between liberals and conservatives in the faith.

Clergy and lay leaders, meeting in Riverside for their annual convention, chose the Rev. Canon Mary D. Glasspool, 55, who has been in a committed relationship with another woman since 1988, from a field of six candidates. She is a canon, or senior assistant, to the Diocese of Maryland bishops.
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Brain Differences Found Between Believers In God And Non-Believers

Belief reduces the ability to self-correct. What good is believing in a God that wants you to be moral when belief in a God disrupts the mechanism needed to know when to change behavior?

ScienceDaily (Mar. 5, 2009) — Believing in God can help block anxiety and minimize stress, according to new University of Toronto research that shows distinct brain differences between believers and non-believers.

Their findings show religious belief has a calming effect on its devotees, which makes them less likely to feel anxious about making errors or facing the unknown. But Inzlicht cautions that anxiety is a "double-edged sword" which is at times necessary and helpful.

"Obviously, anxiety can be negative because if you have too much, you're paralyzed with fear," he says. "However, it also serves a very useful function in that it alerts us when we're making mistakes. If you don't experience anxiety when you make an error, what impetus do you have to change or improve your behaviour so you don't make the same mistakes again and again?"
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Friday, December 18, 2009

Algonquin Elder Saved By Prayer To Bird

OttawaCitizen.com
Doctors told him they could operate, but they would not be able to heal him entirely, and he would need to use a colostomy bag.
...
He started a course of tea made by his wife and a First Nations herbalist, and injections from a faith healer.
The turning point came early one morning. “I heard this bird singing outside.” After he opened the drapes to see it, he fell to his knees by the sofa, engulfed in pain.
“I knew that bird was not just a bird. He was more than that. I asked that bird to save me.”

...
He stopped drinking, and got over his constant anger. He forgave everyone who had made life so difficult for his people. His wife was baffled. “You’re not the same person anymore, what did you do to yourself?”

His temper subsided because, “My life does not belong to me, it’s not mine. It’s borrowed time. It belongs to my Creator.”
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Believers' Inferences About God's Beliefs Are Uniquely Egocentric

ScienceDaily.com
The researchers noted that people often set their moral compasses according to what they presume to be God's standards. "The central feature of a compass, however, is that it points north no matter what direction a person is facing," they conclude. "This research suggests that, unlike an actual compass, inferences about God's beliefs may instead point people further in whatever direction they are already facing."

But the research in no way denies the possibility that God's presumed beliefs also may provide guidance in situations where people are uncertain of their own beliefs, the co-authors noted.
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Thursday, December 17, 2009

Cayce to leave court in good shape

Star-Telegram
The seven-member court, which handles civil and criminal nondeath penalty appeals from 12 counties, has ruled on a range of issues, from child custody to investment fraud, from whether Arlington had to refund street maintenance fee collections to whether a church could be held liable for a teenager’s injuries during an exorcism.
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Pro-Life Activists Invade Sen. Casey's D.C. Office to Hold 'Pray-In'

If prayer really worked, you could do it from where you're at couldn't you? But God should already know right? And doesn't he have a plan? Is God going to change his mind? Why would he need to unless he hadn't considered something? What the heck do these people think they're doing?
ChristianNewsWire.com
"Sen. Casey has refused to meet with any representatives of state pro-life organizations on this issue, either in Pennsylvania or in his D.C. office. So, we are traveling to his D.C. office to pray that he votes in accordance with his stated pro-life beliefs."

Pray-In Event Details---

When: Tuesday, December 15, 2009; 1 PM

Where: The Office of Sen. Robert Casey, Jr., 325 Russell Senate Office Building, Washington, DC
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Rare dementias rob personality, then life

CNN.COM
Life was good for Kenny Sparks. ... At 49 he had it all. But then he began to change....Kenny has a condition known as frontotemporal dementia, or FTD.
"Many patients will lose their inhibitions; they'll act totally inappropriately, leaving their families to wonder what is wrong," said Dr. Murray Grossman, a neurologist with the University of Pennsylvania. "Some patients will have no problem spending the family fortune, taking all their money and putting it into scams, get-rich-quick schemes, or going off and buying an expensive car or boat the family doesn't need. The patients lose their reasoning."
"What's particularly frustrating for family members is, the patients don't seem to have much insight into the difficulties they are having or causing for others," Grossman said.
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Annual Witches Conference Causes Panic

0 comments

Legitimizing violence and politics with supernaturalism.

Peace FM Online
Fear is said to have gripped residents of Hyiawu-Besease in the Bosomtwe Kwanwoma District of the Ashanti Region following media reports that this year’s annual general conference of the Association of Witches in West Africa (AWWA), is scheduled to be staged in the town.

The residents’ fear, has been aggravated following some weird happenings in the town since the news broke somewhere last week. Three people including a middle-aged woman, according to sources, have died under hard-to-believe circumstances in the town in the last four days.
...
The letter, which was leaked by an aggrieved witch, noted that Ghana’s share of the blood-letting exercise has been targeted mainly on the Offinso-Techiman and Obuasi-Kumasi roads.

According to the disillusioned witch, she decided to divulge the information because she hails from Ofiinso-Namong and also has relatives at Anwian-Nkwanta on the Obuasi-Kumasi road, which forms part of the designated roads for the blood theatre. Meanwhile, the local branch of the Ghana Christian Council at Hyiawu-Besease has vowed to stop the intended witches’ conference scheduled to be staged in the town.
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Wednesday, December 16, 2009

What's Next: Insurance Coverage of Prayers Not to Get Pregnant?

HuffingtonPost.com
Let me begin by saying that I have no intention to ridicule the Christian Science religion to the extent it relies upon prayer in the face of illness. It is a religious belief and practice to be respected. On the other hand, the thought of insurance coverage for such prayer sessions is ludicrous. Will we next be covering the cost of chickens killed in animal sacrifice!
The possible inclusion of such coverage is wrong for a number of reasons. First, there is no proven medical benefit to such prayer. It may work and it may not. However, there are a number of reported cases in which the reliance upon prayer in the stead of recognized medical treatment has resulted in disastrous consequences. Second, among the goals of health care reform is the reduction of costs. To add unproven spiritual remedies to the ever increasing expenses, runs contrary to that goal. and it may open the door to many other unproven remedies.

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Evangelist Oral Roberts Dies at 91

Associated Press
Roberts' message was one of healing the whole person — body, mind and spirit. The philosophy led many to call Roberts a "faith healer," a label he rejected with the comment: "God heals — I don't."

Before Roberts came on the scene, "the idea of healing within a religious service was left to Christian Scientists or people who went to Lourdes," Cox said. "Now, it's fairly common in churches across the board. In his own way, he made that happen."

Synan, who ranks Roberts among the three or four most important Christian leaders of the last half of the 20th century, said Roberts was widely loved for bringing Pentecostals, derided as "holy rollers" for their spirit-filled worship and speaking in tongues, into the mainstream.

Just decades later, more than 1 in 4 Christians in the world today are Pentecostal, said Cox. Roberts "was onto some of this stuff intuitively long before it became as big as it has."
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Craving Hinders Comprehension Without You Realizing It

So we must only have a percentage of Free Will based on our physical resources..... 

ScienceDaily (Dec. 8, 2009)
A new University of Pittsburgh study reveals that craving a cigarette while performing a cognitive task not only increases the chances of a person's mind wandering, but also makes that person less likely to notice when his or her mind has wandered.
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Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Tomorrow's annual ritual at Nongoma involving the killing of a bull - will go ahead as planned.

East Coast Radio Mobile
That's the ruling that's just been handed down in the Pietermaritzburg High Court. Judge Nic Van der Reyden has dismissed, with costs, an application by Animal Rights Africa to stop the killing of a bull during the First Fruits Festival. The controversial animal sacrifice - scheduled to take place at King Goodwill Zwelithini's home - was being opposed by the group as it felt that the method used to kill the bull was cruel.
But Van der Reyden said he was satisfied with the evidence of a cultural expert that the ARA's objection to the ritual was based on untrue information and hearsay. ARA's Steve Smit says they're disappointed by the ruling and will decide what course of action to take once they've studied it fully. "We still stand by our position on the issue of cruelty to the animal and the fact that it should not be tolerated within our society. And we will look at our options now and will discuss it with our council. The process goes ahead in whichever way it has been going ahead -and it's just very sad for the bull. At this point in time our concern lies with the bull more than anything else."
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Upclose With President Banda

AllAfrica.com
Among the Zambians was the controversial Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo, who was summoned to Rome because of his exorcism of spirits and later excommunicated.
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Miracle of Science, 32 years After, DNA Matches Inmates Sample

CBS News, Crimesider
"Investigators say DNA from a smock found at the crime scene ultimately led them to Maldonado-Perez. He submitted a DNA sample before his release from a Texas prison for another crime.

This is exciting when we are able to take a case that's 32 years old and bring somebody to justice and to bring closure to the family, it's a miracle of science," said Cooke. "It's a great Christmas present I think for the family of Mary Pierce."
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Monday, December 14, 2009

Blood does not cleanse. Blood stains!

citizen.com
On 11/27, we were blessed with another sermon from Bishop Paul Blake, PRECIOUS BLOOD. It took me back to the days of my early teenagerdumb when the cruci-fiction of the Bible god, Jesus, began to gross me out. I felt somewhat ashamed and weak because everyone else seemed to enjoy it so much.

As the Bishop put it, "The concept of the shed Blood of Christ offered in substitutionary sacrifice for guilty and condemned sinners is profoundly offensive to the modern mind." Yes, I admit it, the alleged brutal, barbaric, and bloody murder of an innocent man/god to somehow pay for my sins is not only offensive, but stupid and certainly unjust. Even if I was a sinner, (there is no such thing as sin) killing an innocent being for my sin takes us back to those thrilling days of yesteryear when animal sacrifice and human sacrifice were socially acceptable.
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Some MetroWest Episcopal Clergy Welcome Gay Marriage Decision

Well, would you make up your mind? Bless gays or not to bless gays, aren't you getting your prayers answered?
MetroWest Daily News

At St. Paul's Church in Natick, the Rev. John Strand also hailed the move.

"I'm very grateful for the decision," said Strand, who oversees a congregation that includes married same-sex couples, including some with children. "It allows the church to bless and fully support the rights the state has given."

The change, however, only applies to Shaw's diocese. At churches in Westborough, Shrewsbury, Northborough, Milford and the rest of the Diocese of Western Massachusetts, priests are barred from even giving blessings at same-sex weddings.
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Sunday, December 13, 2009

Animal sacrifice: Not our mainstream culture

MyRepublica.com
Notwithstanding the brilliance of individual Nepalis, the general enterprising and hardworking and positive spirit that all Nepalis possess, we somehow remain frozen in time with barbaric, uncivilized and primitive rituals pervading every pore of our society, more suitable to the medieval ages. While such rituals eventually became extinct in other parts of the world, in Nepal just the opposite happened, it flourished.

If we ponder over our barbaric belief and practices we will realize that these rituals are not rituals of the common people; they are in fact the rituals of our erstwhile rulers and the rich and powerful feudal class. The Shah and the Rana rulers upheld the importance of animal sacrifice as the cornerstone of Hindu religion and culture, and actively promoted it during their reign. This ensured that they would continue to become lords and the people would remain as ignorant as ever.


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Syntax in Our Primate Cousins

ScienceDaily (Dec. 13, 2009) — A study carried out in Ivory Coast has shown that monkeys of a certain forest-dwelling species called Campbell's monkeys emit six types of alert calls. The primates combine these calls into long vocal sequences which allow them to convey messages about social cohesion or various dangers, including predation.

This study shows the capacity of this monkey species for very complex vocal communication, both in the range of transmitted messages and in the techniques used to encode these messages.
...
In this new study, the ethologists explain some of the rules that govern the semantic combinations of calls. For example, Campbell's monkeys can add a particular type of call to an existing sequence in order to make the message more precise or to alter it. They can also combine sequences relaying different messages in order to convey a third message.
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Bacteria Provide New Insights Into Human Decision Making

ScienceDaily (Dec. 13, 2009) — Scientists studying how bacteria under stress collectively weigh and initiate different survival strategies say they have gained new insights into how humans make strategic decisions that affect their health, wealth and the fate of others in society.
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Each bacterium in the colony communicates via chemical messages and performs a sophisticated decision making process using a specialized network of genes and proteins. Modeling this complex interplay of genes and proteins by the bacteria enabled the scientists to assess the pros and cons of different choices in game theory, a branch of mathematics that attempts to model decision making by humans, in which an individual's success in making choices depends on the choices of others.
...
This has applications to human society because many people encounter similar dilemmas during their own lives. For example, should people ignore side effects and vaccinate against a new potentially lethal virus or should they not vaccinate and take the risk of being infected with the possible consequences?
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Anti-gay Activist's Endorsement is Trouble for Candidate

Houston Chronicle

The endorsement of a local anti-gay crusader put mayoral contender Gene Locke on the spot Monday as he considered whether social conservatives' support was worth the risk of appearing to embrace views some voters may find intolerant.
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Saturday, December 12, 2009

Witch-finder sues humanist for religious discrimination

Examiner.com
It isn't easy to be a humanist in Nigeria these days. In July, when Leo Igwe, Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Humanist Movement, held a symposium on witchcraft and children's rights, not only was it disrupted by 150 followers of Helen Ukpabio's Liberty Gospel Church, but he was attacked, had his glasses destroyed and his bag, camera and mobile phone taken from him.
And now Helen Ukpabio is suing him. For religious discrimination. The religious belief Igwe is accused of discriminating against is her church's assertion that many of Nigeria's children are witches.

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Brain Activity Exposes Those Who Break Promises

ScienceDaily (Dec. 10, 2009) — Scientists from the University of Zurich have discovered the physiological mechanisms in the brain that underlie broken promises. Patterns of brain activity even enable predicting whether someone will break a promise.
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Scores of Albinos in Hiding After Attacks


(CNN) -- As many as 10,000 albinos are in hiding in east Africa over fears that they will be dismembered and their body parts sold to witchdoctors, the Red Cross said in a recent report.
The killings of albinos in Burundi and Tanzania, who are targeted because their body parts are believed to have special powers, have sparked fears among the population in the two countries, the report said.
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Friday, December 11, 2009

The Osteopath, The Horses Placenta, Viagra And The Faith Healer

letstalkmore.co.uk
Of course, who could forget Glenn Hoddle’s granny, the faith healer, Eileen Drewery? She was employed by disabled bashing Hoddle to exorcise the demons within the England team leading up to the 1998 World Cup. Most of the players took this incredibly seriously including ex-Arsenal midfielder Ray Parlour who when touched on the shoulders by the faith healing loony asked for a ’short back and sides, please!’
...
Former England footballer, turned illiterate pundit eye candy, Jamie Redknapp, was once ironically instructed by an osteopath to have his wisdom teeth removed in order to cure… you guessed it (or not) a knee injury?! Redknapp was forced to retire from football, aged 32.
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Thursday, December 10, 2009

St. Paul and Temporal Lobe Epilepsy.

* Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry with Practical Neurology
* Direct link to download Paper in PDF
SUMMARY: Evidence is offered to suggest a neurological origin for Paul's ecstatic visions. Paul's physical state at the time of his conversion is discussed and related to these ecstatic experiences. It is postulated that both were manifestations of temporal lobe epilepsy.
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Commando Units Ambush Witch Doctor Presumed To Work For Lt. Diakite

0 comments
Military forces that use witchcraft.
Washington Post
"Residents said that at least three military pickup trucks filled with soldiers wearing fetishes in their hair descended on a street of corrugated tin shops, looking for a marabout, or local witch doctor. The young man fled but was pursued by the soldiers, who opened fire, wounding him, said the residents who showed the AP the trail of blood he left in the alley down which he tried to run. He is rumored to have been one of the witch doctors that performed spells for Lt. Abubakar "Toumba" Diakite, the former head of the presidential guard, who opened fire on the head of the junta last Thursday. "
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Wednesday, December 9, 2009

St. Pauls Disease, aka Epilepsy

St. Pauls Disease from © German Epilepsymuseum Kork - Museum for epilepsy and the history of epilepsy.

In old Ireland, epilepsy was known as 'Saint Paul's disease'. The name points to the centuries-old assumption that the apostle suffered from epilepsy.

To support this view, people usually point to Saint Paul's experience on the road to Damascus, reported in the Acts of the Apostles in the New Testament (Acts 9, 3-9), in which Paul, or Saul as he was known before his conversion to Christianity, is reported to have a fit similar to an epileptic seizure: '...suddenly a light from the sky flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him: ''Saul, Saul! Why do you persecute me?''...Saul got up from the ground and opened his eyes, but he could not see a thing... For three days he was not able to see, and during that time he did not eat or drink anything.'


Click "Read more >>" for access.
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Epilepsy Motif in Religious Art

Kunstgalleri, The epilepsy motif in religious art
"Introduction:

In all epochs of the history of the human race, poverty, misfortune, illness and suffering are frequently connected with higher powers, divine entities, personal deities or 'spirits'. This also applies, last but not least, to epilepsy, for whose frequently dramatic symptoms mankind has been just as unable to find a natural explanation as it has been unable to find its cause over hundreds and thousands of years.

The various names alone which have been given to this illness in medical terminology and in the vernacular in the various historical epochs are an indication of this supposed relationship between epilepsy and the supernatural: hiëra nosos (Greek) or morbus sacer (Latin): the holy illness; morbus divinus the divine, morbus deificus that created by God, morbus coelestis the heavenly illness; or morbus astralis the star and morbus lunaticus the moon illness."
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In Iceland, 8% Believe in Elves, 54% Won't Deny They Exist

Psychology Today or listen to NPR broadcast

Only 3 percent of Icelanders lay claim to personal encounters, but 8 percent believe in them outright and 54 percent won't deny their existence, reveals a poll conducted in 2007 by Terry Gunnell, head of folkloristics at the University of Iceland. "Rather than believe," he explains, "they don't disbelieve."

Fearing curses, even skeptics go to great lengths to protect the hidden people. Patches of grass suspected to house invisible residents are left unmowed. To avoid removal of inhabited "elf stones," the general public can petition to divert roads and halt construction of buildings. "The Icelandic government wants to make sure that people with different beliefs are taken care of," says filmmaker Nisha Inalsingh, who explores the phenomenon in her documentary Huldufólk 102.
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Tuesday, December 8, 2009

African Children Denounced As "Witches" By Christian Pastors

Associated Press
"The idea of witchcraft is hardly new, but it has taken on new life recently partly because of a rapid growth in evangelical Christianity. Campaigners against the practice say around 15,000 children have been accused in two of Nigeria's 36 states over the past decade and around 1,000 have been murdered. In the past month alone, three Nigerian children accused of witchcraft were killed and another three were set on fire."

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Video, In Chile, Dog Risks Life To Save Another Dog.

Click "Read more >>" for access.
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Rick Warren Won't Take Sides On Uganda's Gay Death Penalty

On the Nov. 29, 2009 episode of "Meet The Press" he says the following.
"As a pastor, my job is to encourage, to support. I never take sides."

Newsweek.com
Now Warren's on the defensive again, this time for his affiliation with Martin Ssempa, a Ugandan pastor who has endorsed proposed legislation in Uganda that makes certain homosexual acts punishable by life in prison or even, in some cases, death. Ssempa has made appearances at [Warrens Church] and has been embraced warmly by Warren and his wife, Kay.
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Monday, December 7, 2009

Video, Monkey Cooperation and Fairness

Cooperation and Fairness are expressions of logical relationships based on self-interest that even monkeys can understand. Click on "Read more >>" for access.
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Where Does the Soul Fit?

Abstract: The concepts of the "Soul" and "Free Will" are tightly coupled and are misunderstandings of emergent properties of complex biological systems due to fallacious causal oversimplifications and are, in effect, a phenomena analogous to a rainbow. In the case of a soul that is separate from the self it would be judged by God for actions it did not condone. In the case of the soul as the self, the soul is locked into the body every night during REM sleep and is catastrophically impaired by malfunctions of the body it resides in. While religions are divided on whether animals have souls and/or spirits, with or without them, animals have some of the same types of cognitive abilities as humans and they get along well within their biological limitations. The philosophical soulless zombie as the null hypothesis for souls fits with established knowledge better than the "soul" described in unauthenticated bronze age "divinely revealed" texts.
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Video, Temporal Lobes and Religious Experience

These are some youtube videos that have evidently been extracted from the longer BBC mini-series "Phantoms in the Brain" (Episode 1, Episode 2) featuring Dr. Ramachandran, a world renowned neurologist. They demonstrate the correlation between the brains temporal lobes and religious experience. Click "Read more >>" to access them.
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Religious Experience Found in Multiple Categories of Neurologic Disorder

Professionals.epilepsy.com
Other changes highlighted in the literature include increased religious beliefs and a heightened concern for morality. Religious and moral themes tend to predominate when patients display hypergraphia, an increase in the volume of written material the person produces and a preoccupation with details within the content. The association of these behaviors to epilepsy, including TLE, is controversial.

Since the publication of such reports, a number of authors have questioned the linking of these personality changes with TLE. Indeed, various authors have indicated that such changes are not specific to patients with epilepsy but are also identified in other neurologic disorders. Furthermore, a recent review pointed out that patients with frontal lobe epilepsy are more likely to present these personality changes than those with temporal lobe epilepsy.
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Video, Neurologist Discusses Seizures And Experiencing God

A Grand mal seizure is the most familiar type of seizure. It causes a complete loss of motor control, uncontrollable shaking, loss of consciousness, etc during the seizure. Some seizures do not cause loss of motor control but only occur mentally. These types of seizures sometimes result in a "God Experience". This video features Dr. Ramachandran, a world renowned neurologist. Click "Read more >>" to access it.
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Video, Split Brain Patient, One Side is Theist, Other Side is Atheist

Dr. Ramachandran, a world renowned neurologist discusses split brain patient that has the hemispheres of their brain separated, creating two personalities, one a theist, the other an atheist. Click "Read more >>" to access it.
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Video, Neurologist Talks About Inconsistency in Belief

Dr. Ramachandran, a world renowned neurologist describes how a brain damaged person thinks that their left arm belongs to someone else, but then will grab it to do a task with it when asked to. Click "Read more >>" to access it.
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Legal Action Against a Faith Healer

thesundayleader.lk

Now the question is whether this pastor is responsible for the deaths of the two women who came for the meeting. I was made to understand that these two women had died in hospital. However, divine healing is real and our Lord has told us to heal the sick in His name. However, I wish to point out that only those who come in faith are healed. The Holy Word of God says, “But without faith it is impossible to please him (God)…”
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Sunday, December 6, 2009

Video, "Phantoms in the Brain" Episode 1

This series is presented by Dr. Ramachandran, a world renowned neurologist. It shows the strange results of brain injury and interviews the patients.
Click on "Read more >>" to access them.
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Video, "Phantoms in the Brain" Episode 2

This series is presented by Dr. Ramachandran, a world renowned neurologist. It shows the strange results of brain injury and interviews the patients.
Click on "Read more >>" to access them.
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World Cup Stadium 'Cow Sacrifice' Plan Sparks Row


BBC News
A proposal to bless South Africa's World Cup stadiums by slaughtering a cow in each one has caused concern among animal rights activists.

The Makhonya Royal Trust, which put forward the idea, described the cattle killing ritual as a "true African" way of blessing the 2010 tournament.

Government minister Sicelo Shiceka has promised to lobby football's governing body, Fifa, in support of the plan.
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Saturday, December 5, 2009

Religious Exemption for Israeli Army Draft Problematic

ynetnews.com
Education Minister Gideon Sa'ar said there was a whole "industry of false claims in female enlistment. We do not condemn religious girls, but the girls who seek exemptions and leading an un-religious life style.
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Friday, December 4, 2009

Exorcism Generates Revenue for Author, Production Company, and Souvenier Store

Examiner.com
If these walls could talk - they might help explain why the Catholic Church ordered an exorcism in Hinsdale, New York, on February 14, 1974.
Father Alphonsus Trabold from nearby St. Bonaventure University and New York-based Psychic Alex Tanous ventured into what we now call the Hinsdale House. Fr. Trabold carried out the exorcism and Tanous conducted a "de-psyching" of the house.
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Uganda Considers Death Sentence for Gay Sex in Bill Before Parliament

Guardian.co.uk
• Minimum penalty is life in jail, under anti-homosexuality bill
• US evangelical activists pressed for restrictive measures
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Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Religious Exemption to Immunization Place All at Risk of Disease

Lower Hudson Journal news
The Supreme Court ruled in 1905 that states have the authority to require vaccination. New York state's ”religious exemption“ to mandatory immunizations puts all of us at risk for life-threatening diseases.
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Animal Sacrifices May Disrupt a Child’s Mental Health

hurriyetdailynews.com
An expert has warned about children’s mental health during the Feast of the Sacrifice.

Professor Hilal Özcebe, a specialist in public health at Hacettepe University’s department of medicine, said witnessing an animal sacrifice may be detrimental to a child’s mental health. Pointing out that the animals are brought home a few days before the festival, Özcebe said:

“The child at home feeds, loves and names the animal and as a result grows close to it. The child who establishes a bond with an animal may not understand why it is sacrificed and therefore suffer from psychological trauma.”
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Monday, November 30, 2009

Church Presses for Exemption To Exclude Homosexuals From Employee Benefits

Wall Street Journal
The city's Roman Catholic leaders, in particular, have pressed for a broader exemption to allow the church -- or any group or individual opposed to same-sex marriage -- not to provide benefits to same-sex partners of its employees.
...
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Sunday, November 29, 2009

Pastor Confesses: "There were no miracle babies, it was all a hoax"

Deya insider: There were no miracle babies, it was all a hoax
Bishop Gilbert Deya’s miracle babies were not miraculous after all but the fruits of “an intricate web of deceit”, according to a former cleric with the Deya Ministries.

The Rev Rose Atieno Kiserem, who was a senior pastor with the church headed by Bishop Deya, on Thursday confessed that the so-called miracle babies were a “hoax” intended to “hoodwink and dupe” the church’s followers.

In May 2007, Ms Kiserem was jailed alongside Bishop Deya’s wife, Mary, and Ms Miriam Nyeko for two years for stealing a baby. She was released from prison in September last year.
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In New Jersey, Trio accused of subjecting 7-year-old girl to animal sacrifice ritual

NewJersey.com,The Record
Three people were indicted on child cruelty charges for allegedly cutting a 7-year-old girl—the daughter of one woman involved—and performing animal sacrifices in the child’s presence during a religious ritual, authorities said today.
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Saturday, November 28, 2009

Christian Faith-Healer Joe Daugherty Dies of Cancer

Examiner.com
Christian faith-healer Joe Daugherty died of cancer on November 22, 2009... Mr. Daugherty was 57 years old.
...
In October Mr. Daugherty was admitted to the hospital for a viral infection of his throat. However, tests showed he was suffering from non-Hodgkins lymphoma. Why he sought medical help and did not rely on the Christian teachings which he promoted regarding faith-healing is not clear.
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Riyadh: Man to be Decapitated for Witchcraft

Asianews.it
Ali Sibat, a Lebanese psychic who made predictions on a satellite TV channel from his home in Beirut, was arrested by religious police in the holy city of Madinah during a pilgrimage in May 2008 and then sentenced to death by decapitation on 9 November this year.
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Muslims Prepare for Animal Sacrifice During the Festival of Eid-ul-Azha


Why does God need a blood sacrifice? Can't God see how much they love him without it? I thought "knowing peoples hearts" was one of Gods distinguishing characteristics.

Eid al-Adha (aka Eid-ul-Azha) from Wikipedia

Eid-UL-Azha from Flixya

Sheep, goats get pricey as Kashmiris shop for Eid
Muslims throughout the world offer animal sacrifice on Eid-ul-Azha to commemorate a centuries-old tradition.

The legend goes that Prophet Abrahim had offered to sacrifice his son Ismail to please Allah. As Abrahim started running the knife on his son’s throat, a ram from heaven replaced Ismail as Allah was pleased with the absolute obeisance of Prophet Abrahim.
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Friday, November 27, 2009

Wisconsins Faith Based Criminal Defense Proposal

Emily's Post: On a wing and a prayer, Emily Mills, Monday 11/23/2009
Sen. Lena Taylor (D-Milwaukee) is their current champion in the Legislature, having introduced a bill that would create a “new religious exemption in state law by inserting nine faith-based ‘affirmative defenses’ into the state's criminal code. These defenses would have to be considered if a parent or guardian of a child withheld medical treatment for the child in favor of spiritual healing or prayer.”

It’s a tricky bit of business, especially considering that Taylor’s proposal would actually strip out the existing religious exemption -- the same one that the Neumann family invoked in defense of their decision not to seek medical treatment for their daughter who eventually died from diabetic complications. The Neumann’s were still convicted of second-degree reckless homicide.
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Thursday, November 26, 2009

Catholic Order Pays Out For Abuse


What is a good way to determine if someone is trustworthy? What is a good way to monitor the trustworthiness of someone or a group? Do actions speak louder than words? Should groups that have a high frequency of this type of thing be qualified for governmental religions exemptions?

Catholic order pays out for abuse
The abuse happened at institutions run by religious orders A Catholic religious order is to supply a 161m euros (£145m) package of measures as reparation for child abuse in Ireland.
... More than 2,000 people told the commission they had suffered physical and sexual abuse as children in the institutions, which included schools and orphanages.
It found that sexual abuse was "endemic" in boys' institutions, and church leaders knew what was going on.

On Thursday a separate report will be published exposing child sex abuse by Catholic priests in the Dublin Archdiocese.
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Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Hindus Flock to Nepal Animal Sacrifice Festival


What does a Goddess do with animal blood? 

Gadhimai Festival from Wikipedia.

Devotees flock to Nepal animal sacrifice festival
Hundreds of thousands of Hindu devotees have converged on a town in Nepal for a festival which is considered the world's largest animal sacrifice. The Gadhimai festival, which happens once every five years, is taking place in Bariyapur in southern Nepal.

Over the next two days more than a quarter of a million animals are expected to be slaughtered for Gadhimai - a goddess of power
.
Sacrifice is seen as a way of thanking the deity for good luck, or asking her for fortune and prosperity.

"The goddess needs blood," says Chandan Dev Chaudhury, a priest at the Gadhimai temple in the centre of the festival site.

"If anyone has a problem, then I will cut the throat of an animal in the temple and that person's problem will be solved."
Meanwhile, three children of pilgrims who had come to observe Gadhimai festival died due to extreme cold. The deceased include a one-year-old, four-month-old and two-month-old infants. Their parents had come from India. nepalnews.com

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Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Help "Witch Children" in Africa

'Witch children' in Africa, Nov 23, 2009 04:55 PM
Children being branded as "witch children" and being abandoned or killed at birth is a problem in much of West Africa. Today we focus on Togo, one of a number of African countries where we tackle all root causes of abandonment. We explain background to the current problem and give a case study of a child we have helped.

We want to do more for so called witch children. Already the problem of "witch children" comes within our remit as the world's largest orphan and abandoned child charity, since it is a major cause of abandonment. But of course often it is far worse than this.
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Friday, November 20, 2009

Request for Comments on Christian Inter-denominational Criticisms

[Rev. 20091121] If you would like to contribute, please add links to Christians criticizing other Christian denominations in the comments section. I'd like to populate the sidebar on the right with them. I'm going to take a break from posting anything for a couple of days to hopefully collect more comments and to work on some more content. To see whats in the works, you always can click on the "Quirp articles in draft" in the sidebar.
Thanks in Advance.
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Faulty Analogy of Gods as Shepherds and "The Problem of Victimization"

Theists use a shepherd analogy to describe the relationship between Gods (i.e. Jesus and Krishna) and us. However, a simple seconds reflection or a trip to your local animal shelter should reveal the flaw in that analogy.  Theists who follow a loving, caring characteristically good god have spent thousands of years trying to resolve the Problem of Evil.  I say, why worry about the WHOLE problem of evil? Good problem solving techniques break complicated problems down into little pieces, so they should just pick a small piece and start there. Lets start with "The Problem Of Victimization".

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Thursday, November 19, 2009

Scope, Definition, Equivocation and Semantic Drift

When talking with the Theists, they often misuse the word heart. They say things like "Know in your heart". I recommend not tolerating that type of thing and point out to them that hearts pump blood and can't know anything. By tolerating a loose use of terms, it promotes "entropy" in the meaning of the word, allowing the meaning to shift, thereby permitting equivocation to take place, thereby permitting an illicit type of confirmation and commitment or acceptance of its appropriateness, thereby propagating inaccurate information.
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Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Ancient Penguin DNA Raises Doubts About Accuracy of Genetic Dating Techniques

This ScienceDaily article demonstrates the strengths of the Scientific Method compared to other ways of acquiring knowledge. Reasonable people agree that reassessing knowledge with new information is necessary and is a good thing.
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Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Beyond Mesopotamia: A New View Of The Dawn Of Civilization

[Rev. 20091117] ScienceDaily (Aug. 3, 2007)
"For decades, school children have learned that human civilization emerged about 5000 years ago along the Euphrates River in Mesopotamia, along the Nile, and along the Indus River. But archaeologists working in a broad arc from the Russian steppes through Iran and onto the Arabian Peninsula are finding evidence that a complex network of cities may have thrived across the region in roughly the same era, suggesting a dramatic new view of the emergence of human civilization."
This is significant because up to this point, Euro-centric, Biblical archeology and (to a small degree) Nazi propaganda have skewed the view of civilizations origins and minimized the contribution of non-near eastern and non-semitic speaking cultures.
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Sunday, November 15, 2009

Learn To Be Psychic In Ten Easy Lessons

From Skeptic Magazines website you can download the document for fun, games, sabotaging "psychic readings" and future reference.
Excerpt from the documents introduction follows below.
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Friday, November 13, 2009

How Do Theists Know That God Communicates With Them?

Recently I had a discussion with a religious friend and asked him what I consider to be a key defining question. I've tried to record the dialog here as accurately as I can, but obviously the following is not a transcript. During the course of the conversation the "relationship" topic came up.  Knowing that communication is an important part of a relationship I asked him "Does God talk to you?".
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Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Special Pleading

Special Pleading from Wikipedia

...Essentially, this involves someone attempting to cite something as an exemption to a generally accepted rule, principle, etc. without justifying the exemption.
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Theist Equivocation Of "Grace" Used in Combination With The Strategy of Minimization In Dialog.

Equivocate, from Dictionary.com
–verb (used without object), -cat⋅ed, -cat⋅ing.
to use ambiguous or unclear expressions, usually to avoid commitment or in order to mislead; prevaricate or hedge: When asked directly for his position on disarmament, the candidate only equivocated.
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Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Thomas Jefferson Performed Data Cleansing On The Gospels

In 1804 Thomas Jefferson, one of The United States "Founding Fathers" published "The Life And Morals of Jesus of Nazareth" (online text). Today it is commonly known as the "Jefferson Bible". It was his attempt to preserve the teachings and philosophy of Jesus without the supernatural aspects and the parts that he perceived as misunderstandings and mistakes of the Gospel authors. This is one example of Data Cleansing of scripture, and remarkably, it was carried out by one of the most esteemed men in History.  It seems that Thomas Jefferson would agree that "once you get the God out of Wisdom Literature, it can be enjoyed by everyone".
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Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Once You "Get The God Out", Wisdom Literature Can Be Enjoyed By Everyone.

Generally speaking, Wisdom Literature (<- that Wikipedia entry needs revision) are texts written intended to accumulate knowledge used to teach. Unfortunately Wisdom Literature is usually associated with local deities. The fact that it has been associated with a local deity, isolates it to a culture and makes it generally inaccessible to anyone not open to information associated with another culture or deity. Some examples of Wisdom Literature are easily found in the Scripture of most religions. To my disappointment, I've heard and seen people whom I respect very much, whom I consider to be intelligent, and who consider themselves "free thinkers", categorically discredit and disregard ideas contained in religious scripture as "Woo Woo" and irrelevant. An example of a religious concept that is relevant and adds value to civilization even without the God is Yoga and Meditation.   Once you get the God out of  Wisdom Literature, Wisdom can be enjoyed by everyone.
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Sunday, November 1, 2009

Brief Introduction To The Vedas

[Revised 20091103] This is the first article in a series of Brief Introductions to Hindu Scriptures. As with other ancient religious texts, these are generally considered to be divinely revealed. Divinely revealed information has all the problems identified by Information and Data Quality Dimensions, the most obvious are the Intrinsic dimensions of Accuracy, Believability, Objectivity and Reputation.  Hinduism is the oldest religion and the Vedas are its foundation.
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Tuesday, October 27, 2009

40% Of Scientists Have A Belief In A God? Okay, Which God?

If a believer says that "it is not unreasonable to believe there is intelligence behind our natural laws"
then they should agree that there must be an intelligence behind the intelligence of our natural laws. But isn't that absurd? Its got to stop somewhere, so why don't we stop before we get to Gods.  There is obviously no way to prove which God it is if they are not going to present themselves, so we might as well say, there is no God. If we ask a God to present itself unambiguously to us and it doesn't, isn't that exactly what we would expect if there really wasn't any God? What difference does a God that does not interact make anyway?
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Sunday, October 25, 2009

How Can Anyone Know Anything About A Mysterious God?

Recently in a rejoinder over at Debunking Christianity one of the participants made the following comment challenging a non-believer to
"Account for the information design that every atheist scholar admits that exists but lives in denial explaining away."
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Friday, October 23, 2009

Fraud and Religion

The tragedy at the "Sweatbox" resort highlights several problems with Religion.
'Sweatbox' victims were attending 'Spiritual Warrior' program, CNN, October 10, 2009 -- Updated 2202 GMT (0602 HKT)
"The use of sweat lodges for spiritual and physical cleansing is a part of several Native American tribes' cultures."
Since terms such as "spirit" are not defined, they are ambiguous. They can mean anything. Since they can mean anything, then there is no definition. When there is no definition, there is nothing to compare it to. Since there is nothing to comapare it to, the definition can change as needed to suit whatever purpose its being used for. There is no way to measure it.
So in the case of "spirit cleansing" some simple common sense questions come to mind.
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