Norway hopes to unlock climate cash to fight tropical deforestation

Norway has announced $1bn in aid to protect forests in Indonesia and hopes to forge a partnership to fight climate change

Norway hopes to boost aid to fight tropical deforestation at a conference tomorrow, and to set in motion a partnership to unlock cash pledged at the Copenhagen summit to help slow climate change.

Norway says developed nations have promised $500m (£347m) to fight deforestation by 2012 on top of $3.5bn agreed at Copenhagen, and new pledges at the conference may bring the total aid closer to $5bn.

Fifty nations will take part in the Oslo meeting, to be attended by Britain's Prince Charles and the financier George Soros, to forge a "partnership" between donors and countries from the Amazon to Congo basins for protecting forests.

Plants soak up carbon dioxide as they grow, helping to curb the increasing rise in carbon levels.

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How Faith Blocks Reason

Horned dinosaurs 'island-hopped'

Horned dinosaurs previously considered native only to Asia and North America might also have roamed the lands of prehistoric Europe, say scientists.

Palaeontologists have announced the discovery of fossils belonging to a horned creature in the Bakony Mountains of western Hungary.

The find may give them a better understanding of the environment during the late period of dinosaur evolution.

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Bishop: 100 cases in 10 yrs for Italy priest abuse

ROME — Italy's bishops' conference provided the first ever statistics of clerical sex abuse in the country on Tuesday, saying there had been about 100 cases over the past 10 years that warranted church trials or other canonical procedures.

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Creationism in the Classroom

Dayton, Tennessee - Clip from the BBC1 documentary 'Science Friction: Creation' circa 1996



Really this video is evidence of why there is a problem with teaching evolution. Its not the theory itself but the teachers either lack of understanding of what it is that he is actually teaching or fear of stepping on the toes of some fundamentalist in the name of "multiculturalism" and acceptance.

Whales and dolphins - 'resource' or 'right'?

New research is showing that whales and dolphins possess intelligence and culture more complex that we had previously assumed, says Margi Prideaux. And, she argues, this raises anew the question of how we should relate to them - including whether it is ever right to hunt them.

Despite long held preconceptions of human pre-eminence, scientists are discovering sophisticated intelligence beyond the boundaries of our own species.

It may surprise us, but dolphins and whales have such qualities.

Is it possible that 2010 could be remembered as the year when we faced our insecurities and embraced other highly evolved species, with all the responsibility that entails?

In February, the 2010 Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) addressed the unprecedented subject of "intelligence in dolphins: ethical and policy implications".

A panel of three well-regarded academics discussed whether the emerging scientific knowledge about the cultural and cognitive processes of whales and dolphins should influence international policy decisions and ethical considerations for their treatment.

Their conclusions were that yes, it should.

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Christianism FAIL

An interesting Article from The Daily Dish about the acceptance of Homosexuals in modern society shows the decline in peoples faith in the Church to deliver a relevant message on what is right or wrong.

While public attitudes haven't moved consistently in gays' and lesbians' favor every year, the general trend is clearly in that direction. This year, the shift is apparent in a record-high level of the public seeing gay and lesbian relations as morally acceptable. Meanwhile, support for legalizing gay marriage, and for the legality of gay and lesbian relations more generally, is near record highs.

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The Right to be Wrong

From USA Today is an article on Religious Freedoms that I thought was particularly interesting.

America has a complex and enduring commitment to pluralism. We want people to be free to act — and believe — as they please. But we must all play in the same sandbox, so we are attentive to the idiosyncrasies of our playmates, especially when they don't make sense to us.

Few idiosyncrasies are more perplexing than the ways people connect science and religion. Widespread rejection of evolution, to take a familiar example, has created a crisis in education, and it now appears that biology texts might be altered to satisfy anti-evolutionary activists in Texas. Many on the textbook commission believe their religion is incompatible with scientific explanations of origins — evolution and the Big Bang — so they want textbooks with more accommodating theories and different facts.

Tufts University philosopher and leading atheist Daniel Dennet no doubt finds all this mystifying, since he thinks seminary education should ultimately terminate one's faith: "Anybody who goes through seminary and comes out believing in God hasn't been paying attention," he toldThe Boston Globe.

Dennet's brother-in-arms, atheist Jerry Coyne, raked Brown University cell biologist Ken Miller and me over the coals in The New Republic for our claims that Christians can unapologetically embrace science. The only faiths compatible with science, wrote Coyne, are "Pantheism and some forms of Buddhism" — hardly encouraging since few Americans embrace either of these. Coyne wrote that "90% of Americans" hold religious beliefs that "fall into the 'incompatible' category."

The 90% of Americans holding beliefs incompatible with science include Charles Townes and William Phillips, who won Nobel Prizes in physics in 1964 and 1997, respectively. What sort of atheist complains that a fellow citizen doing world-class science must abandon his or her religion to be a good scientist?

Our commitment to pluralism and individual freedom should motivate generosity in such matters and allow people "the right to be wrong," especially when the beliefs in question do not interfere with us. Nothing is gained by loud, self-promoting and mean-spirited assaults on the beliefs of fellow citizens.

I still think that Religion encroaches on other freedoms too much to get its knickers in a twist just yet, but there should be some restraint from bullying people for having a view of the world that cannot be scientifically proven.

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12 Events That Will Change Everything

Scientific American put together an interactive piece on 12 events that could drastically change the world, from nuclear exchange to cold fusion to the discovery of other dimensions. Pretty much all the stuff Lost totally prepared us for.

The feature illustrates all of the potentialities – the breakthroughs and the catastrophes alike – with diagrams, photograph and expert video interviews: Frank Drake, the man behind the famous Drake’s Equation, speaks on the near-future of extraterrestrial search, and interactive timelines plot the progress of artificial intelligence over the last decade.

Taken together, the piece is like a looking glass into future Michael Bay movies – it’s all spectacular stuff that will undoubtedly inspire humans to band together and move united into the future. You don’t want to be left out of that, do you? Consider this your primer.

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Darwinian spacecraft engine to last twice as long

The following article from New Scientist is a prime example of what can happen when we don't fight progress for fear of losing our superstitions. Through our acceptance of Evolution and Natural Selection we are able to use its principles to better our own technologies.

SPACE agencies may one day have Charles Darwin to thank for the longevity of their spacecraft. The life expectancy of a popular type of ion engine has been almost doubled using software that mimics the way natural selection evolves ever fitter designs.

Electrostatic ion engines are becoming popular in space missions. Instead of relying on burning large amounts of heavy liquid propellant for thrust, they use solar power to ionise a small supply of xenon gas. A high voltage applied across a pair of gridded electrodes sends the positively charged ions rushing at high speed towards the negative electrode. Most ions pass through the grid, generating thrust.

However, some ions collide with the grid itself, causing it to gradually wear out, says Cody Farnell, a space flight engineer at the University of Colorado in Fort Collins. Simulations suggest grids in a typical NASA engine will last 2.8 years - but Farnell wondered whether changing the grid's design could extend its lifespan.

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Why atheism will replace religion

An interesting article from Psychology Today website:

The reasons that churches lose ground in developed countries can be summarized in market terms. First, with better science, and with government safety nets, and smaller families, there is less fear and uncertainty in people’s daily lives and hence less of a market for religion. At the same time many alternative products are being offered, such as psychotropic medicines and electronic entertainment that have fewer strings attached and that do not require slavish conformity to unscientific beliefs.

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Now it’s ‘Everybody Deny the Holocaust Day

Another good article by Michael Peck of True Slant.

This is how you payback the unbelievers. Some Muslims, furious at the “Everybody Draw Muhammed Day”, are retaliating with an “Everybody Draw the Holocaust Day”.

Of course, what the author of this Facebook page really means is an Everybody Deny the Holocaust Day, which will teach the infidels not to draw Muhammed in a bear suit. His semi-coherent manifesto seems to be that if people have the right to draw the Prophet Muhammed, then they have the right to question the existence of the Holocaust.

He is correct. We can’t defend the right to satire a religious figure and yet bar the right to deny the Holocaust, as some European states do (frequently the ones who directly or indirectly supported the genocide). However, what is fascinating here is the moral equivalence. Outraged at the “insult” to his religion, this fundamentalist won’t strike back by drawing a cartoon of Jesus or mocking atheists. He’s going to do it by denying the Holocaust. Since in his mind, Jews control the world, then question the Holocaust and the Elders of Zion will pull a few levers to make the cartoons stop. Because this is exactly the kind of world that a fundamentalist understands and desires. A cleric decides what is sacred and what is profane, which cartoons are permitted and which are not. There is no dissent.

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The Ten Most Disturbing Scientific Discoveries

An interesting article from the Smithsonian website.

Science can be glorious; it can bring clarity to a chaotic world. But big scientific discoveries are by nature counterintuitive and sometimes shocking.

Here are ten of the biggest threats to our peace of mind.

1. The Earth is not the center of the universe.
2. The microbes are gaining on us.
3. There have been mass extinctions in the past, and we’re probably in one now.
4. Things that taste good are bad for you.
5. E=mc²
6. Your mind is not your own.
7. We’re all apes
8. Cultures throughout history and around the world have engaged in ritual human sacrifice.
9. We’ve already changed the climate for the rest of this century.
10. The universe is made of stuff we can barely begin to imagine.

Obviously you'll need to read the article to find out the details. Enjoy.

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UK 'will push EU on CO2 targets'

The UK government will push the EU to move to a higher target for cutting greenhouse gas emissions. It will urge the EU to cut emissions by 30% from 1990 levels by 2020, rather than the current 20% target, partly through more support for renewables.

A higher proportion of tax revenues will come from environmental taxes.

In 2009, EU leaders endorsed two targets for greenhouse gas emissions - 20%, rising to 30% in the event of a global deal on climate change.

That failed to materialise at December's Copenhagen summit.

But the recession has lowered emissions across the continent, making the higher target more easily achievable.

Environment groups have been lobbying governments to move to 30% immediately, to re-stake the EU's claim for global leadership on climate change - a call that the coalition has now endorsed.

Only problem is the conservative-Lib Dem coalition also confirmed there would be a free vote on fox-hunting and that badger culling was back on the agenda for England

10 Misconceptions About Neanderthals

As of 2009, the complete Neanderthal genome has been mapped. The most important implication of this is that it now becomes technically possible to clone a Neanderthal – to raise them back from the dead so to speak. The current estimated cost of doing this is $30 million US and no one is putting up the cash. There are ethical questions that are always going to be raised regarding cloning and this is also a hindrance. But there is absolutely no reason not to believe that we will – one day – be able to give birth to and raise a Neanderthal (or at least the closest thing possible to one).

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Anti-gay laws in Africa are product of American religious exports

When he arrived at Kampala’s Hotel Triangle for a three-day conference, the Rev Kapya Kaoma knew that he would not like what he heard.

The clue was in the event’s title — “Exposing the truth behind homosexuality and the homosexual agenda” — and in the line-up of guest speakers arranged by Stephen Langa, head of the Ugandan-based Family Life Network (FLN), and an outspoken advocate for the criminalisation of homosexuality in Uganda.

Given top billing at the event hosted by the FLN was Scott Lively, president of Abiding Truth Ministries, an American conservative Christian group from California, and a Holocaust revisionist whose controversial book The Pink Swastika names homosexuals as “the true inventors of Nazism and the guiding force behind many Nazi atrocities.”

Weeks after the Kampala conference in March last year — which followed a meeting between the speakers and members of the Ugandan Parliament — a clause appeared in the country’s draft Anti-Homosexuality Bill recommending life imprisonment for certain homosexual “crimes” or, for “serial offenders”, the death sentence.

To Mr Kaoma, an Anglican priest from Zambia who is project director of Political Research Associates — a Massachusetts-based progressive think-tank — it was further evidence of how America’s Christian Right has stoked intolerance to homosexuality in Africa.

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Cameron, Clegg and...chimps?

An interesting article from Anjana Ahuja of the TimesOnline.co.uk website's Eureka Zone section on British Politics and how our common ancestors with Chimpanzee's have been doing the same thing for millions of years.

By bringing their two tribes together, David Cameron and Nick Clegg are hardly making history. They might be partners in the first coalition government that Britain has seen for 65 years but they are, in fact, practising a behaviour that dates back more than five million years.

It was mainly thanks to the Dutch primatologist Frans de Waal that psychologists discovered that people don't have the monopoly on forming coalitions. His pioneering observations at Arnhem Zoo, summarised in his 1982 classic Chimpanzee Politics, showed that chimpanzees can be as artful as politicians in orchestrating tactical partnerships and strategic alliances. This has led primatologists and others to conclude that the ability to form coalitions goes back at least as far as the common ancestor of humans and chimps, giving it a provenance of five to seven million years.

In hierarchical chimp colonies, governed by an alpha male, lower-ranking males sometimes gang up to depose the alpha. In fact, these colonies often form a landscape of constantly shifting alliances, with deposed alphas returning later to seize the throne once more. Interestingly, female chimps also form their own alliances to keep overly domineering male counterparts in check, and sometimes to aid the underdog as the colony reconfigures itself

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This is how Muslims should protest

A great article from Michael Peck of True Slant website was posted today that got me thinking.

No bombs. No murders. No screaming fanatics shouting “Allah Akbar” as they attempt to remove someone’s head for daring to draw the Prophet Muhammad.

When the Atheists, Humanists and Agnostics association at the University of Wisconsin-Madison decided to defend the right of free speech by drawing stick figures of the Prophet Muhammed on campus sidewalks, the campus Muslim Students Association quickly responded. They followed the atheists on their blasphemous journey, and whenever a drawing of the Prophet Muhammed appeared, the Muslim students drew boxing gloves on the figure, and changed the name to Muhammed Ali.

That’s it. No fights. No hatred. Now the atheists are sparring with the college administration over the right to draw Muhammed, but that’s a different matter. Confronted with satire, the Muslim students responded with humor (yes, you could say they desecrated the atheists’ grafitti, but grafitti artists are in no position to complain). Some of their co-religionists will denounce them for not being more zealous (as in violent) in defending their faith. But I think the students gained more respect for Islam by using chalk rather than guns.

Make cartoons, not war.

I couldn't agree more with Mr Peck, and to be honest although I made my own picture of Mohammad, I do believe that some people have taken things too far. Not by the grotesque nature of the drawings, but because some people used the demonstration as an excuse to front their hatred for the Islamic religion.

Anyone who tries to blaspheme against any particular religion because they don't agree or understand it, or even worse because its different to their own religion is really being very hypocritical.

The whole purpose of Draw Mohammad Day is to demonstrate that we cannot be intimidated by fear mongers trying to protect their own interests.

If a group of devout Rolling Stones fans threatened to kill anyone who drew a picture of Keith Richards, then it would make sense that everyone show them that they are not intimidated by their idiotic threats.

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A Nigerian Witch-Hunter Defends Herself

HOUSTON — At home in Nigeria, the Pentecostal preacher Helen Ukpabio draws thousands to her revival meetings. Last August, when she had herself consecrated Christendom’s first “lady apostle,” Nigerian politicians and Nollywood actors attended the ceremony. Her books and DVDs, which explain how Satan possesses children, are widely known.

So well-known, in fact, that Ms. Ukpabio’s critics say her teachings have contributed to the torture or abandonment of thousands of Nigerian children — including infants and toddlers — suspected of being witches and warlocks. Her culpability is a central contention of “Saving Africa’s Witch Children,” a documentary that made its American debut Wednesday on HBO2.

Those disturbed by the needless immiseration of innocent children should beware. “Saving Africa’s Witch Children” follows Gary Foxcroft, founder of the charity Stepping Stones Nigeria, as he travels the rural state of Akwa Ibom, rescuing children abused during horrific “exorcisms” — splashed with acid, buried alive, dipped in fire — or abandoned roadside, cast out of their villages because some itinerant preacher called them possessed.

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Bonobos Say No by Shaking Heads Like Humans?

From the National Geographic website comes a cool video for the first time, according to researchers, bonobos have been recorded shaking their heads to discourage other bonobos from doing something—perhaps a "primitive precursor of the human head shake."

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Nun Excommunicated For Allowing Abortion

Last November, a 27-year-old woman was admitted to St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix. She was 11 weeks pregnant with her fifth child, and she was gravely ill. According to a hospital document, she had "right heart failure," and her doctors told her that if she continued with the pregnancy, her risk of mortality was "close to 100 percent."

The patient, who was too ill to be moved to the operating room much less another hospital, agreed to an abortion. But there was a complication: She was at a Catholic hospital.

"They were in quite a dilemma," says Lisa Sowle Cahill, who teaches Catholic theology at Boston College. "There was no good way out of it. The official church position would mandate that the correct solution would be to let both the mother and the child die. I think in the practical situation that would be a very hard choice to make."

But the hospital felt it could proceed because of an exception — called Directive 47 in the U.S. Catholic Church's ethical guidelines for health care providers — that allows, in some circumstance, procedures that could kill the fetus to save the mother. Sister Margaret McBride, who was an administrator at the hospital as well as its liaison to the diocese, gave her approval.

The woman survived. When Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted heard about the abortion, he declared that McBride was automatically excommunicated — the most serious penalty the church can levy.

"She consented in the murder of an unborn child," says the Rev. John Ehrich, the medical ethics director for the Diocese of Phoenix. "There are some situations where the mother may in fact die along with her child. But — and this is the Catholic perspective — you can't do evil to bring about good. The end does not justify the means."

No Majesty of God. Just good Chemistry

Scientists create artificial life in laboratory.

Scientists have created synthetic life in the laboratory, in a feat of ingenuity that pushes the boundaries of humankind's ability to manipulate the natural world.

Craig Venter, the biologist who led the effort to map the human genome, said today that the first cell controlled entirely by man-made genetic instructions had been produced.

The synthetic bacterium, nicknamed Synthia, has been hailed as a step-change in biological engineering, allowing the creation of designer organisms with specialised functions that could never have evolved in nature.

The team at the J. Craig Venter Institute in Rockville, Maryland, is investigating how the technology could yield microbes that make vaccines, and algae that turn carbon dioxide into green hydrocarbon biofuels.

Scientists have created synthetic life in the laboratory, in a feat of ingenuity that pushes the boundaries of humankind's ability to manipulate the natural world.

Craig Venter, the biologist who led the effort to map the human genome, said today that the first cell controlled entirely by man-made genetic instructions had been produced.

The synthetic bacterium, nicknamed Synthia, has been hailed as a step-change in biological engineering, allowing the creation of designer organisms with specialised functions that could never have evolved in nature.

The team at the J. Craig Venter Institute in Rockville, Maryland, is investigating how the technology could yield microbes that make vaccines, and algae that turn carbon dioxide into green hydrocarbon biofuels.

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Jehovah's Witness teenager dies after refusing blood transfusion

Joshua McAuley, 15, refused blood transfusion because of religious beliefs after being crushed by car in West Midlands

A teenage Jehovah's Witness who was crushed by a car as it crashed into a shop died after refusing a blood transfusion in hospital.

Joshua McAuley, 15, was airlifted to hospital from the incident in Smethwick, West Midlands, on Saturday morning, but died later that day.

The schoolboy, who received abdominal and leg injuries, is believed to have told doctors at Birmingham's Selly Oak hospital not to give him a blood transfusion because of his religious beliefs.

Clive Parker, an elder at Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses in Smethwick, where Joshua and his family worshipped, said Joshua was conscious after the accident and "made a stand on the blood issue".

He said: "I don't want to talk about it any more than that because I don't want to add to the family's distress.

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Evangelicals rewrite Texan curriculum

An interesting article in the Sydney Morning Herald by Chris McGreal on the events in America in 2010 and their views on how to improve our Children's education.

HOUSTON: In a coup likely to shift what millions of American children learn at school, a clutch of Christian evangelicals and social conservatives who have grasped control of the Texas Board of Education are expected to force through a new state curriculum this week.

The board is to vote on a purge of alleged liberal bias in Texas school books in favour of what board member Cynthia Dunbar says really matters: a belief in America as a nation chosen by God as a beacon to the world.

''We are fighting for our children's education and our nation's future,'' Ms Dunbar said. ''In Texas we have certain statutory obligations to promote patriotism and to promote the free enterprise system.

These are our children. The next generation. If we stop providing our children with the answers to the questions we have already solved, how are they going to surpass us and go on to better things.

It's like teaching our children that the world is flat, then hoping they don't figure out the truth later in life, by which time its going to be harder for them to understand other questions on Cosmology, Geology, etc.

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Happy Draw Mohammed Day

The Search For Hidden Dimensions

I'm so glad there are these clever people in the world. This is simply amazing.

Brian Greene explains how extra dimensions may solve several problems in physics, and gives his stance on the possibility of a "multi-verse".

To learn more about String Theory, watch Brian Greene's "The Elegant Universe" on NOVA

Can Monkeys Talk?

Robert Seyfarth describes how monkey calls used by Vervet Monkeys might be precursors to language.

To read more about language in monkeys (and chimps), see the NY Times article: "Deciphering the chatter of monkeys and chimps"

'World's biggest' forest protection deal for Canada

Timber companies and environment groups have unveiled an agreement aimed at protecting two-thirds of Canada's vast forests from unsustainable logging.

Over 72 million hectares are included in what will become the world's largest commercial forest conservation deal.

Logging will be totally banned on some of the land, in the hope of sustaining endangered caribou populations.

Timber companies hope the deal will bring commercial gains, as timber buyers seek higher ethical standards.

The total protected area is about twice the size of Germany, and equals the area of forest lost globally between 1990 and 2005.

"The importance of this agreement cannot be overstated," said Avrim Lazar, president and CEO of the Forest Products Association of Canada (FPAC).

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FACT: Darwin's theory of Universal Common Ancestry

More than 150 years ago, Darwin proposed the theory of universal common ancestry (UCA), linking all forms of life by a shared genetic heritage from single-celled microorganisms to humans. Until now, the theory that makes ladybugs, oak trees, champagne yeast and humans distant relatives has remained beyond the scope of a formal test. This week, a Brandeis biochemist reports in Nature the results of the first large scale, quantitative test of the famous theory that underpins modern evolutionary biology.

The results of the study confirm that Darwin had it right all along. In his 1859 book, On the Origin of Species, the British naturalist proposed that, "all the organic beings which have ever lived on this earth have descended from some one primordial form." Over the last century and a half, qualitative evidence for this theory has steadily grown, in the numerous, surprising transitional forms found in the fossil record, for example, and in the identification of sweeping fundamental biological similarities at the molecular level.

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Melanie Phillips: God, Truth & Power

In her latest work, Melanie Phillips, repudiates the view that faith and reason are incompatible, demonstrating that in many cases the opposite is true. Her central thesis is that the trivialization of religious belief, rejection of the Judeo-Christian heritage, and postmodernism all combine to erode the foundations upon which Western civilization is based. Ms. Phillips explains that this vacuum has resulted in the emergence of a host of irrational cults and preposterous conspiracy theories-a world in which verifiably false statements are continuously reiterated, while truth and lies, right and wrong, victim and aggressor are reversed; a world which may lead Western civilization to a new antirational dark age.

Tornadoes, Quakes, and the Myth of Karma

An interesting article by Rob Asghar of the Huffington Post on Karma.

They say Karma's a bitch. They're too unkind. Recent floods, tornadoes, and earthquakes reveal her as a coolly indifferent, altogether inscrutable customer.

One wag noted a few years ago that the map of the Confederate slave states is pretty much the same as the map of today's Bible Belt. True. And it doesn't take a lot to see that those maps overlap nicely with a map of major tornado activity in the U.S.

So why exactly does Heaven so happily pummel the region that is God's last, best hope for bringing salvation and good values to His beloved creation?

But I realize that's just a matter of a conservative Christian perspective. A devout Muslim in Iran might say that his country is God's last, best hope to stabilize the world.

But wait: You say Iran represents one of the most seismically unstable regions on the planet? And that it was unstable before women started dressing immodestly?

No wonder even the Bible finds a few candid moments to confess that it wonders sometimes if it's all B.S.

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You're special, but not as you once thought

Anyone who has read the bible knows that the Old Testament it is full of weird and contradictory rules and quotes.

When the LORD your God brings you into the land you are about to enter and occupy, he will clear away many nations ahead of you: the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. These seven nations are all more powerful than you. When the LORD your God hands these nations over to you and you conquer them, you must completely destroy them. Make no treaties with them and show them no mercy. Do not intermarry with them, and don't let your daughters and sons marry their sons and daughters. They will lead your young people away from me to worship other gods. Then the anger of the LORD will burn against you, and he will destroy you. (Deuteronomy 7:1-4 NLT)

However, I have a friend who has read the bible, and yet still remains a follower of the Christian faith because in their particular take on Christianity it states that Jesus died on the cross, not just to forgive us of original sin, but to banish the ways of the old testament and move us into a more enlightened time.

Firstly, I'd argue that they are really just moving the goal posts here, shoehorning some old unacceptable myths to suit their view of what is acceptable.

Secondly, the New Testament, although not quite as evil as the Old, still isn't what a person in the 21st Century should call enlightening or worthy of use as a moral compass.

[In the following parable, Jesus clearly approves of beating slaves even if they didn't know they were doing anything wrong] The servant will be severely punished, for though he knew his duty, he refused to do it. "But people who are not aware that they are doing wrong will be punished only lightly. Much is required from those to whom much is given, and much more is required from those to whom much more is given." (Luke 12:47-48 NLT)

"So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways. I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds. (From the NIV Bible, Revelation 2:22-23)"

"I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away an withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. (John 15:5-6)"

"He [Jesus] said to them, 'Go!' so they came out and went into the pigs, and the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and died in the water. (Matthew 8:32)"

Why people cannot see, from the abundance of evidence made available to us, that we aren't different from any other species on this planet. Instead we are just one part of this incredible tapestry called life.

Every animal on the planet, including Homo Sapiens, are special in the sense that our ancestors were able to reproduce successfully. In fact, if you have a pet dog or cat, they too are special because every single one of their ancestors were able to reproduce successfully too.

If you go back long enough in your cat's family tree, way past their great great grandparents, past all the species their ancient ancestors were too, back tens of millions of years to some of the first mammalian type creatures on the earth, its there that the line of our "human" ancestral line meets with the ancestral line of your pet cat.

Now to be a part of this incredible family tree called Life on Planet Earth, is pretty special. We can even go further back and see that we are indeed "related" to the reptiles, the fish, and even plants.

I'm not saying we need to go out tree hugging just yet, but if you can understand where you came from, then you can start to feel a great and overwhelming affinity with the natural world, and a great appreciation for the place we all call home.

From this stand point we can built a world based on the principle of what is best for our home and our extended family.

We certainly aren't going to find that from the outdated myths in a 2000 year old book.

Draw Muhammad Day (First Annual)

The Journey of Man by the Bradshaw Foundation.

Who were our ancestors? From where did we originate? If we came out of Africa, what governed our migration routes? And when? Finally this interactive map reveals the epic journey.

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Sam Harris joins plot to have Pope arrested

Sam Harris, the atheist writer, has launched an appeal to fund a legal bid to have the Pope arrested when he visits Britain.

The American neuroscientist is seeking financial backing for the campaign that is being led by British writers Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens. The pair have asked human-rights lawyers to produce a case for charging Benedict XVI over his alleged cover-up of sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic church.

Harris, the author of The End of Faith, launched his appeal online, stating: “I would like to announce that Project Reason, the foundation that my wife and I started to spread scientific thinking and secular values, has joined Hitchens and Dawkins in an effort to end the ‘diplomatic immunity’ which the Vatican claims protects the Pope from any responsibility.

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Preaching to the converted?

A great video from One Good Move

I'm getting this comment that I'm 'just preaching to the converted' with increasing regularity — I'd like to nip it in the overgrown bud. Not only does it encourage nothing but apathy and inaction, but on the briefest examination it's shown to be based on clearly flawed premises.

Correct methods for opening up reason based discussion?

Found:Genes that let you live to 100

An interesting article from the BBC today on the discovery of a set of genes that would ensure people live to over 100 years, regardless of their bad habits.

SCIENTISTS have discovered the “Methuselah” genes whose lucky carriers have a much improved chance of living to 100 even if they indulge in an unhealthy lifestyle.

The genes appear to protect people against the effects of smoking and bad diet and can also delay the onset of age-related illnesses such as cancer and heart disease by up to three decades.

No single gene is a guaranteed fountain of youth. Instead, the secret of longevity probably lies in having the right “suite” of genes, according to new studies of centenarians and their families. Such combinations are extremely rare — only one person in 10,000 reaches the age of 100.

The genes found so far each appear to give a little extra protection against the diseases of old age. Centenarians appear to have a high chance of having several such genes embedded in their DNA.

As science reaches a stage where we can ensure that our bodies don't grow old, the cells in our bodies remained are just as strong with each division, then possibly this would mean that combined with advances in medicine the likelihood of death through natural causes and diseases would be very small.

How old could we hypothetically live for? I'm guessing if we continue to advance as quickly in this area of science as we are now, and are able to understand and manipulate more and more our genetic code then really there is no limit. A world where people cannot die. Its a beautiful but scary thought.

If this was the case, and we could ensure that our children would live forever would it be ethical, in the interests of avoiding the overpopulation of the planet, to prevent reproduction through laws or even sterilization?

Who do we allow to breed? Or put another way, whose genetic code do we choose to be passed onto future generations? It would take artificial selection into a whole new dimension.

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TED: Julia Sweeney on letting go of God

The Spectacle of Faith

As you may have come to realize I am not particularly fond of religion. In fact I'm not that fond of anyone telling me what I can or can't do. Although I know I'm not perfect and if I'm proven wrong then I'm happy to be corrected.

However, when an organisation tries to dictate how I, my friends or my fellow man should live their lives based on something so questionably bogus as the Bible and/or the rules they've made whilst listening to the voices in their head, well its hard not to question why anyone takes them seriously.

See I quite like politics for exactly the reason I don't like religion. Even when I don't agree with someones political point of view I know that through debate and discussion we the people can vote and fight to change laws and bills to suit the needs of the majority. I believe something similar is what Sam Harris means when he talks of a "Science of Morality".

When the organization tries to enforce their bronze-age doctrine on society behind the veil that they are the voice of an omnipotent creator of heaven and earth and their views on what is right and wrong cannot be questioned, well this starts to look an awful lot like a dictatorship. A dictatorship that spans ordinary political boundaries.

Then we hear that at the same time that this organization spins its "infallible" lies, it has been trying to cover up the rape and torture of innocent young children to protect the guilty, and not the innocent, so that the organization can continue to prosper, you have to ask why isn't society trying harder to bring these sick individuals to justice.

When it comes to anything else other than religion we the people stand up together as one and say that is not right, we do not want this in our society, and we put these people before the judicial system.

Josef Fritzel, Gary Glitter, Fred West, Baby P, Shannon Matthews, Jaycee Dugard are all names that we recognize because of their relation to child abuse scandals in recent history.

What is the difference between these stories and the Catholic Church?

Nothing is happening to the Catholic Church.

Below are some links for those who want to read up on just who truly horrible the Catholic Church really is:

For Years, Deaf Boys Tried to Tell of Priest’s Abuse

Pope May Be at Crossroads on Abuse, Forced to Reconcile Policy and Words

Vatican Declined to Defrock U.S. Priest Who Abused Boys

In Abuse Crisis, a Church Is Pitted Against Society and Itself

Abuse Case Offers a View of the Vatican’s Politics

Bring the Pope to Justice

A Woman’s Place Is In The Church

The Great Catholic Cover-Up

We Can't Let the Pope Decide Who's a Criminal

The Pope Is Not Above the Law

Tear Down That Wall

The pope should stand trial

Ratzinger is the perfect pope

GOD! I need a beer.

Life on Earth Arose Just Once

A great article by Tina Hesman Saey of Science News on the proof for one of the central components for the Theory of Evolution.

One isn’t such a lonely number. All life on Earth shares a single common ancestor, a new statistical analysis confirms.

The idea that life forms share a common ancestor is “a central pillar of evolutionary theory,” says Douglas Theobald, a biochemist at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. “But recently there has been some mumbling, especially from microbiologists, that it may not be so cut-and-dried.”

Because microorganisms of different species often swap genes, some scientists have proposed that multiple primordial life forms could have tossed their genetic material into life’s mix, creating a web, rather than a tree of life.

To determine which hypothesis is more likely correct, Theobald put various evolutionary ancestry models through rigorous statistical tests. The results, published in the May 13 Nature, come down overwhelmingly on the side of a single ancestor.

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Fossil find resolves ancient extinction mystery

Researchers have revealed remarkably well preserved fossils of soft-bodied marine creatures that are between 470 and 480 million years old.

Prior to this find, scientists were unsure whether such creatures died out in an extinction event during an earlier period known as the Cambrian.

The fossils were preserved in rocks formed by layers of ancient marine mud in south-eastern Morocco.

They are described in the latest issue of the journal Nature.

The research team that studied the fossils described them as marine animals that lived during the early part of a period that followed the Cambrian, known as the Ordovician.

Professor Derek Briggs from Yale University in New Haven, US, who was an author of the study, told BBC News that the discovery provided "a much more complete record of early marine life than we've every had before".

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Muhammad cartoonist defiant after attack

STOCKHOLM — A Swedish artist whose drawing of the Prophet Muhammad offended Muslims said Wednesday he hopes to get another chance to deliver a lecture on free-speech that was interrupted by violent protests.

But officials at Uppsala University said they doubted they would invite Lars Vilks again after police used pepper spray and batons to help him escape a furious crowd Tuesday.

"It's nothing that we're discussing right now, but it's not very likely given how it turned out here," university spokeswoman Anneli Vaara said.

While Vilks escaped the incident with broken glasses and a degree of shock, he said it raised concerns about the freedom of expression at Sweden's oldest and most prestigious institute of higher learning.

"What you get is a mob deciding what can be discussed at the university," Vilks told The Associated Press, adding he was ready to repeat the lecture if re-invited.

"I'm ready to go up again," he said. "This must be carried through. You cannot allow it to be stopped."

What a guy! Good on him, we can't fear these idiots. If we start to get scared and let their weird ramblings control our lives in the face of reason, we all lose.

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Clash of the Kingdoms

On the African savanna, a cheetah fights with a lion over the carcass of a gazelle. In a North American boreal forest, a black spruce tree spreads its roots and leaves to capture more light and water from pines trying to do the same. Closely related species often compete aggressively for resources. But researchers have now found a remarkable exception: a plant competing for food with an animal.

The species in question are sundews and insect-eating wolf spiders. Sundews (Drosera capillaris) cover their leaves in a sticky mucous to trap insects and consume them with digestive enzymes, whereas the spiders (Sosippus floridanus) weave dense webs. Both species live close to the ground in the damp bogs of southern Florida, and both prey on a variety of bugs, including flies, ants, crickets, and springtails. This overlap led ecologist Jason Rohr of the University of South Florida in Tampa to wonder if the two species competed for resources.

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Maya Adept at 'Building Green'

An article from Science Daily on how the latest technology has led to a discovery that the Mayan civilization "designed and maintained sustainable cities long before 'building green' became a modern term".

A flyover of Belize's thick jungles has revolutionized archaeology worldwide and vividly illustrated the complex urban centers developed by one of the most-studied ancient civilizations -- the Maya.

University of Central Florida researchers led a NASA-funded research project in April 2009 that collected the equivalent of 25 years worth of data in four days.

Until now, Maya archeologists have been limited in exploring large sites and understanding the full nature of ancient Maya landscape modifications because most of those features are hidden within heavily forested and hilly terrain and are difficult to record. LiDAR effectively removes these obstacles.

"It's very exciting," said Arlen Chase. "The images not only reveal topography and built features, but also demonstrate the integration of residential groups, monumental architecture, roadways and agricultural terraces, vividly illustrating a complete communication, transportation and subsistence system."

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The Imperfect Human Eye

As someone who has to wear contact lenses, I find the argument that the seemly perfect complexities of the eye throughout the Animal Kingdom is proof of a designer.

The eye isn't perfect, and not just because I am short sighted. If there were a designer then there are some serious design flaws including blind spots, short/long sightedness and our incredible ability to be fooled by an Optical Illusion.

This particular optical illusion was winner of the Best Visual Illusion of the Year Contest 2010:

Click here to see all the BVIotY 2010 runners up

Click here for some information on why Intelligent Design has been rejected by the modern scientific community.

What is your theological stance on the idea of God?

I created a poll when I first started this Blog but some people have asked what they mean, so here are the simple explanations of each one.

Theist - Believes in a God that Created and Interferes in the world (listens to prayers)

Deist - Believes in a God that Created but doesn't interfere in the world

Pantheist - Believes that God is the world and the universe, not something that created it or interferes.

Atheist - Believes that there is no God and only the physical world we can see and prove. Some also think that Pantheists are really just spiritual atheists :P

I hope that helps :)

UPDATE: Atheist - Believes there are no deities, but can also mean the rejection of belief in the existence of deities.

Once again Sam Harris speaks frankly when discussing the Church and why no legal action has yet been taken and asks for help with Project Reason.

Just imagine a pious mother and father sending their beloved child to the Church of a Thousand Hands for spiritual instruction, only to have him raped and terrified into silence by threats of hell. And then imagine this occurring to tens of thousands of children in our own time -- and to children beyond reckoning for over a thousand years. The spectacle of faith so utterly misplaced, and so fully betrayed, is simply too depressing to think about.

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Fossil reveals early bird plumage

A new study of a 150-million-year-old fossil of an Archaeopteryx has shown that remnants of its feathers have been preserved.

Archaeopteryx is regarded as a "missing link" that documents a fabulous transition from dinosaur to bird.

The researchers say that it may soon be possible to work out the colours of feathers sported by these creatures.

Archaeopteryx is the most iconic of fossils: Many of the specimens beautifully capture this snapshot of evolution - showing the creature's skeleton, feathers and teeth in great detail.

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'We Don't Do God'? Secularism and Faith in the Public Square

Is secularism or some faith-based worldview a superior public philosophy? Which provides a more robust foundation for respect of human rights and liberties, and other widespread public values and ideals? Would it be fairer or more neutral to have a secular public square -- one free of appeals to religiously informed principles and arguments? Is this even possible?

Journalist and author Christopher Hitchens and philosopher John Haldane will discuss these and related issues in the third Veritas Forum at Oxford University.

May 12, 2010 at 08:00 PM

Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford

Presenters: John Haldane, Professor of Philosophy at the University of St. Andrews

Christopher Hitchens, Author and Journalist

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Cartoonist attacked by muslims in Sweden 2010

Read that title again, CARTOONIST attacked by Muslims! What for? Drawing a picture they didn't like.

Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks, who sparked controversy by drawing Prophet Mohammed with the body of a dog, was on Tuesday attacked while giving a lecture at a university, police said.

"The man was sat in the first row and suddenly he rushed at me. He punched me in the head and I lost my glasses," said Vilks, adding that at the very most he was "a little bruised".

Police said around 250 people were present at the time of the attack at the university of Uppsala, north of the Stockholm.

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"When Lars Vilks arrived, five persons started to protest against him with screaming. They calmed down and the lecture continued.

"When Lars Vilks talked about religion and showed a film, 20 persons tried to attack him, probably offended by the film."

Police evacuated the lecture hall but some demonstrators resisted, forcing officers to use tear gas. Two people were arrested.

In 2007, Swedish regional daily Nerikes Allehanda published Vilks' satirical cartoon to illustrate an editorial on the importance of freedom of expression.

The cartoon prompted protests by Muslims in the town of Oerebro, west of Stockholm, where the newspaper is based, while Egypt, Iran and Pakistan made formal complaints.

An al-Qaeda front organisation then offered $US100,000 ($A110,730) to anyone who murdered Vilks - with an extra $US50,000 ($A55,365) if his throat was slit - and $US50,000 ($A55,365) for the death of Nerikes Allehanda editor-in-chief Ulf Johansson.

Anyone who thinks that a Religious world is a better world, or that religious guidance makes us better people, is fucking insane.

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Bill Gates pays for ‘artificial’ clouds

The first trials of controversial sunshielding technology are being planned after the United Nations failed to secure agreement on cutting greenhouse gases.

Bill Gates, the Microsoft billionaire, is funding research into machines to suck up ten tonnes of seawater every second and spray it upwards. This would seed vast banks of white clouds to reflect the Sun’s rays away from Earth.

The British and American scientists involved do not intend to wait for international rules on technology that deliberately alters the climate. They believe that the weak outcome of December’s climate summit in Copenhagen means that emissions will continue to rise unchecked and that the world urgently needs an alternative strategy to protect itself from global warming.

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Group Backs Ritual ‘Nick’ as Female Circumcision Option

In a controversial change to a longstanding policy concerning the practice of female circumcision in some African and Asian cultures, the American Academy of Pediatrics is suggesting that American doctors be given permission to perform a ceremonial pinprick or “nick” on girls from these cultures if it would keep their families from sending them overseas for the full circumcision.

The academy’s committee on bioethics, in a policy statement last week, said some pediatricians had suggested that current federal law, which “makes criminal any nonmedical procedure performed on the genitals” of a girl in the United States, has had the unintended consequence of driving some families to take their daughters to other countries to undergo mutilation.

“It might be more effective if federal and state laws enabled pediatricians to reach out to families by offering a ritual nick as a possible compromise to avoid greater harm,” the group said

But some opponents of female genital mutilation, or F.G.M., denounced the statement.

“I am sure the academy had only good intentions, but what their recommendation has done is only create confusion about whether F.G.M. is acceptable in any form, and it is the wrong step forward on how best to protect young women and girls,” said Representative Joseph Crowley, Democrat of New York, who recently introduced a bill to toughen federal law by making it a crime to take a girl overseas to be circumcised. “F.G.M. serves no medical purpose, and it is rightfully banned in the U.S.”

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Can you trust Science?

Toward a Science of Morality

An article in the Huffington Post by Sam Harris about why people are opposed to the idea of a scientific look at morality and perhaps why its time to change that negative stance:

In February, I spoke at the 2010 TED conference, where I briefly argued that morality should be considered an undeveloped branch of science.

If nothing else, the response to my TED talk proves that many smart people believe that something in the last few centuries of intellectual progress prevents us from making cross-cultural moral judgments -- or moral judgments at all.

Many people also claim that a scientific foundation for morality would serve no purpose, because we can combat human evil while knowing that our notions of "good" and "evil" are unwarranted. It is always amusing when these same people then hesitate to condemn specific instances of patently abominable behavior.

I don't think one has fully enjoyed the life of the mind until one has seen a celebrated scholar defend the "contextual" legitimacy of the burqa, or a practice like female genital excision, a mere thirty seconds after announcing that his moral relativism does nothing to diminish his commitment to making the world a better place.

Many people believe that the problem with talking about moral truth, or with asserting that there is a necessary connection between morality and well-being, is that concepts like "morality" and "well-being" must be defined with reference to specific goals and other criteria -- and nothing prevents people from disagreeing about these definitions. I might claim that morality is really about maximizing well-being and that well-being entails a wide range of cognitive/emotional virtues and wholesome pleasures, but someone else will be free to say that morality depends upon worshipping the gods of the Aztecs and that well-being entails always having a terrified person locked in one's basement, waiting to be sacrificed.

Of course, goals and conceptual definitions matter. But this holds for all phenomena and for every method we use to study them. My father, for instance, has been dead for 25 years. What do I mean by "dead"? Do I mean "dead" with reference to specific goals? Well, if you must, yes -- goals like respiration, energy metabolism, responsiveness to stimuli, etc. The definition of "life" remains, to this day, difficult to pin down. Does this mean we can't study life scientifically? No. The science of biology thrives despite such ambiguities. The concept of "health" is looser still: it, too, must be defined with reference to specific goals -- not suffering chronic pain, not always vomiting, etc. -- and these goals are continually changing. Our notion of "health" may one day be defined by goals that we cannot currently entertain with a straight face (like the goal of spontaneously regenerating a lost limb). Does this mean we can't study health scientifically?

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