Made in his own image: The Catholic Church faces another scandal

Joseph Ratzinger is having a terrible year. But as the Catholic Church faces yet another scandal, blame is falling on its most popular figure of modern times, Pope John Paul II, writes Peter Popham of the Guardian newspaper

Take the man at the centre of the latest storm, Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe. Aged 67, he was born on the outskirts of Naples and was raised speaking the gritty local dialect, incomprehensible to outsiders. Referred to by Italian newspapers as "l'impresario di Dio", "God's wheeler-dealer", today he is the much-beloved archbishop of the same city: an impressively fat, prosperous looking prelate, who likes nothing better than immersing himself in his crowds of Neapolitan fans, slapping backs and kissing babies. Neapolitans affectionately call their archbishop "O'guapo", local slang for "the boss" – the kindly mafia capo whom people go to with their problems instead of phoning the police. But although no one is accusing him of complicity with the city's fearsome Camorra mafia (Roberto Saviano, author of Gomorrah, a book about the Camorra, leapt to his defence), the crimes of which he is accused are of a type which any mafioso would understand.

Sepe, who is still very young for a cardinal, received spectacular promotions from John Paul II which climaxed when he was given the job of running the church's Jubilee celebrations in 2000. A showman after the late-Pope's heart, he threw a carnival such as Rome has not seen since the days of Nero, and was rewarded for his success with the juicy job of running a church agency called Propaganda Fide, with a Roman property portfolio said to be worth €9bn (£6bn).

Now prosecutors claim that he sold property from that portfolio to a top politician at half its market value in return for his agency receiving special favours from the government. In classic clientelismo style: you scratch the politician's back, and he scratches yours. Except that in this case the alleged perpetrator was one of the most illustrious figures in the Catholic Church.

Pope Benedict, Vatican watchers say, spotted Cardinal Sepe's frailties early on, which is why, in 2006, he unceremoniously removed him from Propaganda Fide – a job that an incumbent would normally expect to hold indefinitely – and packed him off home to Naples.

The cardinal denies that version of what happened as flatly as he denies the corruption charges. Last week he said of the change in his fortunes: "The Holy Father asked me with great insistence to stay in Rome, but my heart was beating for Naples." But apropos of his legal difficulties, he also speaks darkly of enemies "who wanted to strike me, both inside and outside the church".

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The Most Convincing Argument For Atheism

Well apart from the fact that I'm now a weekday vegetarian.

ABC: Gillard won't play religion card

This was also posted in discussions last night but many people have sent the article in for posting this morning - you can see comments on the Discussion here

Prime Minister Julia Gillard says she has no intention of pretending to believe in God to attract religiously-inclined voters.

Former prime minister Kevin Rudd was a regular at Canberra church services and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott is known as a devout Catholic.

In contrast, Ms Gillard says that while she greatly respects other people's religious views, she does not believe in God.

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BBC: Finless porpoises in China on brink of extinction

Finless porpoises, a rare type of toothed whale, may be even more endangered than previously thought.

A survey of finless porpoises in Asia has revealed there are two species, not one, and that they rarely intermingle.

"Most conservation biologists have a strong feeling that the Yangtze finless porpoise has a very high risk of extinction"

- Prof Guang Yang

More worrying, finless porpoises living in the freshwater of China's Yangtze river are genetically unique, say scientists, who warn that greater efforts must be made to prevent these animals, numbering fewer than 1000, from following another Yangtze cetacean, the Baiji, to extinction.

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TED: John Kasaona: How poachers became caretakers

In his home of Namibia, John Kasaona is working on an innovative way to protect endangered animal species: giving nearby villagers (including former poachers) responsibility for caring for the animals. And it's working.

John Kasaona
John Kasaona is a pioneer of community-based conservation -- working with the people who use and live on fragile land to enlist them in protecting it.

BBC: 'Sex' drove fossil animal traits

Several prehistoric creatures developed elaborate body traits in order to attract members of the opposite sex, according to new research.

The purpose of the exaggerated crests and sails found in many fossil animals has long been controversial.

Some scientists said sails helped to regulate body temperature and that head crests helped flying reptiles steer during flight.

Now a study say these traits became so big because of sexual competition.

The findings, by an international team of researchers, is published in the journal American Naturalist.

One of the prehistoric animals looked at by the researchers were pterosaurs - flying reptiles which became extinct at the time of the dinosaurs.

The study suggests the relative size of the head crest compared to the body of the pterosaur was too large for it to have been dedicated to controlling the animal's body temperature or its flight.

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Leicester strikes a blow for secularism

An interesting Article by Theo Hobson of the Guardian newspaper.

If a secularist revolution were to emerge in Britain, where would it start? London is too pragmatic to care about such an earnest cause – you can't imagine Boris picking a fight with a bishop. What about the Oxford of Dawkins and Pullman? No: the whiff of royalism and incense lingers in that brainy city. What about more Whiggish Cambridge? No, secularism never grew roots there, despite Francis Crick's best efforts.

Look north – a bit north anyway. Look to Leicester. It's an unlikely choice on the surface: its huge Muslim minority makes it more religious than most cities. But it also has an old secularist tradition - it was here that the first secular society was formed. And this tradition has suddenly flared into life.

The new Lord Mayor is picking a fight with the local Anglican establishment.

Councillor Colin Hall's first move was to appoint fellow secularist campaigners as his Lady Mayoress and his chaplain. The former post went to Eleanor Davidson, who conducts humanist celebrations, and the latter to Allan Hayes, president of Leicester's secular society. Last week Hall refused to attend the traditional cathedral service that welcomes new Lord Mayors. He had asked for the service to be more inclusive of other faiths, and of humanism; he wanted the Lady Mayoress to read a humanist text, and his chaplain to give an address. When the bishop asked to see the sermon in advance, the mayor and his secularist sidekicks pulled out.

Hall has also announced the banning of prayers before monthly council meetings, calling the practice "outdated, unnecessary and intrusive". He added: "I consider that religion, in whatever shape or form, has no role to play at all in the conduct of council business. This particularly applies in Leicester, where the majority of council members, myself included, do not regularly attend any particular faith service." His chaplain has backed the move: "I think it's a good move because saying Christian prayers picks out one particular stance of people in the city. It's rather divisive, in my view."

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Bonobos have a secret

In the 1920s Robert Yerkes acquired an unusual ape that he named Prince Chim. Chim was more intelligent, fun-loving, cooperative, emotionally positive and full of life than his chimpanzee companion, Panzee. Chim's vocal behaviour was so prolific and reminiscent of language that Yerkes transcribed it using musical notation. Yerkes had discovered the bonobo.

In the 80s and 90s researchers conducted a study comparing a chimp and a bonobo. The aim was to determine if Yerkes's observations were accurate and if either animal, or both, could learn a human language through cultural immersion rather than instruction. The answer for both apes was yes.

Vanessa Woods writes engagingly of her husband, primatologist Brian Hare, struggling to tackle these questions again. Seemingly ignorant of the earlier work, in 2005 Hare embarked on a mission to find out what differentiates bonobos from chimps. With the Democratic Republic of Congo still mired in the aftermath of war, he travelled to the Lola Ya sanctuary in Kinshasa to study bonobos.

Hare found that bonobos do all kinds of things that chimps are not reported to do: they experience constant genital arousal, become attached to individual humans, think up new ways to engage in sexual, altruistic or cooperative behaviour on an essentially non-stop basis, and they die of broken hearts. In short they are a lot like people, even uncomfortably so - a fact that, ironically, has caused many scientists to ignore them.

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Study examines scientists' 'climate credibility'

Some 98% of climate scientists that publish research on the subject support the view that human activities are warming the planet, a study suggests.

It added there was little disagreement among the most experienced scientists.

But climate sceptics questioned the findings, saying that publication in scientific journals was not a fair test of expertise.

The findings have been published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The study's authors said they found "immense" differences in both the expertise and scientific prominence of those who supported the "primary tenets" of latest assessments made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and those who were sceptical of the IPCC's findings.

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Holier Than Dow

Samantha Bee talks to a group of priests and nuns who think big banks like Goldman Sachs are acting immorally.

The Daily Show

The Stained Earth, Courtesy Of BP

The beautiful and crystalline Blue Marble is now the Stained Blue Marble, created using NASA’s spectacular view of Earth and one of the scenarios for the spreading of BP’s oil, as simulated by the US National centre for Atmospheric Research.

While the NCAR says that their computer simulation shows one of the potential scenarios for the oilpocalypse spread—applying sea currents and typical weather on a neutral dye, not on actual oil—I couldn’t resist overlaying it over the complete image of the Earth. Seeing what could be the extension of this catastrophe in relation to our entire home planet—only 132 days after the start of the deadly flood—gives the whole disaster a complete new dimension.

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Earth - The Pale Blue Dot

This is Carl Sagan reading from his book, "The Pale Blue Dot". Director Michael Marantz shoots the timelapse for this piece, composes the music and edits.

You might just tear up watching this video.

Why do people laugh at creationists?

These are hilarious, its easy to think that some of the videos or points being made are just stating the obvious, but there are people who not only still believe in this stuff, and are so passionate about it, that they want our children to be taught creationist science in schools alongside evolution.

Why do people laugh at creationists?

The only people so stupid as to not understand the answer are the creationists themselves.

There are over 20 of these videos under the YouTube user Thunderf00t.

Watch them here

Fifty Years of Exploration

BP Oil fiasco rendered using Unreal Engine

If you are of the type of the gamer who actually keeps abreast with daily world news besides gaming then you should not be a stranger to the BP Oil fiasco. According to reports, the amount of oil spilling in to the Gulf of Mexico stands at 25,000 barrels a day. Now how much is that in terms of quantity one might ask? We have got the answer for that. We got a video from Youtube which uses the Unreal Engine to render 25,000 barrels. Check it out, its pretty interesting.

Mass physics demonstration I rendered in the UDK, simulating 25,000 barrels stacked around a pillar 15,000 feet high, and then group by group falling to the ground.

I accomplished this by using the UDK to construct the setup and then running the benchmark shortcut command to render the scene.

Source

Whaling deal splits countries and conservationists

A deal that could regulate whaling for the next 10 years is up for debate at the International Whaling Commission's meeting opening in Agadir, Morocco.

The proposal would see Iceland, Japan and Norway given annual quotas with hunts more tightly scrutinised, while international trade could be banned.

Some anti-whaling countries and some conservation groups support the idea, while others are implacably opposed.

Few observers are prepared to predict whether the deal will be approved.

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Book: The Rational Optimist - Matt Ridley

To argue that human nature has not changed, but human culture has, does not mean rejecting evolution – quite the reverse. Humanity is experiencing an extraordinary burst of evolutionary change, driven by good old-fashioned Darwinian natural selection. But it is selection among ideas, not among genes. The habitat in which these ideas reside consists of human brains. This notion has been trying to surface in the social sciences for a long time. The French sociologist Gabriel Tarde wrote in 1888: 'We may call it social evolution when an invention quietly spreads through imitation.' The Austrian economist Friedrich Hayek wrote in the 1960s that in social evolution the decisive factor is 'selection by imitation of successful institutions and habits'. The evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins in 1976 coined the term 'meme' for a unit of cultural imitation. The economist Richard Nelson in the 1980s proposed that whole economies evolve by natural selection.

This is what I mean when I talk of cultural evolution: at some point before 100,000 years ago culture itself began to evolve in a way that it never did in any other species – that is, to replicate, mutate, compete, select and accumulate – somewhat as genes had been doing for billions of years. Just like natural selection cumulatively building an eye bit by bit, so cultural evolution in human beings could cumulatively build a culture or a camera. Chimpanzees may teach each other how to spear bushbabies with sharpened sticks, and killer whales may teach each other how to snatch sea lions off beaches, but only human beings have the cumulative culture that goes into the design of a loaf of bread or a concerto.

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Illegal bushmeat 'rife in Europe'

About 270 tonnes of illegal bushmeat could be passing through one of Europe's busiest airports each year, the first study of its kind estimates.

A team of researchers says the illicit trade could pose a risk to human or animal health and increase the demand for meat from threatened species.

The figure is based on seizures from searches carried out over 17 days at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris.

The findings appear in the journal Conservation Letters.

A team of researchers from France, Cambodia and the UK said it was the "first systematic study of the scale and nature of this international trade".

"We estimate that about five tonnes of bushmeat per week is smuggled in personal baggage through Paris Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport," they wrote.

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New Threats to Freedom

Back in 2005, Chris Lee, a student at Washington State University, set out to make a comedy musical that, in the tradition of South Park, offended as broad a spectrum of people as possible. Unfortunately for him, he succeeded. His musical--a very loose parody of Mel Gibson's 2004 film The Passion of the Christ--earned him protests, death threats, and even an organized attempt among administrators and students to disrupt the play.

Today, my organization, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, unveils a new video about Chris' strange journey:

You can see all the documentation about this case yourself here, including the e-mail in which the Washington State University administrator admits that they counseled students to stand up and yell during the play. While the university did not advise the students to shout threats of physical violence and even death threats during the play, that's what the protesters did. Meanwhile, the campus police told Chris they would not protect the actors if the angry protesters decided to rush the stage. Amazingly, the president of WSU actually praised the university-funded, threat-shouting, play-disrupting students, saying they "exercised their rights of free speech in a very responsible manner."

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'Design vs. Chance' by PZ Myers, AAI 2009

Ever lost for ways of explaining to someone why believing in Intelligent Design is flawed, get them to watch this video. :)

PZ Myers' lecture at the Atheist Alliance International 2009 conference in Burbank, CA. Watch this YouTube channel for many more talks from the conference

How Unleashing the Mississippi Could Protect the Louisiana Coast

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is considering a plan, proposed by scientists, to use dams to divert more water toward the mouth of the Mississippi River, which could keep the BP oil slick from penetrating the vulnerable coastal wetlands.

Preventing spilled oil from invading the fragile Louisiana wetlands—where it would be virtually impossible to remove without severely damaging the ecosystem—is an urgent priority of relief workers in the Gulf of Mexico. A variety of defense measures have been suggested, including the use of rocks and barges to block the oil from entering the bays, and the construction of huge sand piles that would stand 6 feet taller than the Gulf's average high-water mark and, hopefully, shield the coastline.

Last week, G. Paul Kemp, a former professor of marine science at Louisiana State University and current vice president of the National Audubon Society's Louisiana Coastal Initiative, sent a memo to the Environmental Protection Agencyproposing an additional strategy, which calls for using upstream dams to increase the flow of the Mississippi River into the Gulf. Kemp says the river is "the biggest tool in the toolbox" when it comes to keeping oil out Louisiana's swamps and marshes, which make up nearly 40 percent of the nation's wetlands.

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The Daily Show: An Energy-Independent Future

The last eight presidents have gone on television and promised to move America towards an energy-independent future.

Its a little depressing isn't it. :(

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Inside Natures Giants - The Crocodile

Inside Nature's Giants dissects the largest animals on the planet to uncover their evolutionary secrets. Most wildlife documentaries tell you how an animal behaves, but by dissecting the animal and studying its anatomy we can we can see how an animal works. Experts in comparative anatomy, evolution and behaviour will put some of the most popular and enigmatic large animals under the knife. Veterinary scientist, Mark Evans, will interpret their findings, biologist Simon Watts tests the animals' physiology in the field and Richard Dawkins traces back the animals' place on the tree of life.

The team uncovers the crocodile's incredible jaw muscles, as biologist Simon Watt travels to Florida to test the huge strength of the massive reptile's bite: the most powerful in the animal kingdom. But while crocodiles' spiked teeth are excellent for gripping prey as they plunge into a death roll, they are useless for chewing. So how do these animals manage to digest large chunks of raw meat and bone? As the experts dissect the digestive system and inspect the stomach contents for clues, they reveal the bizarre plumbing between the heart and the stomach that might provide the key to this puzzle. And they also solve the mystery of this crocodile's premature death.

Inside Scientology: No kids allowed

Laura Dieckman was just 12 when her parents let her leave home to work full time for Scientology's religious order, the Sea Organization. At 16, she married a co-worker. At 17, she was pregnant.

She was excited to start a family, but she said Sea Org supervisors pressured her to have an abortion. She was back at work the following day.

Claire Headley joined at 16, married at 17 and was pregnant at 19. She said Sea Org supervisors threatened strenuous physical work and repeated interrogations if she didn't end her pregnancy. She, too, was back at work the next day.

Two years later she had a second abortion, this time while working for the church in Clearwater.

A St. Petersburg Times investigation found their experiences were not unique. More than a dozen women said the culture in the Sea Org pushed them or women they knew to have abortions, in many cases, abortions they did not want.

Stephen Hawking's Bedtime Stories

Everyone's got a copy of A Brief History of Time, but few have finished it. If we engage children in science young enough, will this change?

Stephen Hawking:

The book aroused a great deal of interest, although many people found it difficult to understand. But I believe everyone can, and should, have a broad picture of how the universe operates, and our place in it. This is what I have tried to convey in all my popular books.

It is extremely important to me to write for children. Children ask how things do what they do, and why. Too often they are told that these are stupid questions to ask, but this is said by grown-ups who don't know the answers and don't want to look silly by admitting they don't know. It is important that young people keep their sense of wonder and keep asking why. I'm a child myself, in the sense that I'm still looking. Children are fascinated by black holes and ask me questions. I find they soon get the idea if it is explained in simple language. And yes, it is nice to think a few of them might grow up and read A Brief History from cover to cover.

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Water CO2 calculator for UK homes goes online

A website that helps people to work out how much CO2 is being emitted to heat water in their homes has gone online.

Produced by the Energy Saving Trust (EST), it also suggests ways that users can save water and energy, as well as cutting their carbon footprint.

The Trust says CO2 from energy used to heat water in UK homes accounts for 5% of the nation's total carbon emissions.

Yet, it adds, water use is the "forgotten energy saving opportunity" by homes, businesses and policymakers.

The EST produced the calculator as an interactive, "easy to understand" tool for people to make the link between water efficiency and energy efficiency, explained Andrew Tucker, EST's water strategy manager.

Energy used in the UK water sector accounts for about 6% of the nation's total CO2 emissions, 89% of which is a result of homes and businesses heating the water.

Figures from the Trust estimate that heating water accounts for about 30% of the average household's energy bills.

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6-story Jesus statue in Ohio struck by lightning

MONROE, Ohio – A six-story-tall statue of Jesus Christ with his arms raised along a highway was struck by lightning in a thunderstorm Monday night and burned to the ground, police said.



The “King of Kings” statue, one of southwest Ohio’s most familiar landmarks, had stood since 2004 at the evangelical Solid Rock Church along Interstate 75 in Monroe, just north of Cincinnati.

The lightning strike set the statue ablaze around 11:15 p.m., Monroe police dispatchers said.

The sculpture, 62 feet tall and 40 feet wide at the base, showed Jesus from the torso up and was nicknamed Touchdown Jesus because of the way the arms were raised, similar to a referee signaling a touchdown. It was made of plastic foam and fiberglass over a steel frame, which is all that remained early Tuesday.

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Michael Shermer: The pattern behind self-deception

Michael Shermer says the human tendency to believe strange things -- from alien abductions to dowsing rods -- boils down to two of the brain's most basic, hard-wired survival skills. He explains what they are, and how they get us into trouble.



About Michael Shermer
Michael Shermer debunks myths, superstitions and urban legends, and explains why we believe them. Along with publishing Skeptic Magazine, he's author of Why People Believe Weird Things.

What science is really worth

President Barack Obama says it. Francis Collins, director of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), says it. University and research leaders elsewhere are saying it, too. The number one current rationale for extra research investment is that it will generate badly needed economic growth.

"Science is more essential for our prosperity, our health, our environment and our quality of life than it has ever been before," said Obama, addressing the National Academy of Sciences in Washington DC last year. Getting down to the details, Collins has recently cited a report by Families USA, a Washington DC-based health-advocacy group, which found that every US$1 spent by the NIH typically generates $2.21 in additional economic output within 12 months.

"Biomedical research has generally been looked at for its health benefits, but the case for it generating economic growth is pretty compelling," says Collins. In Britain, senior scientists have called on the government to support science as a means of helping the economy out of recession. Heeding such arguments, governments in Germany, Sweden, Canada and Australia, as well as the United States, have increased research spending as part of stimulus packages designed to aid their struggling economies.

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Hundreds to demonstrate against Sharia and religious laws on 20 June in London

Hundreds will be demonstrating in London against Sharia and religious laws and in support of secularism and universal rights on Sunday 20 June 2010. The rally organised by the One Law for All Campaign will be held from 1400-1600 hours at Richmond Terrace junction with Whitehall opposite Downing Street (SW1A 2).

On the day, the Campaign will make public its new report entitled: Sharia Law in Britain: A Threat to One Law for All and Equal Rights. In the report One Law for All outlines what Sharia law is, how it is practised in Britain and exposes the way in which Sharia Councils and Muslim Arbitration Tribunals are circumventing British law and human rights legislation. The report also reveals the gross injustices to women and children in particular and reiterates the need to end Sharia and all religious courts on the basis that they work against, and not for, equality and human rights.

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Muslim teens enraged by pop star’s name

Muslim teens at a Copenhagen concert threw eggs at pop icon who shares a name with a holy city of Islam

It must have seemed like a good idea at the time. Denmark’s answer to Lady Gaga, decided to put on a free concert in the southern Copenhagen suburb of Ishøj, home to one of Denmark’s largest minority communities.

But Medina, whose real name is Andrea Fuentealba Valbak, didn’t get to sing more than a few notes before a hail of eggs began to rain down upon the stage.

The perpetrators, reports tabloid B.T., were a gang of between 10 and 20 youngsters between the ages of 14 and 17 all ‘with an immigrant background’.

Their reason for attacking the songstress? Apart from taking exception to Medina’s hot pants and sexually suggestive song lyrics, it appears that the gang were provoked by the singer’s stage name which is also coincidentally the name of the second holiest city in Islam and the burial place of the Prophet Mohammed.

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Sperm whale faeces offset CO2 emissions

In a somewhat unusual research project, scientists have found that sperm whale faeces may help oceans absorb carbon dioxide from the air.

Australian researchers calculate that Southern Ocean sperm whales release about 50 tonnes of iron each year.

This stimulates the growth of tiny marine plants - phytoplankton - which absorb CO2 during photosynthesis.

They note in the Royal Society journal Proceedings B that in the end, this also provides more food for the whales.

Phytoplankton are the basis of the marine food web in this part of the world, and the growth of these tiny plants is limited by the amount of nutrients available, including iron.

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Saving Africa’s Witch Children

I hope that focusing the whole world on Africa during this years FIFA World Cup it will be to show the world some of the horrors that still take place in this very underprivileged continent.

Infuriating, sad, and heartbreaking. Absolutely heartbreaking. These kids in villages across Nigeria are beaten, tortured, burned, starved, and murdered because some idiot religious figure deemed them witches. If they’re lucky they’re merely abandoned. National religious figures in Nigeria are getting rich selling the child witch panic by producing gruesome videos and anointing local bishops with witch-detecting power (for a fee, of course). I’ve never been moved by a documentary to immediately write a check. I wrote one last night to an organization called the Children’s Right and Rehabilitation Network, which has established a sanctuary to care for the outcast kids.

Read the article and watch a preview here

BBC Life

Being in Australia I couldn't watch BBC's Life series when it was aired in 2009, but I've made up for that over Australia's long weekend.

It is incredible, almost as good as Planet Earth, and goes to show that if you want a to understand more about our planet and the great number of organisms fighting for their place on it, you need look no further the BBC.

Supposedly, in the US they had to cut each episode down by 15 minutes and get Oprah Winfrey to narrate instead of David Attenborough. Is it any wonder they allow Creationism Science to be taught in the classroom.

View their webpage

View their interactive Tree of Life

Scenes from the Gulf of Mexico

Based on recently revised estimates, BP's ruptured oil well at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico continues to leak 25,000 to 30,000 barrels of oil a day. The new figures suggest that an amount of oil equivalent to the Exxon Valdez disaster could still be flowing into the Gulf of Mexico every 8 to 10 days. Despite apparent efforts to restrict journalists from accessing affected areas, stories, video and photographs continue to emerge. Collected here are recent photographs of oil-affected wildlife, people and shorelines around the Gulf of Mexico on this, the 51st day after the initial explosion.

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Sam Harris Breaking the spell

American Jewish University presents best-selling authors Sam Harris and Rabbi David Wolpe in a debate about the existence of God and the role of religion and faith in society. Sam Harris is a renowned atheist and author of The End of Faith and Letter to a Christian Nation. Rabbi David Wolpe, of Sinai Temple, is the author of Teaching Your Children About God and Why Be Jewish. This debate is moderated by Los Angeles Times religion editor Steve Padilla.



American Jewish University is grateful to Jewish Television Network for their partnership in making it possible for the public to view more of our programs.

Watch the entire Video

Rich countries accused of carbon 'cheating'

Some rich countries are seeking new rules under the UN climate convention that campaigners say would allow them to gain credit for "business as usual".

Russia, Australia, Canada and some EU countries are among the accused.

The rules relate to land-use change, which can either release or absorb carbon, depending mainly on whether forests are planted or chopped down.

Rich countries, apart from the US, could account for about 5% of their annual emissions through this loophole.

The US is not involved in these negotiations because the proposals fall under the Kyoto Protocol, of which it - alone among developed countries - is not a part.

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Donohue vs. Hawking

It's like Bambi vs. Godzilla, except no one would consider Donohue cute and innocent. In an interview, Hawking talked about gods:

"What could define God [is thinking of God] as the embodiment of the laws of nature. However, this is not what most people would think of that God," Hawking told Sawyer. "They made a human-like being with whom one can have a personal relationship. When you look at the vast size of the universe and how insignificant an accidental human life is in it, that seems most impossible."

When Sawyer asked if there was a way to reconcile religion and science, Hawking said, "There is a fundamental difference between religion, which is based on authority, [and] science, which is based on observation and reason. Science will win because it works."

Straightforward and sensible, that's a scientist talking. Bill Donohue, who is anything but sensible, took exception to all that.

How any rational person could belittle the pivotal role that human life plays in the universe is a wonder, but it is just as silly to say that all religions are marked by the absence of reason. While there are some religions which are devoid of reason, there are others, such as Roman Catholicism, which have long assigned it a special place.

Human life plays a pivotal role in the universe? How? Is the orbit of Mars influenced by human activities, does the Andromeda galaxy, 2.5 million light years away, care in the slightest about a species so remote that they're still waiting for the glimmerings of light from the fires they used to roast a mammoth? We could wink out of existence right now and the universe would go on, fundamentally unchanged.

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Mormon Church to be fined by state political commission over Proposition 8

The state Fair Political Practices Commission is expected to fine the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for not properly reporting about $37,000 worth of contributions to pass California's ban on same-sex marriages.

The commission will fine the Salt Lake City-based church $5,538 for failing to report the numerous contributions. The fine comes in response to a complaint filed in November 2008 by Fred Karger, a gay-rights activist and co-founder of Californians Against Hate, who accused the Mormon Church of failing to report the value of the work it did to support Proposition 8.

"The investigation revealed that the church unintentionally failed to file daily reports detailing approximately $37,000 in non-monetary contributions," a statement on the church's website read. "The amount of contributions not reported represented the cost of staff time spent by church employees on activities to help the Yes on 8 committee during the final two weeks of the election."

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Mammoth-Belch Deficit Caused Prehistoric Cooling?

By killing Ice Age mammals, humans cut greenhouse gas emissions, study says.

When mammoths and other Ice Age "megafauna" disappeared from the Americas about 12,800 years ago, the animals took with them their planet-warming burps—spurring the mysterious cooling period known as the Younger Dryas, a new study says.

And because humans are thought to have killed the creatures off, the deaths hint that we've been changing the climate since long before the first Model T chugged out of Mr. Ford's factory.

According to ice core studies, the Younger Dryas event began about a thousand years after mass human migrations into the Americas 13,400 years ago, near the end of the last ice age.

The world had been starting to warm, but the Younger Dryas brought on a freeze that lasted roughly 1,300 years, with estimated temperature drops of 7.2 to 14.4°F (4 to 8°C) in eastern North America and northern Europe.

Also within a thousand years of the human migrations, more than 114 species of large plant-eaters—including woolly mammoths, giant camels, and ground sloths—had gone extinct. (See pictures of a stunningly preserved baby mammoth.)

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Christopher Hitchens - Religion Illustrated

This is the brilliant opening statement that Christopher Hitchens gave in a religion vs. atheism debate with Alister McGrath on October 11, 2007.



Instead of simply watching Hitchens at the podium, here the speech's audio is overlayed with illustations to try to do justice to the logic of this very compelling argument.

Hawking: Religion will be defeated by science

There were some techies Monday who believed they experienced a sighting of God somewhere in San Francisco.

Those people might care to hark at deeply relevant news. God will be defeated by science. No, not by faltering Wi-Fi systems at a conference. And, no, these are not my words. This is the considered opinion of someone sometimes referred to as the cleverest man in the world, Stephen Hawking.

In an interview with ABC's Diane Sawyer, due to air Monday evening, Hawking expounded upon the largest questions, those that transcend iPhones and androids: Can science and God live happily ever after?

According to ABC News, Hawking first tried to define God in a way that he, as a scientist, might feel comfortable: "What could define God (is thinking of God) as the embodiment of the laws of nature. However, this is not what most people would think of that God," he said.

Indeed, he expressed disappointment at how humans have thought of deity.

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Russell Blackford: The Culture Wars

Russell Blackford’s excellent talk at Embiggen Books a couple of weeks ago is now online for your viewing pleasure. Russell’s talk focuses on why it is necessary to critique belief systems if we are to maintain the health of a secular society.

Russell Blackford at Embiggen Books from Embiggen Books on Vimeo.

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Debate: Is the Catholic church a force for good in the world?

"It stands up for the oppressed and offers spiritual succour to billions say the Church's supporters. But what about the Church's teachings on condoms, gays and women priests, ask the detractors."

Speaking for the motion, Archbishop John Onaiyekan and Ann Widdencombe MP. Speaking against the motion, Christopher Hitchens and Stephen Fry.

The rest:
Part 2 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPlU1EwKxSM
Part 3 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUOUMqyimhA
Part 4 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJ8pgdCvNQM
Part 5 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pd_vd1FgkVU

How To Fill The God-shaped Hole

An extract from The School of Life site about how to fill that hole left by religion after you've left your church or lost faith but still want to find somewhere to contribute and do good in the world.

The School of Life is a new social enterprise offering good ideas for everyday living.

We live during a period of human history in which, perhaps for the first time, no single religion or philosophy dominates. It’s a plural world.

We can choose what we make of religion and how we might pursue spiritual matters – or not. There’s a tremendous freedom in that, but also a profound challenge. For while many feel little or no inclination to follow a particular religion, they are nonetheless conscious of what might be called ‘the God-shaped hole’. They seek to nurture the spiritual side of themselves, and would like to deepen how this might be done.

In this class, we’ll explore the ramifications of our secular predicament, how people try to fill the gap, how successful they are when set alongside what traditional religious practice has offered, and we’ll identify some practices that you might take up in your own life.

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Brian Skerry reveals ocean's glory -- and horror

Photographer Brian Skerry shoots life above and below the waves -- as he puts it, both the horror and the magic of the ocean. Sharing amazing, intimate shots of undersea creatures, he shows how powerful images can help make change



Brian Skerry is a photojournalist who captures images that not only celebrate the mystery and beauty of the sea but also bring attention to the pressing issue which endanger our oceans.

No, I don't believe in God

An article by Alom Shaha from the Guardian.co.uk website about "coming out" as an Atheist from a Muslim background.

I am an atheist. I imagine that the typical Cif belief reader may not think this is a particularly big deal, but it is for me, because I'm not just an atheist – I'm an apostate from Islam. Apparently there are people who would happily kill me for making such a statement. But I'm not expecting to be killed, or even threatened; despite what the BNP and certain elements of the press might want you to think, the overwhelming majority of Muslims are not rabid fundamentalists who respond with violence to every perceived slight.

It's not easy "coming out" like this. Yes, this is a term that is usually applied to people declaring their homosexuality, but there are parallels which justify its use in this context – especially if you come from the kind of background I have.

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Australian Education FTW

On November 25, 2009, the former NSW Premier Nathan Rees made an unprecedented intervention to waive regulations, giving year 5 & 6 students in 10 State schools the choice between SRE (Special Religious Education) and the trial of Ethics-based classes.

There are a small uprising by the SREonTrial.com site but when their arguments are that ethics aren't as important as scripture, and that the Ethics class doesn't clearly communicate that the teaching of such philosophers like JS Mill is based on secular humanism which dismisses any notion of God, you know that they have no argument.

They are so clearly not worried about teaching our children to think for themselves about what is right or wrong but instead very scared of losing out on the next generation of religious drones.

Well done Nathan Rees.

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Doctors to 'print' new organs for transplant patients

Although God may not like amputees enough to give them the limbs they desire (See WhyWontGodHealAmputees.com), we are fortunate enough to have real doctors and scientists to look after us.

I cannot understate that fact enough.

Yesterday I found out a friend of mine had been diagnosed with having a brain tumour. It sounds horrific, and frankly it is, but the doctors and nurses simply said, "You're going to be fine, its an easy operation and we'll do the surgery within 2 weeks; we'll cut away part of the skull, take out the tumour and put your skull back in place."

Think about that for a second. How easy do they make it sound.

That is how far we have progressed in our knowledge of the human body. No longer are we are the mercy of an invisible force who would take away peoples life without any warning.

We as a species have learnt so much about the human body and its inner workings that we are now able to diagnose and treat even the most terrifying ailment such as a brain tumour and pass it off as if you were having a fracture re-set.

Now we are, nearly, at the stage where if an organ of ours fails, for whatever reason, we can simply create the necessary cells using our DNA, manipulate them into shape and create a completely new organ.

Doctors might one day be able to 'print' living body parts they need for surgery, including blood vessels and entire organs.

The astonishing technique is known as bio-printing and it could make the transplant list a thing of the past.

Currently patients on the transplant list have to wait months or even years before a suitable organ becomes available.

Some religious people may say that we are only acting according to God's plan, and without the tools he put in front of us we'd never have succeeded.

If anyone honestly things this then they should be very very concerned, because I cannot imagine people worshiping a God who is fucking toying with us. A God who torments us, by killing our friends and loved ones, into spurring us on to find bigger and better ways of saving people.

Surely a world where in the vastness, possible infinite, of space lived an organism that evolved from single cell organisms to the point were we can manipulate the world around us so much that we can create new ways of ensuring we can keep on procreating, is much more likely than one where a God created us in all his love but for millions of years tortured and tormented us until only the strongest survived.

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Scientists find a ‘hint of life’ on Saturn’s moon Titan

Scientists have found evidence that there is life on Saturn’s biggest moon, Titan.
They have discovered clues that primitive aliens are breathing in Titan’s atmosphere and feeding on fuel at the surface.

The startling discoveries, made using an orbiting spacecraft, are revealed in two separate reports.

Data from Nasa’s Cassini probe has analysed the complex chemistry on the surface of Titan – the only moon known to have a dense atmosphere.

Its surface is covered with mountains, lakes and rivers which has led astronomers to call it the most Earthlike world in the solar system.

Organic chemicals had already been detected on the 3,200-mile wide planet. But the liquid on Titan is not water but methane and the scientists expect life there to be methane-based.

The Genius of Britain

"We may only be a small island, but Britain's great scientists and inventors have literally created the modern world, from the invention of the steam engine, computers and the world-wide web, to the discovery of the theory of evolution and the atom. In a new five-part series some of Britain's leading scientific figures tell the stories of the people behind these innovations. The first programme begins 350 years ago when a small group of friends, colleagues and rivals defied everything that was known about the world at that time. Stephen Hawking and Jim Al-Khalili explain how Isaac Newton saw mathematics at the root of everything, from gravity to light."

Caught in the Oil

A short entry from Boston.com. AP Photographer Charlie Riedel just filed the following images of seabirds caught in the oil slick on a beach on Louisiana's East Grand Terre Island. As BP engineers continue their efforts to cap the underwater flow of oil, landfall is becoming more frequent, and the effects more evident.

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Religious leaders unite against planned Jesus cartoon

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – It's not on the air yet. It's not shot yet. There's no pilot yet. There might not even be a script yet.

But Comedy Central's plan to develop an animated project about Jesus Christ has the biggest names in the TV watchdog business forming a protest supergroup to preemptively smite the show.

Brent Bozell (president, Media Research Centre), Tony Perkins (president, Family Research Council), Michael Medved (talk radio host), Bill Donohue (president, Catholic League), Rabbi Daniel Lapin (American Alliance of Jews and Christians) and Tim Winter (president, Parents Television Council) are joining forces to form the Coalition Against Religious Bigotry.

Comedy Central's "JC" is in development, which means it's still a couple of steps from getting the green light as a series. The project is about Jesus trying to live as a regular guy in New York City and wanting to escape the shadow of his "powerful but apathetic father." Because Comedy Central recently censored "South Park" for its portrayals of the Prophet Muhammad, some Christian leaders see the prospect of a Jesus cartoon as proof of an offensive double standard.

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Richard Sears: Planning for the end of oil

As the world's attention focuses on the perils of oil exploration, we present Richard Sears' talk from early February 2010. Sears, an expert in developing new energy resources, talks about our inevitable and necessary move away from oil. Toward ... what?



Richard Sears thinks hard about the post-oil world. He's a visiting scientist at MIT, after a long career as a VP at Shell.

Retina Created From Stem Cell

In another world first in the fight against degenerative eye disorders, scientists from the Universtiy of California, Irvine, have created an eight-layer early-stage retina from human embryonic stem cells. Not only is this the world's first three-dimensional complex tissue structure to be made from stem cells, but it also marks the first step toward the development of transplant-ready retinas to treat eye disorders affecting millions.

The retina is the part of the eye that records images and sends them from the eye to the brain via the optic nerve. Building on a process designed in a previous study, researchers created multiple cell types using microscopic gradients for solutions in which to bathe the stem cells and initiate specific differentiation paths.

"Creating this complex tissue is a first for the stem cell field," said Hans Keirstead, study leader of the Reeve-Irvine Research Center and the Sue & Bill Gross Stem Cell Research Center at UCI. "Dr. Gabriel Nistor in our group addressed a really interesting scientific problem with an engineering solution, showing that gradients of solutions can create complex stem cell-based tissues. We made a complex structure consisting of many cell types. This is a major advance in our quest to treat retinal disease. What’s so exciting with our discovery is that creating transplantable retinas from stem cells could help millions of people, and we are well on the way.”

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Tina Anderson, 15, Punished by Baptists for Being Raped

Another sad story about Religious officials abusing their power for their desires to take advantage of an innocent child and their attempts to cover it up.

Tina Anderson was raped and impregnated at the age of 15 by a member of her church. After reporting the crime to her pastor, however, it was Anderson who was punished.

Here are some of the culprits of this story:

The Catholic Church's HR
Until the Church gets with it and starts proper screening for PEDOPHILES, rather than gay men, we're simply gonna have to hold it's hiring practices responsible for creating such ginormous loop holes.

Richard Rushton
That's when authorities raided Rushton's home and discovered that, as Lance had suspected, Rushton wasn't filming sermons, but was videotaping up the skirts of girls and women in attendance.

Jeff and Jeremiah Owens
Owens recently made headlines when a YouTube video of one his sermons surfaced in which he says, "we need to stop burning flags and start burning fags. We need a hunt-a-homo week. We need to take 'em all out and shoot 'em with a scatter shotgun."

Harley Michael Keough
Last week, six different women took the stand and testified that upon arriving at the church's food bank, they were greeted by an overly friendly Keough who would lead them into the food bank's storage room, and then promptly molest them.

Trinity Baptist Church
Speaking of religious leaders who turn a blind eye to rape -- we now bring you to the tale of the Trinity Baptist Church in Concord, New Hampshire.


What a very very sorry state of affairs. For anyone wishing to gain a greater understanding of our place in the universe and to feel a part of something special. Please don't go to church. Go to a community center or join a local sports team.

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