I am listening to a podcast on Darwin Day produced on the Scientific American podcast. The following is a quote about the trial that was going on over Evolution and Intelligent Design:

You have to conclude that really what it is about is, that without faith, these people [the religious groups in favor of Intelligent Design] couldn’t survive. And therefore, given a choice between faith and evidence, it doesn’t matter what the evidence is, you have to choose the faith in order to survive. (more…)

I was just reading about the (really not very serious) call for removal of Harry Reid from office due to his purported racist remarks about Barrack Obama.

Reid supposedly said he,  ”…believed that the country was ready to embrace a black presidential candidate, especially one such as Obama — a ‘light-skinned’ African American ‘with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one…” (more…)

I remember reading Adam’s post about whether or not fiction was inherently immoral since it seems to be a deception.

I confess, I thought Adam was pretty much blathering about nothing at the time.

But I’ve read two books recently that have caused me to realize this might be a valid question after all, and even suggest two possible answers (one each), one of which Adam didn’t think of. (more…)

I came across this test for Autism online. Try it out and see how you score. This will help raise awarness for this disability.

I scored a 34, which puts me into the Autism spectrum range (anything above 32), though it doesn’t necessarily mean I have Autism. I’ve never been diagnosed as such. (more…)

One common thing I hear from my more liberal friends and neighbors is that religion is just a preference to them. There is no right or wrong religion, thus you just pick the one that you like the most.

Interestingly, it’s easy to prove that those that say this don’t believe it either. (more…)

“I Don’t Tell My Child What to Believe” — Some thoughts on confusion between practice and belief in general.

I came across an interesting post where a mother describes how she doesn’t tell her daughter what she should believe.

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According to this USA Today article, Syncretism (belief in multiple and often contradictory beliefs from multiple religions) is on the rise.

I confess, I don’t buy that “on the rise” part much. I suspect Syncretism has always been with us in large measure. Anyone that has served a mission knows “converts” are actually a mixture of the old and new and often for life. It’s probably a good bet that all people are that way to varying degrees. (more…)

The Salt Lake Tribune has a story today that the LDS Church is adding “to care for the poor and the needy” to the “missions” (now called “purposes”) of the Church.

Sounds interesting. Anyhow else have any more details?

A friend sent me a link about how Utah has the highest use of anti-depressants along with a note that said: “What’s wrong with you guys out there?” Not long afterwards, Andrew Ainsworth did an excellent series of articles about Utah, Mormonism, and Depresssion. (more…)

DavidH made an excellent comment that I think should be discussed further. This was in response to a concern he had over my suggestion that people that don’t believe in the LDS Church (i.e. do not accept any of the unique truth claims of the LDS Church) should not be Bishops or ecclesiastical leaders in the Church.

DavidH objected and went on to explain:

And I think if a person has enough faith to honestly hold a temple recommend but has doubts or reservations about some of the Church’s other teachings (even those on your list), and if a stake president feels inspired to call that person as bishop, I would be perfectly fine with it.

I actually think this is an excellent point and we should discuss several aspects of it further. (more…)

The Law of the Excluded Middle of Religion – An Argument that Religious Categories Actually Do Exist

As a comment to my post on “What is a Religion?” Mark Brown made a (somewhat snarky) comment that is worthy of some consideration:

In the past 24 months, some of the ostentatiously conservative participants in the bloggernacle have expressed their public disagreement with official church statements on three different issues: stem cell research, illegal immigration, and now housing and employment rights for homosexual people.

I am very happy to see the denunciation of these cultural Mormons, ark steadiers, and faithless phonies on this here blog.

Vader did a good job of pointing out the misrepresentations in the comment, but I want to concentrate on the part that really does deserve further discussion. (more…)

I was reading Vader’s excellent post about the Catholic Bishop’s response to Congressman Kennedy.

Vader connects the Bishop’s response to his belief in Catholic authority. While this is undoubtedly true, it’s actually unnecessary to realize the moral authority that Bishop Tobin has in this situation. (more…)

I noted recently the debate sparked by the (at the time yet to be released) book, SuperFreakonomics, on the topic of Global Warming.

First, my own biases. I’m a cap and trade advocate, not because I think the science of human-made-global-warming is proven, but because the science of it’s not human-made-global-warming isn’t proven.
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World leaders express outrage over the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to president Obama. When interviewed recently, Muammar al-Gaddafi expressed his concern at being overlooked. (more…)

I was reading an article in the Salt Lake Tribune with the above title. It’s really just a news story about polls, of course.

That’s when it hit me how lame polls are. Consider: (more…)