Tony Robbins event ends in 'wails of pain' as attendees walk on hot coals

Physics trumps a positive outlook?

"People Are Born with Religious Belief Argues New Book" by Jesse Singal

Quotes:

"Barrett devotes a good chunk of Born Believers to debunking the indoctrination hypothesis, the idea, as he puts it in the book, that “children believe because their parents (and other trusted adults) act as if they believe, and talk as if they believe.” Dawkins is one of the staunchest purveyors of this view (or, rather, “evolved gullibility,” a close cousin of it), and he takes things a step further by arguing that it’s abusive to expose children to organized religion. As Barrett quotes from The God Delusion: “Even without physical abduction, isn’t it always a form of child abuse to label children as possessors of beliefs that they are too young to have thought about?”


Barrett clearly doesn’t think Dawkins has done his homework, that he is extending his political agenda into a research area where he’s unfamiliar. “I think that he is relatively unaware of the relevant research, especially the development research,” he said. “I don’t get the impression that he is up on his psychology of religion.”


Another quote:

"If our brains evolved, as Barrett argues, to find religion much easier to grasp onto than nonreligion, then this isn’t simply a matter of education or culture. As popular as the atheist view that having kids read Carl Sagan and Sam Harris from an early age will lead to a profoundly secular society is, it isn’t backed up by science. Not when religious beliefs stem from such foundational parts of our cognitive architecture."

http://www.thedailybeast.com/article...-new-book.html

An article on the sin of lying.

Why Do People Lie?

The Truth About Motivations for Lying by Kathy Jesperson


Read more at Suite101: Why Do People Lie?: The Truth About Motivations for Lying | Suite101.com http://suite101.com/article/why-do-p...#ixzz21YE4FTIy

Quote: Starting at about three, children will lie to avoid getting into trouble. By age five, when it comes to dodging punishment, most kids are expert liars.

Quakers -- Trembling and Quaking Their Way into American History
http://www.ustrek.org/odyssey/semest...nequakers.html

16 year old girl cannot get chemo because it may terminate pregnancy

We know "pro-lifers" care more about fetuses than pregnant women, but don't they realize if she dies from cancer the fetus will also die?

Black wedding banned by Baptist church

New archbishop of Glasgow under fire for remarks about death of gay MP

US church official jailed for sexual abuse cover-up

Creating God in One's Own Image.

For many religious people, the popular question “What would Jesus do?” is essentially the same as “What would I do?” That’s the message from an intriguing and controversial new study by Nicholas Epley from the University of Chicago. Through a combination of surveys, psychological manipulation and brain-scanning, he has found that when religious Americans try to infer the will of God, they mainly draw on their own personal beliefs.

this is the most informative thred ive ever seen thanks!

is this the right place for this? the fellow makes some convincing arguments???
is there a thread about this somewhere?
new to this body of water, but bouy do i have some nautical ideas about reality....

as frank zappa said....while you were busy watching foorball drinking beer and playing golf we were busy evolving

heres a link to a truly fascinating line of thought...
id like to meet this guy in person and talk about god with him
that might be an interesting chapter in my life....

http://theopenscroll.blogspot.com/20...-sun-nazi.html

thanks again for so many very intersting trains of thought!

Catholic Church discriminates against gay couple in property sale: In an accidental email to the broker, the church official said "Because of the potentiality of gay marriages [at the property]...we are not interested in going forward with these buyers"

[PDF]Colonizing African Values: How the U.S. Christian Right Is Transforming Sexual Politics in Africa

Is Being Born Again Up to Us? by John Piper
http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-...again-up-to-us

INTJs and Atheism
http://mbtitruths.blogspot.com/2010/...d-atheism.html

A year in, same-sex marriage boosts New York City economy

I consider this article an argument for God not existing. Why would God make this type of personality more likely to deny his existence?
That's supposed to be a bad thing?...
The author admits this group is generally open-minded, but says they are only close-minded when it comes to religion? Why? The author gives no reason as to why he thinks that. No theists ever give reasons why they think atheists are close-minded. I say theists are close minded because you rarely if ever see them consider the possibility that there is no God. They don't like to think about the weird parts of the bible because it might make them lose their faith. They completely ignore scientific theories when they conflict with their fables. On the other hand, atheists are more open-minded. You see many consider the possibility of God existing. Many of us would welcome a God but we see no proof and no solid reason or evidence to believe in any. Most of us had been theists at some point, but we considered both sides and chose the one that made more sense. Most theists are too scared to think about the other option.

If you want to call atheists close-minded, please say why you think so.

That article is ******ed.

"When logic gets out of hand" LMFAO

How can anybody take that article seriously?

A Personal and Social Transformation through Scripture by Walter Wink

It had become clear to me in the parish that most biblical scholarship was irrelevant to the lived concerns of everyday people.

http://www.bibleinterp.com/articles/...ormation.shtml

Christian arrested for child pornography and conspiracy to kidnap and eat children

Couple stoned to death over 'illegal' affair

"Ethologists had long believed that chimps were exclusively vegetarian. Goodall witnessed chimps stalking, killing, and eating large insects, birds, and some bigger animals, including baby baboons and bushbacks (small antelopes). On one occasion, she recorded acts of cannibalism."

from Jane Goodall's biography:
http://www.biography.com/people/jane...9542363?page=1

Templeton awards $5 Million grant for study of afterlife

Black metal involved in church burnings and murder in Scandinavia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_...hurch_burnings