On May 30, 2:48 pm, "graham" wrote:

Why not get the unfaithful in action as well? They share many moral
values
with the faithful.

Notice how the spin-meister works! he's shifted from talking about
"moral values" to "religious values" without a bye or leave.

Hello. I have just become a member of this group and therefore would
like to introduce myself.
My name is Alexandre Couto de Andrade. I am interested in taking part
in debates and exchange information
regarding secularism, science, reason, and humanism.

Best regards,
Alexandre Couto de Andrade
http://sciencereason.blogspot.com/

Tony Blair aims to unleash religion as a force for unification, not
extremism
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
at 0:15 on May 30, 2008, EDT.
By Jered Stuffco, THE CANADIAN PRESS
TORONTO - While fundamentalists can use religion to create cultural
divisions and breed extremism, Tony Blair is calling on world leaders to
"get faith in action" and unleash shared moral values as a force for peace
and positive change.

"Religious values can inform globalization and make it more humane," Blair
said Thursday at a fundraising dinner for the Women's College Hospital in
Toronto.

The call to action comes as Blair, a former Anglican who converted to
Catholicism earlier this year, launches his Faith Foundation in New York on
Friday, a new project aiming to build bridges between religions through
dialogue and humanitarian work.

"Show (religion) doing something good" and it can be a powerful force, said
the former British prime minister, who added communities in Africa beset by
malaria could be better served through faith-based outreach.

When your memories can no longer be trusted

You went to a wedding yesterday. The service was beautiful, the food
and drink
flowed and there was dancing all night. But people tell you that you
are in
hospital, that you have been in hospital for weeks, and that you
didn't go to a
wedding yesterday at all.

The experience of false memories like this following neurological
damage is
known as confabulation. The reasons why patients experience false
memories such
as these has largely remained a mystery. Now a new study conducted by
Dr Martha
Turner and colleagues at University College London, published in the
May 2008
issue of Cortex offers some clues as to what might be going on.

I was a little concerned that the argument for boycotting Israel is
being promoted by a lecturer in Philosophy:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2039529/Lecturers-to-debate-%%27boycott%%27-of-Israeli...

Surely such a person ought to know that academic boycotts are an abuse
of academic freedom and, more importantly don't work.

In any event, why stop at Israel?

Shouldn't:

China to be boycotted because of their execution of prisoners on such
a massive scale
The US for similar reasons + its general inclination towards invasion,
occupation and its contempt for justice
Saudi Arabia for public executions and the general abuse of women and
contempt for justice
South Africa for its support of neo-apartheid racist policies - Black
Executive Enrichment and so forth
Austria for its paedophile breeding programme
France for being French

and so forth.

NYT
May 27, 2008
Basics

Curriculum Designed to Unite Art and Science

By NATALIE ANGIER

Senator Barack Obama likes to joke that the battle for the Democratic
presidential nomination has been going on so long, babies have been
born, and they’re already walking and talking.

That’s nothing. The battle between the sciences and the humanities has
been going on for so long, its early participants have stopped walking
and talking, because they’re already dead.

NYT
May 27, 2008
Editorial

It’s the Genes, Stupid

Social scientists are stumped. Why do we bother to go to the polls
when we know our individual vote has no chance of determining the
result of a national election? Variations in turnout — by age, race,
income or whatever — are hard to fit into a theory of human conduct
that assumes that people are rational. But with time to spare before
the November election, molecular biology is coming to the rescue. In
the same way that researchers have teased out a role for genes in
determining sexual orientation or the propensity to smoke, they are
deploying genetics to understand our political choices.

NYT
May 27, 2008

Experts Question Placebo Pill for Children

By CHRISTIE ASCHWANDEN

Jennifer Buettner was taking care of her young niece when the idea
struck her. The child had a nagging case of hypochondria, and Ms.
Buettner’s mother-in-law, a nurse, instructed her to give the girl a
Motrin tablet.

“She told me it was the most benign thing I could give,” Ms. Buettner
said. “I thought, why give her any drug? Why not give her a placebo?”

Studies have repeatedly shown that placebos can produce improvements
for many problems like depression, pain and high blood pressure, and
Ms. Buettner reasoned that she could harness the placebo effect to
help her niece. She sent her husband to the drugstore to buy placebo
pills. When he came back empty handed, she said, “It was one of those
‘aha!’ moments when everything just clicks.”

NYT
May 27, 2008
Well
Taste for Quick Boost Tied to Taste for Risk

By TARA PARKER-POPE

Health researchers have identified a surprising new predictor for
risky behavior among teenagers and young adults: the energy drink.

Super-caffeinated energy drinks, with names like Red Bull, Monster,
Full Throttle and Amp, have surged in popularity in the past decade.
About a third of 12- to 24-year-olds say they regularly down energy
drinks, which account for more than $3 billion in annual sales in the
United States.

The trend has been the source of growing concern among health
researchers and school officials. Around the country, the drinks have
been linked with reports of nausea, abnormal heart rhythms and
emergency room visits.

Here are some essays on the conflict between scientific and religious
beliefs that may be of interest:

http://www.templeton.org/belief/