Free Republic

They looked at the belief systems of Christians and non-religious people to determine who’s more rational. The non-religious or those from Liberal Christian sects were more likely to believe in • Palm reading • Astrology • Dreams that foretell the future • The existence of Atlantis • Haunted houses • Communication with the dead • Bigfoot • The Loch Ness Monster "What Americans Really Believe," a comprehensive new study released by Baylor University yesterday, shows that traditional Christian religion greatly decreases belief in everything from the efficacy of palm readers to the usefulness of astrology. It also shows that the...

"What Americans Really Believe," a comprehensive new study released by Baylor University yesterday, shows that traditional Christian religion greatly decreases belief in everything from the efficacy of palm readers to the usefulness of astrology. It also shows that the irreligious and the members of more liberal Protestant denominations, far from being resistant to superstition, tend to be much more likely to believe in the paranormal and in pseudoscience than evangelical Christians. The Gallup Organization, under contract to Baylor's Institute for Studies of Religion, asked American adults a series of questions to gauge credulity. Do dreams foretell the future? Did ancient...

In a cozy Coconut Grove shop redolent of incense, Sandra Richardson hovers over six colorful tarot cards laid before her on a silk-covered table. She ponders the question: Obama or McCain? The middle-age self-described psychic consultant sweeps her ash blond hair from her shoulders. A crystal dangles around her neck. She points to the ace of cups — one of the three cards she drew for McCain. On it, a royal blue vessel emanates red, white, and gold squiggles. "This is a card with new emotional beginnings," she says. Her hazel eyes examine it before she laughs. "It's hard to...

  Superstitious Catholics? Q. Why do Catholics use “good luck charms� like medals and relics of the saints in order to perfom miracles? Why is that not superstitious? A. It does sound superstitious at first. And perhaps there have been Catholics who used these things in a purely superstitious way. But we would not know for sure unless we questioned them.Of course, the Catholic Church teaches that only God can perform a miracle. However, everyone will agree that He can perform these miracles any way He wants to. So He can act directly or indirectly. We know that He usually likes...

Rising global temperatures could lead to an increase in kidney stones, according to research presented at the 103rd Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Urological Association (AUA). Dehydration has been linked to stone disease, particularly in warmer climates, and global warming will exacerbate this effect. As a result, the prevalence of stone disease may increase, along with the costs of treating the condition. Using published data to determine the temperature-dependence of stone disease, researchers applied predictions of temperature increase to determine the impact of global warming on the incidence and cost of stone disease in the United States. The Intergovernmental...

“The earthquake happened on Buddha’s birthday,” a friend somberly explained to me yesterday. “I’m afraid that things in China are going to get worse. I have a bad feeling about our country right now.” She went on to explain that while Buddha has no power to create or stop such disasters, she felt that the occurrence of the earthquake on Buddha’s birthday was an ominous sign. My friend is only 25 years old but she is a follower of what she calls ‘Tibetan Buddhism.’ Her husband, who is also a Buddhist, encouraged her to practice the religion.

Lesson 34: The First Commandment "Come let us praise the Lord with joy:  let us joyfully sing to God our savior.  Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving; and make a joyful noise to Him with psalms.  For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods.  For in His hand are all the ends of the earth:  and the heights of the mountains are His.  For the sea is His, and He made it:  and His hands formed the dry land.  Come let us adore and fall down:  and weep before the Lord that...

Hitting the wedding date jackpot, 7/7/07 BY TANIA PADGETT tania.padgett@newsday.com July 4, 2007 Last year, when Jeffrey Neale, 28, and Elizabeth Wiener, 26, were planning their wedding, Neale was more than happy to leave the details to his fiancee. That is, except one: He wanted them to be married on July 7, 2007. "We had to get that date," said Neale, an assistant vice president at AIG Financial Products Corp. in Wilton, Conn. "Nobody is going to forget it and triple 7s are lucky." Wiener, a graduate student from Roslyn Harbor, heartily agreed, and the couple rushed to put a...

WASHINGTON -- Even by the standards of the luminaries who sweep through Washington, the little girl in front of Lafayette Elementary School almost six miles north of the White House was special. Politicians, power brokers and the occasional celebrities who come through town hope to be respected and maybe, in a childlike place in their grown-up hearts, genuinely liked. Sajani Shakya, 10, is worshipped. In Nepal, Sajani is a living goddess, one of about a dozen such goddesses in her homeland who are considered earthly manifestations of the Hindu goddess Kali.

It seems that a prof that sees value in intelligent design theory has been barred from tenure. http://www.iastate.edu/~nscentral/news/2007/jun/statement.shtml

Some Scientists Worry That Sophisticated Center Will Distort Children's Views of Science According to an ABC News poll, 60 percent of Americans believe God created the world in six days. In Petersburg, Ky., this weekend, a creation museum is opening that depicts a story far from what you may have learned in science class. Exhibits at almost every natural history museum teach that dinosaurs are millions of years old, and that they died out long before human beings existed. But at the Creation Museum, they say God created dinosaurs and humans at the same time. The Creation Museum, designed by...

The theory that dinosaurs gave rise to birds has been dealt a blow by palaeontologists who have examined critical evidence from a Chinese fossil. The discoverers of the turkey-sized dinosaur Sinosauropteryx say it would have had primitive feathers, supporting the bird-from-dinosaurs theory. But the latest research says these 'proto-feathers' are really frilly structures on the creature's back. Researchers led by South African academic Professor Theagarten Lingham-Soliar at the University of KwaZulu-Natal publish their study in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B. The debate focuses on Sinosauropteryx, a fossil found in 1994 by a farmer in Liaoning province, northeastern China....

(CNSNews.com) - Billboards that show a man turning into a monkey and an online game entitled "Let's See How Evolution Works" are two elements of a new national campaign launched by a Christian group to call attention to the "lack of proof" for the theory of evolution. Billboards at six locations in Oregon and Georgia ask "Are They Making a Monkey Out of You?" and additional signs are planned for Pennsylvania, Ohio, Tennessee, Kentucky and Missouri, according to Julie Haberle, founder of the Who Is Your Creator non-profit organization. The billboards direct viewers to the group's website, which presents a...

JEFFERSON CITY — A dire, apocalyptic prophecy in the Bible's Book of Revelation is getting a new audience: state legislators. Several evangelical Christian groups say the federal Real ID Act, which will standardize state drivers licenses and link them to corresponding national ID numbers by 2009, represents the "mark of the beast," the devilish number 666 that is attached to the godless. The nearly 2,000-year-old passage is referenced along with the prophetic locusts, plagues, oceans of blood and rivers of fire found in the Bible. Soon after, according to scripture, the antichrist takes control of the world and Jesus Christ...

The 2005 Kitzmiller vs Dover Area School District decision in our fair state was thought to resolve the debate that Intelligent Design is a religious movement, just a new wrinkle on Creationism. That hasn't happened largely because Intelligent Design, or I.D., is not.

Just minutes after a new moderate majority took control of the State Board of Education today, the issue of evolution came back up. The board voted to hear about proposed science standards that support evolution later in the day with a possible decision on them next month. The issue produced a long line of speakers both for and against evolution during a public comment period. Doug Kaufman, a physician’s assistant and pastor from Leavenworth, told the board that evolution “doesn’t stand up to real science.” But supporters of evolution urged the board to change the current standards that include criticism...

TO THE unsuspecting visitor, Patrick Henry College looks like a typical American liberal-arts college tucked away amidst the rolling green farmlands of Virginia. Its curriculum is far from typical, however, and anything but liberal. Witness this lecture on faith and reason in an idyllic red-brick college building reminiscent of colonial America. As the speaker takes to the podium, several students silence their cellphones. One puts down his copy of The Wall Street Journal and takes out his Bible. They bow their heads and pray to Jesus, then stand up and sing a hymn, belting out "Holy, holy, holy" with gusto....

By Daniel Golden, The Wall Street Journal AMES, Iowa -- With a magician's flourish, Thomas Ingebritsen pulled six mousetraps from a shopping bag and handed them out to students in his "God and Science" seminar. At his instruction, they removed one component -- either the spring, hammer or holding bar -- from each mousetrap. They then tested the traps, which all failed to snap. "Is the mousetrap irreducibly complex?" the Iowa State University molecular biologist asked the class. "Yes, definitely," said Jason Mueller, a junior biochemistry major wearing a cross around his neck. That's the answer Mr. Ingebritsen was looking...

Science may have found an answer to that question made famous by Maureen Dowd: Are men necessary? If other creatures are anything to go by, men are essential to keeping our species healthy, and would still be necessary even if women started making their own sperm. That's more or less what happened to the male clam shrimp, a puddle and pond dweller that thrives in all continents except Antarctica. One day millions of years ago a mutant female started producing both sperm and eggs; that mutation spread until all the females were replaced by hermaphrodites. You'd think that would spell...

From their website : ---------------------------------- Welcome to Truth in Science, a new organisation to promote good science education in the UK. Our initial focus will be on the origin of life and its diversity. For many years, much of what has been taught in school science lessons about the origin of the living world has been dogmatic and imbalanced. The theory of Darwinian evolution has been presented as scientifically uncontroversial and the only credible explanation of origins. This is despite the National Curriculum which states: Pupils should be taught… "how scientific controversies can arise from different ways of interpreting empirical...

ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON -- Federal health officials are again examining what's known - and what's still to be learned - about the safety of a mercury mixture that's stirred controversy since dentists began using it to fill cavities in the 1800s. A joint panel of outside experts voted Thursday to reject a draft report that concluded that dental fillings used by millions of people are safe. Yet the panel did not go so far as to declare the mercury-laden amalgam a danger, only that more study is needed because of the risk it poses to some groups. "For the general...

Fact, Fable, and Darwin By Rodney Stark I write as neither a creationist nor a Darwinist, but as one who knows what is probably the most disreputable scientific secret of the past century: There is no plausible scientific theory of the origin of species! Darwin himself was not sure he had produced one, and for many decades every competent evolutionary biologist has known that he did not. Although the experts have kept quiet when true believers have sworn in court and before legislative bodies that Darwin's theory is proven beyond any possible doubt, that's not what reputable biologists, including committed...

LUCKNOW: It’s not the kind of thing that routine school assemblies witness. On Wednesday, Lucknow’s prestigious Loreto Convent organised a date with Lord Jesus Christ that led to students fainting and horrified parents asking what the school up to? The school principal, a dozen staff members and about 250 Class VIII to XII girls were privy to the 'special' occult session that had a medium ‘transforming’ into Christ and blessing them. A dozen students fainted and a couple needed medical attention. Most girls were either horrified or too shocked to explain the phenomenon. Principal Sister Monica on Saturday admitted some...

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Evolution and the environment, not just gluttony, has led to a global obesity pandemic, with an estimated 1.5 billion people overweight -- more than the number of undernourished people -- an obesity conference was told on Monday. The mounting epidemic of obesity in children would see many die before their parents, said Kate Steinbeck, co-chair of the 10th International Congress on Obesity in Sydney. [Snip] McGill, senior lecturer in Population Health at the University of Auckland, said humans were designed to maximise their energy intake because their large brains used about one-quarter of their total energy expenditure....

Philosophers, scientists and other intellectuals close to Pope Benedict will gather at his summer palace outside Rome this week for intensive discussions that could herald a fundamental shift in the Vatican's view of evolution. There have been growing signs the Pope is considering aligning his church more closely with the theory of "intelligent design" taught in some US states. Advocates of the theory argue that some features of the universe and nature are so complex that they must have been designed by a higher intelligence. Critics say it is a disguise for creationism. A prominent anti-evolutionist and Roman Catholic scientist,...

There have been a couple books that have been turning points in the development of design theory. Evolution: A Theory in Crisis, Darwin's Black Box and The Creator and the Cosmos are all such books. From what I have seen, Creation as Science is the next groundbreaking book. It does what other design books have failed to do, formulate a testable scientific model for design. The author began this in Origins of Life and Who Was Adam?, but here it is the focus of the book. **** Creation As Science: A Testable Model Approach to End the Creation/Evolution Wars Development...

Show links Darwin, Hitler ideologies Holocaust was fallout of evolution theory, says new production -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: August 19, 2006 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2006 WorldNetDaily.com Charles Darwin should share with Hitler the blame for the 11 million or more lives lost in the Holocaust, a new television special explains. And, the program says, the more than 45 million American lives lost to abortion also can be blamed on that famous founder of evolutionary theory. The results of Darwin’s theories "This show basically is about the social effects of Darwinism, and shows this idea, which is scientifically bankrupt, has probably been...

The discovery of a bizarre species of fossil whale from Australia with huge eyes and flesh-ripping jaws provides valuable new insights into the evolution of whales, researchers say. The previously unknown species lived about 25 million years ago and was an early ancestor of modern baleen whales, which feed by filtering plankton from seawater. This group includes the blue whale, the largest animal ever to inhabit the planet. But the newfound predatory whale likely hunted sharks and other fish despite its relatively small size and suggests that baleen whales weren't always the toothless gentle giants we see in our oceans...

A comparison of peoples' views in 34 countries finds that the United States ranks near the bottom when it comes to public acceptance of evolution. Only Turkey ranked lower. Among the factors contributing to America's low score are poor understanding of biology, especially genetics, the politicization of science and the literal interpretation of the Bible by a small but vocal group of American Christians, the researchers say. “American Protestantism is more fundamentalist than anybody except perhaps the Islamic fundamentalist, which is why Turkey and we are so close,” said study co-author Jon Miller of Michigan State University. The researchers combined...

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Merck & Co. Inc.'s vaccine to prevent the world's most prevalent sexually transmitted infection sailed through a panel of U.S. health experts, despite early fears of opposition from the Christian Right that it might lead to promiscuity and a false sense of security.

We're going to get deep and serious here, and I'm going to ask you to reflect on a number of previous articles. We're not going to fulminate against George Bush, illegal immigrant-hiring businesses and the whores in the Senate they pay off, Democrats who see every illegal alien as a potential welfare recipient who will vote for them, or even Reconquista Mexicans attempting to recapture the American Southwest. No, we're going to get to the heart of the matter and figure out the fundamental cause of the problem. The problem that lies at the heart not just of the immigration...

Superstition stops villagers fleeing active Java volcano By Sebastien Berger on Mount Merapi (Filed: 15/05/2006) Clouds of ash and smoke and a fiery stream of lava were pouring out of Mount Merapi yesterday as Indonesian authorities grew increasingly concerned. Thousands of villagers fled the fertile slopes of the volcano after officials on the island of Java said an eruption was imminent. A fiery stream of lava cascades down the side of Mount Merapi on the island of Java yesterday They raised their alert to the highest possible status and ordered an evacuation of territory stretching up to seven miles from...

Moslems believe that the hair does not burn, heals sickness and that its blessings fill the entire territory where it is located. The hair is kept in a small case under glass. It is usually stored in museums, old mosques and in private residences. The hair is passed on from generation to generation of Mohamed's direct descendants. Ukrainian Moslems will ask for permission for part of the prophet's hair to remain in Ukraine.

In John They TrustSouth Pacific villagers worship a mysterious American they call John Frum - believing he'll one day shower their remote island with riches By Paul Raffaele   In the morning heat on a tropical island halfway across the world from the United States, several dark-skinned men—clad in what look to be U.S. Army uniforms—appear on a mound overlooking a bamboo-hut village. One reverently carries Old Glory, precisely folded to reveal only the stars. On the command of a bearded “drill sergeant,� the flag is raised on a pole hacked from a tall tree trunk. As the huge banner...

If John Edward’s new book turns out to be as popular as his previous endeavors, we could soon see rosaries for sale at Wal-Mart.With Practical Praying: Using the Rosary to Enhance Your Life, the best-selling author and TV psychic medium is putting himself on the line in an entirely new way. “I had major, major blocks on a personal level,” he said in a telephone interview. “I’ve been very private about my rosary praying.”A book about the rosary wouldn’t be commercial coming from most writers, but Mr. Edward, 35, has such a built-in following of far-reaching fans that his book...

By JULIET WILLIAMS, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 5 minutes ago SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Carrying rosary beads and cameras, the faithful have been coming in a steady stream to a church on the outskirts of Sacramento for a glimpse of what some are calling a miracle: A statue of the Virgin Mary they say has begun crying a substance that looks like blood. ADVERTISEMENT It was first noticed more than a week ago, when a priest at the Vietnamese Catholic Martyrs Church spotted a stain on the statue's face and wiped it away. Before Mass on Nov. 20, people again...

Scared of Halloween The Objectivist Center & Atlas Society ^ | October 31, 2005 | Edward Hudgins Posted on 10/31/2005 10:00:31 AM PST by Ed Hudgins Scared of Halloween By Edward Hudgins Exective Director The Objectivist Center & Atlas Society ehudgins@objectivistcenter.org October 31, 2005 Halloween has its origins in superstition and sadly, it invokes old and new superstitions still. Halloween, from "All Hallows Eve," was the evening before the Catholic All Saints Day and was supposed to be haunted by demons jealous of the holy day to follow. It also had roots in prehistoric Celtic mythology. But in modern times...

Shaded by a grove of mopane trees, the village cemetery was strewn with fresh graves, most filled by victims of Africa's Aids epidemic who never reached the age of 30.Fanny Mbewe knelt in silent prayer beside her husband's unmarked resting place.   Fanny Mbewe [right] was forced to submit to ritual ‘cleansing’ Anyone who wonders why Aids has spread faster in Africa than anywhere else in the world needs only to consider her experience.With millions of other women, Mrs Mbewe fell victim to a tradition known as "kulowakufa" which dictates that any woman whose husband dies must submit to sex...

A group of Nobel Prize winners should have done more homework before criticizing proposed science standards in Kansas, advocates of the guidelines said in a letter Thursday. Intelligent design advocates pushing new standards, which would expose students to more criticism of evolution, say the laureates' complaints are an attempt to suppress debate on the issue. The letter was signed by Bill Harris, a professor of medicine at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, and Greg Lassey, a former middle school science teacher, who helped draft the disputed language. "We all want good standards," the letter said. "However, demeaning rhetoric that does...

(snip) But in order to attract converts and win over critics, a new scientific theory must be enticing. It must offer something that its competitors lack. That something may be simplicity (snip). Or it could be sheer explanatory power, which was what allowed evolution to become a widely accepted theory with no serious detractors among reputable scientists. So what does ID offer? What can it explain that evolution can't? (snip) Irreducible Complexity (snip) Darwin himself admitted that if an example of irreducible complexity were ever found, his theory of natural selection would crumble. "If it could be demonstrated that any...

Dragon-shaped Flying Object Appears in Jilin Province The Epoch Times Sep 12, 2005 An image of the phenomenon captured on an observer's picture-phone (The Epoch Times) At about 6 p.m. on August 6, two students walked out of their library in Jilin University and looked up. “Look! A flying dragon appears in the sky!” A student named Li captured an image of the dragon on his picture-phone, providing the second instance of photo documentation of a dragon flying over China so far this summer. “When I was walking out of the library, I saw a bright, animal-shaped object flying in...

Five critiques of Intelligent Design John Brockman's Edge.org site has published the following five critiques of Intelligent Design (the bracketed comments following each link are mine): Marcelo Gleiser, "Who Designed the Designer?"  [a brief op-ed piece] Jerry Coyne, "The Case Against Intelligent Design: The Faith That Dare Not Speak Its Name"  [a detailed critique of ID and its history, together with a summary defense of Darwinism] Richard Dawkins & Jerry Coyne, "One Side Can Be Wrong"  [why 'teaching both sides' is not reasonable when there's really only one side] Scott Atran, "Unintelligent Design"  [intentional causes were banished from science with...

“For They That Sow the Wind Shall Reap the Whirlwind” As Hurricane Katrina dismantles Mississippi’s Gulf Coast, it’s worth recalling the central role that Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour played in derailing the Kyoto Protocol and kiboshing President Bush’s iron-clad campaign promise to regulate CO2. ..... Well, the science is clear. This month, a study published in the journal Nature by a renowned MIT climatologist linked the increasing prevalence of destructive hurricanes to human-induced global warming. Now we are all learning what it’s like to reap the whirlwind of fossil fuel dependence which Barbour and his cronies have encouraged. Our destructive...

The guy is wrong ... Friday the 13th stems from the day (actually, the evening) that the avenging Angel of the Lord descended onto Egypt. It was, indeed, a good idea that night to stay indoors!

MARIETTA - The Cobb school board will apparently have until the end of the month to excise more than 34,000 evolution disclaimers inserted in science textbooks now that the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied its request to wait on removing the stickers until the appeals court hears the case. On Jan. 13 Federal District Judge Clarence Cooper ruled that the school board's decision to post stickers that call evolution "a theory, not a fact" into school books violates the separation of church and state and had to be "immediately" removed. After hearing a Cobb high school science supervisor...

http://www.dailynk.com/korean/read.php?cataId=nk03100&num=4702/begin my translation Triplet's Name, 'Gun, Explosion, Shell'....[photo] N. Korean magazine "Chosun" features 'Chong-il Pok-il Tan-il' Park In-ho   04/26/05 Kim Jong-il's 'gun-and-bomb'(Chong-pok-tan): Chung Chong-il, Chung Pok-il, and Chung Tan-il (translator's note: chong --> gun; pok-tan --> bomb; as a separate syllable,  pok --> explosion,  tan --> shell ) Recently, the April issue of  N. Korean photo magazine "Chosun" reported that a boy triplet were named 'chong, pok, tan'(translator's note: chong-pok-tan means 'gun-and-bomb', chong means a gun, pok-tan means a bomb. As a separate syllable, pok means explosion, and tan means a shell) It was featured as an example of a loyalty oath to...

BOSS BLOWS UP AFTER 4TH STRAIGHT LOSS BY GEORGE KING April 18, 2005 -- BALTIMORE - One dozen games into the season George Steinbrenner has had it with his high-priced and underachieving Yankees. Shortly after yesterday's 8-4 loss to the Orioles in front of a sun-splashed Camden Yards crowd of 47,883 that stretched the Yankees' losing streak to four, The Boss cried uncle. "Enough is enough," Steinbrenner said in a statement. "I am bitterly disappointed, as I am sure all Yankee fans are, by the lack of performance by our team. http://www.nypost.com/sports/sports.shtml

A Texan family say they have found the image of Jesus in their frying pan.Juan Pastrano, wife Mary-Lou and son Juan Jnr made the discovery when they went to wash up after a fry-up at their home in Prairie Lea. Now they are keeping the pan in a sealed plastic bag while they decided what to do with it. Two months ago a woman who discovered an image of the Virgin Mary in her toasted cheese sandwich sold it for £14,000 to casino company GoldenPalace.com. . Jewellery maker Diana Duyser, 52, was shocked when the bidding went through the roof...

About 2,000 people gathered in Punxsutawney, Pa., on Wednesday morning for the updated winter forecast from the famous groundhog. Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow and that means six more weeks of winter.

Panicked Evolutionists: The Stephen Meyer Controversy The theory of evolution is a tottering house of ideological cards that is more about cherished mythology than honest intellectual endeavor. Evolutionists treat their cherished theory like a fragile object of veneration and worship--and so it is. Panic is a sure sign of intellectual insecurity, and evolutionists have every reason to be insecure, for their theory is falling apart. The latest evidence of this panic comes in a controversy that followed a highly specialized article published in an even more specialized scientific journal. Stephen C. Meyer, Director of the Discovery Institute's Center for Science...