Religion to become extinct
A study using census data shows that religion is heading for extinction in Australia, Austria, Canada, the Czech Republic, Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and Switzerland. The study, presented at the American Physical Society meeting in Dallas, found a steady rise in those claiming no religious affiliation. The research team's mathematical model attempts to account for the interplay between the number of religious respondents and the social motives behind being one. The team took census data stretching back as far as a century on religious affiliation. The team then applied their nonlinear dynamics model, adjusting parameters for the relative social and utilitarian merits of membership of the "non-religious" category. They found that those parameters were similar across all the countries studied, suggesting that similar behaviour drives the mathematics in all of them. And in all the countries, the indications were that religion was headed toward extinction.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12811197?print=true
Trimmed nails
Still out of breath from the fight, sweating, covered in scratches, blood, and hair, and carrying a nail trimming tool in one hand, I fling open the door. The picture-perfect charismatic family has decided to let the little girl be the front man. She looks to be about eight years old. She's standing on the front porch, while Mom, Dad, and Little Brother -- about five -- are standing a few feet back on the walkway. I grit my teeth in my best Dirty Harry impression, look directly at the little girl, and say, "Yes?"
http://www.craigslist.org/about/best/dal/330728336.html
Religion is like a penis
It is fine to have one. It is fine to be proud of it. But please do not whip it out in public and start waving it around. And please do not try to shove it down my children's throats.
Science will defeat religion
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. 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. 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.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-20006990-71.html
Smut for Smut
A US college atheist group, Atheist Agenda, is offering students pornography in exchange for Bibles and Korans. The group calls the exchange "Smut for Smut," prompting prayers and protests from Christian students at the University of Texas San Antonio. The Atheist Agenda started at UTSA in 2005. "We consider the Bible to be a very negative force in the history of the world,” student activist Ryan Walker said. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/02/porn-for-bibles-at-texas_n_482206.htmlStudy: Liberals, Atheists Are Unnatural, Intelligent
Evolutionary psychologist Satoshi Kanazawa at the the London School of Economics and Political Science correlated data on political and religious behaviors with IQ from a large US sample and found that, on average, people who identified as liberal and atheist had higher IQs. Religion, the theory goes, did not help people survive or reproduce necessarily, but goes along the lines of helping people to be paranoid, Kanazawa said. "Because humans are paranoid, they become more religious, and they see the hands of god everywhere," Kanazawa said. Humans had a keen interest in the survival of their offspring. The conservative approach -- looking out for the people around you first -- fits with the evolutionary picture more than liberalism, Kanazawa said. "It is unnatural for humans to be concerned about total strangers." he said. George Washington University professor James Bailey said that these preferences may stem from a desire to show superiority or elitism, which also has to do with IQ. Aligning oneself with "unconventional" philosophies may be "ways to communicate that you are pretty smart," he said.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/02/26/liberals.atheists.sex.intelligence/index.html
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