1. Doctors' beliefs can hinder patient care

Comment #51414 by woollybear on June 22, 2007 at 5:56 pm

Wow. This article has made me more pissed off than anything I've read on this site. This is another example of declining standards in the U.S. People who put their particular religious beliefs above their patients' needs are not qualified to practice medicine. It's not about what the doctor feels is morally right or wrong, it's about what's medically best for the patient.

What arrogance on the part of those doctors! It's patronizing and condescending to women to be treated that way. Unfortunate that some of those doctors are women as well.

2. Does God answer prayer? ASU research says 'yes'

Comment #25884 by woollybear on March 15, 2007 at 2:18 pm

"Does God or some other type of transcendent entity answer prayer? The answer, according to a new Arizona State University study published in the March journal Research on Social Work Practice, is "yes.""


It's quite a leap from noting that prayer on behalf of another has a "positive effect" to concluding that God answers prayers. No where in this article did Hodge mention God or any other type of transcendent being. In fact he's cautious in stating that his work doesn't meet medical standards. I find the lead-in paragraph to this article very disingenious as it skewers the whole thing. I've noticed a lot of popular science articles do this same thing.

3. Books on Atheism Are Raising Hackles in Unlikely Places

Comment #23884 by woollybear on March 3, 2007 at 10:48 am

It was my understanding that both Dawkins' and Harris' books were written for the general public to get them to take a look at what not questioning their religious beliefs have done to the world. The books are for fence sitters and closet atheists who have been afraid (mainly in bible belt America) to come out. The books are not for academics or clerics or theologians. That's why the critics come across like they do -- they're afraid of losing their flocks, they're angry at their life's work being blown off like it means nothing, they're fearful of losing their privileged status. We should expect more critiques like these.

4. Meet the Relatives. They're Full of Surprises.

Comment #21651 by woollybear on February 10, 2007 at 10:54 am

For those of us who won't be going to New York anytime soon, the museum's website has a section devoted to the exhibit. I spent about an hour traveling back into human history.

http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/permanent/humanorigins/?src=h_h

5. Grief Without God

Comment #19576 by woollybear on January 28, 2007 at 1:11 pm

Carol, thank you for posting this. Although I haven't experienced anything near the depth of this kind of tragedy, I have lost friends and relatives and have attended both formal religious funerals and non-religious memorials. The most moving were those arranged by friends of the deceased and without religious content. A recent one was held outdoors in the mountains (a friend who was outdoorsy). People got up and told their favorite stories of our friend, there was a table set up with a memorial book for the family, there were posters with photos of the deceased and the ceremony ended with bagpipes. We had food and gathered around talking. No one says he's in a better place or any other sorts of nonsense. What I think the important difference about this is, that the church tells us what we should be feeling, what we should think, how we should handle life transitions. When we take these matters into our own hands, they become more meaningful. Religion can only give you shallow platitudes. I've long thought that saying about God not giving us more than we can handle was bs. I don't know how that got started.
Be strong.

6. The sexiest man living!

Comment #7232 by woollybear on November 17, 2006 at 7:58 pm

I totally get Dawkins' sex appeal. I also have a crush on him. :) And I also think this is good publicity for him, even if a little silly. In the context of the article it works.

Did you all see who Salon's #1 choice was? Stephen Colbert!

7. Ignorance is No Crime

Comment #4575 by woollybear on November 4, 2006 at 3:05 pm

I disagree Svend. For believers in God and an afterlife, the hope that keeps you going is to spend eternity with God. Most believers think that life is a trial to get through until death. So by reason, the believer is one who should want to end his life to get to God faster. Non-believers realize our finite life is all we have, so why not make the most of it. It doesn't make sense to me to end it now since God doesn't exist. I have no desire to. I want to see what happens everyday.

Dawkins does not say there is no purpose in life. He just doesn't believe a God needs to exist to give us purpose.