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POPSDoes Religion Make You Nice?Does atheism make you mean? It is at this point that the "We need God to be good" case falls apart. Countries worthy of consideration aren't those like North Korea and China, where religion is savagely repressed, but those in which people freely choose atheism. In his new book, Society Without God, Phil Zuckerman looks at the Danes and the Swedes—probably the most godless people on Earth. They don't go to church or pray in the privacy of their own homes; they don't believe in God or heaven or hell. But, by any reasonable standard, they're nice to one another. They have a famously expansive welfare and health care service. They have a strong commitment to social equality. And—even without belief in a God looming over them—they murder and rape one another significantly less frequently than Americans do.
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POPSFT.com: Europeans see US as Threat to PEACE.!!! The level of European concern about the US has remained broadly consistent over the past year. In 11 previous polls dating back to July 2006 the proportion of respondents considering the US a threat to stability has ranged between 28 per cent and 38 per cent. The latest poll comes in the wake of the “surge” that has increased US forces in Iraq to about 160,000 troops, but which has not been accompanied by political breakthroughs or a dramatic reduction of violence.
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POPSYour brain lies to you This phenomenon, known as source amnesia, can also lead people to forget whether a statement is true. Even when a lie is presented with a disclaimer, people often later remember it as true.
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POPSDamp Squid: The top 10 misquoted phrases in Britain The top ten misquotes by British people are as follows: 1) A damp squid (a damp squib) 2) On tender hooks (on tenter hooks) 3) Nip it in the butt (nip it in the bud) 4) Champing at the bit (chomping at the bit) 5) A mute point (a moot point) 6) One foul swoop (one fell swoop) 7) All that glitters is not gold (all that glisters is not gold) 8) Adverse to (averse to) 9) Batting down the hatches (batten down the hatches) 10) Find a penny pick it up (find a pin pick it up)
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POPSWho are the REAL Christians around here? "We are living in the 21st century after all. Who would use the name of the Christian God to justify mass killing? A majority of modern day American Christians, that's who. Perhaps the argument used against Muslims should be applied to Christians instead. Their religion has been hijacked by fundamentalist fanatics while the non-fanatics remain silent. The term clash of civilizations is definitely a misnomer. There can be no clash unless both sides are in fact civilized. Any assertion of American civilization is clearly open to question." ... By Margaret Kimberley, Black Agenda Report., AlterNet
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POPSHA!!!!! Indiana Secretary of State, proponent of rigid ID laws, is challenged at the polls.
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POPSWorld wants Obama as president: poll Will Americans choose to lead the world, or will they once again squander the goodwill that the world would love to heap on the USA. What will they do? The countries most optimistic that an Obama presidency would improve relations were America's NATO allies, including Australia (62 per cent).
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POPSYour brain lies to you This phenomenon, known as source amnesia, can also lead people to forget whether a statement is true. Even when a lie is presented with a disclaimer, people often later remember it as true. With time, this misremembering gets worse. A false statement from a noncredible source that is at first not believed can gain credibility during the months it takes to reprocess memories from short-term hippocampal storage to longer-term cortical storage. As the source is forgotten, the message and its implications gain strength.
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POPSRape in Ireland: Females at fault!!! I'm very disappointed in the attitude still about rape in Ireland. Even more surprised that other females blame the victim equally with the males. So don't expect sympathy from your sisters. The one ray of sunshine is that the younger the questioned, the more sympathetic the answer. Older people always find it harder to understand the dress of the young. They forget the 60's when we wore even less or none.
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POPSEvolution:24 myths and misconceptions It doesn't matter if people do not understand evolution "Survival of the fittest" justifies "everyone for themselves" Evolution is limitlessly creative Evolution cannot explain traits such as homosexuality Creationism provides a coherent alternative to evolution Creationist myths: Evolution must be wrong because the Bible is inerrant Accepting evolution undermines morality Evolutionary theory leads to racism and genocide Religion and evolution are incompatible Half a wing is no use to anyone Evolutionary science is not predictive Evolution cannot be disproved so is not science Evolution is just so unlikely to produce complex life forms Evolution is an entirely random process Mutations can only destroy information, not create it Darwin is the ultimate authority on evolution The bacterial flagellum is irreducibly complex Yet more creationist misconceptions Evolution violates the second law of thermodynamics
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POPSGay? Who Cares? "For some of the pioneers from the edgy, embattled, ecstatic "good old days," this may be bittersweet. "But isn't that what everyone wanted 20 years ago?" Gates asks. "Just to be treated like everyone else?"
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POPS"Terrorist!" "Kill him!" - Anger growing at McCain rallies "Kill him!" shouted at Palin rally as Palin stokes Ayers paranoia; journalists taunted as Palin blames media for her weak interviews; "Terrorist!" shouted after McCain implies Obama is other than he seems. "Country first?" By stirring up hatred and suspicion?
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POPSDarwin is an ethical inspiration Freud's explanation in 1920 was that "humanity has in the course of time had to endure from the hands of science two great outrages upon its naive self-love. The first was when it realised that our earth was not the centre of the universe ... The second was when biological research robbed man of his peculiar privilege of having been specially created and relegated him to a descent from the animal world". One wonders how long it took for Copernicus to be treated with respect; one scholar of Darwin suggested it could be another couple of centuries before we can forgive the man. very interesting quotation of Freud; i do agree that both scholars represent 2 major revolutions in the very definition of what is a human.
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