I realize this is long and uncut. I think it's extremely important and so I'm leaving it that way.So I started this post a while ago. It came out of a conversation in a cafe with a fairly religious person right after I was all rilled up about another conversation about atheism. The thing is- debate about issues and ideas, discussions of various ( Read more... )

Early Episodes of Sesame St. Determined unsuitable for "today's child".Wow ( Read more... )

oh dear, thank you namey for posting this.

Chinese Government Regulates Reincarnation. Wow.

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Shockingly it's a political move to get more control over Tibet by being able to appoint the next Dali Lama. *sigh* So rarly is it about actual religion. Power. :P ( Read more... )

"Could extraterrestrial life be made of corkscrew-shaped particles of interstellar dust? Intriguing new evidence of life-like structures that form from inorganic substances in space are revealed today in the New Journal of Physics. The findings hint at the possibility that life beyond earth may not necessarily use carbon-based molecules as its ( Read more... )

THE CREATION MUSEUM, a $27-million tourist attraction promoting earth science theories that were popular when Columbus set sail, opens near Cincinnati on Memorial Day.

be afraid, be very afraid. While I am supportive and often in defense of religions, when they pretend to be science and do things like this, I get hopping mad. They can coexist if ( Read more... )

I finally came up with a simple articulation of what bothers me about these things:

People using a creed as a substitute for thought, or an excuse for thoughtless, selfish or damaging behavior

especially when the creed is something that in a good form is meant to be mindful and considered (or considerate generally ( Read more... )

How would you define:1. trust ( Read more... )

The rather hard to miss sequence in "The Inside Man" where the bank robber takes a look at the video game the kid-hostage is playing (ala Grand Theft Auto) and is horrified by the violence is telling. They zoom in on the game and show the main character blowing the brains a=out of a fellow drug dealer(?) and stuffing a grenade in his mouth to the ( Read more... )

Yes, video games are capable of conditioning neural responses, conditioning, and training skills.

In this case, this is being used to actually help children- rehabilitate, work with illness, lose weight... Some of this is games made specifically for this, and some of it is approaching existing games in a postive, useful way. Article (courtesy of ( Read more... )

Since people have kept up the violence/video games discussion outside of lj, let me add just one more point in counter to one I keep hearing.

What about books? Couldn't books corrupt the youth, etc?

Answer: Of course books (when people actually read them) have a huge potential influence. That's why governments intent on controling ideas have ( Read more... )