I've been having an offline discussion with ianvass about this article, which claims that "belief in God makes you happier and healthier". I am of three minds on this subject.

On one hand I don't find the argument persuasive. Decreasing religiosity is correlated with decreasing social ills and increasing prosperity and intelligence but there's more ( Read more... )

ianvass and I are revisiting a previous post about God as egocentric personal opinion, in which a study found that people who claim to know God's will are really just introspecting. Evaluating their own opinions and saying they're God's opinions.

He notes that "as I was not one of the people in the study, you are over-generalizing. You cannot say that my ( Read more... )

A while ago ianvass told me that he'd explain why California Prop 8 was a good idea, not religiously, but from a secular standpoint. How Prop 8 would mitigate a public health or safety issue. I'm still waiting, with occlupanid's wager of a tiny amount of foreign currency still unpaid ( Read more... )

ianvass and I have a difference of opinion about civil rights for homosexuals. Specifically, Proposition 8 vs. legal recognition for same-sex couples. Short summary: I'm for equal legal recognition, he's against it. And we've been having a surprisingly civil discussion about it, all things considered. We've already discussed whether Prop 8 supporters ( Read more... )

ianvass just asked me a question about my last post, and the answer I started typing went so long that I thought I'd make it its own post.

I want to make sure I understand your terminology ( Read more... )

ianvass and I have been discussing a common frustration among religious people - when the government or a secular institution sues or is sued by a religious instituion, the courts always seem to side against religious people:

"This link to the NPR page has a very nice list (though not comprehensive by a long shot) of lawsuits where religion gets swatted ( Read more... )