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Decoded Genome Gives New Hope in Confronting Diseases

By NICHOLAS WADE
March 10, 2010

Print: New York Times

The falling cost of genome sequencing is allowing scientists to begin studying the complete genomes of sufferers of genetic diseases.

(4) comments | Read the full article.

‘We don’t know what 96% of the universe is made of’

Caspar Llewellyn Smith
March 6, 2010

Print: The Guardian

I honestly think the wheels are coming off our picture of the way the universe works at the moment. We don’t know what 96% of the universe is made of – that tells us that we don’t understand something fundamental. It reminds me of the start of the 20th century when quantum mechanics and relativity were about to appear.

(1) comments | Read the full article.

Vlatko Vedral: I’d like to explain the origin of God

by Aleks Krotoski
March 6, 2010

Print: The Guardian

Professor Vlatko Vedral is a quantum physicist at the universities of Oxford and Singapore who grapples with the behaviour of energy and matter at subatomic scales, and this has led him to ask some bigger questions including why are we here? And what does it all mean? The 39-year-old, originally from Belgrade, passionately believes units of information – not particles – are the building blocks of humanity and everything that surrounds us. Information, he maintains, is what came before everything else. It is akin to God.

(1) comments | Read the full article.

Where do atheists come from?

Lois Lee and Stephen Bullivant
March 3, 2010

Print: NewScientist

HERE’s a fact to flatter the unbelievers among you: the bright young things at the University of Oxford are among the most godless groups ever studied in the UK. Of 728 students surveyed in 2007, 48.9 per cent claimed not to believe in any god, with 49.6 per cent claiming no religious affiliation. And while a very small number of Britons typically label themselves as “atheist” or “agnostic” (most surveys put it at about 5 per cent), an astonishing 57.3 per cent of the Oxford sample did.

(12) comments | Read the full article.

Liberalism, atheism, male sexual exclusivity linked to IQ

By Elizabeth Landau
February 28, 2010

Print: CNN

A large cross-sectional study discovers that atheism is correlated with higher IQ.

(15) comments | Read the full article.

Obama aides to meet with atheists on White House grounds

Margaret Talev
February 27, 2010

Print: McClatchy Newspapers

For the first time, the White House will meet with representatives from a non-theist organization.

(7) comments | Read the full article.

Brain surgery boosts spirituality

by Janelle Weaver
February 22, 2010

Print: Nature

Lose a tumour, gain self-transcendence.

Removing part of the brain can induce inner peace, according to researchers from Italy. Their study provides the strongest evidence to date that spiritual thinking arises in, or is limited by, specific brain areas.

(2) comments | Read the full article.

Morals don’t come from God

By Philip Ball
February 22, 2010

Print: Nature

The finding that religion scarcely influences moral intuition undermines the idea that a godless society will be immoral, says Philip Ball. Whether it ‘explains’ religion is another matter.

(7) comments | Read the full article.

A caring god would not have designed us like this

Michael Le Page
February 17, 2010

Print: NewScientist

Our genome is an unmitigated mess. The replication and repair mechanisms are inadequate, making mutations commonplace. The genome is infested with parasitic DNA that often wreaks havoc. The convoluted control mechanisms are prone to error. The huge amount of junk, not just between genes but within them, wastes resources. And some crucial bits of DNA are kept in the power factories - mitochondria - where they are exposed to mutagenic byproducts.

Lesch-Nyhan syndrome causes compulsive self-mutilation. Children eat their lips or fingers, and stab their faces with sharp objects. They feel the pain, but they cannot stop themselves. Why would a loving, all-powerful creator allow anyone to be born with such an awful disease?

(9) comments | Read the full article.

Atheism’s true believers gather

by Jacqueline Maley
February 12, 2010

Print: Syndey Morning Herald

More coverage of the Global Atheist Convention to be held in Melbourne in March.

(4) comments | Read the full article.

Atheism Doesn’t Have The Disadvantages That Religious Groups Claim

National Secular Society
February 11, 2010

Print: National Secular Society

There has been a swathe of dubious reports recently about the supposed benefits of religion – how it makes you healthier, happier, less anti-social and ensures that you grow better tomatoes.  Now we are seeing the opposite claims beginning to emerge. A new study published in Trends in Cognitive Science finds that religion may have evolved as a by-product of non-religious, cognitive processes, dispelling a competing theory that religion served as an adaptation to help unrelated individuals cooperate.  The findings, published on Monday, suggests that people’s gut instinct for what is right and wrong operates independently of religious upbringing.

(6) comments | Read the full article.

Atheism doesn’t have the disadvantages that religious groups claim

National Secular Society
February 11, 2010

Print: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/nssnews/~3/nMj1I-csHl4/atheism-doesnt-have-the-disadvan.html

There has been a swathe of dubious reports recently about the supposed benefits of religion; how it makes you healthier, happier, less anti-social and ensures that you grow better tomatoes.

Read the full article.

Is Religion a Reason to Allow Knife-carrying?

Rebecca Roache
February 8, 2010

Print: BBC

Sikhs should be allowed to carry ceremonial knives in schools and other public places, says Britain’s first Asian judge. But can religion ever justify loopholes in the law?

(9) comments | Read the full article.

The Invisible Dead: The grisly truth about the Super Bowl abortion ad.

By William Saletan
February 1, 2010

Print: Slate

Football star Tim Tebow stars in a Superbowl ad that will tell us that doctors recommended his mom to abort him but she didn’t.  Slate discusses why this ad is misleading and potentially dangerous.

(8) comments | Read the full article.

Bill and Melinda Gates make $10bn vaccine pledge


January 30, 2010

Print: BBC News

Microsoft founder Bill Gates and his wife Melinda have said they will donate $10bn (£6.2bn) over the next 10 years to develop and deliver new vaccines.

(7) comments | Read the full article.

India’s Groupthink on Islam

By SADANAND DHUME
January 29, 2010

Print: Wall Street Journal

Dutch-Somali writer and activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali speaks out against Islam at a book fair in India.

(1) comments | Read the full article.

Humanist chaplains head to the UK

John Crace
January 25, 2010

Print: The Guardian

There is a slow realization of the need for non-religious “chaplains”.

(3) comments | Read the full article.

Between God and a Hard Place

By JAMES WOOD
January 24, 2010

Print: New York Times

In a New York Times Op-Ed, author James Wood discusses theodicy in the context of the Haitian earthquake.

(7) comments | Read the full article.

Atheist Richard Dawkins aids Haiti, touts God-free giving

by Cathy Lynn Grossman
January 17, 2010

Print: USAToday

Richard Dawkins is spearheading a fundraising drive for Haiti.

(30) comments | Read the full article.

What Came First in the Origin of Life? New Study Contradicts the ‘Metabolism First’ Hypothesis

ScienceDaily
January 10, 2010

Print: ScienceDaily

A new study published in Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences rejects the theory that the origin of life stems from a system of self-catalytic molecules capable of experiencing Darwinian evolution without the need of RNA or DNA and their replication. The research has demonstrated that, through the analysis of what some researchers name “compound genomes,” these chemical networks cannot be considered evolutionary units because they lose properties which are essential for evolution when they reach a critical size and greater level of complexity.

(3) comments | Read the full article.

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