A recent report by the Council for Secular Humanism has called into question findings from a large survey by Baylor University sociologists of religion. Turns out, the team of sociologists at Baylor, led by Rodney Stark, used a variety of tricks and subtle techniques to make it seem as though…
Category: Science
A Primatologist Looks at the FLDS
A real one this time!! (It’s not just me pretending to be a primatologist, as in my primatologist looks at the mathematical community post.) I was reading along in the book Parenting for Primates (which I discussed here and here), and I found that the author (Harriet J. Smith) devoted…
Beyond Conservatism
The popularity of the Sarah Palins among the Republican base explains a lot about America. I have never been to Alaska but Palin reminds me of my friends and neighbors in rural Nevada. Her attitudes about sex education, evolution, and library books are fairly typical in broad swaths of the…
Mormon Rumors – Talmadge and Einstein
Here’s another excerpt from the latest Sunstone issue I thought people here might appreciate: “A Place for Every Truth” THE EINSTEIN RUMOR This regular Cornucopia column features incidents from and glimpses into the life and ministry of Elder James E. Talmage as compiled by James P Harris, who is currently…
The Logic of Power and Salvation
In disfellowshipping or excommunicating scholars (like Michael Quinn, Grant Palmer, and others) Church leaders create a theological paradox. Assuming that such actions are eternally binding implies that, regardless of researchers’ choices, it becomes impossible for them to obtain the benefits of the Savior’s atonement.
Does religious belief require creation science?
Are science and religion mortal enemies? Does evolution = atheism? Ray Comfort seems to think so — he claims a banana is an “atheist’s nightmare” since he feels it disproves evolution. On the other side of the belief divide we have scientists like Richard Dawkins and P. Z. Myers who…
“The smartest religious book is ‘The Book of Mormon'”
Okay, I know this isn’t a serious study, but I thought it was kind of funny. A student at Cal Tech decided to plot the ten most popular books at a given University (according to Facebook) on a graph with the University’s average SAT/ACT score. The study is here. (Hat…
As if the BofM word change wasn’t enough…
Now there is pretty clear evidence that the Native Americans came across in a single migration around 12,000 years ago. A recent article in PLoS found that the genetic evidence among Native Americans in South, Central, and North America indicates a single migration. Mormon apologists are going to have to…
splitting souls
I recently attended an academic conference where one of the presenters made a point about Catholic doctrine I found particularly humorous. The speaker mentioned that Catholicism teaches that the “soul” enters the “body” at conception (I knew that, of course, but he went on…). Technically, at that point, it’s just…
Who knew the spirit is so smart?
I caught this Daily Herald summary of General Conference and one point stood out to me: Apparently Richard G. Scott is of the opinion that the “spirit” can reveal “absolute truths.” Here’s the quote from the news report: Elder Richard G. Scott of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles discussed…