Year: 2008

Belief in God and children

Earlier this week I had occasion to debate – if the soundbite culture of radio news permits that description – with a member of Oxford University’s Centre for Anthropology and Mind the “findings” of its cognition, religion and theology project, to the effect that children are hardwired to believe in a “supreme being”. The research is funded by the Templeton Foundation, an organisation keen to find, or to insert, religion into science and to promote belief in their compatibility – which, note, comes down to spending money on “showing” in the end that the beliefs of ancient goatherds are as good as modern physics.

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New religious violence in Nigeria

Hundreds of people are reported to have been killed in central Nigeria after Christians and Muslims clashed over the result of a local election. A Muslim charity in the town of Jos says it collected more than 300 bodies, and fatalities are also expected from other ethnic groups, mainly Christians.

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The coming God

Almighty Father

your Son came to us in humility as our saviour

and at the last day he will come again in glory as our judge:

give us grace to turn away from darkness to the light of Christ

that we may be ready to welcome him

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Grandma and grandpa online

Video calling, long anticipated by science fiction, is filtering into everyday use. And two demographic groups not particularly known for being high-tech are among the earliest adopters.

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Bait and switch in New York?

The question of how aggressively to proceed [on same sex marriage legislation] has touched off an intense debate among legislators and gay rights supporters about how ready the broader electorate is to embrace same-sex marriage, both in New York and across the country

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Diocese ignores bigger issues in Quincy

With the nation caught up in its worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, focusing a church convention on denominational politics showed an odd detachment from reality… With Detroit imploding and farmers struggling, people are watching Caterpillar Corp., the area’s major employer, not a fringe church’s opinions on sexuality.

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