Mind the Gaps

Mind the Gaps - Intelligent design as an answer to all life's great conundrums. By Dahlia Lithwick
Let's face it: The problem with science has always been that each new discovery unleashes thousands of new questions and ambiguities. So really, the more we discover new stuff, the stupider we get. Clearly, that isn't working. ID says we shouldn't bother ourselves with resolving scientific inconsistencies or untangling puzzles. We should recognize that what God really wants is for us just to stop learning.
from Slate/msn

Damage to Society

Britain, UK news from The Times and The Sunday Times - Times Online
RELIGIOUS belief can cause damage to a society, contributing towards high murder rates, abortion, sexual promiscuity and suicide, according to research published today.

According to the study, belief in and worship of God are not only unnecessary for a healthy society but may actually contribute to social problems.

and a little further into the article:

In general, higher rates of belief in and worship of a creator correlate with higher rates of homicide, juvenile and early adult mortality, STD infection rates, teen pregnancy and abortion in the prosperous democracies.

If one believes an outside source, such as an external creator, to hold all of the strings, and if one expects that the real life begins after death - then one may not tackle the problems right here, right now - which would indeed lead to the result of the study. And unfortunately one would miss one's own life, that precious moment, that glorious opportunity. Waiting for something other, one would miss what is important.

Brain-dead

Awareness flows, never stands still. In Zen we sit still, but we don't concentrate. It makes us aware of the nature of our mind, which flows and jumps and flies like a butterfly, not a bird - that is, rarely in a straight line. Our brain connects imaginary dots, creates comparisons and preferences in a constant stream. Sometimes the flow stops for a moment and that moment can seem like an eternity. But, the flow will start up again - or I am brain-dead...

I read that it is unhealthy to sit at a desk, that our body needs to keep moving, adjusting its posture. In fact it is healthier to stand in front of you desk, because it allows the body to constantly adjust. Our brain is very similar, I think. Rather than forcing it to sit still by concentrating, we observe it and let it go. By allowing it to function we are rewarded with moments of true silence.

Sexual Healing

Sexual Healing
The Danish government pays for the disabled and elderly to watch porn and have sex with prostitutes.

Caregivers in Copenhagen have found that pornography and prostitutes have a greater calming effect on their elderly patients than traditional medical treatment such as drug therapy.

The caregivers have told Danish media that pornography is healthier, cheaper and easier to use than medicine, Lars Elmsted Petersen, a spokesman for the Danish seniors' lobby group Aeldresagen, said.

(Via Marginal Revolution)

posted by ottmar on September 20, 2005 at 02:18 PM | permalink

MindBell

I added two more MindBell files HERE. One is an mp3 file with 30 minutes of silence, followed by the sound of the bell, and the other is a 60 minute version. I loaded the files into my Treo phone and use them as meditation timers. Control-click on the "download" button and select "Download Linked File".

Hurricane

by Larry Bradshaw and Lorrie Beth Slonsky
We also suspect the media will have been inundated with 'hero' images of the National Guard, the troops and the police struggling to help the 'victims' of the Hurricane. What you will not see, but what we witnessed, were the real heroes and sheroes of the hurricane relief effort: the working class of New Orleans. The maintenance workers who used a fork lift to carry the sick and disabled. The engineers, who rigged, nurtured and kept the generators running. The electricians who improvised thick extension cords stretching over blocks to share the little electricity we had in order to free cars stuck on rooftop parking lots. Nurses who took over for mechanical ventilators and spent many hours on end manually forcing air into the lungs of unconscious patients to keep them alive. Doormen who rescued folks stuck in elevators.
LINK
(Via StuartDavis.com)

And also:

The God Who Drowns
I’m driving into work listening to 1010 WINS. The news coming out of the Gulf Coast is nothing less than horrific.

Pulling into the parking lot I listen to a man describe how his boss listened helplessly as his elderly mother, trapped in the rising floodwaters at her nursing home, pleaded for help….
(Via waiterrant.net)

Ebony & Ivory

Ebony and Ivory
Admittedly it would have been more difficult to sing 'some of us think that there are significant differences—individual, cultural, racial, and geographic in origin—between the peoples of the world, but that these differences should not be the cause of conflict, anxiety or denial, and that it should always be remembered that moral notions like 'good' and 'bad' are culturally bound, varying from one society to the next'. I'm sure the versatile McCartney-Wonder team, though, with their differing but complementary skills, could have found a way to set that to music.

and further down in the post:

The rate of clinical depression amongst immigrating Latinos will rise from 3% of the population, the rate in Latin America, towards 17%, the rate in North America. Dietary and lifestyle changes will bring Japanese cancer mortality rates up to American levels for Japanese who relocate to the US.
(Via Click opera)

Two taboos I could do without: racial differences and sexual orientations. Yes, there are racial and cultural differences and it would benefit all of us to study them. And, who cares whether somebody is hetero or homo or multi-sexual. Or a-sexual. One or the other, both or none... there you have it, all four choices.

Katrina and You

Some commentators are making fun of those people who believe that there is a connection between Katrina and pollution and Global Warming. But, everything is connected. No man is an island. We may not have the data that would help us connect the dots yet - and in any case dots can only be connected in hindsight - but it is foolish and ignorant to declare that there is no connection at all.

Just take a look at that oddball collection that is your ego. If another one of the 40 million sperm had reached the egg first, why you would be a different person with a very different ego, maybe a different sex, different height, with a different set of talents. If one of your parents had perished in an accident when you were little, or if you had had a different teacher in school who might have inspired a different point of view... so many variables!

Back to Katrina: who knows how the dots connect, and how foolish to categorically rule out anything at this point.

HERE is one way to connect the dots for New Orleans. (thanks Rommel)