| The Science Of Good And Evil: Why "People Cheat, Gossip, Care, Share, and Follow the Golden Rule | | Posted Monday, February 06, 2006 10:58:35 AM by Rose Martins | The Science Of Good And Evil: Why "People Cheat, Gossip, Care, Share, and Follow the Golden Rule by Michael Shermer is the third book in a trilogy of books about the topic the "nature of belief".  The author of this book debates as to whether it is human nature to be moral, and if this proves to be true, from where does this inclination exist.
Shermer believes that morals, ethics and our code of conduct is something that has developed over time and that religion is purely a social institution that was created to "enforce the rules of human-interactions before there were such institutions as the state or such concepts of laws and rights
." In this book of scientific debate, the author uses examples taken from elements of evolutionary psychology to show that moral behavoir was first developed naturally in individuals, for example, to protect their young. And that as individuals were drawn together, the necessity for rules of living were created.
From this need developed sets of ethical principles which in turn developed into ethical systems on which the human society and culture as we know it today, was build. This unusual book of a scientific nature makes a very interesting and thought provoking read.
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| | | Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and E.O. Wilson on the gospel of science | | Posted Tuesday, November 14, 2006 6:49:22 AM by Blog57 Team | | What a problem religious faith poses for learned men of empirical mind. How it baffles, angers, frightens them, prompts them to domesticate it or uproot it, leaf and bough. In a trio of new books, three scientists — an English evolutionary theorist, a bestselling philosopher-turned-neuroscientist and a Pulitzer Prize-winning biologist — take Christianity to task. Their works comprise a new testament for atheists, in which science is the only acceptable gospel. "I am not attacking any particular version of God or gods. I am attacking God, all gods, anything and everything supernatural, wherever and whenever they have been or will be invented," Richard Dawkins writes in "The God Delusion," a sustained literary assault on what he considers the dangerous fallacies of revealed religion.... | |
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| | | Of Science and Bigfoot | | Posted Saturday, November 04, 2006 6:50:53 PM by Blog57 Team | | POCATELLO, Idaho -- The professors talking over coffee in the Life Sciences building at Idaho State University don't include Jeffrey Meldrum. As usual, the scientist is alone in his laboratory, weaving past jars of yellow liquid and plaster molds of giant, dinosaur-like footprints. He opens a thin, metal filing drawer. "These are the first ones I collected," he says, "of Bigfoot." In the muddy Blue Mountains near Walla Walla, Wash., the footprints lay about 35 or 40 in a row, each about 15 inches long. He thought he'd dismiss them as a hoax. But Meldrum, a primatologist and anatomist, noticed locked joints and a narrow arch -- traits he would argue in the following 10 years of research that only could belong to Bigfoot. "That's what set the hook," said Meldrum.... | |
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| | | Assigned books too hard for some students | | Posted Thursday, October 26, 2006 6:47:33 AM by Blog57 Team | | NEW YORK, Oct. 24 (UPI) -- A professor at Columbia University's Teachers College in New York said many U.S. schoolchildren are assigned books above their reading level. Lucy Calkins, founding director of the Reading and Writing Project at the college, said science and social studies textbooks are often written at a reading level at least one grade ahead of the pupils they are supplied to, and reading material for young students often includes books that are difficult for adults to comprehend, The Washington Post reported Tuesday. "We try to push adult stuff down on younger and younger kids and what's the point?" asked Calkins. "Teachers studied 'The Great Gatsby' in college and then want to teach that book because they have smart things to say about it, and they teach it in high school," Calkins said.... | |
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| | | A Growing Culture of Science | | Posted Monday, October 16, 2006 10:47:48 PM by Blog57 Team | | Dressed for the first time in her starched lab coat, Academy of Science junior Tori Szczesniak announced: "I feel officially nerdy." She and about 100 of her classmates were honored Thursday night in "a coating ceremony" in the Dominion High School auditorium, during which new students were fitted with lab coats and welcomed into the program. .... | |
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| | | Christian Science Reading Room Offers Chance at Meditation, Peace | | Posted Saturday, October 07, 2006 6:47:41 PM by Blog57 Team | | It no doubt ranks as one of South County's "hidden treasures" - a quiet, welcoming place of refuge where anyone can come to read, study, meditate, or just have a thoughtful conversation about faith and the meaning of life. It is Gilroy's Christian Science Reading Room. This community resource is located in the foyer of the First Church of Christ, Scientist at 283 W. Fifth St. It is one of hundreds of similar facilities around the world that are sponsored by the local Christian Science Church. Often they are located apart from a church building, such as at San Francisco International Airport or on Lincoln Avenue in San Jose's Willow Glen District. These reading rooms are like mini libraries that are offered as an outreach to the communities where they are located.... | |
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| | | Doctor Who sets sci-fi world record | | Posted Thursday, September 28, 2006 2:47:18 PM by Blog57 Team | | Doctor Who has entered the record books as TV's longest-running sci-fi show. The BBC series has been going for 43 years and 723 episodes. Now it has earned a place in the latest edition of Guinness World Records. Doctor Who writer Russell T Davies said: "This achievement is all thanks to the remarkable production team who first created Doctor Who in 1963, and to the audience who have kept it alive for all these years." The show began on November 23, 1963 with William Hartnell starring as the first travelling Timelord. After a 16-year absence, it returned in 2005 with Christopher Eccleston as the ninth Doctor. He was replaced after one series by David Tennant. US series Stargate SG-1 holds the title of "longest-running science fiction show (consecutive)" in the Guinness book.... | |
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| | | Inhofe: Global-Warming Scientists, Media "Doomsayers" and Tools of ... | | Posted Thursday, September 28, 2006 12:47:27 PM by Blog57 Team | | It seems somewhat appropriate that a social dinosaur like Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) would find it hard to believe that the earth's climate has changed since the Jurassic Period, but there he was on the floor of the United States Senate earlier this week, like a crazy man on a street corner, decrying the focus these days on the effects of climate change -- or, as Inhofe calls it, "the most media-hyped environmental issue of all time." Inhofe gave a speech on Monday to vent his frustration over what he believes is an overblown non-issue and to take the media to task for covering it. "I want to challenge the news media to reverse course and report on the objective science of climate change, stop ignoring legitimate voices in this scientific debate, and stop being used by the hysterical left," said Inhofe.... | |
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| | | Saturday | | Posted Monday, September 18, 2006 10:53:05 PM by Blog57 Team | | Celebration of Barbara Knutson: Celebrate the life and work of this artist, storyteller and author who died in 2005 with story time featuring three of her books, presentation about the Kerlan Collection's new Barbara Knutson education portfolio and display of Knutson's Zulu Calendar project.10:30 a.m. Red Balloon Bookshop, 891 Grand Ave., St. Paul. Free. 651-224-8320. Bob Bovee and Gail Heil: Come dressed in your favorite cowpoke attire and explore American folk heritage. 11:15 a.m. St. Paul Central Library, 90 W. Fourth St., St. Paul. Free. 651-266-7000. Experiment with a chemist: Try balloon on a stick, finding the amount of vitamin C in a drink, magic messages and silly putty in this afternoon of hands-on science activities for all ages. 1-3 p.m. St. Anthony Park Library, 2245 Como Ave., St.... | |
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| | | Two new books on evolution | | Posted Sunday, September 03, 2006 4:48:04 PM by Blog57 Team | | Evolution isn't hard to understand; you don't need to know about thermodynamics or the properties of the speed of light. Evidence for evolution is part of ordinary life, and the theory boasts an intuitive logic that isn't the case with, say, Einstein's ideas. So why do people have such a hard time accepting evolution? How could it be that in 2005, according to a Pew Research Center poll, 42 percent of Americans believed that "living things have existed in their present form since the beginning of time"? These two wonderful books try to explain why such a richly documented theory remains so difficult for some people to accept. .... | |
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| | | Potomac State's Great Books Discussion Group to Explore British Fiction | | Posted Thursday, August 31, 2006 6:48:30 PM by Blog57 Team | | KEYSER, WV - Have you always wanted to read books by Jane Austen, Charles Dickens and other great British authors? If your answer is "yes" then you should enroll in Potomac State College of West Virginia University's Great Books Discussion Group, set to begin Tuesday, September 5 and continue through November 14, from 6 to 8:05 p.m., in Science Hall Room 220. The class will meet every other week.According to Instructor Mary Spalding, the course will focus on works of British fiction from 1700 to present. There will be six selected novels. "I will select the first book and then tailor the other five choices to class preference after discussing it with them," said Spalding.Spalding says the class will be modeled after the popular book club discussion groups that are so popular these days. "I'll prepare some questions and I'll ask the class to prepare some questions," said Spalding.... | |
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