"Adam Lee" - Goodbye Religion? How Godlessness Is Increasing With Each New Generation

Something strange is happening to American teenagers. If you believe popular wisdom, young people are apathetic, cynical and jaded; or, they're supposed to be conformists whose overriding desire is to fit in and be popular. But if you've been paying close attention over the past decade, you might have seen any of a growing number of cases that conspicuously defy these stereotypes: stories of teenagers who have strong principles they're unashamed to display and which they're committed to defending, even at great personal cost, against the bullying of a hostile establishment.

For example, in 2002, an Eagle Scout named Darrell Lambert was threatened with expulsion from the Boy Scouts, despite his having earned dozens of merit badges and having held literally every leadership position in his troop. His crime? He's an outspoken atheist. When the news of his beliefs reached scouting officials, they demanded that he change his mind. He was given a week to think it over. All he had to do was lie, but if he did that, he said, "I wouldn't be a good Scout then, would I?" For his honesty, he was kicked out of the organization he'd devoted his life to.

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Spiritual retreat can lower depression, raise hope in heart patients

Public release date: 1-Aug-2011
University of Michigan Health System

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-08/uomh-src072811.php

4-day, non-denominational spiritual retreat may help patients who want to avoid antidepressants

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Attending a non-denominational spiritual retreat can help patients with severe heart trouble feel less depressed and more hopeful about the future, a University of Michigan Health System study has found.

Heart patients who participated in a four-day retreat that included techniques such as meditation, guided imagery, drumming, journal writing and outdoor activities saw immediate improvement in tests measuring depression and hopefulness. Those improvements persisted at three- and six-month follow-up measurements.

The study was the first randomized clinical trial to demonstrate an intervention that raises hope in patients with acute coronary syndrome, a condition that includes chest pain and heart attack. Previous research has shown that hope and its opposite, hopelessness, have an impact on how patients face uncertain futures.

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"Raw Story"-Poll: Only 52% of Americans approve of God’s performance

Dissatisfaction and anger with the federal government is nothing new, but now even Almighty God is having a tough time getting support from the public.

A recently released survey (PDF) by Public Policy Polling (PPP) found that only 52 percent of American voters approve of God's performance, while nine percent disapprove and 40 percent are just not sure.

Among "very liberal" respondents, 19 percent disapproved. Only four percent of "very conservative" voters had a problem with the deity.

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"Sarah Posner"-Inside the Right-Wing Christian Law School That Brought Us Michele Bachmann

At the May “First Friday” lecture hosted by the Institute on the Constitution at the Heritage Community Church in Severn, Maryland, IOTC founder Michael Peroutka presented the evening’s guest speaker, attorney Herb Titus, with a “Patrick Henry Award” for “his tireless and fearless telling of God’s truth to power.” Titus (best known for his representation of former Judge Roy Moore in his failed quest to install a 2.6-ton Ten Commandments monument in the Alabama Supreme Court building) is one of the few lawyers in America who, Peroutka noted, truly “believes God is sovereign and therefore God’s law is the only law.” For Peroutka, the Constitution Party’s 2004 nominee for president, this was his usual spiel on God and the law.

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"Times of India" - Fountain of youth’s role in brain demystified

Times of India | Jul 14, 2011, 03.21pm IST

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/health-fitness/health/Fountain-of-youths-role-in-brain-demystified/articleshow/9223276.cms

A study has found that a fountain of youth that sustains the production of new neurons in the brains of rodents is also believed to be present in the human brain.

The finding by researchers at the Duke University Medical Centre explains why stem cells by themselves can't generate neurons in a lab dish, a major roadblock in using these stem cells for injury repair.

We believe these findings will have important implications for human therapy, Chay Kuo, M.D., Ph.D., George Brumley Jr. assistant professor of Cell Biology, Pediatrics and Neurobiology, and senior author of the study, said.

The scientists found that neighbouring epithelial-like ependymal cells not stem cells themselves maintain a special structure that keeps neural stem cells neurogenic, able to make new neurons.

Currently, when neural stem cells are harvested for growth in culture, however, the ependymal cells are not removed along with them.

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"Times of India" - Religion, spirituality heal patients

Times of India | Jul 14, 2011, 05.32pm IST

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/health-fitness/health/Religion-spirituality-heal-patients/articleshow/9224683.cms

A new study has suggested that hospitalised patients who had conversations about religion and spirituality with the healthcare team were the most satisfied with their overall care. However, 20 per cent of patients who would have valued these discussions said their desires went unmet.

Religious and spiritual concerns are particularly prominent during times of illness, suffering and death. However, there is disagreement about which members of the healthcare team should ask about and address these concerns. According to hospitalized patients in this study, whom they speak to makes no difference - the important factor appears to be that they have these discussions.

Joshua Williams from the University of Chicago, USA, and his colleagues analyzed data collected between January 2006 and June 2009 on 3,141 patients enrolled in the University of Chicago Hospitalist Study.

They found that 41 per cent of patients wanted to discuss religious or spiritual concerns with someone while in the hospital, and 32 per cent of all patients said some discussion did occur. Among those who had taken part in discussions, 61 per cent spoke with a chaplain, 12 per cent with a member of their own religious community, 8 per cent with a physician, and 12 per cent with someone else.

The authors conclude: "Many more inpatients desire conversations about religious and spiritual concerns than actually experience such conversations. Our findings suggest that physicians, nurses, healthcare organizations, and pastoral care departments may address an unmet need and simultaneously improve patient satisfaction by talking to patients about religious and spiritual concerns in the inpatient setting."

The study has been published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine



Why Do Arrogant Christian Leaders Want Their Religion to Take Over the World?

Somehow most Christian leaders have decided that their particular brand of religion should be dominant in the world and that the world would attain its greatest ideal if everyone were Christian.

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John Robins: Beyond GDP: How Do We Measure Real Wealth and Happiness?

We've been measuring happiness in all the wrong ways. What's the pathway to true quality of life?

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Joe Confino: How Buddhism could be a way out of the environmental mess we are in

"Without collective awakening the catastrophe will come," Thich Nhat Hanh warns. "Civilisations have been destroyed many times and this civilisation is no different. It can be destroyed. We can think of time in terms of millions of years and life will resume little by little. The cosmos operates for us very urgently, but geological time is different."

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Bringing a “Whole New Mind” to the BP Oil Catastrophe

Daniel Pink, a former speechwriter for Al Gore argues that we now live in the dawning of the "Conceptual Age"-that which has succeeded the information and industrial ages respectively-and the skills necessary for survival in this age are, roughly put, art and heart.

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