As I reexamined the Scriptures, after having moved decidedly away from them over the last 17 years, I found that I had good reason to move away from Scriptures, and indeed, the Christian faith in particular. What I had done subconsciously was perhaps based on a real reaction to living my life in the context of having a belief in a higher power—an invisible entity who was somehow at the helm, but who failed miserably to show me any authentic evidence of his presence.
Also Known As DNA
Book 2 of AKA
Investigations Series
Baggage
Mainstream
Fiction
Achilles Forjan
Mainstream
Fiction
A Random Act of Blindness
Erotic Lesbian Novella
Plethora
Southern Lesbian Gothic
As You Were
Lesbian Romantic Suspense
ISO (In Search Of):
The Art of Dating,
Relationships &
Sex
For the Discerning Lesbian
Crossing Paths:
Essays
Armchair Detective
Lesbian Erotic Mystery
Book 2 of AKA
Investigations Series
Brainmatter:
Essays, Narrative & Short
Fiction
Yin & Yang:
Poetry From Both Sides
of My
Disposition
Soaking the Pillow
Erotica For Women
Who Love
Women
The Unbearable Lightness of Being Unbearable
Non-Fiction
Strictly Academic
Collected Papers
COMING IN 2011
Supernatural Hypocrisy: The Cognitive Dissonance of a God Cosmology
Non-Fiction, 6 Volumes
Quintessence
Mainstream Fiction
Somewhere Else
Mainstream Fiction
Another Justice
Suspenseful Novella
(Based on Screenplay
of the Same Name)
Chewing Pencils:
Writing, Editing & Publishing
in the Digital Age
I just watched the documentary by Ben Stein "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed" I must say the title is prophetic toward content. There was certainly no intelligence to be found in the slant of this "documentary."
Next, allow me to point out that all those whom Stein interviewed who were summarily dismissed from universities for merely uttering the words "Intelligent Design" were not victims at all. This w
as a distorted and inaccurate representation of what actually happened. Please read Michael Shermer's essay on this here: Ben Stein's Blunder. Shermer was misled and lied to about the content of the documentary, even the very NAME of the documentary, as was PZ Meyers, of the infamous Pharygula. See his blog, The Simple Falsehood at the Heart of Expelled, and just search the word "Expelled" on Pharyngula for other blogs about it. Meyers was even barred from attending a screening of the film Expelled. A police officer told him he was instructed by the producer to be kept out, or he would be arrested. See his blog on this here. 
Stein, however, is uninterested in paleontology, or any other science for that matter. His focus is on what happened to Sternberg, who is portrayed in the film as a martyr to the cause of free speech. “As a result of publishing the Meyer article,” Stein intones in his inimitably droll voice, “Dr. Sternberg found himself the object of a massive campaign that smeared his reputation and came close to destroying his career.” According to Sternberg, “after the publication of the Meyer article the climate changed from being chilly to being outright hostile. Shunned, yes, and discredited.” As a result, Sternberg filed a claim against the Smithsonian for being “targeted for retaliation and harassment” for his religious beliefs. “I was viewed as an intellectual terrorist,” he tells Stein. In August 2005 his claim was rejected.
According to Jonathan Coddington, his supervisor at the Smithsonian Institution, Sternberg was not discriminated against, was never dismissed and in fact was not even a paid employee, but just an unpaid research associate who had completed his three-year term!(Shermer)
OCTOBER 8--An Alabama minister who died in June of "accidental mechanical asphyxia" was found hogtied and wearing two complete wet suits, including a face mask, diving gloves and slippers, rubberized underwear, and a head mask, according to an autopsy report.(from the coroner's report): "The decedent is clothes in a diving wet suit, a face maskAldridge served as the church's pastor for 16 years.which has a single vet for breathing, a rubberized head mask having an opening for the mouth and eyes, a second rubberized suit with suspenders, rubberized male underwear, hands and feet have diving gloves and slippers. There are numerous straps and cords restraining the decedent. There is a leather belt about the midriff. There is a series of ligatures extending from the hands and feet. The hands are bound behind the back. The feet are ties to the hands. There are nylon ligatures holding these in place with leather straps about the wrists and ankles. There are plastic cords also tied about the hands and feet with a single plastic cord extending up to the head and surrounding the lower neck. There is a dildo in the anus covered with a condom. "
A few points:
Believing in God can help block anxiety and minimize stress, according to new University of Toronto research that shows distinct brain differences between believers and non-believers.
In two studies led by Assistant Psychology Professor Michael Inzlicht, participants performed a Stroop task - a well-known test of cognitive control - while hooked up to electrodes that measured their brain activity.
Compared to non-believers, the religious participants showed significantly less activity in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), a portion of the brain that helps modify behavior by signaling when attention and control are needed, usually as a result of some anxiety-producing event like making a mistake. The stronger their religious zeal and the more they believed in God, the less their ACC fired in response to their own errors, and the fewer errors they made.
"You could think of this part of the brain like a cortical alarm bell that rings when an individual has just made a mistake or experiences uncertainty," says lead author Inzlicht, who teaches and conducts research at the University of Toronto Scarborough. "We found that religious people or even people who simply believe in the existence of God show significantly less brain activity in relation to their own errors. They're much less anxious and feel less stressed when they have made an error."
These correlations remained strong even after controlling for personality and cognitive ability, says Inzlicht, who also found that religious participants made fewer errors on the Stroop task than their non-believing counterparts.
Their findings show religious belief has a calming effect on its devotees, which makes them less likely to feel anxious about making errors or facing the unknown. But Inzlicht cautions that anxiety is a "double-edged sword" which is at times necessary and helpful.
"Obviously, anxiety can be negative because if you have too much, you're paralyzed with fear," he says. "However, it also serves a very useful function in that it alerts us when we're making mistakes. If you don't experience anxiety when you make an error, what impetus do you have to change or improve your behaviour so you don't make the same mistakes again and again?"
The study is appearing online now in Psychological Science.
Source: University of Toronto
Thankfully in my Baptist Church we have 2 police officers who wear their guns under their suit coats during services. My heart goes out to the congregation and families at that church in Maryville ILPastor gunned down in Illinois church Posted: 02:38 PM ET
(CNN) — The pastor of a Maryville, Illinois, church was shot to death during a service Sunday in front of horrified parishoners who then tackled the gunman, state police said.
Fred Winters, the pastor of the First Baptist Church, was shot and killed during the 8 a.m. service, while his attacker and two parishoners suffered knife wounds, Illinois state police spokesman Ralph Timmins said.
The gunman walked in during the service and walked up to the pulpit, opening fire when he was met by Winters, Timmins said. The man’s .45-caliber pistol jammed after he shot Winters, and he pulled out a knife and turned it on himself before being tackled by some of the roughly 150 worshippers attending the church,
Timmins said.Two of those who went after the attacker suffered non-life-threatening injuries, while the suspect’s injuries are “very serious,” Timmins said.
Rev Kyle Lake, 33, was standing in a small pool used for baptisms at the University Baptist 
Church when he was electrocuted on Sunday morning. [If god is willing to send his own son into a horrible death by crucifixion, why would he care about some preacher from Waco?]
Rev Lake reached out to adjust a nearby microphone, which produced an electric shock, said church pastor Ben Dudley. [Dudley was also thinking, Sweet Christ, that could have been me.]
Rev Lake, who had a wife and three children, had been at the church for nine years. [He became an authority on advising people about their mortal souls at the age of 24?]
Confusion
He was taken by ambulance to a local medical centre where he was pronounced dead. [Jeez, I hope he was baptized].
The woman being baptised apparently had not stepped into the water, Mr Dudley told the Waco Tribune-Herald. She was taken to the hospital as a precaution, but was not seriously injured, he said. [I'm willing to bet she might reconsider the act of baptism...unless of course she is devout. Then, naturally, she'll do anything in the name of god.]
"At first, there was definitely confusion just because everyone was trying to figure out what was going on," Mr Dudley said. "Everyone just immediately started praying." [Yeah, good idea. When someone is being electrocuted, drop everything and start praying. That ought to give him the help he needs].
At a remembrance attended by about 1,000 people on Sunday night, Mr Dudley said the congregation would move forward as a church. [yes, as a church who witnessed god killing their preacher. Wonder who will step forward to take his place, considering god's distaste for this church and its preachers?]
"I don't know how, when, why, where or what's going to happen, but we will continue as a church in the community because that is what Kyle would have wanted," he said. [I daresay what Kyle would have wanted, was to NOT be electrocuted].
If I believed in god, I would have to say this was one of his "signs"--but WHICH ONE?
