Religion has nothing to do with science – and vice versa | Francisco J. Ayala | Science Are religion and science incompatible? Some scientists assert that valid knowledge can only come from science. They hold that religious beliefs are the remains of pre-scientific explanations of the world and amount to nothing more than superstition. On the other side, some people of faith believe that science conveys a materialistic view of the world that denies the existence of any reality outside the material world. Science, they think, is incompatible with their religious faith. I contend that both – scientists denying religion and believers rejecting science – are wrong. The scope of science is the world of nature: the reality that is observed, directly or indirectly, by our senses. Outside the world of nature, however, science has no authority, no statements to make, no business whatsoever taking one position or another. People of faith need not be troubled that science is materialistic. In River out of Eden, he writes: There is a monumental contradiction in these assertions. He adds:
Senate Expense Scandal Front And Centre Thanks To NDP Ploy OTTAWA - Prime Minister Stephen Harper will get little reprieve from the Senate expenses scandal now that a new session of Parliament has been launched. New Democrats have come up with a procedural ploy aimed at putting the scandal back on the front burner now that the pomp of Wednesday's throne speech is out of the way. NDP ethics critic Charlie Angus intends to raise a point of privilege first thing Thursday, asking Speaker Andrew Scheer to find that Harper misled the Commons last spring when he insisted no one in his office knew that his chief of staff had bailed out Sen. Mike Duffy — an assurance contradicted over the summer by the RCMP. Nigel Wright gave Duffy $90,000 so that he could reimburse the Senate for wrongly claimed housing allowances and living expenses. Wright resigned as Harper's chief of staff in May, shortly after news of the transaction leaked out. "As I have said repeatedly, it was Mr. "Those were his decisions. Sen. "Well, he can run but he can't hide."
Confession of a Buddhist Atheist « Bodhi Thunder Confession of a Buddhist Atheist Image via Wikipedia By Grant Lawrence Bodhi Thunder Buddhism is different from nearly any other religion in that it doesn’t require a belief in God. Many Buddhists do believe in God. The Buddha instead gave an analogy of a person being shot with an arrow, and there were those that wanted to help remove the arrow. Buddhism doesn’t require a belief in God to remove the arrow of suffering. Books and people can tell you of experiences of God and revelations. See Video Below of a lecture given by author Stephen Batchelor on his book “Confession of a Budedhist Atheist” I work as a school counselor and mental health counselor in Gallup, New Mexico. Canada: Climate Criminal At the dawn of the 21st century a new political regime has transformed Canada from global hero – once standing up for peace, people, and nature – to global criminal, plunging into war, eroding civil rights, and destroying environments. What happened to Canada? Oil. By the late 20th century, oil companies knew that the world’s conventional oil fields were in decline and oil production would soon peak, which it did in 2005. Shell Oil opened operations in the tar sands in 2003. In Durban, in December 2011, after mocking climate science and common decency, Canada’s Environment Minister, Peter Kent announced that Canada would abandon the Kyoto deal, abrogating a legally binding international agreement, which Canada had signed seven years earlier. The Canadian government has become the policy arm and public relations voice of the international oil industry, discarding its reputation as an ethical country. Life as an oil resource colony Politics as war Canada against the world
Our Decision | Canada's Northern Gateway Pipeline Keystone XL Tar Sands Pipeline is Not a Jobs Plan, But an Oil Export Plan By Climate Guest Contributor on January 13, 2012 at 4:52 pm "Keystone XL Tar Sands Pipeline is Not a Jobs Plan, But an Oil Export Plan" The Oil Goes to China, the Permanent Jobs Go to Canada, We Get the Spills, and the World Gets Warmer by Danielle Droitsch, cross posted from NRDC’s Switchboard You’ll hear the GOP, the American Petroleum Institute, and the U.S. The debate over whether Keystone XL creates jobs is a convenient diversion from something oil company backers don’t want you to know: this is an export pipeline to help them access foreign markets and bypass the United States. CNN posted this interview with a TransCanada executive who admits that permanent jobs would only number “in the hundreds, certainly not in the thousands” from Montana down to Houston: The oil industry is pulling a bait and switch scam with Keystone XL – offering it as a path to economic and national security when the pipeline is mostly meant for export. Steven M.
Environmental activists reeling as Keystone pipeline gains momentum - The Hill's E2-Wire Green groups are reeling after the release of a draft State Department report that seemed to put the Keystone XL oil pipeline on track for approval. Opponents of Keystone are furious at State’s environmental assessment of the project, which brushed aside of one of their central arguments against it: namely, that it would exacerbate clime change by expanding the use of oil sands. “The State Department’s conclusions are so off-base that they’re borderline absurd,” Daniel Kessler, a spokesman with climate group 350.org, told The Hill.Environmental groups vowed they would continue to pressure President Obama to kill the pipeline, but acknowledged the blow that Friday’s report delivered to their cause. The State Department’s report found that the Canada-to-Texas pipeline would have little effect on accelerating oil sands production and climate change. The assessment is not final, but could indicate the arguments in favor of the pipeline are winning the day within the administration.
The Expert's Report that Damns the Northern Gateway Pipeline Veteran energy analyst David Hughes calculates three reasons the project is bad for Canada. Enbridge pipeline construction in the Athabasca region. Source: Enbridge. A slide presentation by geologist David Hughes includes charts showing the wide discrepancy between commonly accepted growth scenarios for the Alberta oil sands, and significantly higher projections put forth by Enbridge and other proponents of fast build-out of oil sands infrastructure. The slides also include satellite views of the oil sands showing growth over nearly three decades. The Northern Gateway Pipeline will explosively increase the scale of oil sands production at a level not in the national interest, says David Hughes, one of Canada's foremost energy analysts. By tripling oil sands production rates above 2010 levels, the project will "compromise the long term energy security interests of Canadians, as well as their environmental interests," charges Hughes. Author's 32 years with Natural Resources Canada