Freethought Radio

Over the last couple months, FFRF has been making incredible strides in promoting freethought on a national scale. With a national radio campaign on Air America Radio, full page ads in the progressive national journal of opinion The Nation.

Now a radio show which will be airing on the local, well-known Air America Radio Station, an FM radio station! I hope these are the first steps in bringing forth a Freethought revolution.

The feisty Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), a Madison, Wis.-based national association of atheists and agnostics, is launching a new radio show, Freethought Radio, this week. Freethought Radio is believed to be the only weekly radio broadcast devoted to "the secular point of view" in North America.

Listeners can wake up Saturdays to Freethought Radio from 8 - 9 a.m. on 92.1 FM, "The Mic, Madison's Progressive Talk," in Madison (the local "Air America" station). The show is streamed live at www.themic921.com. The Foundation podcast will be available at the Foundation's website, www.ffrf.org, by May 1.

...

The premiere show will feature the irreverent, freethinking views of one of America's most beloved lyricists, Yip Harburg, who wrote "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," "April in Paris" and "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime." The late Harburg, who defined himself as "an ardent agnostic," also penned light verse, Rhymes for the Irreverent, which was recently reprinted by the Foundation. Interviewed will be his son, Ernie Harburg, president of the Yip Harburg Foundation of New York City, and a former Madison resident.

Wonder Showzen

MTV is on its second season of a new show Wonder Showzen. I can’t say this show promotes freethought. It doesn’t promote anything, it just makes fun of everything backwards in are society. Issues like: slavery, religion, industry standards, stereotypes, Jesus, church, some forms of government.

If you have broadband internet you can watch a set of clips where most of them take a great stab at Republican Middle America.

Below is a clip of anti-religious ideas, all from one episode, the first episode I ever saw. (Excuse the low volume)

Agnostic President

Early this month Michelle Bachelet was elected president of Chile. Chile has been making progressive strides since the return of democracy in 1988.

… Who would have thought that a Catholic country that only legalized divorce a few years ago would elect an agnostic, single mother who promised equality - exactly half of her cabinet appointees are women …

Source: http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,1744947,00.html

As secular as Western counties may seem in contrast to Islamic Theocracies, they are still very tied to faith based traditions. It is impossible to imagine an agnostic candidate get elected in the US.

I don’t know a lot about Michelle, but I hope that the tie she does not have to backward religious traditions allows her leadership to spring the country into a new era where the objective is progress and the betterment of society through reason and national cooperation. Michelle can set an example for other western nations.

An Inconvenient Truth

Global warming is a serious issue that needs serious solution and global support. A new documentary is coming out in select theaters on May 24. I suggest you watch it.

Get more information on the movie. Make an impact, Pledge to watch the movie on opening weekend.

Legal Blasphemy

It seems that with the religious right being in control of our government it gives the theists of local communities more courage to put their private religious beliefs into the public square.

Brunswick County Board of Education is trying to enact a polity that would allow religious groups to hand out scripture to high school students. Jennifer Rudinger, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of North Carolina, and Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation are working together to show the school board how illegal this is.

Rights groups lobby board
Religion in schools vote raises concern

Source: http://www.stateportpilot.com/stories/bibles0419.htm

- By Hilary Snow, Staff Writer

The Brunswick County Board of Education may have acted on faith earlier this month by moving forward with a policy to allow religious groups to hand out scripture to high school students.

But leaders of two politically active civil rights groups believe the board has committed something akin to legal blasphemy.

During a meeting earlier this month, a divided school board disregarded board attorney Joseph Causey’s advice and adopted the first draft of a religion in schools policy that could potentially give the board the right to pick and choose which faiths can be allowed in county high schools.

Board members Ray Gilbert, Jimmy Hobbs and board vice-chair Shirley Babson voted in favor of the policy; chair Scott Milligan and member Willie Gore voted against.

Before final approval of the policy is considered in May, both Jennifer Rudinger, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of North Carolina, and Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, hope board members know if they open the door to religious groups, they may also open the school district up to lengthy and costly legal battles.

“We’re really hopeful they will pass a different policy,” Rudinger said Tuesday. “Hopefully just one person will consider why the Supreme Court has ruled over and over again against government involvement in religion.”

Rudinger said the school board is walking into dangerous territory by even considering a religion in schools policy.

The problem for the ACLU, which has sent numerous warnings to the board, is not that board members want to expose area teenagers to religious materials, she said. The real issue is a government body “taking sides” by creating one set of rules for religious handouts and another for all other free literature.

“The Equal Access Act of 1984 says if a school is going to allow clubs or organizations to come in, it has to allow all. The government must remain neutral, it has to be hands-off,” she said. “The board’s policy remains problematic. They have one set of rules for religion and one for everything else. That’s not neutral. All materials should be treated the same. That’s what is best for religion in a pluralistic society.”

Rudinger said she would “applaud” the board if it decided to stick closely to a policy modeled after a Fourth U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals case, Peck vs. Upshur County Board of Education, as Causey has repeatedly advised. The case upheld a West Virginia school district’s right to give out any outside materials — religious or otherwise — in a passive manner one day a year.

“I would applaud a Peck policy. It applies equally to Bibles, to plays, to civic opportunities. As long as the same set of rules applies to all literature, it is more free speech that schools can have, and that is not a bad thing,” she said.
While she cannot speculate on the ACLU’s next move, Rudinger said the Brunswick County Board of Education is not alone in its consideration of a religion in schools policy. The ACLU of North Carolina recently sent letters addressing the same issue to school boards in Columbus and Forsyth counties.

“Brunswick County is not the first and it will not be the last,” she said. “It seems that every semester we are communicating with school boards on the exact same issue because of outside groups wanting to give out materials. We have not yet had to go to court, though. We try to describe what the law is and communicate with them.”

‘Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s’
Like Rudinger, Gaylor hopes the Brunswick County school board will reconsider its push for a religion in schools policy.

But unlike the ACLU, Gaylor’s Freedom From Religion Foundation will not be satisfied with any school policy that allows faith-based groups into schools.

Discussion of changing the school’s religion policy was spurred by a local chapter of Gideons International, who sought permission from the school board last year to give New Testaments to high school students.

Gaylor said the minute the Gideons, or any other religious group, is let into Brunswick County high schools, Freedom From Religion Foundation plans to take legal action.

“(The school board) is pushing the envelope and pushing parameters,” Gaylor said Friday. “The intent is to placate or promote the Gideons. That is reversing a prior board decision to keep religion out. The Gideons deserve a great deal of criticism. ‘Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s,’ right? Well, they are taking it upon themselves to force this issue. That doesn’t look very virtuous.”

Gaylor said there have been two U. S. Supreme Court cases — one in Indiana and one in New Jersey — against Gideons International in the last 50 years. In both instances, courts ruled in favor of keeping Gideons out of public schools.

“The Supreme Court stands behind us on this,” she said.
Gaylor warned Brunswick County school board members not to “get in the business” of religion.

“They’re choosing religion over non-religion. There is no shortage of Bibles anywhere in this country. If you can’t find a Gideons Bible at the local Motel 6, you can go to the library. The school board is showing favoritism to religion in general,” she said.

And Gaylor believes the law is on her side should Freedom From Religion Foundation move forward with a suit against the Brunswick County Board of Education. The group won a similar case against a school district in Tennessee in 2004.

The case involved the Rhea County, Tennessee, school board’s policy to allow students from Bryan College to promote the “teaching of religion to public school children” in grades K-12. The ruling overturned a 50-year tradition of Bible classes in public schools.

While the Brunswick County school board is seeking to establish “passive” distribution of religious materials in a neutral area outside the classroom, Gaylor said the board’s actions are still in violation of the separation of church and state as outlined in the U. S. Constitution.
“They say passive, but those groups will have a captive audience in the schools,” she said.

In the Sixth U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals case, Freedom From Religion vs. Rhea County Board of Education, Gaylor said Freedom From Religion Foundation was awarded its attorney fees. Fighting a similar losing battle, she said, could prove costly for the Brunswick County school board.

“We were awarded our own attorney fees, which were between $120,000 and $150,000 at both levels. Plus, (Rhea County Board of Education) had their own attorney costs,” she said. “(Brunswick County school board members) should be ashamed of themselves. They are endangering taxpayer money and they won’t gain anything but egg on their faces.”

Testing the waters
Should the Brunswick County school board choose to adopt the revised religion in schools policy during its monthly meeting on May 6, it will have some, but not total, control over free material distribution.

In the draft policy approved earlier this month, the school board must allow all faiths into high schools, “with the exception of those works which defame other religious faiths.”

Causey has warned board members that once they let one religious group in, they will have to let in all. Both Hobbs and Gilbert have said they do not plan to keep any faiths locked out of high schools.

“When I made the motion to adopt this last month, it was to break down the walls of discrimination, not to allow one group and then not allow another,” Gilbert said.

Llewellyn Worldwide, a company that publishes New Age books on metaphysical studies, mysticism, witchcraft, astrology, paganism and Wicca, among others, is ready to hold board members to their word.

Steven Pomije, a publicist for Llewellyn, recently sent a letter to Milligan requesting the school board consider allowing free distribution of the company’s books to students. Pomije also offered to arrange for pagan organizations in the state to visit county high schools.

In an e-mail interview, Pomije said as a rule Llewellyn only distributes books at trade shows and festivals. But after reading about the Brunswick County school board’s discussion of allowing religion in schools on Witchvox.com, a leading pagan website, Pomije took another route.

“I initially sent the inquiry as an educational opportunity for the people on the school board, a reminder, if you will, that there are indeed other recognized and legitimate religions in this country other than their own.”

Pomije has since contacted several pagan churches in the Triangle and Charlotte areas — Sacred Spiral Coven, Church of the Earth of North Carolina, the Universal Trinity Church and the Sacred Circle of Wiccan Fellowship — to ask if they would be interested in taking donated books from Llewellyn that they can then hand out to Brunswick County teens.

“I think we’ve made our point and now we will proceed in that direction without further communication with the school board,” Pomije said.

But Pomije is not the only one. Both Rudinger and Gaylor said their organizations publish materials directed at youths.

Rudinger has already notified the board of the ACLU’s interest in distributing pamphlets on students’ rights.

Freedom From Religion Foundation has two books for kids — one which compares a belief in God to belief in Santa Claus and another, “The Born-Again Skeptics Guide to the Bible.”

“What’s to stop us from handing those out, theoretically?” Gaylor asked.

Milligan said he has not yet read the letter from Llewellyn but he has received numerous letters and e-mails from secular and religious groups across the state and nationwide.

“These are not just local groups. This has stretched outside the state,” he said.

And he would hate to say, ‘I told you so,’ but the influx of requests from state and national groups is just what he was worried about when he voted against the policy.

“My whole issue with this policy is not the Bibles, it is about all the other things parents aren’t going to appreciate their kids bringing home. These are the kinds of topics I was concerned about,” he said. “These requests coming in just validate my statement that when you open the door to one, you open it to all. We are going to have some difficulty saying, ‘No,’ but it’s too late. We’ve already taken the fence down.”

My First Atheist Meeting

I went to my first Atheist meeting on Tuesday. It was a small crowd, nice people, great conversation. It is a very important step in my life.

Early last year I was what some people call a closeted atheist. I didn’t talk to anyone about my worldview. People think that coming out of a closet, whether it be gay or atheist is about your fear in telling others. I believe it is something much more powerful than that. Coming out of a closet allows you to blend your new found courage into your day to day lifestyle. You change a bit. I’ve changed quiet a bit.

Back then I didn’t identify myself as an atheist because it seemed very empty of a worldview. To this day I see myself as a secular humanist before an atheist. Obviously I’m still an atheist, just prefer to label myself as humanist. Means more to me.

So back to my point. The Atheist meeting was cool! I have a lot to learn from my intellectual atheist friends. This is a milestone in my life because through this group I’m learning of more ways to be come active in my beliefs and how to help others in their struggle to find themselves in a more realistic way.

Cool Quotes

A friend of mine sent me a very cool quote. Two of them actually. What do you think?

"I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours."
- Sir Stephen Henry Roberts (1901-1971)

"Whatever good you would do out of fear of punishment, or hope of reward hereafter, the Atheist would do simply because it is good; and being so, he would receive the far surer and more certain reward, springing from well-doing, which would constitute his pleasure, and promote his happiness."
-- Ernestine L. Rose, Women Without Superstition

New Site: Rad Atheist

RADAtheist.com, an organization dedicated to promoting acceptance and tolerance of atheists and atheism among the American public, has announced a new website dedicated to educating individuals in the true nature of atheism in what some perceive has become an increasingly religiously intolerant society.

http://www.radatheist.com/

They have links to some interesting atheist sites and people. They also sell cool atheist products.

Welcome to FreeThought News

Welcome to Free FreeThought News.

I’ve been posting free thought news and information on my personal blog www.thinkLeandro.com for some time now. I’ve decided to separate my personal blog with a blog I can dedicate to Free Thought and the next revolution I’d like to see.

Over the last couple of months I’ve become very involved, almost obsessed with all the free thought media that is available online. There is so much more of it than I ever thought existed.

I’m dedicating some of my time to post news and information that becomes available on the web. I’m going to try to organize all the media and news that is out there into an easy to surf informational blog/site.

This will include comedy, video’s, news and depending on how I feel about this in the future, I’d like to try to do some video bogging. Lets see what happens.

Hope you enjoy. Don’t be shy in commenting.

Reason

How can so many people be so obviously f*cked up?

I’m talking about faith! Sam Harris is my hero, the author of a book I could not put down The End of Faith. Anyone who listens to him below and continues with their bullshit, could be the main reason why humanity doesn’t survive and prosper forever.

America is not a Theocracy

Many fundamentalists and their faithful supports don’t understand the main reasons behind the separation of church and state. They don’t understand the freedom it offers them. The freedom it has offered them for hundreds of years.

Not sure it’s possible for someone of faith to understand this. Understanding church state separation is a conflict of interest for the faithful. They cannot put themselves in the shoes of the people outside of their faith. Their faith gives them a feeling of supremacy. Supremacy is their driving force.

All the corruption that has recently been exposed in American politics shows they are willing to do anything to gain control. Their faith shows them without a reasonable doubt that the end always justifies the means.

In a recent article by Liberty Online, Joseph L. Cook goes into the details of what the Right Wing has in their agenda.

Quotes from Focus on the Family’s James Dobson a leader in Right Wing Christian Fundamentalism Activism

“We only have about 18 months to get this done, because after that George Bush will be a lame duck president. And we’ll be in a new election cycle, and he’s not going to have the power that he does now…. If we let that 18 months get away from us—and then maybe we’ve got Hillary [Clinton] to deal with, or who knows what—we absolutely will not recover from that.”

“If they go after and get a pastor, then other pastors shrink from what they should be doing,” he said. “It forces Christians back into the church, and that’s what’s going on in America.…That’s not what Christ asked us to do.”

---

Former FRC president Gary Bauer took up a similar theme.

“We’re electing a lot of fantastic Christians who happen to be Republican,” said Bauer, a former GOP presidential candidate, “and these guys are fighting for our values. We just have to elect a lot more of them. The way to judge elective bodies is not how may Rs [Republicans] there are, but how many Cs [Christians] there are next to their names. When we get majorities in some of the legislatures and Congress of people that take their faith seriously, then I think that a lot of these issues go the right way.”

If that sounds a lot like a crusade for theocracy, the FRC and its allies don’t seem to mind. Speaker after speaker used the most inflammatory and divisive language to rage against federal judges and other Americans who fail to toe the Religious Right line on abortion, gay rights, and church-state relations. All those are legitimate topics for debate, of course, but these activists demonize those who disagree with them, sometimes literally. Opponents, to them, are not just misguided, but enemies in a culture war.

The author of the article finishes off with

What does all this mean for America? The constitutional principle of church-state separation and the independent judiciary that ensures its vitality are very much at stake. While many Americans don’t realize it, a resurgent Religious Right is quietly building an extraordinary church-based political organization that could place freedom of conscience and the rights of religious and political minorities in jeopardy. This theocracy-minded movement has the potential of changing the face of our pluralistic democracy.

Founder Thomas Jefferson said that the American people, through the First Amendment, had built a “wall of separation between church and state.” If Religious Right activists have their way, however, that wall may turn into rubble.

It seems that all the United States has worked so hard to create, a free democracy is being destroyed by the people who think they know it all, the theists.

I just can’t believe that with all the bad things that happen that revolve around faith and religion, majority of the population still believe it to be this great and valuable thing.

If I was a believer, I would argue that these people are working for the devil. It would be obvious in their actions. But I don't believe in the devil so the only conclusion I can draw is that they are working under the misguided belief they are working for god, something that is probably considered by most to be worse than working for the devil, because they don't know it themselves.

I return to my favorite quote
“ Faith is misguided hope ”

Christian Radio

As odd as they may or may not seem, I occasionally turn it on to listen to what they are saying. I have a healthy curiosity as know what hundreds of thousands of people all over the country turn on themselves.

I like to refresh my opinion of that sector of the world. I have to admit, it is an incredible phenomenon. An immense gathering of what can be easily shown to be primarily unproven.

What I find most interesting is that all the talking, mostly story telling based on Biblical stories are (1) all based on one book which is considered and re-enforced but never proven as all knowing evidence (2) Not cross-referenced in any way to what we now know through the scientific method (3) twisted to fit specific human hardships that most people will identify with…in other words, Brainwashing.

I enjoy listening, to see how and what can be said to brainwash someone that is in most cases emotionally weak. I say this as a well known fact that a large majority of the people who find God are in some sort despair.

If you reading this are a theist you will probably identify with one of these examples on situations that weaken a person which dramatically facilitates their finding of god: illness, disease, heartbreak, death of a friend or family member, poverty, war, jail, depression, hopelessness; anything that requires courage to get through.

Evolutionary Missing Link From Sea to Land Animals

New York Times, Science

Scientists have discovered fossils of a 375-million-year-old fish, a large scaly creature not seen before, that they say is a long-sought missing link in the evolution of some fishes from water to a life walking on four limbs on land.

...

Other scientists said that in addition to confirming elements of a major transition in evolution, the fossils were a powerful rebuttal to religious creationists, who have long argued that the absence of such transitional creatures are a serious weakness in Darwin's theory.

...

Click here to ead the entire New York Times aricle.

I learned about this article at The Secular Outpost, Blog.

Poor creationists;
Stuck in their dungeon of ignorance
Locked away by their fear,
powered by their inability to accept that
life ends at our last breath.

- Leandro

"God Squad" Declines Debate Offer

Following up from previous post Theist debate challenge on Thursday, March 16, 2006.

As was expected by some, the “God Squad” which spoke very negatively and judgmentally towards Atheists have turned down an opportunity to debate with Secular Humanists on the subject: “Is God necessary for morality?”

So I ask, why turn down such a great opportunity? What does this say about the God Squad?

Here is the official report:

The God Squad Offers a Concession
- Gerry Dantone

The God Squad has finally printed an "apology" to atheists and secular humanists that is halfhearted and most likely insincere. They wrote in their column that was distributed on March 23, 2006:

"....we apologize to all atheists for any feelings of hurt they may have gleaned from our faith in God, and for our belief that faith in God is the most secure foundation for ethical thinking and for the protection of the dignity of all people, whom we believe, with a complete faith, are made in the image of God."

For the whole column, click here.

No atheist has feelings of hurt because the God Squad or the religious have faith in God or believe what they believe about God. The feelings of hurt and other harm stem from statements such as, "When so many people can so easily say they believe in God, then go out and almost kill someone in the parking lot of the church, it’s hard to tell the believers from the nonbelievers?" (God Squad column, September 1, 2005).

This certainly implies that nonbelievers are more apt to run over others in parking lots, does it not? This statement was entirely irrelevant to the question being asked that week—it’s nothing more than a gratuitous insult to nonbelievers. Am I misunderstanding this?

After all, they have also written, "be glad that Sean is only an agnostic and not yet an atheist," and that nonbelievers have "no reason to get out of bed in the morning and no reason to believe that life has an edge over death, hope an edge over despair and love an edge over hate." (God Squad column, August 26, 2002).

I have not seen an explanation for these statements or how they can be interpreted as "inadvertent."

Our feelings are not only hurt, our ability to be accepted in American society is damaged. Atheists are the most unacceptable class of persons in America, as a recent University of Minnesota study found. We cannot be elected to public office, and our children are the subject of prejudice in schools.

These were not "inadvertent" offenses—they were deliberate and calculated. The God Squad should not distort our complaint to make it seem we are offended simply by their being persons of faith. They should apologize for what they plainly have done, which is assert in a number of different ways on different occasions that atheists have "no reason to get out of bed in the morning and no reason to believe that life has an edge over death, hope an edge over despair and love an edge over hate" and that atheists are personally less moral than believers.

I think little has changed except that the God Squad is now trying to deflect charges of bigotry whereas in the past, bigotry against atheists could not have mattered less. This is progress.

Gerry Dantone is Director of the Center for Inquiry Community of Long Island.

Lets all go kiss Hank's Ass

This is the funniest video clip! What a great spoof.

I dare anyone to show me that this spoof isn't any different than religion. ANYONE!

One point in the clip revolves around Circular Logic



Source
http://www.neuralgourmet.com/cotg37

Christians spin their story

Andrew S. Lay writes a terrible opinion piece that plain out lies to spin his story on how the world is out to get Christians.

Read his Opinion Piece: Christian Culture War

All this guy wants to do is tear down the separation of church and state that protects his religious freedoms.

I promptly responded with: (Seen at the bottom of the article)

This article is false on many fronts.

(1) This cultural shift you mention is not based on today's political climate. The Christian right controls all three branches of government. The republican party, the conservative party, is on your side.

(2) As liberal as you think the media is, many of the laws being broken by the corruption of the Republics is not being reported. A liberal media would have had our lawbreaking president impeached over a year ago.

(3) It has never been acceptable by American standards to be immoral. Immorality is not judged by what your faith is, but by how you act, respect your time here on Earth. Your religious conservative friend in the White House is not moral, he has lied to us. http://www.freethoughtnews.com/2006/04/bush-first-president-to.html

(4) American history is not rich with Christianity. Bill of Rights says nothing about Christianity. Why do you deceive your public? http://ffrf.org/nontracts/xian.php

(5) 'In God we Trust' was placed on coins many years after the country was founded, during our Civil War. http://www.treas.gov/education/fact-sheets/currency/in-god-we-trust.shtml

From what I understand in this article, you do not stand for freedom. This country was settled and gained independence from the UK because they didn't want to live in a country where their government told them what to believe. The Bill of Rights and our Constitution gives every Christian in this country freedom.

The more you push religion onto your public, the less religious your public will be. Look at the UK.

Read the other responses, some of them are great!

Agnostic female for President in Chile

Agnostic female President Michelle Bachelet was sworn in, in Chile. Simply incredible.

I’m glad that a leader’s difference in faith was not the deciding factor in a socially conservative Roman Catholic country. The country is moving forward in the direction of progress at an spectacular rate. Michelle, single mother of three is quickly looking to shed the legacy of Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship.

Progress is yet to be seen, but I have a good feeling great things will come out of her Administration. I’m going to keep an eye on her.

Source
http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_1896269,00.html

Medical study questions the power of prayer

It takes courage to use the scientific method in research of the supernatural. It is still controversial, which is beyond my understanding, but it was done, and here are the results.

Medical study questions the power of prayer
- By Benedict Carey The New York Times
- -SUNDAY, APRIL 2, 2006

Prayers offered by strangers had no effect on the recovery of people who were undergoing heart surgery, a large and long-awaited study has found.

And patients who knew they were being prayed for had a higher rate of post- operative complications like abnormal heart rhythms, perhaps because of the expectations the prayers created, the researchers suggested.

Because it is the most scientifically rigorous investigation of whether prayer can heal illness, the study, begun almost a decade ago and involving more than 1,800 patients, has for years been the subject of speculation.

The question has been a contentious one among researchers.

Proponents have argued that prayer is perhaps the most deeply human response to disease and that it may relieve suffering by some mechanism that is not yet understood. Skeptics have said that studying prayer is a waste of money and that it presupposes supernatural intervention, putting it by definition beyond the reach of science.

At least 10 studies of the effects of prayer have been carried out in the past six years, with mixed results. The new study was intended to overcome flaws in the earlier investigations. The report was to appear in The American Heart Journal next week, but the journal's publisher released it online Thursday.

In a news conference, the authors of the study, led by Dr. Herbert Benson, a cardiologist and director of the Mind/ Body Medical Institute near Boston, said the findings were not the last word on the effects of so-called intercessory prayer. But the results, they said, raised questions about how and whether patients should be told that prayers were being offered for them.

"One conclusion from this is that the role of awareness of prayer should be studied further," said Dr. Charles Bethea, a cardiologist at the Integris Baptist Medical Center in Oklahoma City and a co-author of the study.

Other experts said the study underscored the question of whether prayer was an appropriate subject for scientific study.

"The problem with studying religion scientifically is that you do violence to the phenomenon by reducing it to basic elements that can be quantified, and that makes for bad science and bad religion," said Dr. Richard Sloan, a professor of behavioral medicine at Columbia University in New York and author of a forthcoming book, "Blind Faith: The Unholy Alliance of Religion and Medicine." He added that such studies are "a waste of resources that could be better spent elsewhere."

The study cost $2.4 million; most of the money came from the John Templeton Foundation, which supports research into spirituality. The government has spent more than $2.3 million on prayer research since 2000.

Dean Marek, a chaplain at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and a co-author of the report, said the study said nothing about the power of personal prayer or about prayers for family members and friends.

Working in a large medical center like Mayo, he said, "You hear tons of stories about the power of prayer, and I don't doubt them."

In the study, the researchers monitored 1,802 patients at six hospitals who received coronary bypass surgery, in which doctors reroute circulation around a clogged vein or artery.

The patients were broken into three groups. Two were prayed for; the third was not. Half the patients who received the prayers were told that they were being prayed for; half were told that they might or might not receive prayers.

The researchers asked the members of three congregations to deliver the prayers, using the patients' first names and the first initials of their last names.

The congregations were told they could pray in their own ways, but were instructed to include the phrase, "for a successful surgery with a quick, healthy recovery and no complications."

Analyzing complications in the 30 days after the operations, the researchers found no differences between those patients who were prayed for and those who were not.

In another of the study's findings, a significantly higher number of the patients who knew that they were being prayed for - 59 percent - suffered complications, compared with 51 percent of those who were uncertain.

The authors left open the possibility that this was a chance finding. But they said that being aware of the strangers' prayers may also have caused some of the patients a kind of performance anxiety.

"It may have made them uncertain, wondering, 'Am I so sick they had to call in their prayer team?'" Bethea said.

The study also found that more patients in the uninformed prayer group - 18 percent - suffered major complications, like heart attack or stroke, compared with 13 percent in the group that did not receive prayers.

In their report, the researchers suggested that this finding might also be a result of chance.

One reason the study was so widely anticipated was that it was led by Benson, who in his work has emphasized the soothing power of personal prayer and meditation.

At least one earlier study found lower complication rates in patients who received intercessory prayers; others found no difference.

The new study was rigorously designed to avoid problems like the ones that came up in the earlier studies. But experts said the study could not overcome perhaps the largest obstacle to prayer study: The unknown amount of prayer each person received from friends, families and congregations around the world who pray daily for the sick and dying.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/03/31/news/pray.php

Bush, First President to...

To all my Republican friends that can't see farther than their ignorance and stubborn-ness. I think the republicans that still support the Bush Administration do so for two primary reasons.

Ignorance (1) Many of these republicans still hold on to Bush because of the two hot button topics, abortion and gay rights. Both issues surround human rights. I think it is incredible that after all this time and some American's still struggle with the idea of human rights. Most of these people aren't happy with the country, but they can't see the bigger picture. These people are usually neither gay nor women, yet they keep on their need to take the rights of those who don't effect them.

Stubborn-ness (2) Many of these republicans aren't really happy with Bush, but are too stubborn to turn away from their original choice, Bush. They would have to admit they were wrong, to vote for a Democrat. 'Me be wrong' they all must say. 'As if'.

1. First president in U.S. history to enter office with a criminal record.
   


2. In his first two years in office, over 2 million Americans lost their jobs.
   


3. Shattered record for biggest annual deficit in history.
   


4. Set all-time record for biggest drop in the history of the stock market.
   


5. Cut the taxes of the wealthiest people in America (those making over $200,000 a year).
   


6. Members of Bush Administration are the richest administration in history.
   


7. First year in office set the all-time record for most days on vacation by any president in U.S. history.
   


8. Cut unemployment benefits for more out-of-work Americans than any president in U.S. history.
   


9. Dissolved more international treaties than any president in U.S. history.
   


10. Set the all-time record for biggest annual budget spending increases.
    


11. First president in U.S. history to attack a sovereign nation against the will of the United Nations and the world community.
    


12. Took the biggest world sympathy for the U.S. after 9/11, and in less than a year, made the U.S. the most resented country in the world.
    


13. First U.S. president in history to have a majority of people in Europe (over 70%) view his presidency as the biggest threat to world peace and stability.
    


14. In the 18 months following the 9/11 attacks, he has successfully blocked any public investigation into the biggest security failure in the history of the United States.