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Submitted by David on Fri, 2010-12-10 18:48
The Privilege Of Absurdity
"Unlike Dawkins's assertions, Atran's account of violent jihadism is based on extensive empirical research. An anthropologist who has spent many years studying and talking to terrorists in Indonesia, Afghanistan, Gaza and Europe, Atran believes that what motivates them to go willingly to their deaths is not so much the cause they espouse - rationally or otherwise - but the relationships they form with each other. Terrorists kill and die 'for their group, whose cause makes their imagined family of genetic strangers - their brotherhood, fatherland, motherland, homeland, totem or tribe'. In this terrorists are no different from other human beings. They may justify their actions by reference to religion, but many do not. The techniques of suicide bombing were first developed by the Tamil Tigers, a Marxist-Leninist group hostile to all religions, while suicide bombers in Lebanon in the 1980s included many secular leftists. The Japanese Aum cult, which recruited biologists and geneticists and experimented with anthrax as a weapon of mass destruction, cobbled together its grotesque system of beliefs from many sources, including science fiction. Terrorists have held to many views of the world, including some - like Marxism-Leninism - that claim to be grounded in 'scientific atheism'. If religion is a factor in terrorism, it is only one among many. "
Evangelical author Philip Yancey asks: What good is God?
"CNN: How is the practice of Christianity different in China than in the U.S.?

Yancey: At my church, when something bad happens, people immediately ask God to fix it: get me a job, heal my aunt, whatever. I pray those same prayers, and I see nothing wrong with them. In China, though, I heard different prayers, not 'God, take away this burden,' but 'God, give me the strength to bear this burden.'" (Via: Z)

Women Vets Face Greater Risk of Suicide
As usual with this sort of thing, this analysis is full of holes. The LiveScience article they cite notes that "Women veterans are more likely to complete suicide than nonveteran women" NOT that "that women vets are almost three times as likely to commit suicide as their male counterparts." Look at suicide rates amongst male veterans and you find that the suicide rates amongst them is 4.24 times as high as for the suicide rates amongst female veterans. Male veterans are also significantly more likely to be killed in combat and face the stress of front-line duties.
Rant About Worship Songs
A tongue-in-cheek rant against current trends in worship music.

Comments

THP (not verified)

Tue, 2010-12-14 17:59

"Terrorists kill and die 'for their group, whose cause makes their imagined family of genetic strangers - their brotherhood, fatherland, motherland, homeland, totem or tribe'."

This isn't surprising. Loyalty to the tribe is a human instinct. For thousands of years, loyalty to the tribe has been an important part of human survival. To break away from the tribe can be a scary, isolating experience - both in centuries past, and today.