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A Short Trip Around the 'Sphere

So, "what does it mean when even embryonic stem-cell researchers have some qualms about their work?" Read CT's interview with a leading stem-cell researcher in Ethics Interrupted.

Why didn't I have Michael Spencer around to answer my questions when I was a piercing-infatuated teen? At least, thank God, when my tattoo lust was highest my finances were lowest and I choose buying groceries over body art. This week, IMonk has a great post with a long title: High Culture, Low Lifes and Judgement In The Household of God: Answering That Tattoo/Piercing Question. He rightfully rejects the notion that we can become more effective evangelists merely by piercing and tattooing ourselves, but also warns against uncritically accepting evangelical culture as the "right" one.

Amy at Amy's Humble Musings has an encouraging post about When the Milk Spills. I have already spilled milk once this morning, and my average dishes broken per day rose to three yesterday. Sigh. This post was just what I needed. Accept the place where God has placed you.

AND, there is a new blog just out called Christian Aesthetic. Its aim is "pursuing the beautiful." Reading some of the poems posted there makes me want to start writing poetry again.

Finally, one reader of my personal blog pointed out to me an article that made my eyes pop. Societies worse off 'when they have God on their side The first paragraph reads, "RELIGIOUS belief can cause damage to a society, contributing towards high murder rates, abortion, sexual promiscuity and suicide, according to research published today." Okaaaay. . . They seem to base their thesis on the fact that England is more secular than the US but has fewer social ills. No doubt that's entirely due to the spread of Christianity within the 50 states, particularly the rejection of evolution.

Oh, and did you know that nearly 99% of people who eat carrots end up dead within 100 years? And that women who wear blue jeans have fewer children than women who wear chadors? No doubt blue jeans are abortifacient and carrots are toxic. And did I mention that if your parents had no children, chances are you won't have any either? Studies also show that bloggers have a higher rate of heart disease than African pygmies. Blogging must be bad for your health

Okay, I better stop here. But did you know that the single greatest risk factor for having a divorce is being married? Unmarried people have an extremely low divorce rate compared to married people. Thus, marriage must contribute to divorce.

UPDATE: (I know, I know, this is like the 5th time I've updated this post). A most scintillating analysis of the faulty statistics used in above mentioned asinine article is up at Magic Statistics. (Hat Tip: the astoundingly brilliant Macht)

Comments

You've been awfully feisty recently, Hannah! What's going on over there? :)

Thanks for the links.

Posted by: Lexie at September 30, 2005 12:07 AM

I linked to a critique of that study here .

Posted by: Macht at September 30, 2005 1:22 AM

Hannah, Thanks for the link to my blog. I'm glad you found my post helpful.

Posted by: StatGuy at September 30, 2005 6:12 AM

"'RELIGIOUS belief can cause damage to a society, contributing towards high murder rates, abortion, sexual promiscuity and suicide, according to research published today.'"

Oh, that's brilliant. Anybody at the Times read City of God? (I haven't quite finished it either, but that was Augustine's main objective in writing it: to prove that Christianity was not the cause of the evils that befell Rome in his time.)

Posted by: Laura at September 30, 2005 6:24 AM

Hannah - Thanks so much for the link to my husbands CA blog!

Posted by: Annie at September 30, 2005 6:24 AM

"...astoundingly brilliant..." [Insert blushing smilie]

Posted by: Macht at September 30, 2005 5:26 PM

This is a great post. Re: societies being worse off with God on their side, I recently came across a very interesting article from an apparent non-believer proposing the opposite view, called, "Faith Does Breed Charity" - subtitled "We atheists have to accept that most believers are better human beings."

Posted by: jan at September 30, 2005 5:36 PM

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