Has science proven that the mind and the brain are identical? Not according to British scientist Raymond Tallis. Below is a link to a talk he gave at the "Neuroscience Panel Discussion" in the U.K. (To those forum members suffering from ADD...the "YouTube" video is only seven minutes long).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Seg8kjc6Z84

Raymond Tallis is a self-professed atheist who eschews materialistic interpretations of the mind. He employs the term "neurotheologists" to describe those scientists/philosophers who assume that the mind and the brain are identical. The primary neurotheologist is apparently Daniel Dennett. See link below for the article entitled "The Ardent Atheist" by Andrew Brown, published in "The Guardian."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2006/apr/29/philosophy1

 If you don't know about Lacey, you should.  For one thing, she's got a huge myspace and youtube following.  For another, she's young, intelligent, and extremely well spoken.  For another, she's an outspoken atheist activist who is encouraging everyone to stand up and stand out against religion and religious oppression.

Watch this video.  I don't think I could have said it any better.

Yeah, I know she's hot, you lecherous old bastards.  Anyway, she's Gogreen18.

 In a short blog post today, biologist and blogger PZ Myers has made what I think is a genuinely profound observation, and I hope it doesn't get lost in the shuffle.

In the recent controversy involving a nine year old Brazilian girl who was raped and impregnated, the Vatican itself has made a ruling:  Fetuses come before people.  While this should come as no surprise, I think we should not just brush this aside as one more example of religious nuttery.  The Vatican has clearly and emphatically given us proof against one of the most powerful emotional appeals used by apologists -- Humans do not need religion to help provide comfort to people in need.

The utilitarian argument is often the last refuge of the defeated in an argument about religion.  There are many people who seem to believe more in belief in god than in god himself.  They think that religion is some kind of cement holding humanity together against its own nature.  This incident provides a stark rebuttal to the notion.

In case you missed it, a nine year old Brazilian girl was raped by her step father, and became pregnant.  Doctors, fearing for her life, performed an abortion.  In retaliation for this act of kindness, the Brazilian arm of the Catholic Church excommunicated the mother and the doctors involved in the procedure.  The Vatican has since upheld the decision.

My apologies for re-opening old arguments and not looking for the answer myself immediately. I have looked up the definitions but still can't quite fit myself in between the two options. I do NOT believe in anything. I merely have the hope that there is a god because that would be nice when I die and it helps me to live a less crappy life. My ideas mostly help me to accept my terminally ill wife's death in the next 3-35 years from kidney failure.

The most honest view of my opinion is that I really don't know for sure, 100%, whether or not there is a god. I do not believe that a supreme being is likely but in my head would hope one exsists. Survival "instinct" is the only mechanism that bothers my puritan atheist view.

I think that to make me a full atheist then the "survival" instinct would need to be better proven to me. I see with my own two eyes that cats, trees, and rocks all have different survival insincts. Cats and trees are somewhat similar in that they have a desire to live. A rock has none, obviously, since it is a rock. But wouldn't a plant obviously have no reason to live when compared with an animal as complex as a cat? I understand fully that PERSPECTIVE has a huge role to play in a human being's view of complexity, but living beings survive, and natural chemicals and materials merely follow the path of least resistance in all instances. If living animals followed the path of least resistance like most materials, then why don't we have suicidal monkeys? Or any other animal?

A question to god-believers (and I'm genuinely interested in the answer you give).

If a definitive incontrovertible proof should force you to abandon your belief in a deity what do you reckon you would lack which you presently have? (Or more importantly "miss"?).

I ask as a person who only experiences huge benefit from a rational conviction that your blind faith in other people's wild assertions is actually a handicap to achieving happiness, happiness being a concept I closely identify with the superiority of knowledge over assumption. Personally, I experience proofs daily that the reversal of this stance leads to terrible problems for the individual bordering sometimes on psychiatric illness in its effect and intensity. I promise not to gainsay or treat with disrespect your assertions - I am really curious as to what they are founded on.

A lot of people here were former Theists, so I'd like to ask

What emotions towards God did you have?

Like my other topics, this is just a poll and I just plan on reading the answers and not partacipating.

I'd like to take a little poll and ask do you think the whole is greater than a sum of it's parts?

That is basically, can we get more information studying the universe as a whole, or reducing it as far as we can?

This isn't really a debate topic, I'll probably just read the answers and not participate.

 A nine year old girl was raped by her step father, and became pregnant.  Doctors discovered that the girl was pregnant with twins, and with the mother's consent, performed an abortion.  Abortion is only legal in Brazil for rape or health risks to the mother.  Doctors agreed both of these conditions had been met.  As a reward for their efforts to save the girl, the doctors and the mother have been excommunicated by Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re.  If you aren't aware, excommunication in the Catholic doctrine is a sentence to hell.  For all eternity.

Yeah, yeah, technically, it's the Church's "recognition" of the state that a person has already "put themselves in," but let's be honest about this.  The Catholic Church is stating in no uncertain terms that performing an abortion for a 9 year old rape victim is such a bad crime that unless doctors repent of their sins, swear off abortions, and kiss the pope's ass, they will be spending eternity in hell.

Oh, they also made a formal statement about the man who raped a nine year old.  He's a sinner, but if he just takes the sacrement of confession and does penance, he'll be ok.  Plus, the law's going to punish him, so... I guess it's no big deal.

LINK

 FOX News is reporting a recent study indicating that religiosity is decreasing across the board in America.