Explaining Axiological theism, Axiological agnosticism, and Axiological atheism
Explaining Axiological theism, Axiological agnosticism, and Axiological atheism I am going to roughly offer the understanding how axiological thinking intera...
By: Damien Athope
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Explaining Axiological theism, Axiological agnosticism, and Axiological atheism - Video
Jeremiah Keenan
Keen on the Truth
According to popular assumption, theres a simple dichotomy between science and religion. Science represents collective knowledge of objective reality; religion, a traditional codification of subjective experience. Everyone is entitled to their own religion just as they are to their own cheesesteak provided, of course, that the pursuit of your cheesesteak doesnt upset somebody elses bowl of peas. Whether you subscribe to a religion with sacred scrolls and ceremonies that predate history or give your God your own first name, its assumed that you dont relate empirical observation and rational deduction to faith.
Highly-educated believers are it follows simply fond of playing an elaborate psychological trick on themselves. They fool themselves into a mental state in which they feel convinced of some gods existence. Then they deliberately muddle their brains until they can feel that some old book written by a collection of dogmatic delusionals must be that gods word on morality.
This stereotype is, in many instances, justified. However, it fails to tell the whole story. While there have always been religious believers who accept the basic tenets of their faith dogmatically, many devout intellectuals have claimed to arrive at their worldviews because they found them the most plausible explanation based on the available information.
James Clerk Maxwell, one of the greatest physicists of the 19th century, reasoned that because matter cannot be eternal and self-existent, it must have been created. He also claimed that he had looked into many philosophical systems but none could work without God. More recently, scientists like 1996 Nobel-prize recipient Richard Smalley have claimed that their study of the intricate design of the natural world gradually pushed them away from agnosticism into a settled belief in the supernatural. Some, such as Dr. Michael Behe of Lehigh University, have written quite persuasive works arguing that the complexity of biochemical life could not have randomly arisen under the natural laws.
For such scholars, this belief in the supernatural need not be a matter of subjective feelings or deliberate self-delusion. C. S. Lewis, a Cambridge professor and writer, described the gradual development of his belief in God as the painful culmination of too much careful thought. For example, Lewis was deeply concerned with the problem of materialistic determinism. Lewis argued that if human beings are purely material and matter follows natural laws, then our thoughts being mere agitations of neurons must follow those natural laws as well. But in that case our beliefs about logic and the world around us are simply the tail end of a chain of chemical interactions, all of which were predetermined by the natural laws and the random positioning of atoms at the beginning of the universe. Thus, Lewis concluded, if there is to be truth there must also be some things that are not made of matter.
Of course, such limited arguments in favor of the supernatural do not confirm the truth of the vast array of beliefs attendant upon any particular religion. But the fact remains that Agnosticism has never held a monopoly on rational thought. As far as the rational observer is concerned, the individual tenets of a religion must still stand or fall based on external evidence and internal coherence.
For example, many claim to find contradictions in the Quran. If these contradictions legitimately exist, then it is not possible that every word of the Quran was directly inspired by an infallible deity. The Bible contains extensive and detailed historical accounts of ancient Near Eastern history. If these accounts can be proven false, the Christian claim of Biblical inerrancy can likewise be invalidated.
On the other hand, Christians and Muslims alike claim that their holy books contain predictions which prove their inspiration. If such predictions are numerous, specific and accurate, then the rational enquirer may be inclined to consider the possibility that they are legitimately supernatural. If, on the other hand, they are vague, few in number or false, it equally makes sense to ignore them.
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Jeremiah Keenan | Science vs religion
Google has spent the past decade-and-a-half perfecting the science of recognizing patterns in the chaos of information on the web. Now its applying that expertise to searching for clues to the genetic causes of autism in the vast sea of data contained in the human genome.
On Tuesday, autism advocacy group Autism Speaks said it was partnering with Google to sequence the genomes of 10,000 people on the autism spectrum along with their family members. Google will host and index the data for qualified researchers to sift as they hunt for variations in DNA that could hint at autisms genetic origins.
We believe that the clues to understanding autism lie in that genome, Rob Ring, Autism Speaks chief science officer, told WIRED. Wed like to leverage the same kind of technology and approach to searching the internet every day to search into the genome for these missing answers.
The project will make use of Google Genomics, a tool launched by the company several months ago with little fanfare on Googles Cloud Platform. As sequencing the human genome becomes ever-faster and cheaperRing says it can be done for about $2,500, compared to nearly $3 billion for the Human Genome Projectthe volume of genetic data generated by researchers has grown astronomically. By allowing researchers to dump that data onto its servers, Google gets to show off and improve the capabilities of its cloud while providing a potentially important service.
David Glazer, director of engineering for Google Genomics and formerly director of engineering for Google Plus, says that instead of searching for keywords, researchers can search for particular regions and sequences along genomes and find sections with common variations. And because a single human genome can run to 100 gigabytes, having the data in a central location makes remote collaboration among researchers easier. Youre a lot more efficient than shipping around station wagons full of hard drives, Glazer says.
Liz Feld, president of Autism Speaks, says she hopes that intense genetic analysis will help researchers tailor more individualized treatments, much as genomic analysis has led to a more refined understanding of different subtypes of cancer. What matters most to us is that this research is going to allow us to uncover and understand the various forms of autism, Feld says.
The autism genomics project is hardly the first Google foray into health and medicine. The company has targeted everything from Parkinsons disease to cancer, though genomics research is especially well suited to Googles technological strengths. In recent years, researchers have come to see biology as ripe for understanding by way of computing as much as chemistry. After all, nature has spent billions of years perfecting DNA as its most efficient way for storing and transferring information.
Autism Speaks has itself been collected genomic data for more than a decade, Ring says. Now he says he believes they have the tools to do something valuable with it: We realized that some of our biggest biology problems were really big data problems.
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Google Opens Its Cloud to Crack the Genetic Code of Autism
Q111 Job Rights for Persons with HIV/AIDS
From the HIV Avatar Project, posted by the Department of Behavioral Science and Community Health at the University of Florida hiv-avatar-project.com http://bsch.phhp.ufl.edu/
By: UF Behavioral Science and Community Health
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Q111 Job Rights for Persons with HIV/AIDS - Video
SuzanneSomers.
By Robin Leach (contact)
Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2014 | 10 p.m.
New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Dr. John Palermo in 2001.
More than 25,000 physicians and scientists from 120 countries who believe in alternative medicine for anti-aging solutions and regenerative medical cures arrived here today for the 22nd annual world congress of the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine, or A4M.
The not-for-profit society is dedicated to the advancement of technology to detect, prevent and treat aging-related disease and to promote research into methods to roll back, slow down and optimize the human-aging process.
A4M believes that the disabilities associated with normal aging are caused by physiological dysfunction, which in many cases are restored with medical treatment such that human life span can be increased and the quality of ones life is improved as one grows older.
Actress, singer and author Suzanne Somers at age 67 has become the face and messenger of the nontraditional approaches to health and well-being. Shes written 25 books on the subject, including Ageless, Eight Steps to Wellness, Sexy Forever and Knockout.
Suzanne has been in Las Vegas recently exploring a resumption of her variety show here. She credits her discovery of the fountain of youth treatments as one of the reasons for her beating Stage-4 breast cancer without chemotherapy and remaining cancer free for 13 years.
Im going to live to be 110 years old, she declared.
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Dr. John Salerno at Anti-Aging conference: Eternal youth, living to 120
The Hubble Telescope - a brief summary in 3 minutes
By: Stephen Sorensen
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Joint press point by Donald Tusk Jens Stoltenberg, NATO Secretary General (full version)
EN - Joint press statements by Donald TUSK, President of the European Council, and Jens STOLTENBERG, NATO Secretary General, following their meeting at the European Council - FULL version -...
By: Frdrick Moulin
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Joint press point by Donald Tusk & Jens Stoltenberg, NATO Secretary General (full version) - Video
Leggiamo un po #39;?Oriana fallaci:"Lettera a un bambino mai nato"
Per chi,come me,ama leggere. Romanzo epistolario rivolto a tutte le Donne, tratta il tema della maternit e induce a riflettere sul divenir madre.In questo romanzo si fondono,a parer mio,...
By: Angy venuto
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Leggiamo un po'?Oriana fallaci:"Lettera a un bambino mai nato" - Video
"Germany complicit in NATO aggression toward Russia" - Sahra Wagenknecht, Berlin 12/2/14 (RUPTLY)
mit freundl. Genehmigung durch RUPTLY: Germany: "We #39;re complicit in NATO aggression toward Russia" - Wagenknecht http://youtu.be/4GiwBo5-81s M/S Sahra Wagenknecht walking to podium ...
By: antikriegTV
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Animation Boogz Battle | Prelims Three-way Tie | Nato vs Hoang ng vs Red.D
Judges: CK Animation (MilkyWay) Boon (Animation Boogz / C.O) MC Kirby (Joyfunk) DJ Slowz ( S.I.N.E / Natural Groove ) Winner: Red.D.
By: 6apex
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Animation Boogz Battle | Prelims Three-way Tie | Nato vs Hoang ng vs Red.D - Video
NATO Intercepts Russian Bombers Over Baltic: Kremlin accused of increasing airspace incursions
A group of Russian fighter jets flying provocatively close to Latvian airspace over the Baltic Sea were intercepted and chased-off by NATO fighter planes in three separate incidents reported...
By: UKRAINE TODAY
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U S and NATO Officially End Combat Mission in Afghanistan
The U.S. and NATO officially ended their combat missions in Afghanistan on December 8. Connect: http://www.theTrumpet.com http://twitter.com/theTrumpet_com ...
By: The Trumpet Network
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U S and NATO Officially End Combat Mission in Afghanistan - Video
NATO Secretary General - 20th anniversary of Mediterranean Dialogue, 9 DEC 2014
Keynote address by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at the NAC-MD Seminar celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Mediterranean Dialogue, Amman, Jordan, 9 December 2014.
By: NATO
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NATO Secretary General - 20th anniversary of Mediterranean Dialogue, 9 DEC 2014 - Video
MC NATO E DAOESTE NOIS FORGA DE MEGANE
MC NATO E DAOESTE NOIS FORGA DE MEGANE.
By: DL STUDIO
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Kabul, Afghanistan The US and NATO closed their combat command in Afghanistan on Monday, more than 13 years after invading the country in the wake of the Sept. 11 terror attacks to target Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden.
Though quickly routing the Taliban-led government that sheltered the militants, the US-led coalition soon found itself spending billions of dollars rebuilding a country devastated by almost 30 years of war while an insurgency grew as the invasion and occupation of Iraq quickly took America's attention.
As NATO's International Security Assistance Force's Joint Command, which was in charge of combat operations, lowered its flag Monday and formally ended its deployment, resurgent Taliban militants launched yet another bloody attack in the country. And with US President Barack Obama allowing American troops to go after both Al Qaeda and Taliban militants in the country into next year, the fighting likely won't be over anytime soon.
"I don't think the war will slow or stop during the winter, as attacks on cities are not contingent on the weather," Afghan political analyst Wahid Muzhdah said. "I believe attacks in the cities will increase they attract media attention."
Monday's ceremony saw the NATO flag of the command folded and put away amid the foreign troop withdrawal. From Jan. 1, the coalition will maintain a force of 13,000 troops in Afghanistan, down from a peak around 140,000 in 2011. As of Dec. 1, there were some 13, 300 NATO troops in the country.
US Gen. John F. Campbell, commander of NATO and US forces, said foreign troops now will focus on training and supporting local Afghan forces, which have led the fight against the Taliban insurgents since mid-2013.
"The Afghan security forces are capable," Campbell told The Associated Press. "They have to make some changes in the leadership which they're doing, and they have to hold people accountable."
But as local troops stepped up, they now face record-high casualty figures that have risen 6.5 percent this year, to 4,634 killed in action, compared to 4,350 in 2013. By comparison, some 3,500 foreign forces, including at least 2,210 American soldiers, have been killed since the war began in 2001.
President Obama recently allowed American forces to launch operations against both Taliban and Al Qaeda militants, broadening the mission of the US forces that will remain in the country. They also will be permitted to provide combat and air support as necessary, while Afghan President Ashraf Ghani also considers resuming controversial night raids that could see Americans take part.
Up to 10,800 US troops will remain in Afghanistan for the first three months of next year, 1,000 more than previously planned, said a NATO official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss troop deployments. As a result, there will be little, if any, net drop in U.S. troop numbers between now and Dec. 31, when the international combat mission formally ends.
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Dec. 8, 2014 - International Security Assistance Force Joint Command (IJC), Lieutenant General Joseph Anderson, left, folds the flag of IJC during a flag-lowering ceremony at Kabul International Airport in Afghanistan. The U.S. and NATO ceremonially ended their combat mission in Afghanistan Monday, 13 years after the Sept. 11 terror attacks sparked their invasion of the country.(AP)
Dec. 8, 2014 - International Security Assistance Forces take part in a ceremony at Kabul International Airport in Afghanistan. The U.S. and NATO ceremonially ended their combat mission in Afghanistan Monday, 13 years after the Sept. 11 terror attacks sparked their invasion of the country.(AP)
December 7, 2014: US military forces listen to U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel speaking at Tactical Base Gamberi in eastern Afghanistan. Hagel was winding up a two day visit, his last to Afghanistan as secretary of defense. (AP Photo/Mark Wilson, Pool)
The U.S. and NATO closed their combat command in Afghanistan on Monday, more than 13 years after invading the country in the wake of the Sept. 11 terror attacks to target al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden.
Though quickly routing the Taliban-led government that sheltered the militants, the U.S.-led coalition soon found itself spending billions of dollars rebuilding a country devastated by almost 30 years of war while an insurgency grew as the invasion and occupation of Iraq quickly took America's attention.
As NATO's International Security Assistance Force's Joint Command, which was in charge of combat operations, lowered its flag Monday and formally ended its deployment, resurgent Taliban militants launched yet another bloody attack in the country. And with President Barack Obama allowing American troops to go after both al Qaeda and Taliban militants in the country into the next year, the fighting likely won't be over anytime soon.
"I don't think the war will slow or stop during the winter, as attacks on cities are not contingent on the weather," Afghan political analyst Wahid Muzhdah said. "I believe attacks in the cities will increase -- they attract media attention."
Monday's ceremony saw the NATO flag of the command folded and put away amid the foreign troop withdrawal. From Jan. 1, the coalition will maintain a force of 13,000 troops in Afghanistan, down from a peak around 140,000 in 2011. As of Dec. 1, there were some 13, 300 NATO troops in the country.
U.S. Gen. John F. Campbell, commander of NATO and U.S. forces, said foreign troops now will focus on training and supporting local Afghan forces, which have led the fight against the Taliban insurgents since mid-2013.
"The Afghan security forces are capable," Campbell told The Associated Press. "They have to make some changes in the leadership which they're doing, and they have to hold people accountable."
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Photo: STAFF SGT PERRY ASTON/US AIR / AFP/Getty Images
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US Army Lt. Gen. Joseph Anderson (2L), Commander of ISAF Joint...
U.S., NATO end Afghan combat command after 13 years
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KABUL The U.S. and NATO closed their combat command in Afghanistan on Monday, more than 13 years after invading the country in the wake of the Sept. 11 terror attacks to target al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden.
Though it quickly routed the Taliban-led government that sheltered the militants, the U.S.-led coalition soon found itself spending billions of dollars rebuilding a country devastated by almost 30 years of war while an insurgency grew as the invasion and occupation of Iraq quickly took Americas attention.
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Wywiad dla NTV z Williamem Binneyem b. pracownikiem NSA - 3.12.2014
W studio NTV Ewa Pawela (uczestniczka brukselskiej konferencji COVERT HARASSMENT CONFERENCE 2014), ktra przedstawia sylwetk Williama Binneya, byego wysok...
By: niezaleznatelewizja
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Wywiad dla NTV z Williamem Binneyem b. pracownikiem NSA - 3.12.2014 - Video
Top Nsa Whistleblower: America Is A Pre-Fascist State
Alex Jones talks with top NSA Whistleblower William Binney about what America is becoming and what we need to do to stop it.
By: THElNFOWARRlOR
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Top Nsa Whistleblower: America Is A Pre-Fascist State - Video
After Uber cab rape, NSA Ajit Doval summons top Delhi cops
In an unexpected development, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval has intervened in the Delhi rape case and has made calls to top Delhi police officials.Doval had spoken to top police official...
By: India News
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After Uber cab rape, NSA Ajit Doval summons top Delhi cops - Video