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The Convergence of Science & Religion - 5 July 2008 Digest

Allen Leigh at convergencesciencereligion.org — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 10:12:56 PDT

Pesticides Persist In Ground Water

ScienceDaily for July 2, 2008 reported on pesticides contamination of ground-water.

The downward movement of pesticide degradation products, formed in situ, can also contribute to the contamination of ground water. Once in ground water, pesticides and their degradation products can persist for years, depending upon the chemical structure of the compounds and the environmental conditions.

Tummy's Taste For Red Wine With Red Meat

An article in ScienceDaily for July 3, 2008 reported on red wine and meat.

In the study, Joseph Kanner and colleagues point out that scientists attribute wine's health benefits, including protection against cancer and heart disease, to its high levels of polyphenols, powerful antioxidants found in fruits and vegetables. However, the body does not absorb polyphenols easily, and scientists have been puzzled about how and where these substances exert their beneficial effects.

Smokers Suffer More Back Pain, Survey Shows

ScienceDaily for July 3, 2008 reported on smoking and back-pain.

Smokers suffer more chronic back pain. In 2003, the Robert Koch Institute interviewed more than 8000 private persons in the course of a telephone health survey (GsTel03). This included questions on social and demographic themes, as well as health and life style. On the basis of the collected data, the authors examined whether there was an association between smoking and chronic back pain.

Resveratrol, Found In Red Wine, Wards Off Effects Of Age On Heart, Bones, Eyes And Muscle

ScienceDaily for July 3, 2008 reported on the effects of red wine and age-related defects.

This study, conducted and supported in part by the National Institute on Aging (NIA), part of the National Institutes of Health, is a follow-up to 2006 findings that resveratrol improves health and longevity of overweight, aged mice. The report confirms previous results suggesting the compound, found naturally in foods like grapes and nuts, may mimic, in mice, some of the effects of dietary or calorie restriction, the most effective and reproducible way found to date to alleviate age-associated disease in mammals.

The World Science article is here.

Acids in Popular Sodas Erode Tooth Enamel

LiveScience for March 21, 2007 reported on the acidity of soda drinks and tooth enamel.

The erosive potential of colas is 10 times that of fruit juices in just the first three minutes of drinking, a study last year showed. The latest research, published in Academy of General Dentistry (AGD) journal General Dentistry, reports that drinking any type of soft drink hurts teeth due to the citric acid and/or phosphoric acid in the beverages.

Post-exercise Caffeine Helps Muscles Refuel

ScienceDaily for July 2, 2008 reported on the use of caffeine in recovery from exercising.

Glycogen, the muscle's primary fuel source during exercise, is replenished more rapidly when athletes ingest both carbohydrate and caffeine following exhaustive exercise, new research shows. Athletes who ingested caffeine with carbohydrate had 66% more glycogen in their muscles four hours after finishing intense, glycogen-depleting exercise, compared to when they consumed carbohydrate alone, according to the study.

Cubing Potatoes Before Boiling Can Reduce Mineral Content By 75%

ScienceDaily for July 2, 2008 reported on the preparation of potatoes and mineral content.

Baked, roasted, boiled or fried, the potato is America's favorite vegetable. Every year, the average American eats about 130 pounds of potatoes, which are loaded with vitamins and minerals.

Eating Broccoli May Keep Prostate Cancer Away, Study Suggests

ScienceDaily for July 2, 2008 reported on a link between broccoli and reduced prostrate cancer.

For the first time, a research group at the Institute of Food Research led by Professor Richard Mithen has provided an explanation of how eating broccoli might reduce cancer risk based upon studies in men, as opposed to trying to extrapolate from animal models. Prostate cancer is the most common non-skin cancer for males in western countries. The research has provided an insight into why eating broccoli can help men stay healthy.

Smokeless tobacco ups oral cancer risk 80 percent: WHO

An article in NewsDaily for July 2, 2008 reported on smokeless tobacco.

Chewing tobacco and snuff are less dangerous than cigarettes but the smokeless products still raise the risk of oral cancer by 80 percent, the World Health Organisation's cancer agency said on Tuesday.

Green tea protects against heart disease: study

NewsDaily for July 2, 2008 reported on effects of green tea on heart disease.

The study showed that green tea improves blood flow and the ability of arteries to relax, said Charalambos Vlachopoulos, a cardiologist at the Athens Medical School in Greece who worked on the study.

Book Club: Here Comes Everybody

Joel Dehlin at www.ldscio.org — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 08:21:28 PDT

Clay Shirky gave a remarkable talk at a conference I attended this last year.

Here Comes Everybody is his latest book. In the book he discusses how wikis, blogs and other contemporary telecommunications devices are fundamentally changing society.

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Pornography Statistics

Larry Richman at www.ldsmediatalk.com — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 14:26:33 PDT

The Lighted Candle Society is one of the great organizations fighting pornography. They just launched a Web site PornographyStats.com, featuring detailed information on the pornography market, statistics on how pornography affects society, and an interactive guide to scientific literature about sexually-explicit material and the brain.

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Scrum at Google

Joel Dehlin at www.ldscio.org — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 11:50:48 PDT

Jeff Sutherland is one of the co-creators of “scrum.” Scrum is an agile software methodology.

In this talk, Jeff describes how he consulted with Google on their AdWords project and helped them implement Scrum. It’s an enjoyable talk. I listened while cleaning my office this morning. Make sure you peek at the slides once in a while which flow as he talks. The Q&A at the end is good.

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MormonTimes.com: Virtual Mormons get a 'Second Life' Part 2

(author unknown) at deseretnews.com — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 00:09:28 PDT

A journey to the different Mormon islands on Second life reveals characters who defend and attack the LDS Church.

Language, Externalism and Meaning

Clark at www.libertypages.com — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 13:30:28 PDT

Tanasije has had this very interesting series on externalism and mathematics over at Brood Comb the past few weeks. His latest post got me thinking about an externalism similar to Putnam or Davidson and what that means to language. Consider someone in the Matrix. What they mean by water, to the externalist, [...]

Guidelines for Participating in Online Conversations about the Church

Larry Richman at www.ldsmediatalk.com — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 12:49:45 PDT

The top story on the LDS Public Affairs Newsroom today is “Mormons Encouraged to Share Personal Perspectives Online to Explain Their Faith.” It references the message from Elder M. Russell Ballard on sharing the gospel using the Internet from the July 2008 issue of the Ensign.

A new page on the Newsroom site provides guidelines for Latter-day Saints participating in online conversations about the Church. Latter-day Saints are encouraged to share personal perspectives to explain the Church and what it’s like to be a member.

Be sure to check out Elder Ballard’s video clip on YouTube where he discusses ways members can share their testimony of the gospel using the Internet.

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Mormons Encouraged to Share Personal Perspectives Online to Explain Their Faith

(author unknown) at — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 00:00:00 PDT

SALT LAKE CITY | 2 Jul 2008 | The July edition of the Ensign, a monthly magazine distributed to English-speaking Church members, features an address given by Elder M. Russell Ballard, a member of the Church's Quorum of Twelve Apostles. Elder Ballard encourages Church members to participate in the growing online discussion about the Church: "There are conversations going on about the Church constantly. Those conversations will continue whether or not we choose to participate in them. But we cannot stand on the sidelines while others, including our critics, attempt to define what the Church teaches. While some conversations have audiences in the thousands or even millions, most are much, much smaller. But all conversations have an impact on those who participate in them. Perceptions of the Church are established one conversation at a time."

Transhumanist theology

Russell Blackford at metamagician3000.blogspot.com — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 19:54:00 PDT

I can't refrain from commenting on Peters' account of the relationship between transhumanism and theology. He takes transhumanists to task for assuming "that religion will attempt to place roadblocks in their way on the grounds that the ...

Mormon Free Will Redux

Clark at www.libertypages.com — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 15:52:56 PDT

I’ve not posted on free will for a while. (My last main posts were on responsibility and foreknowledge, time and chance, and then Mele II) Over at New Cool Thang there was a discussion about free will that got me thinking about it again. So let me summarize some of the conclusions I’ve reached [...]

Rorty on Derrida on Heidegger

Clark at www.libertypages.com — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 12:30:38 PDT

Enowning links to a blog that has a paper of Rorty on Derrida on Heidegger. It’s worth reading not because Rorty gets Derrida right (although I think he often does). Rather reading through the paper it reminds me of an anecdote about Derrida and Rorty that someone related in the comments at Leiter [...]

Much Much Ado About... Dinosaurs? (Or A Poor Man's Eric D ...

Stady Canton at watersofmormon.org — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 03:54:31 PDT

The Baron wrote an excellent series on science & religion earlier this year, refuting the 'it can only be one or the other' fallacy. I hadn't realized just how deeply some people out there are firm in their position that anything that ...

Meditation changes gene expression in the brain

Hughes, James J. at groups.yahoo.com — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 08:07:07 PDT

http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/labnotes/archive/2008/07/01/train-your-mind-change-your-dna.aspx The relaxation response. Back in the 1960s Herbert Benson of

What are We Allowing?

Joel Dehlin at www.ldsmediatalk.com — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 06:48:53 PDT

In an ordinary neighborhood in an average family room, a typical family conducts their regular routine. A young man talks on the phone while he plays computer games online. His sister texts while she watches YouTube. Dad pours through hundreds of emails. Mom checks blogs between a hundred other tasks.

Technology certainly has the power to improve our quality of life and make us more efficient. But it also has the potential to make our lives noisy and capricious.

When I was young, I read incessantly. My friends would come over to play and, despite the fact that I love sports, I would often politely say “no thank you” and go back upstairs to read.

I’m having a harder time reading for long periods of time than I used to. Of course, I read (and respond to) a lot of emails and I read blogs. But my mind seems to drift more often than it used to when I try to read long articles or books. The author of this article from The Atlantic Monthly feels the same way, and he blames technology.

I was very interested in the article, yet, after the first five or six paragraphs, I found myself drifting, as I do more and more often when I read sequentially for long periods of time. I persisted and found myself nodding my head in support as he made most of his points.

What are we allowing technology to do to us?

Take a look at the article and let me know what you think (if you make it through the whole thing).

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Peirce on Truth

Clark at www.libertypages.com — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 21:26:51 PDT

Three quotes by Peirce on truth that sound rather Heideggarian to me. The purpose of every sign is to express “fact,” and by being joined with other signs, to approach as nearly as possible to determining an interpretant which would be the perfect Truth, the absolute Truth, and as such (at least, we may use this [...]

When faith is frightened by science, both loose (A response to those who want us to choose between them)

steve at sciencebysteve.net — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 18:21:27 PDT

This entry was precipitated by Gary over at the No Death Before the Fall blog. Obviously I don’t need to point out that Gary and I disagree. Actually, I like his blog and he makes an interesting foil for my thought. I find it useful in exploring how things need to be clarified in the debates about a faithful view of evolution. While I disagree completely with his outlook, I do think discussion is important and opposing views can often end up coming to some sort of dialectic synthesis. There are points on which we agree–Creation, Fall, Atonement for example. I will, however, continue to bicker about the details. And I do find his approach flawed. He relies exclusively on selectively quoting general authorities in order to perpetuate and support deep-seated suspicions of science. It’s not that suspicions about scientific findings are unhealthy, it’s that these kinds of suspicions take a form that plays out in unhelpful ways. By repeatedly emphasizing suspicions, it seems to pit General Authorities, and thereby the church, against all science. Not against TRUE science, they might argue, suggesting that only that science which lines up scripture and verse with their interpretation of reveled religion, is TRUE. This an extremely unhealthy way of viewing science. Science is not a monolithic bureaucracy that can be dichotomized into ‘True’ vs. some other flavor of science. It is an approach to hard empirical problems, a tack into an underlying physical ontology. Science involves complex methods of discovery and justification; using reason, experimentation, trail and error, but in everything and despite it’s flaws, it self-corrects, reexamines, and reinterprets. It constantly realigns itself with the facts and data it gathers. It is a powerful way of knowing that has been preeminently successful. It’s findings are always open to question, but never ever should be taken lightly, especially about those things that are repeatedly and consistently putting themselves forth as the way things work. Good science provides explanatory and unifying power. As evolution does for all of biology. Science, as a way of knowing, is an invaluable tool (think back to the Middle Ages if you want a vision of the world without science). To dismiss it’s most potent and well established findings you had better engage with the data and the empirical facts at hand. Don’t selectively quote your favorite statements by GAs–we can play “My General Authority can beat up you General Authority” all day. You don’t like evolution? Then offer something that is as equally unifying and explanatory in its scope and power. Intelligent Design tried to tout itself a science by listing anomalies that it thought evolution could not explain (and in no instance did they hit on anything that evolutionary theorists had not tackled long ago), but other than the dictum, “Then a miracle occurred” it offered nothing in the way of explanation or unification (see this post). It was scientifically still-born. So, bottom line, don’t quote out-of-context strings of general authorities and suggest that this line of argument somehow dismisses the fossil record, the patterns found in DNA, the developmental pathways found in embryology and other numerous such things that demonstrate and support evolution. Give me something explanatory on which I can hang my hat. Selectively quoting GAs to piece together a preconceived belief (on which, moreover, one refuses to accept any contrary evidence) is exactly the same method used by anti-mormons to try and show that the church is racist, or sexist, or non-christian, or whatever. That tactic is no more effective or meaningful in that arena than it is in these science attacks. Those that use that method think they are defending the church by raising suspicions about science, I defend the church by embracing both science and my faith fully and unapologetically. If one really thinks the Gospel can’t stand up, arm in arm with (not against!), the best science . . . then it is a weaker Gospel than the one I believe in.

Schelling, Heidegger, Freedom

Clark at www.libertypages.com — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 17:58:01 PDT

Not strictly Heidegger but worth reading (and I think ultimately reflective of Heidegger’s own philosophy) We are familiar with this question [the nature of human freedom] under the common expression: “The problem of the freedom of the will.” One proceeds as if the human will is free or unfree and figures how that could be [...]

Mormon Church Uses Internet Video to Combat LDS vs. FLDS ...

David Politis at www.utahtechwatch.com — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 08:53:04 PDT

One of the most interesting technology-related news items to come out of Utah last week was the fact that the Mormon Church has turned to a mixture of internet video and good-old-fashioned public relations to combat lingering ...

Grand Rounds for Patriots.

Doc at mormonmd.wordpress.com — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 12:56:48 PDT

Grand Rounds is up at the Covert Rationing blog with a tremendous collection of posts, replete with a lesson in American history following a 4th of July theme. Check out the best of the Medical blog world this side of Change of Shift (the nurse’s turn, which came up last week at our friend Braden’s [...]

Buddha beyond human and god

Hughes, James J. at groups.yahoo.com — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 12:17:33 PDT

http://www.buddhistchannel.tv/index.php?id=8,6734,0,0,1,0 The Cross-Manifestations of Buddhas, Bodhisattvas & Gods? by Shiqin, The Buddhist Channel, July 1,