Labels: David C. Price

Labels: David C. Price

Labels: David C. Price

A Chinese man dropped dead after playing Internet games for three consecutive days, state media said on Monday as China seeks to wean Internet addicts offline.

The man from the southern boomtown of Guangzhou, aged about 30, died on Saturday after being rushed to the hospital from the Internet cafe, local authorities were quoted by the Beijing News as saying.

"Police have ruled out the possibility of suicide," the newspaper said, adding that exhaustion was the most likely cause of death. It did not say what game he was playing.

Labels: David C. Price

Labels: David C. Price

Religions will continue to thrive despite the rise of science and rationality because we are all born with a tendency to believe in the supernatural, according to research published yesterday.

"Magical thinking" is hard-wired into our brains, according to Prof Bruce Hood, of the University of Bristol, speaking at the British Association's annual festival in Norwich. Prof Hood challenged the assumption of Prof Richard Dawkins and other "ultra rationalists" that belief in the supernatural was spread by religions in gullible minds.

"Rather, religions may simply capitalise on a natural bias to assume the existence of supernatural forces," he said.

"It is pointless to get people to abandon their belief systems because they operate at such a fundamental level that no amount of rational evidence or counter evidence is going to be taken on board to get people to abandon these ideas." [Full article]

Labels: Christian, Christianity, creation, creator, Darwin, David C. Price, Evolution, Naturalism, religion, science

Labels: 911, David C. Price

Labels: David C. Price

Among people who offer an opinion of the religiosity of leading Democrats, more say that John Edwards (28%) and Barack Obama (24%) are very religious than say the same about Hillary Clinton (16%). Yet wide majorities see all three as at least somewhat religious, and those who do view the candidates in overwhelmingly favorable terms.

Similarly, just 14% who offer an opinion see Rudy Giuliani as very religious, but another 63% see him as somewhat religious, and both groups offer comparably favorable assessments of the former New York City mayor. Mitt Romney stands apart from the other candidates tested – nearly half (46%) of those who express an opinion say Romney is very religious; that is roughly the same number saying that George W. Bush is very religious (43%), though many more people express an opinion about Bush's religiosity than Romney's. However, a quarter of Americans – Democrat, independent and Republican alike – say they would be less likely to vote for a presidential candidate who is Mormon. And those who say this have substantially less favorable impressions of Mitt Romney.

Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, 6 in 10 Americans say they would not vote for a candidate if he did not have a belief in god. I don't capitalize "god" there because I'm not certain whether it really matters what kind of god is worshiped as long as there is the belief in a "higher being." I think it only matters in the case of Romney because most people have at least some Christian heritage and have known Mormonism as a cult (which it is) and that "baggage" (especially regarding the word "cult") is carried over from a more Christian-dominated time in our history.

Personally, I don't put a great deal of hope in these numbers or the notion that America is still what is considered a "Christian Nation." All one has to do is look at the lifestyles and stands taken by most of these candidates and one realizes there is probably little substance behind their religious views. I understand that I come very close to sitting in judgment, but in the role of voter in regards to this topic, that's exactly what we have to be. We must determine if their "religion" is real or if it is a political strategy and if that matters when we enter the voting booth.

Labels: Christianity, David C. Price, politics, religion

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- The Rev. D. James Kennedy, a pioneering megachurch pastor who became one of the nation's most prominent Christian broadcasters and a key figure in the rise of the religious right, died Wednesday, a church spokesman said. He was 76. Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church spokesman John Aman said Kennedy died at about 2:15 a.m. at his home in Fort Lauderdale. He had suffered a heart attack in December and announced his retirement last month.

Labels: David C. Price