Check out this site

http://www.sacredspace.ie

It has a daily meditative prayer lasting 10 minutes, courtesy of the Jesuits of Ireland.

peace be with you

The University of Utah sent a medical team to Louisiana. They went to LSU to relieve the medical staff who had been working around the clock. It is a pretty amazing tale. Lots of learning going on for our own possible future disasters. With high level nuclear waste coming to Utah we may have many future tales to tell.

I am really dumbfounded at the sloppy response to this from all levels of government. The fact that many people at all levels are acting heroically doesn't excuse the poor preparation and coordination.

I am going to start reading the New Orleans Times-Picayune. They are putting out the paper from a temporary office. What a great thing this Internet is!

Currently Reading The Battle for God By Karen Armstrong see related

Finished the Crossen book.Very thought provoking. I am moving on to "The Battle for God" by Karen Armstrong.

I am thinking of a concept called "evidence based religion." In medicine we are talking about "evidence based medicine." This means that you need to assess what you believe is correct by assessing the strength of the evidence that supports your position. There are different rating systems in play that are based on the degree of scientific certainty of the evidence. So, for example, a randomized placebo-controlled double-blind study is Grade A evidence, a case-control study is Grade B evidence, and expert opinion is Grade C. So even if you are an expert, your opinion is only Grade C. If Grade A evidence comes along you have to be ready to change your opinion. "Junk science" is stuff that looks like science but isn't, like people drawing faulty conclusions from what they read because they do not know how to interpret data correctly or how to reason logically.

So in religion there are lots of opinions and lots of people think they are right. One of my opinions is that there is "junk religion" just like there is "junk science." By this I mean that there is religion out there that does not have a firm basis in reality. By reality I mean the things we can experience: not just material things but emotions, spiritual experiences, sacred writings, and the counsel of the wise. So what would "evidence-based religion" look like? How could you start to have a conversation about faith in which you had to assess the basis for your opinions and where they were coming from and whether you were drawing valid conclusions?