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[H/T MOHIB EBRAHIM] -- TEMPLETONPRIZE.ORG -- [ISMAILI DIGEST ED: Mawlana Sultan Muhammad Shah, 1956: "The young Waezin should each try and find new arguments based on the discoveries in all branches of science for keeping the human soul like [sic] the ocean with the Divine wisdom and power."] ARTICLE: My own view is that, while science and religion may seem different, they have many similarities, and should interact and enlighten each other. I believe they are closely related. Science tries to understand our universe: what it is like and how it works. Religion is aimed at understanding the purpose and meaning of our universe, including our own lives -- which I believe is the most important long-range question. If the universe has a purpose or meaning, this must be reflected in its structure and functioning, and hence in science. In addition, to best understand either science or religion, we must use all of our human resources - logic, evidence, carefully chosen assumptions, intuition, and faith. Many people don't realize that science basically involves assumptions and faith and that nothing is absolutely proved. We must ...

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THEBULWARK.COM -- For some years now, one of the left's favorite tropes has been the phrase "I believe in science." A lot of people prefer the imagery of "science" to the mundane reality. People who proclaim "I believe in science" are just proclaiming their belief in the current, fashionable consensus. In my experience, "I believe in science" is shorthand for, "I have a degree in the humanities." The problem is the word "belief." Science isn't about "belief." It's about facts, evidence, theories, experiments. You don't say, "I believe in thermodynamics." You either understand its laws and the evidence for them, or you don't. "Belief" doesn't enter into it. "I understand the science on this issue" would be better, implying you have engaged in a first-hand study of ...

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SPIKED-ONLINE.COM -- Many on the left peddle the narrative that they are more scientifically minded than those on the right. They market themselves as the heirs to the ideals of the Enlightenment -- reason, progress and truth -- while pillorying the right as a collection of creationists or anti-vaxxers. This narrative is a false but useful fiction. It lets the left to dress up its moral and political views as scientific. To question them is, therefore, to question the authority of the science. What the left are really saying is "do not question us." It is tantamount to secular heresy. Science is wielded by those on the left as a stick to hit those who ask reasonable questions. In doing so, they encourage the politicisation of scientific knowledge and the scientification of morality. In abusing science ...

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MINDMATTERS.AI -- Even assuming that a living thing could be built from scratch, there is a bigger problem. Life reproduces. Life produces life. We often view this as a mundane fact but it is actually quite profound. A lot goes into the ability to replicate. A replicating part needs to able to reproduce everything, including the reproduction mechanism. In other words, the whole system -- the living thing and its replication system -- must be in place for anything to work at all, otherwise we won't get anywhere. It can't "evolve" to this point, because, before this point, there is nothing that is capable of evolution. This is the reason for much of the public skepticism of origin of life research. This week, in a tweet, Elon Musk put his finger on the issue. When referring to ...

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[H/T MOHIB EBRAHIM] -- YOUTUBE.COM -- CSLEWISDOODLE -- [ISMAILI DIGEST ED: Hazrat Ali: "The measure of a man depends on the scope of his resolution, and his sincerity depends on the degree of his chivalric virtues. His courage depends on the degree of honour he has, and his integrity is based on the degree of his sense of shame."] ARTICLE: One point about the virtues is that there is a difference between doing some particular just or temperate action and being a just or temperate man. We might think that, provided you did the right thing, it did not matter how or why you did it -- whether sulkily or cheerfully, or fear of public opinion or for its own sake. But the truth is that right actions done for the wrong reason do not help to build the internal quality or character called a "virtue," and it is this quality or character that really matters. We might think God simply wants obedience to a set of rules: whereas He really wants people of a particular sort. You will notice, of course, that you cannot practise any virtues very long without fortitude. Fortitude includes both kinds of courage ...

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YOUTUBE.COM -- PRAGERU -- In 2008, then Senator Barak Obama said: "Of all the rocks upon which we build our lives ... family is the most important. And we are called to recognize and honor how critical every father is to that foundation." If "we are honest with ourselves," he went on "we'll admit that too many fathers are missing from too many lives and too many homes." As much as we try to deny the need for real, masculine strength in society, there's no denying its necessity. Healthy families and strong communities depend on the leadership and bravery of good men. Yet, the current trend is to feminize young men in the hopes of achieving some utopian notion of equality and peace. And it starts at the earliest ages. In the school classroom boys are invariably ...

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THEFEDERALIST.COM -- Over at Ask Men, Ian Stobber listed what he considers obsolete man skills, and suggestions for replacing them. Such as replace hunting with cooking, as if it's something men have not been doing since the dawn of time. Although Western restaurant chefs are still typically male, bourgeois Western women traditionally cook for their families. But did you know in Turkey women wouldn't be allowed anywhere near meat? Stobber's advice to take up coding in place of car repair seems a bit odd, too. Computer programming is dominated by men. His most hilarious idea is men should learn to decorate instead of fixing things around the house. Don't put down your power tools just yet. We women ...

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YOUTUBE.COM -- PRAGERU -- What once was the start of healthy debate is now just as often a catalyst for personal and professional destruction. "The mob" is out to cancel anyone who crosses it. Niel Golightly had a long and distinguished career as an executive at Boeing. Until he didn't. James Bennett had a long and distinguished career as an editor at the New York Times. Until he didn't. They and others were cancelled, their careers, their life's work ended in a virtual instant. Former Times columnist Bari Weiss perfectly described the situation in her resignation letter shortly after Bennet's banishment. "Twitter is not on the masthead of The New York Times. But Twitter has become its ultimate editor." This is the "cancel culture" that now ...

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YOUTUBE.COM -- PRAGERU -- Do you feel forced to keep your values to yourself? Are you afraid to speak up about your views and opinions for fear of creating family tension or losing your friends -- or your job? People, "good people like you," are afraid to say what they think. And why is that? It's because there's a mass affliction spreading throughout the Western world. It's called the Bravery Deficit. Take the "wrong" side of any hot-button issue and your reputation, your friends, and your job ...

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FOXNEWS.COM -- Three of the world's top epidemiologists, Harvard Medical School's Dr. Martin Kulldorff, Oxford University's Dr. Sunetra Gupta and Stamford's Dr. Jayanta Bhattacharya, have grave concerns about the damaging physical and mental health impacts of the prevailing COVID-19 policies. Current lockdown policies are producing devastating effects on short and long-term public health. Some include worsening cardiovascular disease outcomes, fewer cancer screenings and deteriorating mental health - with the working class and younger members of society carrying the heaviest burden. Furthermore, keeping students out of school is a grave injustice. Launched just 2 days ago, their "Great Barrington Declaration" (at gbdeclaration.org) has already been signed by over 4,000 medical scientists and practioners. The most compassionate approach that balances the risks and benefits ...

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NATIONALREVIEW.COM -- [ISMAILI DIGEST ED: Hazar Imam, 2007: "Good people do not all think alike, and that we must constantly learn from one another."] ARTICLE: In 1932, US Supreme Court justice Louis Brandeis famously called the states "laboratories of democracy." Different states can test out different policies, and learn from each other. That proved true in 2020. Governors in different states responded to the COVID-19 pandemic at different times and in different ways. Some states ordered sweeping shutdowns. Others took a more targeted approach. Still others dispensed information but had no lockdowns at all. As a result, we can now compare outcomes in different states to test the question no one wants to ask: Did the lockdowns make a difference? And the data suggest mandatory lockdowns exacted a great cost, with a questionable effect on transmission. If lockdowns ...

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[H/T MOHIB EBRAHIM] -- EVOLUTIONNEWS.ORG -- [ISMAILI DIGEST ED: Mawlana Sultan Muhammad Shah, 1956: "The young Waezin should each try and find new arguments based on the discoveries in all branches of science for keeping the human soul like [sic] the ocean with the Divine wisdom and power."] ARTICLE: Cells and organisms come pre-equipped with repair mechanisms. It takes foresight to make complex tools and procedures that can restore the functions of other tools. But can a blind, unguided process -- like evolution -- recognize a problem? Furthermore, blind process can only see the immediate present; they are unconcerned about what happens next. Repair implies something worth saving. The easiest thing for evolution, when a problem occurs, is to let the organism die. Uncaring evolution owes it no further existence. Life comes equipped with repair mechanisms far more complex than ever expected. "It is remarkable that embryos can do this," Caltech scientists said. Lawrence Berkeley scientists were surprised by a "master sculptor" surgically straightening DNA before their eyes. If they assume these wonders ...

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[H/T MOHIB EBRAHIM] -- EVOLUTIONNEWS.ORG -- In cells, complex multi-part machines find errors and fix them. The very concepts of proofreading and repair imply accuracy for a pre-defined purpose. How can cells do that? How do they know what is an error and also how to fix it, know how things should be? Processes like proofreading and repair can't appear by blind material processes. They take foresight. But blind material processes don't have forsight or anticipation, by definition. Only intelligence or minds have foresight. We look at at five different errors that are repaired by five different systems of cellular molecular machines. Each system must not only recognize the error but also know how to fix it. In each case, the machinery is well designed and finely tuned to rapidly and efficiently solve the problem. Behold in wonder ...

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THEFEDERALIST.COM -- [ISMAILI DIGEST ED: Hazar Imam, 1976: "The anchors of moral behaviour appear to have dragged to such depths that they no longer hold firm the ship of life: What was once wrong is now simply unconventional, and for the sake of individual freedom must be tolerated. What is tolerated soon becomes accepted."] ARTICLE: [Former] presidential hopeful Kamala Harris can't get herself to support legislation that compels doctors to give an infant who survives an abortion the same care they would provide any other human being born. 44 Democrats, including [former] presidential candidates Cory Booker, Kirsten Gillibrand, Amy Klobuchar, Elizabeth Warren, and Bernie Sanders, blocked Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse's Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act that would save all such babies. Bills in both Virginia and New York specifically provide legal protections for doctors who terminate babies who are born-alive and survive an abortion. Gov. Ralph Northam of Virginia, ...

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[H/T MOHIB EBRAHIM] -- YOUTUBE.COM -- PRAGERU -- [ISMAILI DIGEST ED: Hazar Imam, 2006: "Public integrity cannot grow out of authoritarian pronouncements. It must be rooted in the human heart and conscience." 1959: "The message I will always give is that humanity cannot deal with present day problems without a basis of religion." 2001: "But the jihad is before anything else, a personal discipline."] ARTICLE: A major difference between the Right and the Left is how to improve society. Conservatives believe the best way is almost always through individual moral improvement -- each person doing battle with their own weaknesses. The Left, on the other hand, believes the best way is almost always through doing battle with society's moral failings. However, as John Adams, the second American president, said: "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to any other." And President Benjamin Franklin said: "Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom." Why? Because, freedom requires self-control. From its founding until the 1960s, American schools concentrated on character education. But, today children are not taught to focus on their flaws but on America's. Social issues have replaced character education. Another consequence ...

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[H/T MOHIB EBRAHIM] -- FS.BLOG -- [ISMAILI DIGEST ED: Hazar Imam, 2008: "There are societies where the educated woman will not find a husband because she's educated. So you need to be very, very careful in handling these things, because they can be a real boomerang if you get them wrong.... So there are a lot of criteria there and it's a difficult problem."] ARTICLE: When we seek to change something, if we don't understand how we got "here," we run the risk of making things much worse. Before changing anything, we should know if the original people used second-order thinking when making their decisions and choices. Second-order thinking means not just considering the consequences of our decisions but also the consequences of those consequences so we don't go for quick fixes and end up making things worse. Humility says assume those earlier people knew things we don't or had experience we can't fathom. Their reasons for making certain choices might be more complex than they seem at first. Everyone can manage first-order thinking ...

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[H/T MOHIB EBRAHIM] -- FS.BLOG -- Most people don't often say what they think. How often do you bite your tongue because you know you hold an unpopular view? We only express opinions that seem safe and our perception "safe" comes from clues we pick up about what we think everyone else believes. The internet lets a vocal minority make their opinions seem far more widespread than they actually are. Consequently, that minority end up having a disproportionate influence on public discourse, especially if that minority already has a lot of power. The end result of the spiral of silence is that no one publicly voices a minority opinion, regardless of how many people believe it. Our desire to fit in with others means ...

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[H/T MOHIB EBRAHIM] -- BITCHUTE.COM -- [ISMAILI DIGEST ED: We very highly recommend everyone watch this entire video which presents rarely seen official data and research about: the lockdowns, masks, the tests, the so called "second wave," why countries differ, why the severity of and trajectory of COVID-19 trends are similar to previous pandemics, and more.] ARTICLE: In his latest video, Dublin Biochemical expert, Ivor Cummins, crunches the numbers and makes it easier for non-statisticians to comprehend the shenanigans being perpetrated by the 'powers that be' during the ongoing scamdemic. About Ivor Cummins: BE(Chem) CEng MIEI PMP is a technical manager/team leader, biochemical engineer, complex problem solving specialist, with a passion for translating health science into information which can be used to transform your health. ...

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THEFEDERALIST.COM -- According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in four young adults say they have contemplated committing suicide in the past month because of the pandemic lockdowns and social distancing. Racial minorities reported higher suicidal thoughts than the general population, with 15% of blacks and 18.6% of Hispanics. Also, more than 40% said they experienced a mental or behavioral health condition and nearly 31% said they had symptoms of anxiety or depression. Other negative effects include a rise in sexual and physical abuse, specifically of children. Health experts are concerned that children have lost their normal routines and are isolated from friends and trusted adults. "The stressors these children are facing will have ...

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CNN.COM -- [ISMAILI DIGEST ED: Hazar Imam at Harvard, 2015: "Perhaps it is a natural condition of an insecure human race to seek security in a sense of superiority.... [However] what is needed, as the former Governor General of Canada Adrienne Clarkson said, is a readiness 'to listen to your neighbour, even when you may not particularly like him.' Is that message clear? You listen to people you don't like!"] ARTICLE: American universities seem committed to every kind of diversity except intellectual diversity. Conservative voices and views are being silenced entirely as the campus police go after serious conservative thinkers. Colleges promise to give their undergraduates a liberal education, which at its root, the word pertains to liberty. And, at the heart of liberty, is freedom of speech. People always understood this meant protecting and listening to speech with which you disagreed. However, there is an anti-intellectualism on the left. An attitude of self-righteousness that says we are so pure, we're so morally superior, we cannot bear to hear an idea with which we disagree. Liberals think they are tolerant but often they aren't. In 2016, a Pew study found that Democrats ...

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