Sad news, but a silver lining

Hey there, sorry about the dearth of posting lately, I've been crazy busy. That's why they invented blackberrys. And coffee breaks. Don't tell anyone... Enjoy!

A new study demonstrated a negative correlation between spirituality and performance in law school.

Which means that people who identified as religious tended to do worse than those who didn't. And it was more predictive of a bad law student than either low LSATS or low undergrad GPA.

Not having read the actual thing I couldn't comment as to validity. That aside, it's an interesting topic. I've always wondered what kind of people (personality types, etc) "make it" in different fields. I'd like to see some studies on med students.

Another study has found that frankincense smoke " activates poorly understood ion channels in the brain to alleviate anxiety or depression".

Wow, another whole reason religious people are so happy. It also explains the pleasant smile on that incense dude at the mall. Ok, maybe he's just stoned.

So basically all you copts inhaling the shoria (censer) every week are getting a free dose of prosac, sweet! (OK, in reality they did the study with an isolate of a chemical in the resin. And they did it on mice. Must I always let science stand in the way of a good joke?)

So in short, if you're really religious you will flunk out of law school. But at least you'll be happy

Take care
atheos

I love cartoons, a lot

Ok, one more, this one might be my favorite,
atheos

I love cartoons

I've posted cartoons here before, atheism + cartoon = win.

"Atheist Eve" is by Tracie Harris in Austin Texas. I just discovered these and they're great. I enjoy the snarky, wordy cartoons she does. I'll post three that I really like. I'm still going through them so I won't declare favorites just yet.

Where do atheists come from?

I read an interesting article that I thought I'd share. Kieran Bennett looked at a repository of deconversion stories to determine common reasons Christians deconvert.

I've posted my own deconversion story here before. As I thought, my story is far from unique. I fall into a few of the categories laid out over there. It's a thought provoking read, no matter what your perspective on faith.




Oh, and I have to thank the Friendly Atheist for the link, let me do so by linking you to a great post of his from a while back, 18 Unconvincing Arguments for God


take care,
The Coptic Atheist

Hitchens at his best

Christopher Hitchens is one of my favorite speakers. He's also a very accomplished author, I just haven't gotten around to reading any of his books [I guess that makes me close minded ;)]. Here someone has taken what I assume is the opening statement to a debate and replaced the video with illustrative pictures. Pretty cool, and a good study break for this busy apostate. Enjoy.
-atheos

Part One




Part Two

Still on Hiatus (kinda)

Hi there. So while I'm still away from home, I did manage duck into an hourly internet joint to reply to some comments. Check out my replies to comments on Hiatus for Heathens and A call for evidence. I'll be back up an running soon.

atheos