Secret Designer Babies via Gene-editing Science

Despite worldwide near-unanimity of its illegality, scientists have covertly, for the first time, genetically modified the DNA of human egg cells such that human embryos could be created of a specific pre-determined design, such as superhumans, by governments or wealthy individuals.

“Genome editing in human embryos using current technologies could have unpredictable effects on future generations. This makes it dangerous and ethically unacceptable.”
-- Geneticist Fyodor Urnov (Sangamo BioSciences, Richmond, CA), et. al.

UPDATE 2/1/16 - UK's Frankenstein: Designer Babies OK'd by Government

For background, read President Obama's Food and Drug Administration considers lab science that 'Creates' Designer Baby with 3 Biological Parents

Also read Toddler to 'Own' 11 Future Children: An IVF Wonder

In addition, read how science is creating and destroying human life to advance "health care."

UPDATE 9/10/15: Unborn Must Die so Others Can Live, Scientists Say

-- From "American scientists are trying to genetically modify human eggs" by Steve Connor, Science editor, UK Independent 3/13/15

The research was carried out on ovary cells taken from a woman with inherited ovarian cancer to investigate the possibility of eventually using gene-editing to produce IVF embryos free of the familial disease. The results are yet to be published.

Editing the chromosomes of human eggs or sperm to create genetically modified IVF embryos is illegal in Britain and many other countries because of concerns about safety and the possibility of the technique being used to create genetically enhanced “designer babies”.

Several teams of researchers around the world are believed to be working on ways of modifying the chromosomes of human egg cells with a view to moving towards “germ-line” gene therapy, as the process is called. Germ-line refers to the “germ” cells – sperm and eggs – that pass on genes to future generations.

The work was carried out last year by Luhan Yang, a researcher working in the lab of the veteran Harvard geneticist George Church. But the study has not been published in a scientific journal and Dr Yang was unavailable for comment.

Professor Church emphasised that the work was purely experimental. . . .

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

From "Alarm over genetic editing of human embryos that opens door to designer babies and superhumans" by Jayalakshmi K, International Business Times  3/13/15

Amidst rumours that precise gene-editing techniques have been used to create designer human embryos, researchers have called for a moratorium on the use of the technology.

Geneticist Xingxu Huang of ShanghaiTech University in China has sought permission from his institution's ethics committee to genetically modify discarded human embryos.

Precise gene-editing techniques in recent years use enzymes called nucleases to snip DNA at specific points and then delete or rewrite the genetic information at those locations. Methods like the CRISPR are simple enough to be done in a fertility clinic.

Geneticist Dana Carroll of the University of Utah in Salt Lake City says, "Germline genome alterations are permanent and heritable, so very, very careful consideration needs to be taken in advance of such applications."

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

From "Scientists want experiments of DNA editing in human embryos to stop" by Ravi Mandalia, Techie News 3/14/15

Rumours about such experiments have been circulating the web for quite some time now and critics of the work say that such experiments could be used to try to alter the genetic quality of humans, a practice and belief known as eugenics.

Edward Lanphier, president and chief executive officer of California-based Sangamo BioSciences Inc, and senior author of the commentary published in the science journal Nature call for a self-imposed research moratorium as the work crosses an ethical line. “Humans are not rats or other (experimental) organisms, and this is not something we want to do,” Lanphier said in an interview with Reuters quotes Zee News. “The research should stop.”

According to Lanphier, who is also the chairman of the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine in Washington DC, “Such research could be exploited for non-therapeutic modifications” and a “public outcry about such an ethical breach could hinder a promising area of therapeutic development.”

Lanphier added that genome-editing can itself introduce DNA errors and “the precise effects of genetic modification to an embryo may be impossible to know until after birth. Even then, potential problems may not surface for years.”

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

From "Scientists sound alarm over DNA editing of human embryos" by David Cyranoski, Nature 3/12/15

Known as germline modification, edits to embryos, eggs or sperm are of particular concern because a person created using such cells would have had their genetic make-up changed without consent, and would permanently pass down that change to future generations.

Germline gene editing is already banned by law in many countries — a 2014 review by Tetsuya Ishii, a bioethicist at Hokkaido University in Sapporo, Japan, found that of 39 countries, 29 have laws or guidelines that ban the practice. But the development of precise gene-editing techniques in recent years has brought fresh urgency to the issue. These techniques use enzymes called nucleases to snip DNA at specific points and then delete or rewrite the genetic information at those locations. The methods are simple enough to be used in a fertility clinic, raising fears that they might be applied in humans before safety concerns have been addressed.

Ishii worries about countries such as the United States: there, germline editing is not banned but requires government approval, but such restrictions have a history of being circumvented, as in the case of unproven stem-cell treatments. He is also concerned about China, which prohibits gene-editing of embryos but does not strictly enforce similar rules, as shown by failed attempts to curb the use of ultrasound for sex selection and to stamp out unauthorized stem-cell clinics. China is also where gene-editing techniques in primates have developed fastest. “There are already a lot of dodgy fertility clinics around the world,” he says.

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

Also read Scientists Create Artificial Human Eggs and Sperm

And read Gay Skin Cells Can Create Babies, Scientists Say

Stanford's Anti-Christian Lesbian Ordained Priest

Two years ago, Stanford University hired their atheist "chaplain" John Figdor, and now, the new Dean for Religious Life is likewise an alumni of Harvard Divinity School: Jane Shaw is an ordained priest of the Church of England, and a self-declared lesbian, who says that churches must stop "doing religion all the time" and welcome people without converting them.

“I think the great crisis of our day is climate change and the environment.”
-- The Very Reverend Dr. Jane Shaw

UPDATE 2/21/15: Colleges Hire Humanist Chaplains for the Nonbelievers

For background, click headlines below to read previous articles:

California Boots College Christian Clubs Across the State

Homosexuals Recruit Christians to Convert Churches

Islamic 'Call to Prayer' at National Cathedral of Episcopal Church

God is Not a Being, but an Experience, Pastor Says

Church is About Friendships, NOT God: University Study

New Atheist 'Churches' in America Give Competition to Mainlines

Also read about the post-Christian church of environmentalism and how American government forces its practice.



-- From "Jane Shaw named new dean for religious life" by Jacqueline Carr, The Stanford Daily 7/21/14

As dean of Grace Cathedral in San Francisco since 2010, Shaw oversaw the growth in all areas of the cathedral’s community life. During Shaw’s deanship, the church’s artistic, cultural and educational events tripled.

Currently Shaw is also a visiting scholar at Stanford’s Center for Advanced Study in Behavior Sciences.  A historian and theologian, she has authored a number of books and is currently working on a book on spirituality and mysticism in the early 20th century.

Shaw received her undergraduate degree from the University of Oxford and holds an MDiv from Harvard and a Ph.D. in history from UC-Berkeley.  Prior to joining Grace Cathedral, she taught history and theology for 16 years at Oxford where she was Dean of Divinity and Fellow of New College.

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

From "Dean of Grace Cathedral to become Stanford dean for religious life" posted at The Stanford Report 7/22/14

Shaw, 51, will succeed the Rev. William "Scotty" McLennan Jr., who is stepping down after 14 years. She will assume her position as Stanford's spiritual leader this fall.

During her time as dean of Grace Cathedral, Shaw has overseen growth in all areas of the cathedral community's life, not least in its artistic, cultural and educational events, which have tripled over the past four years. She founded a resident artist program, and also developed educational programming that related questions of values and ethics to the issues of the day, such as the environment and technology.

Shaw joined Grace Cathedral from the University of Oxford, where she taught history and theology for 16 years and was Dean of Divinity and Fellow of New College. A historian of modern religion, she is the author of Miracles in Enlightenment England (Yale, 2006); Octavia, Daughter of God: The Story of a Female Messiah and Her Followers (Yale, 2011), which won the San Francisco Book Festival History Prize; and A Practical Christianity: Meditations for the Season of Lent (Morehouse, 2012).

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

From "First Person: A conversation with Jane Shaw, dean of religious life and professor of religious studies at Stanford University" by Lisa Van Dusen, Palo Alto Weekly 12/22/14

At age 8, Shaw was booted out of the Brownies after three weeks for being "disruptive" -- having suggested to her leader that the troop might do something more interesting than cutting out paper shapes. You could say she's a nonconformist. An activist in support of the ordination of women, champion within the LGBT community and a board member of Human Rights Watch, Shaw describes herself as "not so churchy" and interested in "practical religion."

Shaw says she spends much of her time in the 1920s and '30s, immersed in books of that time, but is "trapped in the 21st century." Her round glasses are a nod to the era in which she feels most at home.

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

From "Out lesbian new head of SF's Grace Cathedral" by Seth Hemmelgarn, The Bay Area Reporter 11/11/10

An out lesbian has become the dean of San Francisco's Grace Cathedral, making her not just the first lesbian, but the first woman ever to head the church.

"I'm myself and people can take me as I am," said Shaw. "I'm many things, not just a lesbian, not just a woman. I'm an intellectual, I am a new immigrant in this country, I love music ... . I'm happy they called me to Grace Cathedral."

Shaw also said, "I want to take a role in many communities," including the LGBT communities. . . .

Shaw is domestic partners with Sarah Ogilvie.

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

Also read President Obama's VA Strips Jesus & Bible from Chaplains

And read American Decline: President Obama's Gay Agenda vs. Christians

For myriad attacks on the Bible and Christian faith, read CBS Gives Voice to Atheists, Heretics, & Apostates

Type 1 Diabetics' Hope Rests in Dead Human Embryos

Once again, media propaganda is hyping a medical miracle cure resulting from embryonic stem cell research — this time it's type 1 diabetes.  However, as usual, a close study of the announced breakthrough reveals that it's adult stem cells (which don't requiring killing anyone), that may lead to the cure, rather than stem cells derived from the destruction of embryos.

For background, click headlines below to read previous articles:

Human Embryos Cloned, Killed to Harvest Stem Cells

Stem Cell Science Advances WithOUT Killing Embryos

Court OKs Obama Killing Embryos with Tax Dollars

Harvesting Blood of Children for Fountain of Youth



-- From "Stem Cell Success Raises Hopes of Type 1 Diabetes Cure" by Alan Mozes, HealthDay Reporter 10/9/14

In what may be a step toward a cure for type 1 diabetes, researchers say they've developed a large-scale method for turning human embryonic stem cells into fully functioning beta cells capable of producing insulin.

[Dr. Douglas] Melton, co-director of the Stem Cell Institute at Harvard [University], described his work as a "personal quest," given that he has two children with type 1 diabetes.

Stem cells are essentially undifferentiated cells that can be induced into becoming specialized cells that are tissue- or organ-specific, according to the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

In some cases, such cells are sourced from embryonic tissue. Alternatively, it's possible to derive stem cells from prespecialized adult cells that are then reprogrammed to morph into an undifferentiated state. These are called induced pluripotent stem cells [hiPSC].

Because the current effort was launched before the innovation of induced pluripotent stem cells [hiPSC], Melton said his team conducted its work using embryonic stem cells. Nevertheless, he said the newfound ability to generate large supplies of beta cells will work using either type.

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

From "Stem cell research offers hope on type 1 diabetes" by Carolyn Y. Johnson, Boston Globe Staff 10/9/14

In a paper published in the journal Cell on Thursday, [Melton] reported a step-by-step procedure that starts with stem cells and results in hundreds of millions of the precious pancreatic cells that secrete the hormone insulin, keeping blood sugar levels in balance. It is the lack of insulin produced by those cells, called beta cells, that lies at the root of type 1 diabetes.

Melton cautions that the work is still years from being tested in patients and many challenges, scientific and practical, remain. . . .

“We’re tired of curing mice,” Melton said in an interview. “Most patients are sick of hearing that something’s just around the corner; I’m sick of thinking things are just around the corner. But I do believe in the big picture.”

Earlier this year, [Dieter Egli, assistant professor in the pediatrics department at Columbia University Medical Center] was able to create embryonic stem cells from a person with type 1 diabetes, through a process called somatic cell nuclear transfer. He now plans to use Melton’s procedure to create the beta cells that are affected by the disease.

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

From "Giant leap against diabetes" by B. D. Colen, Harvard Gazette Staff Writer 10/9/14

With human embryonic stem cells as a starting point, the scientists were for the first time able to produce, in the kind of massive quantities needed for cell transplantation and pharmaceutical purposes, human insulin-producing beta cells equivalent in most every way to normally functioning beta cells.

Richard A. Insel, chief scientific officer at JDRF (Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation), which helps fund Melton’s work, said “JDRF is thrilled with this advancement toward large-scale production of mature, functional human beta cells by Dr. Melton and his team. . . .”

Eliot Brenner, program director of the Helmsley Charitable Trust’s type 1 diabetes program, said, “The trust is pleased to have supported Dr. Melton and his team in this breakthrough. . . .”

In addition to the institutions and individual cited above, the work was funded by the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, the National Institutes of Health, and the JPB Foundation.

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

From "More Embryonic Stem Cell Hype, Less Reality and Ethics" by Dr. David Prentice, National Right to Life News Today 10/9/14

A paper from the lab of Dr. Doug Melton, published in the journal Cell, in fact, shows only an incremental improvement in deriving functional beta cells–the insulin secreting cells found in the pancreas.

Melton’s lab generated millions of insulin-secreting cells from human embryonic stem cells (hESC, which require the destruction of a young human being) and from human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC, the stem cells created from normal skin cells, without using embryos).

The authors tested batches of what it called SC-ß cells made from hESC as well as from hiPSC.  The results were equivalent no matter the starting cell type.  So for any future production of SC-ß cells, the authors have shown that no embryonic stem cells are necessary.

This is essential to reiterate. The paper itself makes the case that embryonic stem cells are not needed for even this incremental advance or for any subsequent work. However, as is always the case when embryonic stem cells are involved, the hype drowns out the more complex truth.

In the past, the obsession with human embryonic stem cells has led to some questionable claims about their abilities to treat diabetes.  Their ability to make authentic insulin, in quantities that would be useful, were first trumpeted and then shown to be incorrect and even fake.  In fact, teratoma formation (tumors) was often the result or even the inducer of insulin secretion from ESC. Artifact = not real, fake

The obsession with ESC continues to make headlines, but that does not help patients. . . .

To read the entire technical explanation in the article above, CLICK HERE.

Also read President Obama Wins Ruling: Embryos WILL be Destroyed

And read Hollywood Actor Recants Embryonic Stem Cells for Parkinson's Cure

Demise of Family Counters Upward Mobility: Harvard

A new Harvard University study directly contradicts President Obama's "economic inequality" narrative, by showing that the liberals' redefinition of family is the greatest cause of poverty in America.

“The strongest and most robust predictor [of social mobility] is the fraction of children with single parents. . . . [Children] of married parents also have higher rates of upward mobility if they live in communities with fewer single parents.”
-- Harvard University study Where is the Land of Opportunity? The Geography of Intergenerational Mobility in the United States

UPDATE 4/16/15: Decades of Income Inequality is due to Demise of Married-parent Families with Children, Study Shows

For background, click headlines below for previous articles:

ObamaNation: Perpetual Poor Barred from Marriage

More Women Shack Up & Give Birth; Marriage Rare

Violence & Poverty due to Absence of Intact Family

Liberalism Causes Poverty in America: Study

Liberals Admit to Destruction of African Americans

Marriage Essential for Children: Studies

Study Shows Gay Parenting Harms Children

Supreme Court's New Morality Means Justice for Polygamy

-- From "Economists: Your Parents Are More Important Than Ever" by Derek Thompson, The Atlantic 1/23/14

. . . your parents' marriage (or living arrangement) matters. The single strongest predictor of a child's economic fortunes is the fraction of single parents in the area where she grew up. Children of married parents have a much better shot of getting ahead even if they're in areas where single parents are the norm. "The fraction of children living in single-parent households is the strongest correlate of upward income mobility among all the variables we explored," the researchers said.

It's important not to overstate the causality here. Rich single parents tend to produce richer children than married couples living in poverty. Instead it's best to see marriages as a powerful centripetal force in the vicious cycle of poverty. Low-income parents tend to have children who grow up to be lower-income, who are in turn more likely to form single-parent households and raise children who follow this well-worn life path.

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

From "Economic mobility hasn’t changed in a half-century in America, economists declare" by Jim Tankersley, Washington Post 1/22/14

Incorporating results from a previous study dating back to the 1950s, the [Harvard] authors concluded that “measures of social mobility have remained remarkably stable over the second half of the twentieth century in the United States.”

Several economists who study mobility and inequality expressed surprise at that stasis — starting with Chetty, the lead author. “I am really struck by how stable it seems to be,” he said in an interview. “I would not have expected that, because many things have changed over time.”

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

From "Family Matters" by W. Bradford Wilcox, posted at Slate 1/22/14

[The Harvard study] explores the community characteristics most likely to predict mobility for lower-income children. The study specifically focuses on two outcomes: absolute mobility for lower-income children—that is, how far up the income ladder they move as adults; and relative mobility—that is, how far apart children who grew up rich and poor in the same community end up on the economic ladder as adults. . . .

. . . this is the first major study showing that rates of single parenthood at the community level are linked to children’s economic opportunities over the course of their lives. A lot of research—including new research from the Brookings Institution—has shown us that kids are more likely to climb the income ladder when they are raised by two, married parents. But this is the first study to show that lower-income kids from both single- and married-parent families are more likely to succeed if they hail from a community with lots of two-parent families.

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

From "Poverty and Opportunity: Begin with Facts" by Ron Haskins, The Brookings Institution 1/28/14

Changes in marriage rates over the past decade are astounding. Between 1970 and 2010, the percentage of 35 year old women living in married-couple families with children fell from about 78 percent to 50 percent while the percentage of women who were single and living with children more than doubled from 9 percent to over 20 percent. This demographic trend has two major effects that work against our goals of reducing poverty and increasing mobility. First, children in single-parent families are four times as likely to be poor as children in married-couple families. Thus, the rising share of children in female-headed families is a major force pushing up the child poverty rate. No one thinks being reared in poverty is good for children and their development. Second, there is now all but universal agreement that the best rearing environment for children is a married-couple family. Not only do married-couple families have more money to invest in their children, but they also spend more time with their children and use child rearing techniques that are more conductive to child development. Research shows that disadvantaged parents, usually single mothers, spend less time with their children, talk with them less, and are more likely to use child-rearing techniques that are associated with poor developmental outcomes, especially corporal punishment.

. . . The most straightforward way to reduce poverty and increase opportunity would be to reverse these trends. However, the changes in family composition have been proceeding for more than four decades and show no signs of abating, despite a host of efforts by policy makers. . . .

. . . Nonmarital births increase the nation’s poverty rate, increase income inequality, and have deleterious effects on children’s development. Parents, children, and the nation as a whole would benefit from a reduction in the nation’s nonmarital birth rate. . . .

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

From "2-Parent Families Are Best Predictor of Upward Mobility for Poor, Harvard Study Finds" by Napp Nazworth, Christian Post Reporter 1/23/14

Copious studies have long shown that marriage helps families leave and stay out of poverty. What is most interesting, though, about the new study by Harvard economists Raj Chetty, Nathaniel Hendren and Patrick Kline, and Berkeley economist Emmanuel Saez is that it is a community-level analysis.

This means that poor children who live in communities with a large proportion of single parents are more likely to remain poor even when they are raised by their married mother and father. Or, another way of saying the same thing, poor children who are raised by a single parent but live in a community where most children are raised by both parents are more likely to escape poverty.

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

Also read Obama-Schooling Should Begin at Age 18 Months as well as Black Abortion Key to Reducing Poverty, Says Mayor

Atheist 'Chaplain' Hired at Stanford University

The arrival of atheist John Figdor, a 28-year-old Harvard divinity school graduate, as a part of Stanford's Office of Religious Life, is one in a trend among universities naming "faith-free chaplains," as the growing number of non-religious Americans yearn for a life of meaning, like that of Christian Americans, yet absent God.

"The Rev. Scotty McLennan, Stanford's dean for religious life, [advocated for atheism], largely because Stanford's Memorial Church, the centerpiece of the campus, had been founded on a principle of inclusion."

UPDATE 12/28/14: Stanford Hires Anti-Christian Lesbian Ordained Priest as Dean for Religious Life

For background, read Atheists Crave Church Fellowship, but Absent God and also read Atheists Find Agreeable Churches Good for Family as well as New Massachusetts 'Church' With No God

-- From "Stanford gets a chaplain for atheists" by Nanette Asimov, San Francisco Chronicle 12/22/12

Hired in July by the Humanist Community at Stanford, a nonprofit group independent of the university, Figdor is one of 18 "professional leaders" at the Office of Religious Life who typically work with sectarian student groups that pay their salaries. A graduate theological degree is required for the job, and the leader is entitled to office space on campus, a parking spot and a Stanford e-mail address. The leaders guide students in whatever way is needed, whether offering advice or organizing events.

"A lot of people go back to religious organizations when they start having children," whether or not they believe in God, because religion offers community, Figdor said. "What I really want to do is create a vibrant, humanist community here in Silicon Valley, where people can find babysitters for their kids and young people can meet each other."

In the suburbs north of Manhattan, Figdor's parents sent him to Sunday school- not for religion, but to gain a moral center, he said. Today, Figdor says that belief in a supreme being isn't a prerequisite to being a moral person.

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

From "Stanford Gets an Atheist ‘Chaplain’" by Wesley J. Smith, posted at National Review Online 12/22/12

The “atheist chaplain” is latest example of the ongoing postmodern assault on the meaning of language. When words and terms mean whatever people want, we lose common frames of reference.

Chaplains have always been associated with explicitly religious services or supporting the faith of those whom chaplains serve through prayer, scripture reading, etc. I mean, that function is inherent in the word’s definition. That doesn’t make it “better,” but it means that the counseling, listening, etc. comes from an explicitly religious core.

It is amusing how the irreligious so often seek to coopt religious terminology. But it can also be subversive because words and their accurate meaning are crucial to our ability to communicate.

To read the entire opinion column above, CLICK HERE.

Bondage-S&M-Sex Student Group OK'd by Harvard

The latest addition to American "higher education" is a kinky (deviant, sexually immoral) student club called Harvard College Munch.  Now officially recognized and funded by Harvard, the club is for "BDSM lovers" -- sexual bondage and discipline, dominance and submission, and sadism and masochism.

For background, read Colleges Ban Student Groups for Christian Beliefs and also read Sadomasochistic Exhibit Funded by Univ. of Chicago as well as Orgasm Live Demo in Chicago College Classroom

-- From "College Approves BDSM Group" by Nathalie R. Miraval, Staff Writer, The Harvard Crimson 11/29/12

. . . Harvard College Munch has grown from seven to about 30 members and is one of 15 student organization that will be approved by the Committee on Student Life this Friday.

Munch is also now allowed to apply for DAPA food grants, making it easier to find a convenient time and location to meet, instead of gathering in small dining halls.

. . . the biggest advantage to being recognized comes with “the fact of legitimacy,” [Munch leader] said. “[Our recognition] shows we are being taken seriously.”

[Munch member] Mae said that kinky students may feel uncomfortable discussing their sexual practices, after experiencing any form of abuse or trauma, with certain people for fear of being misunderstood or judged. She said the resources ensure students receive the help they need from people who are educated about the kink community.

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

From "'50 Shades' in the Ivy League: Academics versus BDSM sex clubs" by Carolyn Kellogg, Los Angeles Times 11/19/12

On Monday the New York Observer ran a sensational story about BDSM sex clubs popping up in the Ivy League. They can be found at Harvard, Columbia and Yale -- all Ivies -- as well as Tufts, MIT and the University of Chicago. The group at Harvard is called Munch.

The university clubs are intended to be a safe space for experimentation. As the Observer puts it, "the scene’s mantra — 'safe, sane and consensual' — is heard so often it might as well be translated into needlepoint." But sometimes fiction and fact have intersected in uncomfortable ways. A representative from Columbia's group says that for all their safeguards, when it comes to sexual play that involves dominance and submission, the line about what constitutes consent can blur.

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

From "Harvard to welcome kinky sex club for students" by Greg Wilson, FoxNews.com 11/29/12

Harvard spokesman Jeff Neal said the school recognizes more than 400 independent student organizations, and the groups are required to submit an organizational constitution and agree to the school’s nondiscrimination and anti-hazing policies. Then, their fate is decided by a committee composed of students and administrators.

“The college does not endorse the views or activities of any independent student organization,” Neal told FoxNews.com. “Rather, it ensures that independent student organizations remain in compliance with all applicable provisions of the Handbook for Students.”

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

Atheists Crave Church Fellowship, but Absent God

On Sundays, Harvard University’s humanist chaplain, Greg Epstein, leads a non-church for the irreligious focused on meditation, lively philosophical discussion, and of course, potluck meals.

The "church's" orator this week made jokes intended to offend, but said, “So no jokes about anal sex. Certainly no jokes about performing fellatio. Sodomy!”

For background, read New Massachusetts 'Church' With No God

UPDATE 1/29/12: Atheist Proposes Godless Religion, with Sermons

UPDATE 12/14/11: Atheists Find Agreeable Churches Good for Family

-- From "Nonbelievers striving for humanist connections" by Mary Carmichael, Boston Globe Staff 10/17/11

On Saturday, at a ceremony featuring Seth MacFarlane - creator of [TV's] "Family Guy" and official Harvard Humanist of the Year - Epstein launched a nationwide network of groups like his, designed to offer atheists the fellowship and ceremony of churchgoing without any belief in the transcendent.

The need for such communities may be especially acute on today’s college campuses. Millennials are the least religious generation in recent history. According to the Pew Research Center, fully one-fourth of adults under 30 describe themselves as atheist, agnostic, or "nothing in particular" - and many are floundering as they search for purpose.

"There’s a huge community of college-aged people who call themselves ‘spiritual but not religious,’" said Victor Kazanjian, dean of intercultural education and religious and spiritual life at Wellesley College. "They don’t have an organized community in which to belong and in which to ask questions of meaning."

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

From "'Family Guy' Creator Receives Humanist Award" by Justin C. Worland, Staff Writer, The Harvard Crimson 10/17/11

Heralded by a live rendition of the theme from Family Guy, Seth W. MacFarlane, the show’s creator, took a swig of what appeared to be alcohol in front of a packed audience at Memorial Church this Saturday.

“This is kind of hilarious doing this in a church. [I’ll just] take communion here,” said MacFarlane, who was accepting the fifth-annual Harvard Humanist of the Year Award [sponsored by the Harvard Humanist Chaplaincy].

His speech, which delivered religious punch line after punch line, addressed what he described as the corrupting influence of religion in today’s society. His address supported Humanism as an alternative to traditional religion.

Underlying MacFarlane’s argument was the notion that religion is no longer necessary to keep society intact. Instead, he said, people should turn to reason and science to uphold moral values.

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

Excerpts from a bio of Greg Epstein, Humanist Chaplain

Greg M. Epstein . . . is author of the New York Times Bestselling book, Good Without God: What a Billion Nonreligious People Do Believe. He sits on the executive committee of the 36-member corps Harvard Chaplains. In 2005 he received ordination as a Humanist Rabbi from the International Institute for Secular Humanistic Judaism, where he studied in Jerusalem and Michigan for five years. He holds a BA (Religion and Chinese) and an MA (Judaic Studies) from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and a Masters of Theological Studies from the Harvard Divinity School.

Epstein was the primary organizer of “The New Humanism,” an international conference in honor of the 30th anniversary of the Humanist Chaplaincy of Harvard University. . . . He also chairs the Advisory Board of the national umbrella organization the Secular Student Alliance, joining such renowned nonbelievers as Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens.

Greg grew up in Flushing, Queens, New York as an assimilated and disinterested Reform Jew.

To read the entire bio above, CLICK HERE.

Astronomer: No Intelligent Life Beyond Earth

After analyzing hundreds of planets, Harvard's senior astrophysicist, Dr. Howard Smith has concluded that there is no one beyond our own Earth -- which exists in perfect placement in our Solar System to sustain our lives, unlike any other heavenly body.

Ummm . . . It would seem he's saying that the Earth's perfect existence is not the result of random chance.

-- From "No hope of alien life in space, says US researcher" by The Daily Telegraph 1/25/11

There is no hope of finding alien life in space because conditions on all other 500 planets discovered so far are too hostile, a leading astronomer has claimed.

Dr Howard Smith, a senior astrophysicist at Harvard, said that extreme conditions found so far on planets discovered outside the solar system are likely to be the norm. "Most other planets and solar systems are wildly different from our own," he said.

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

From "Astronomer discounts chances of alien life" posted at UPI 1/24/11

Smith insists extrasolar planets are too different from our own and even if they did support life it would be impossible for us to contact it.

"Any hope of contact has to be limited to a relatively tiny bubble of space around the Earth, stretching perhaps 1,250 light years out from our planet, where aliens might be able to pick up our signals or send us their own," he says. "But communicating would still take decades or centuries."

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

From "Alien life deemed impossible by analysis of 500 planets" by Heidi Blake, London Telegraph 1/23/11

[Dr. Smith] pointed to stars such as HD10180, which sparked great excitement when it was found to be orbited by a planet of similar size and appearance to Earth.

But the similarities turned out to be superficial. The planet lies less than two million miles from its sun, meaning it is roasting hot, stripped of its atmosphere and blasted by radiation.

Many of the other planets have highly elliptical orbits which cause huge variations in temperature which prevent water remaining liquid, thus making it impossible for life to develop.

. . . Dr Smith dismissed the claims [of NASA -- see next article below], insisting that other extrasolar planets differ starkly from our own . . .

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

UPDATE 2/2/11: Media Fanfare for NASA discovering, what might be distant planets, that theoretically could sustain life, but no conclusions are scientifically possible.

From "Astronomers hunting alien Earths" by Dan Vergano, USA TODAY 1/23/11

NASA's Kepler space telescope team this month unveiled the first indisputable detection of a rocky planet spotted in another star's solar system. The find lifted hopes that planets with rocky cores like Earth fill many stars' solar systems. Mission scientists led by William Borucki of NASA's NASA Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., promise to report on hundreds of more planetary candidates next month.

Dubbed "Kepler-10b," the recently-announced rocky planet roasts in an orbit far too hot for life, circling less than two million miles above its sun-like star. "You have to see this as a warm up for Kepler, literally," says mission team scientist Sara Seager of MIT, however, pointing to expected future finds.

"Although no such planets have yet been discovered, the first will be found within the next couple of years," write astrophysicists Jonti Horner of Australia's University of New South Wales and Barrie Jones of the United Kingdom's Open University in the current Astronomy & Geophysics journal. "And so the time is right to discuss exactly what factors might come together to make such planets more, or less, suitable for life to develop and thrive."

Some caution about planet discoveries might be in order, though. The September announcement of the planet Gliese 581g by a team led by Steven Vogt of the University of California-Santa Cruz and Paul Butler of the Carnegie Institute of Washington (D.C.), has come under fire. Circling just such an M-class dwarf star, the planet was announced as orbiting in a potentially habitable zone. Other astronomers, such as the Geneva Observatory's Francesco Pepe, have since said they couldn't confirm the planet's detection, raising questions about its existence. (Noting that three outside groups have now reported they can't find Gliese 581g, Pepe says in an email, "It turns out today that Vogt's conclusions were wrong.")

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

Warning to Dr. Howard Smith: You're about to be labeled a heretic by your peers.

UPDATE 2/3/11 (video): PBS report speculates that "odds are" some planet must have life


UPDATE 12/25/14: From "Science Increasingly Makes the Case for God" by Eric Metaxas (author of “Miracles: What They Are, Why They Happen, and How They Can Change Your Life”), posted at Wall Street Journal

Today there are more than 200 known parameters necessary for a planet to support life—every single one of which must be perfectly met, or the whole thing falls apart. . . .

Yet here we are, not only existing, but talking about existing. What can account for it? Can every one of those many parameters have been perfect by accident? At what point is it fair to admit that science suggests that we cannot be the result of random forces? Doesn’t assuming that an intelligence created these perfect conditions require far less faith than believing that a life-sustaining Earth just happened to beat the inconceivable odds to come into being?

Fred Hoyle, the astronomer who coined the term “big bang,” said that his atheism was “greatly shaken” at these developments. He later wrote that “a common-sense interpretation of the facts suggests that a super-intellect has monkeyed with the physics, as well as with chemistry and biology . . . . The numbers one calculates from the facts seem to me so overwhelming as to put this conclusion almost beyond question.”

Theoretical physicist Paul Davies has said that “the appearance of design is overwhelming” and Oxford professor Dr. John Lennox has said “the more we get to know about our universe, the more the hypothesis that there is a Creator . . . gains in credibility as the best explanation of why we are here.”

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

UPDATE 3/17/14: Science Limited to Godless Origins at Ball State Univ.

Exposed: Obama's Gay Agenda for Schools

UPDATE 12/2/12: School Doesn't Back Gay Agenda, President Obama Investigates

UPDATE 10/3/13: October is Homosexual Indoctrination Month at Schools

UPDATE 6/7/11: White House Says Gay Recruitment of Kids Successful

UPDATE 10/26/10: White House Forces Gay Agenda on Schools

New archive video of President Obama's 'Safe School Czar' Kevin Jennings speaking of his Gay Agenda on April 25, 1998 at Harvard.


-- From "Queering Education" by Mary Grabar, posted at American Thinker 9/3/10

The gay-positive lifestyle is being promoted aggressively in K-12 schools, often under the cover of anti-bullying efforts, under the leadership of Kevin Jennings, Assistant Deputy Secretary, Office of Safe & Drug Free Schools. Before his federal appointment, Jennings founded and ran GLSEN, (Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network). Under Jennings' direction, GLSEN was involved in activities that affirmed homosexuality to children with explicit materials. Jennings also wrote the foreword to a book titled Queering Elementary Education.

GLSEN, which in the 2008-2009 year enjoyed a $157,500 contribution from the NEA, the largest teachers union in the country, pitches its materials and training services to schools. It targets not only high school students, but middle school students. For example, the video and teachers guide for Out of the Past, about a 17-year-old who begins a gay-straight alliance group in her public school, is targeted for grades 7 through 12.

. . . the organizations that put out a brochure titled "Just the Facts about Sexual Development of Youth" . . . include not only the two largest teachers' unions, but also the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Psychological Association.

. . . Furthermore, "Just the Facts" is promoted aggressively on the (GLSEN) website.

In such a way, the peer reviewers, the accrediting organizations, and professors assert their power; they actively exclude not only opposing religious views, but also studies and professional opinions of those who disagree with them. It's a problem that plagues our entire educational system.

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

From "U.S. Government Takes on Schoolyard Bullies" by Carol Bengle Gilbert, Featured Education Contributor, Associated Content 9/13/10

Assistant Deputy Secretary of Education Kevin Jennings was keynote speaker at the Aug. 11 to 12 bullying summit. In an interview with Southern California Public Radio, Jennings noted that an Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development study showed the USA to be in the middle of 40 industrial countries surveyed in terms of bullying severity.

While the bullying summit has given bullying a high profile, Phillip C. Rodkin, an associate professor of educational psychology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and summit speaker, acknowledged that not much is known about effective anti-bullying practices. Historically, adults "didn't ask," he said. "They didn't want to know."

. . . The government will never know the true scope of America's bullying problem if it relies on self-reporting by schools.

As a nation suddenly concerned with bullying, we have a lot to learn.

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

Also, click headlines below for related, previous articles:

White House Wants Homosexual Indoctrination in Schools

Obama Administration Expands Title IX to Advance Gay Agenda

Obama Appoints 'Fox' to Guard School 'Henhouse'

Part 2: Obama Appoints 'Fox' to Guard School 'Henhouse'

Congressmen Tell Obama to Fire Deviant Sex Advisor

Congressional Power to Obama's Gay Agenda

Obama Education Adviser Recommends Pornography to Children

Schools Celebrate Homosexuality

White House Exploits Youth Suicide to Advance Gay Agenda

Harvard to Train Indoctrination Commandants

The Harvard Graduate School of Education launches a new doctoral degree in education leadership as "a 'catalyst to drive change' . . . to alter education policy debates . . ."

-- From "Harvard to offer a doctorate in education leadership" by Tracy Jan, Boston Globe Staff 9/15/09

School officials liken the Doctor of Education Leadership Program to the education equivalent of a law or medical degree. It will be taught by faculty from the education school, Harvard Business School, and the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

The program aims to train graduates for senior leadership roles in school systems, government agencies, nonprofit organizations, and the private sector, school officials said.

It is designed to give students a deep understanding of teaching and learning, as well as the management and leadership skills required to help transform the American education sector.

Students in the third year of the program will participate in a yearlong residency with partner organizations such as urban public school systems in New York City, Atlanta, and Denver, as well as national organizations focused on changing K-12 education, including Teach for America, New Leaders for New Schools, and the National Center of Education and the Economy.

The new program is supported in part by The Wallace Foundation, which has given Harvard a $10 million grant.

To read the entire article, CLICK HERE.

Harvard Comes Out of the Closet

. . . Harvard's gay community says it has finally cemented its academic legitimacy at the nation's oldest university.

"When Harvard does something like this, it causes a ripple effect around the world."

-- From "Harvard endows chair on gay studies" by Tracy Jan, Boston Globe Staff 6/4/09

College officials [said] that they will establish an endowed chair in lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender studies, in what is believed to be the first professorship of its kind in the country.

Harvard president Drew G. Faust described the academic post as "an important milestone" in an ongoing effort by faculty, students, and alumni to raise the profile of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender studies at the university.

The university has received a $1.5 million gift from the Harvard Gay & Lesbian Caucus to endow the F.O. Matthiessen Visiting Professorship of Gender and Sexuality.

The caucus - a 4,900-member group composed of alumni, faculty, staff, and students - was founded in 1984 to advocate for Harvard's gay community.

More colleges, including Yale, Brown, Cornell, and New York University, offer academic programs related to sex, sexuality and sexual orientation, though lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender studies are a relatively new discipline. The City University of New York began the first gay- and lesbian-studies program in 1986, according to Harvard. While Harvard has offered a sprinkling of courses related to gay and lesbian studies in the past, it did not allow students to major in the field until the 2004-2005 academic year.

To read the entire story of how Harvard was brought into the fold, CLICK HERE.

New Massachusetts 'Church' With No God

" . . . there is broader acceptance of those with no faith, as indicated by President Barack Obama's mention of 'non-believers' in his inaugural address."

-- From "The humanist congregation" by Jay Lindsay, The Associated Press 3/21/09

The monthly schedule is church-like, with its parenting classes, guest speakers and small group meetings to hash out shared beliefs. But God isn't part of this Cambridge congregation.

Greg Epstein, the humanist chaplain at Harvard University, is building a God-free model of community that he hopes helps humanists increase in numbers and influence.

Epstein sees potential in research showing that there are more people with no religion. In the latest American Religious Identification Survey, released this month, 15 per cent of respondents in 2008 said they had no religion, compared to 8.2 per cent in 1990. Epstein believes that group includes large numbers of people who are humanist, but have never identified themselves that way and can be reached.

Epstein wants to plant local humanist centres nationwide that perform many of the community-building functions of a church, only in service of the humanist creed.

While many humanists reject anything that hints at organized religion, Epstein is freely borrowing from it -- from the "small group" format familiar in evangelical churches to calling his group a "congregation."

To read the entire article, CLICK HERE.

Harvard Club Promotes Abstinence

From "Harvard club promotes abstinence" by Jesse Harlan Alderman, posted 3/11/07, at YahooNews.com

Sometime between the founding of a student-run porn magazine and the day the campus health center advertised "Free Lube," Harvard University seniors Sarah Kinsella and Justin Murray decided to fight back against what they see as too much mindless sex at the Ivy League school.

They founded a student group called True Love Revolution to promote abstinence on campus. The group, created earlier this school year, has more than 90 members on its Facebook.com page and drew about half that many to an ice cream social.

Harvard treats sex — or "hooking up" — so casually that "sometimes I wonder if sex is even a remotely serious thing," said Kinsella, who is dating Murray.

...True Love Revolution members say the problem starts with the university. They say Harvard has implicitly led students to believe that having sex at college is a foregone conclusion by requiring incoming freshman to attend a seminar on date-rape that does not mention abstinence, by placing condoms in freshmen dorms, and by hosting racy lecturers. (Harvard students have also launched H-Bomb, a magazine featuring racy photos of undergraduates.)

...Some feminists, in particular, have criticized True Love Revolution's message.

Harvard student Rebecca Singh said she was offended by a valentine the group sent to the dormitory mailboxes of all freshmen. It read: "Why wait? Because you're worth it."

"I think they thought that we might not be `ruined' yet," Singh said. "It's a symptom of that culture we have that values a woman on her purity. It's a relic."

Tragically, many, if not most young women have been deceived into not valuing their own purity…

Read the whole article.