The Huffington Post reports the latest from the premier scientist/thinker of our age:

Stephen Hawking: God NOT Needed For Creation

LONDON — Physicist Stephen Hawking says God wasn’t necessary for the creation of the universe.
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Apparently, the straight, white, Mormon, male patriarchy have all of the answers.

Homosexuality ‘not in your DNA,’ says LDS leader
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I heard a teaser for this story last night, but seldom watch channel 2 here in Salt Lake. Here is the story as published on the KUTV website:

Number Of Atheists And Non-Believers On The Rise
Reported by: Fields Moseley | KUTV

We often hear this country was built on a belief in God, but others say it is really built on the freedom to choose. More and more people in the United States are choosing no religion, and that is true here in Utah. Atheists meet weekly and hold more formal meetings on a monthly basis.
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My oldest friend (we met in 1964) had surgery yesterday in Denver to replace a shoulder and arm riddled with cancer — with that of a donor cadaver. Apparently the cancer had not spread beyond the bone and the doctors feel this will be successful.

It amazes me something that a few years ago would have resulted in the loss of an entire arm and shoulder, is now solvable with simply (I say that because I’m not the doctor who spent several hours doing it) changing the underpinnings.

We have come a long way medically in the last few years, but still do not have a cure for cancer or kidney disease — or the common cold.

On a similar note, as of last week, the panic-demic about the H1N1 influenza bug spreading around the world has resulted in much less “thinning of the herd” than projected — at least so far. Two people had died of the H1N1 flu in the US. Over the last year, 31,000 had died of the common flu.

Pound-wise, penny foolish.