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If U.S. News wanted to just concentrate on whether prayer works, there's big news there, too. Jeanna Giese just became the first person ever recorded to survive rabies without a vaccine—her family credits worldwide prayer. Meanwhile, the Kansas City Star reports that prayers for the Chiefs aren't working. Out in a British town, police are hoping prayer can reduce crime.

But none of this news appears in U.S. News & World Report. Instead, we're told that people pray, they pray for a lot of different things, and that they've been doing so for a long time. Even its survey results are worthless, since they're the result of an unscientific online poll. Oh well, at least it's not an attack on core doctrines of the faith.

Science | Evolution | Education | Sex ed. | Same-sex marriage | Abortion | War, Terrorism, and Security | 'Moral values' | Religious Right | Politics | Church & State | Buttiglione in America | Religious Freedom | Persecution | Britain | Beckham nativity | Christmas | December Dilemma | Salvation Army | Missions & Ministry | UCC Ad | Church Life | Protestant vs. Catholic Images | Church Buildings | Catholicism | Mormonism | Other Religions | Abuse | Money & Business | The Passion | Media and Pop Culture | History | Other Articles

Science:

• The behavior of genes | Recent genetic studies go a long way toward resolving the nature-versus-nurture debate (Gene Robinson, The New York Times)
  
  
• Keeping the faith in my doubt | My main objection to all these anti-religion, pro-science groups is that they aren't addressing our basic problem, which is ideological self-righteousness of any kind (John Horgan, The New York Times)
  
  
• The troubling prospect of genetic manipulation | David Brown's Dec. 4 front-page article, "2 Stem Cell Options Presented," should be an eye-opener to those who believe in the separation of church and state. (Robert Lanza, The Washington Post)
  
  

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Creation & evolution:

• Teachers push for evolution alternative | Two Gull Lake science teachers are protesting the district's moratorium on teaching "intelligent design," a spin-off of creationism that aims to debunk evolution and credits the origin of life to an unnamed "intelligent designer" (Kalamazoo Gazette, Mi.)
  
  
• Anti-Darwinians step up challenge in school crusade | Evangelicals take evolution fight to Supreme Court (The Observer, London)
  
  
• Science fiction | Cobb County's biology-textbook stickers are scientifically illiterate (Gregg Easterbrook, The New Republic)
  
  

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Education:

• Suspension keeps principal busy | Eric Bast got a five-day suspension this week for breaking school rules while proselytizing his nearly 3,000 schoolmates (The Cincinnati Enquirer)
  
  
• Also: Oak Hills student missed lesson | Oak Hills High School was right to give student Eric Bast a five-day suspension last week for distributing more than 3,000 copies of a religious letter through the school system (Editorial, The Cincinnati Enquirer)
  
  
• Teacher's suit puts uneasy spotlight on Cupertino | Stephen J. Williams wasn't looking for celebrity when he sued to bring Jesus Christ into his Cupertino classroom. (Mercury News, Calif.)
  
  
• School defends slavery booklet | Critic says text is 'window dressing' (The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C.)
  
  

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December (Web-only) 2004, Vol. 48