Peores líderes religiosos del mundo

Cuando el Papa viaje a los Estados Unidos esta semana, probablemente argumente que la religión es una fuerza de paz en el mundo. Pero algunos de sus amigos, líderes religios, se conocen mejor por predicar odio y violencia. Este artículo menciona algunos.

When the Pope visits the United States next week, he will likely make the case that religion is a force for peace in the world. But a few of his fellow religious leaders are better known for preaching messages of hatred and violence.

Hassan Nasrallah

Religion: Shiite Islam

Who is he?: Secretary-General of Hezbollah

Country: Lebanon

Quote: "If we searched the entire world for a person more cowardly, despicable, weak, and feeble in psyche, mind, ideology, and religion, we would not find anyone like the Jew. Notice I do not say the Israeli."

Why he matters: Nasrallah and several colleagues formed Hezbollah in the wake of Israel's invasion of Lebanon in 1982. Since then, the group has become a unique entity in world politics—at once an Islamist political party, a terrorist militia, and a virtual state-within-a-state in southern Lebanon. Hezbollah's 2006 battle with the Israel Defense Forces only boosted its prestige. Nasrallah studied Islam at a seminary in Najaf, Iraq, as a teenager and follows the brand of Shiite Islam developed by Iran's late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. In recent years, as he has emerged as a major power broker within the Lebanese government, Nasrallah has stopped calling for an Islamic revolution and seems willing to work within the state. Nasrallah has not moderated his stance on Israel, though, and still calls for the "Zionist entity" to be wiped off the map.

Joseph Kony

Religion: Christianity/personality cult

Who is he?: Commander of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA)

Country: Uganda

Quote: "[The spirits] speak to me. They load through me. They will tell us what is going to happen. They say 'You, Mr. Joseph, tell your people that the enemy is planning to come and attack.' They will come like dreaming; they will tell us everything."

Why he matters: During two decades of civil war, Kony's Lord's Resistance Army has killed more people than al Qaeda, Hamas, and Hezbollah combined. Kony, a former altar boy, aims to overthrow the Ugandan government and establish a regime based on the Ten Commandments. In pursuit of this goal, the LRA has abducted over 20,000 children to serve as soldiers and sex slaves, often forcing them to kill their own parents. Although Kony frequently uses biblical passages to justify his actions and has his child soldiers make the sign of the cross before battle, he mixes Christianity with mysticism and claims to be advised by a "spirit council" from beyond the grave. The LRA is currently in the process of negotiating a peace deal with the Ugandan government, but Kony is reluctant to leave his hide-out while under International Criminal Court indictment.

Yogi Adityanath

Religion: Hinduism

Who is he?: Religious leader and member of parliament from Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous province

Country: India

Quote: "I want Muslim votes, too. But wash them in Gangajal [Ganges water] first."

Why he matters: Adityanath is an up-and-comer in India's growing Hindutva—Hindu nationalist—movement. In addition to his membership in the nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), he is the founder of the Hindu Yuva Vahini, a radical Hindu youth movement that has been implicated in a number of incidents of anti-Muslim violence. In early 2007 he was arrested for his role in fomenting religious riots in the northern city of Gorakhpur. Yuva Vahini activists set fire to multiple vehicles including a train and an ambulance in response to his arrest. Adityanath has been released and remains in Parliament, where he is known for such publicity-seeking antics as breaking down in tears during speeches and making statements critical of Mahatma Gandhi. Adityanath's extreme views put him at odds with even the BJP, and he is now looking into starting his own party with a strictly Hindutva agenda.

Athuraliye Rathana

Religion: Theravada Buddhism

Who is he?: Monk and member of parliament

Country: Sri Lanka

Quote: "Peace negotiations simply made the LTTE [Tamil Tigers] stronger. We mustn't talk to them; we can crush the LTTE. It is like surgery."

Why he matters: Most people didn't take the Chinese government too seriously when it accused the Dalai Lama of inciting violence in Tibet, but it's actually not unheard of for Buddhist monks to forgo their traditional pacifism. Sri Lanka's Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) party is comprised entirely of Buddhist monks from the dominant Sinhalese ethnic group, and its seven members of parliament advocate a militant, ethnonationalist agenda. The party's leader, Athuraliye Rathana, has been nicknamed the "war monk" for his staunch advocacy of military force against the Tamil Tiger rebels who have fought a 25-year insurgency against the state. (For what it's worth, the Tigers exhibit some cultlike characteristics as well.) Athuraliye has worked to scuttle a Norwegian-brokered peace settlement, saying that the Tamils should be crushed militarily and that Sri Lanka has always been a Sinhalese kingdom. The JHU has also sponsored legislation in the Parliament that would ban Sri Lankan Buddhists from converting to Christianity.

Dov Lior

Religion: Hasidic Judaism

Who is he?: Head rabbi of Kiryat Arba settlement

Country: Israel

Quote: "A thousand non-Jewish lives are not worth a Jew's fingernail."

Why he matters: Lior is the chief rabbi for Kiryat-Arba, a Jewish settlement near the turbulent West Bank town of Hebron, and leads the council of rabbis for the West Bank settlements. He has stated repeatedly that the killing of Palestinian civilians is compatible with Jewish law and that the commandment "thou shalt not kill"applies only to Jews. Rabbi Lior gave a eulogy at the funeral of Baruch Goldstein, the Jewish doctor who gunned down 29 Muslim worshippers at Hebron's Ibrahimi Mosque in 1994. Lior has also issued a religious ruling forbidding Jews from employing Arabs or renting them property.

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Científicos descubren rana sin pulmones

Continuando con el tema de la evolución de ayer, una rara y primitiva rana ha sido descubierta en un ríachuelo remoto de Borneo. Esta rana no tiene pulmones y aparentemente absorbe oxígeno a través de la piel.

La rana acuática evolucionó en reversa, readquiriendo un razgo primordial reporta David Bickford de la Universidad Nacional de Singapur. Estudiar la rana puede aclarar como evolucionaron los pulmones de primera instancia

Los animales evolucionaron pulmones cuando se movieron del mar a la tierra hace millones de años y esta importante adaptación se ha perdido en muy pocas ocasiones.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A rare and primitive frog living in a remote Borneo stream has no lungs and apparently absorbs oxygen through its skin, researchers reported on Wednesday.

The aquatic frog has evolved backwards, re-acquiring a primordial trait, David Bickford of the National University of Singapore and colleagues reported.

Studying the frog could help shed light on how lungs evolved in the first place, they wrote in the journal Current Biology, adding that illegal gold mining in the area may threaten the unique species.

"The evolution of lunglessness in tetrapods (amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals) is exceedingly rare, previously known only from amphibians -- two families of salamanders and a single species of caecilian (blindworm)," they wrote.

"Here we report the first case of complete lunglessness in a frog, Barbourula kalimantanensis, from the Indonesian portion of Borneo."

The frog may be endangered because of mining activity, the researchers said.

"In August 2007, we visited ... near NangaPinoh, Western Kalimantan but found that illegal gold mining had destroyed all suitable habitats in the vicinity," they wrote. They snorkeled, waded and turned over boulders to find their quarry.

"The originally cool, clear, fast-flowing rivers are now warm and turbid. Water quality around the ... locality is no longer suitable for the species, but we were able to re-discover two new populations upstream," they added.

"We knew that we would have to be very lucky just to find the frog," Bickford said in a statement.

Animals evolved lungs when they moved from the sea to land millions of years ago. Animals have only lost this important adaptation a few times, Bickford's team said.

"The discovery of lunglessness in a secretive Bornean frog, supports the idea that lungs are a malleable trait in the Amphibia, the sister group of all living tetrapods. Amphibians maybe more prone to lunglessness since they readily utilize other methods for gas exchange," they wrote.

"This is an endangered frog that we know practically nothing about, with an amazing ability to breathe entirely through its skin, whose future is being destroyed by illegal gold mining by people who are marginalized and have no other means of supporting themselves," Bickford said.

Only animals with small body sizes, slow metabolisms and living in fast-flowing cold water where oxygen and carbon dioxide are exchanged quickly may be able to survive without lungs, the researchers said.

"We strongly encourage conservation of remaining habitats of this species," they recommended.

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Antigua serpiente nos enseña una pierna

Científicos han hecho un descubrimiento muy preciado. Estos han encontrado los fosiles de una serpiente con dos piernas.

Los creacionistas argumentan que no hay prueba de la transición de una especia a otra. Aunque el record de fósiles nos demuestra con claridad como los animales pudieron haber evolucionado a través del tiempo, estos demandan de la ciencia fósiles que demuestran cada uno de los pasos que pasan los animales en su evolución. Por ejemplo, tendriamos que presentarles todos los animales intermedios que existieron desde célula hasta elefante.

Es obvio que esto es una labor imposible. Primero que los pasos intermedios probablemente conllevan miles y posiblemente millones de mutaciones intermedias. Segundo, cual es la probabilidad de que cada una de estas mutaciones haya sobrevivido bajo tierra, sin sufrir efectos de erosión, compresión, etc?

Pero de vez en cuando econtramos una joya que nos hace imposible negar que la evolución si sucedió.

En los últimos años, además de esta serpiente, científicos tambien encontraron un fósil, el cual se conoce como Tiktaalik que también nos presenta un momento transicional entre especies. En este caso, Tiktaalik es un pez con unas piernas rudimentarias que probablemente le permitian asomar la cabeza fuera del agua. Pensariamos que esto nada mas es suficiente pero para abonar, Tiktaalik presenta la primera evidencia de un cuello, el cual no se puede encontrar en peces actuales.

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Expelled recibe paliza por parte de la revista "Scientific American"

Recientemente, un grupo de proponentes del diseño inteligente (ID), o el creacionismo disfrazado de ciencia, crearon una película titulada "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed" (Expulsado: Ninguna Inteligencia Admitida) en la cual los productores intentan conectar la evolución con el holocausto y el nazismo, y otros intentan atar al ateismo de forma no muy convincente. No voy a entrar en detalles en todo lo que ha sucedido desde que se lanzó la película, pero si les interesa obtener mas información, les recomiendo visiten el blog del biólogo molecular y ardiente ateo PZ Myers, quien fue expulsado de la película (en serio) por solo presentarse a verla.

Lo que vengo a hablar es que por alguna razón, los productores le llevaron copia de la película a los editores de la prestigiosa revista "Scientific American" y estos no quedaron muy impresionados. Para leer el "review" de la película, vayan aquí.

Iglesia católica admite ayudó a los Nazis

La iglesia católica de alemania acaba de reconocer el alcance de su envolvimiento en el uso de labor forzada durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial.

Un reporte de 700 páginas dice que unos 1,000 prisioneros de guerra y algunos 5,000 civiles fueron forzados a trabajar para los Nazis en favor de Alemania.

Estos fueron reclutados de 800 instituciones católicas del país.

La iglesia habia pagado $2 millones en compensación por trabajadores extranjeros que habian sido utilizados por los Nazis para labor forzada.

Iglesias protestantes del país han admitido también haber usado labor forzada durante la guerra.

Germany's Roman Catholic Church has acknowledged the extent of its involvement in the use of forced labour during World War II.

A 700-page report says 1,000 prisoners of war and some 5,000 civilians were forced to work for the Nazis in support of the German war effort.

They were drafted from 800 Catholic-run institutions across the country.

The Church had previously paid $2m in compensation to foreign workers who the Nazis had used for forced labour.

"It should not be concealed that the Catholic Church was blind for too long to the fate and suffering of men, women and children from the whole of Europe who were carted off to Germany as forced labourers," said Cardinal Karl Lehmann, the bishop of Mainz.

The cardinal - who stood down in January as head of the German bishops' conference - noted that the number of forced labourers used by the Church was a small fraction of the estimated 13m compelled to work by the Nazis.

At the televised launch of the report in Mainz, the cardinal said the conditions in which people had been forced to work in Catholic institutions - such as hospitals, homes and monastery gardens - had not been as bad as elsewhere.

The Protestant Church in Germany has admitted a similar use of forced labour during the Nazi era.

A number of leading German companies, such as Deutsche Bank, Volkswagen and Siemens have, in recent years, commissioned reports into their own dubious involvement.

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Ficha Darwiniana trae la evolución al salón de clases

Investigadores han creado un artefacto automático que evoluciona moleculas biológicas en una ficha con cientos de secciones miniatura.

La molécula que es insertada en la ficha, termina siendo 90 veces mas eficiente tras solo 70 horas de evolución. "Es sobrevivencia del mas apto" comenta Brian Paege, bioquímico en el Instituto de Investigación Scripps.

No solo puede el artefacto utilizarse para crear moléculas o hasta células que detecten contaminantes, si no que los investigadores le ven un uso educacional, ya que demuestra la evolución en tiempo real.

Estoy ansioso de ver que se inventan los creacionistas para contrarrestar este descubrimiento. Aunque no tengo mucha esperanza, ya que estos no van a estar convencidos hasta que vean un mono convertirse en un cocodrilo frente a sus narices.

A new "Darwin chip" could make evolution as easy as pressing play.

Researchers have created an automated device that evolves a biological molecule on a chip filled with hundreds of miniature chambers.

The molecule, which stitches together strands of RNA, became 90 times more efficient after just 70 hours of evolution.

"It's survival of the fittest," says Brian Paegel, a biochemist at the Scripps Research Institute, in La Jolla, California, who led the study with colleague Gerald Joyce.

The experiment could be used in the future to evolve molecules – or even cells – to sense environmental pollutants, Paegel says.

Dispelling doubts

And by demonstrating natural selection in real-time, the device could also help dispel doubts over evolution in the classroom and beyond, says Joyce. "There's a whole bunch of people who think evolution is only theory, including some former presidential candidates."

While Darwin used natural selection to explain differences between species, his principles also work at the level of molecules.

RNA is usually used to create proteins from genes. But some kinds of RNA can perform tasks similar to protein enzymes. Paegel's team used just such an RNA molecule, or ligase, in their work.

In the process, the ligase sews another strand of RNA to itself and is then duplicated by a pair of proteins.

Because of occasional errors in copying, the new ligase molecule might work differently from its predecessor – sometimes better, and sometimes worse. Paegel's team wanted to see if they could evolve a better ligase by natural selection.

Evolving ability

To do this, they took a form of ligase that is not very good at recognising RNA molecules, and dumped it in a pool of RNA. After letting it duplicate for a while, the researchers gradually reduced the number of RNA molecules in the pool, meaning that only the more efficient copies of the ligase could survive.

All the reactions occurred in a miniature chamber on the "evolution chip". After reaching a specified level of efficiency, a miniature pump automatically sucked up a small amount of the contents and plopped it into a new chamber. This started another round of selection.

After 70 hours and billions of duplications, Paegel's team stopped the reaction and analysed the last few batches. The ligase molecules they pulled out were able to find and stitch RNA molecules 90 times more efficiently than the ligase the team started with.

'Tasty potato'

Other researchers have created similar evolution machines, but few as fast and simple as the automated chip. "It's a big technical advance," says Jack Szostak, a biochemist at Harvard University. Other labs are likely to follow, he says. "It doesn't look that difficult to do."

The device might be able to evolve better sensors to detect environmental pollutants such as lead, Paegal says. Just as his team reduced the number of RNA molecules in the reaction to select for a better ligase, cutting the level of lead would select an improved lead sensor.

Paegel also hopes to use the Darwin chip to make molecules with new chemical properties, not just improved editions of old molecules.

"We took a potato and made a really tasty potato," says Pagael. "But we would really like to discover broccoli – something completely different."

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Madre apuñala hija de 6 años por estar "poseida"

Una mujer ha sido acusada de apuñalar a su hija de 6 años repetidamente porque esta supuestamente la atacó mientras estaba poseida. La madre dijo que su hija la atacó con un cuchillo en la cama y la tiró contra la pared antes de que la madre agarrara el cuchillo y la apuñalara en el cuello.

Esta noticia me recuerda a un artículo que ley recientemente en el portal del "Landover Baptist Church". Para los que no conocen este portal, es una parodia de la religión, al estilo "The Onion", en los Estados Unidos. El artículo comenta de forma muy jocosa de como los "feligreses" de esta "parroquia" verifican si sus hijos estan poseidos por el demonio, utilizando una biblia y un puerco. Si el niño le huye a la biblia cuando esta es puesta en el piso, el niño automaticamente se considera un candidato para esterilización. Luego utilizan el puerco a ver si el demonio abandona el niño y toma posesión del puerco.

Lo mas curioso es que la primera vez que leí este artículos seriamente consideré que era real. Estoy seguro que hay personas que creen en semejantes ridiculeces. Si mujeres asesinan sus hijas por estar poseidas y la iglesia católica todavia cree en el exorcismo, ¿que mas se puede esperar?

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