Study: Religion is Good for Kids
source: LiveScience
Kids with religious parents are better behaved and adjusted than other children, according to a new study that is the first to look at the effects of religion on young child development.
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Bartkowski thinks religion can be good for kids for three reasons. First, religious networks provide social support to parents, he said, and this can improve their parenting skills. Children who are brought into such networks and hear parental messages reinforced by other adults may also take more to heart the messages that they get in the home, he said.
Secondly, the types of values and norms that circulate in religious congregations tend to be self-sacrificing and pro-family, Bartkowski told LiveScience. These could be very, very important in shaping how parents relate to their kids, and then how children develop in response, he said.
Finally, religious organizations imbue parenting with sacred meaning and significance, he said.
University of Virginia sociologist W. Bradford Wilcox, who was not involved in the study, agrees. At least for the most religious parents, getting their kids into heaven is more important than getting their kids into Harvard, Wilcox said.
But as for why religious organizations might provide more of a boost to family life than secular organizations designed to do the same thing, thats still somewhat of a mystery, said Annette Mahoney, a psychologist at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, also not involved in the research. Mahoney wondered: Is there anything about religion and spirituality that sets it apart?
Vanishing honeybees mystify scientistsWASHINGTON (Reuters) – Go to work, come home. Go to work, come home. Go to work — and vanish without a trace.
Billions of bees have done just that, leaving the crop fields they are supposed to pollinate, and scientists are mystified about why.
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The problem has prompted a congressional hearing, a report by the National Research Council and a National Pollinator Week set for June 24-30 in Washington, but so far no clear idea of what is causing it.
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From an article about Honey in Islam:
Amazing Facts…About The Work of the Honeybee
1. The honeybee is not born knowing how to make honey; the younger bees are taught by the more experienced ones.
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More than 1,400 years ago Allah and His messenger sallallahu alaiyhi wa sallam (peace be upon him), told us that honey can heal a variety of medicinal problems.
Allah says in the Qur’an, “And the lord inspired the bee, saying: Take your habitations in the mountains and in the trees and in what they erect. Then, eat of all fruits and follow the ways of your Lord made easy (for you)’. There comes forth from their bellies a drink of varying colour wherein is healing for men. Verily in this is indeed a sign for people who think.” [Qur'an 16:68-69]
The Prophet, sallallahu aleyhe wa sallam (peace be upon him), has also told us of the healing found within honey for a variety of medical problems, including stomach ailments. One hadeeth, reported by Bukhari, states that a man came to the Prophet , sallallahu alaiyhi wa sallam (peace be upon him), because his brother had a stomach disorder. The Prophet sallallahu alaiyhi wa sallam said “Let him drink honey.” The man returned a second time and again the Prophet , sallallahu alaiyhi wa sallam (peace be upon him), responded again, “Let him drink honey.” The man returned again, and said “I have done that.” The Prophet sallallahu alaiyhi wa sallam then responded, “Allah has said the truth, but your brother’s stomach has told a lie. Let him drink honey.” He drank it and was cured.
Tirmizi, Ibn Majah and Baihaqi also reported that the Prophet, sallallahu alaiyhi wa sallam (peace be upon him), said, “Make use of the two remedies: honey and the Qur’an.”
In the comments Bin Gregory points out this post by Faramir:
This really is a great example of what I am speaking of in my last post. We are being told about an illiterate old woman’s experience with the Quran.
Then she would return to the prayer-mat, lifting the Quran above her head, saying as though: O Book! You are above my understanding. My head is nothing more than a place whereupon you rest.
Having sat down not occupying the entire prayer-mat but a part of it, for to occupy the whole of the prayer-mat but a part of it, for to occupy the whole of the prayer-mat was to her an act of arrogance, she would open the book knowing only to keep the right side up, and to begin where she had left the previous day.
For a long time she would allow her eyes to rest on the two open pages before her. The letters in green ink from right to left, row beneath row, each shape mysteriously captivating, each dot below or above a letter an epitome of the entire scripture, each assembly of letters a group of dervishes raising their heads in zikr, each gap between two enigmatic shapes a leap from this world to the next, and each ending the advent of the Day of Resurrection.
She would thus see a thousand images in the procession of that script and would move from vision to vision.
From Hakkani blog
Via Slashdot
“Medieval Muslims made stunning math breakthrough”
“Reuters reports that medieval Muslims made a mega math marvel. Tile patterns on middle eastern mosques display a kind of quasicrystalline effect that was unknown in the west until rediscovered by Penrose in the 1970s. ‘Quasicrystalline patterns comprise a set of interlocking units whose pattern never repeats, even when extended infinitely in all directions, and possess a special form of symmetry.’ It isn’t known if the mosque designers understood the math behind the patterns or not.”
“Oh, it’s absolutely stunning,” Lu said in an interview. “They made tilings that reflect mathematics that were so sophisticated that we didn’t figure it out until the last 20 or 30 years.”
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