Science and Mormonism

Welcome to Science & Mormonism!

Note: This blog takes a lot of time to keep up with scientific developments. I have enough data to show several interesting parallels between science and Mormonism. I'm not going to update this blog with new scientific discoveries, unless, of course, something really spectacular happens. Persons interested in these parallels are invited to leave comments expressing their viewpoints. I will reply to the comments, as is appropriate. AWL 12/6/2013

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The Mormon prophet, Joseph Smith, said truth is things as they have been, things as they are, or things as they will be. In other words, truth is reality. Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (commonly referred to as the LDS church or the Mormon church) believe religion has truth. Many of them also believe science has truth. Obviously, truth in religion can not contradict truth in science, and the two viewpoints of truth must, at some future time, converge. The purpose of this blog is to track new developments in science and in teachings of the LDS Church, allowing visitors to see if the two viewpoints do have parallel concepts, and if so to see if the parallels are converging.

Links to new scientific reports or to new information about the LDS religion are made via additions to existing posts, although occasionally new posts are created when appropriate posts for the new information do not exist. At the top of each page are navigational links to various categories. All of the posts in this blog are in those categories, and by clicking a category-link, you will get a page that links to the posts that pertain to that category. The Site Map page has links to all of the pages in the site.

Many of the posts to this blog have introductory information from Wikipedia. In most cases, links in the Wikipedia information have been removed to simplify reading of this blog. Links to the Wikipedia pages are given so you can reference the original pages and their links.

The posts in this blog that are open to speculation have been moved to a new blog, and this blog now mainly contains links to scientific articles that parallel Mormonism. This blog contains recent scientific articles posted to Science and Mormonism. For older articles, see Volume 9 of Science and Mormonism.

If you are interested in reading my understanding of the basic beliefs of Latter-day Saints, you are invited to visit my Mormon blog.

This blog does not represent The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Welcome to this blog. I hope you will find information here that will broaden your views of science and religion, and I invite you to share your views with other visitors to the blog.

Bullying

Bullying has, I think, always existed, and it will likely continue to exist. Before the Internet was invented, bigger, older, or stronger kids put pressure on other kids to intimidate or to harass them, frequently doing this on playgrounds at school or in neighborhoods. The Internet, however, has made bullying easier, and this type of bullying is known as cyber bullying. Wikipedia says this about cyber bullying.

Cyberbullying is defined in legal glossaries as

actions that use information and communication technologies to support deliberate, repeated, and hostile behavior by an individual or group, that is intended to harm another or others.

use of communication technologies for the intention of harming another person

use of internet service and mobile technologies such as web pages and discussion groups as well as instant messaging or SMS text messaging with the intention of harming another person.

Examples of what constitutes cyberbullying include communications that seek to intimidate, control, manipulate, put down, falsely discredit, or humiliate the recipient. The actions are deliberate, repeated, and hostile behavior intended to harm another. Cyberbullying has been defined by The National Crime Prevention Council: “When the Internet, cell phones or other devices are used to send or post text or images intended to hurt or embarrass another person."
A cyberbully may be a person whom the target knows or an online stranger. A cyberbully may be anonymous and may solicit involvement of other people online who do not even know the target. This is known as a 'digital pile-on.'

Scientists are actively studying bullying, and here are links to some of their research.

To effectively prevent bullying schools need to understand positive school climate, use reliable measures to evaluate school climate and use effective prevention and intervention programs to improve the climate, a recent paper co-authored by a University of California, Riverside assistant professor found.

MTV and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research today released the results of a new survey exploring the pervasiveness of digital abuse among teens and young adults, how it is affecting America's youth and how they're responding to it. According to the survey, trends show that the share of young people affected by digital abuse has declined since 2011, with less than half (49 percent) of those surveyed stating that they have experienced digital abuse, compared to 56 percent in 2011. Additionally, virtually every form of digital abuse tracked in this study -- 26 out of 27 listed -- has declined. When experiencing digital abuse, 44 percent of young people state that they seek help from their parents or family, up over 25 percent from 2011, and the majority (66 percent) say that telling their parents made the situation better.

Cyberbullying has become a destructive force in many children's lives. After multiple suicides by children being cyberbullied, parents, more than ever, need to be aware of their children's online activity. A recent paper published in the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication found that parents underestimate how often their children engage in risky online behavior, like cyberbullying and viewing pornography.

Poverty

Poverty is a condition of persons not having particular amounts (or higher) of goods and money. According to Wikipedia, conditions of poverty cause immense problems for society.

One third of deaths – some 18 million people a year or 50,000 per day – are due to poverty-related causes: in total 270 million people, most of them women and children, have died as a result of poverty since 1990. Those living in poverty suffer disproportionately from hunger or even starvation and disease. Those living in poverty suffer lower life expectancy. According to the World Health Organization, hunger and malnutrition are the single gravest threats to the world's public health and malnutrition is by far the biggest contributor to child mortality, present in half of all cases. Almost 90% of maternal deaths during childbirth occur in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, compared to less than 1% in the developed world.
Those who live in poverty have also been shown to have a far greater likelihood of having or incurring a disability within their lifetime. Infectious diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis can perpetuate poverty by diverting health and economic resources from investment and productivity; malaria decreases GDP growth by up to 1.3% in some developing nations and AIDS decreases African growth by 0.3–1.5% annually.

Scientists are studying poverty, and here are links to some of their research.

Between 2011 and 2012, child poverty increased slightly in the Northeast and West, but declined slightly in the Midwest. There was no significant change in the South, the region with the highest child poverty in 2012 (25.0 percent). Nearly 30 percent (29.7 percent) of children in central cities and 26.2 percent of children in rural places lived in poverty in 2012, significantly higher than the 17.2 percent in suburban areas.

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