Michael’s Picks

by Michael De Dora

* Paul O’Donoghue, a clinical psychologist and president of the Irish Skeptics Society, writes that that advances in science demand an earlier introduction to ethics.

* Do statistics take the wonder out of sports? That’s the question Joe Posnanski, perhaps the best living baseball writer, considers in one of his recent blog posts.

* Every four years, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops publishes a report on how Catholics should think about important political issues in light of church teachings. Yet most Catholics apparently ignore this seemingly fundamental document.

* Victims of sexual abuse by Catholic priests have accused Pope Benedict XVI, the Vatican secretary of state, and two other high-ranking Holy See officials of crimes against humanity, in a formal complaint to the international criminal court (ICC).

* A couple of weeks ago in New York City, Massimo and I participated in a panel discussion on secular ethics. Here is the full video.

* The Tennessean details how Jay Sekulow — best known for his legal work at Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson’s American Center for Law and Justice — and his family have made millions of dollars from their so-called “legal charities.”

* The Mississippi Supreme Court has ruled to allow a ballot initiative that would amend the state constitution so that, “The term ‘person’ or ‘persons’ shall include every human being from the moment of fertilization.” Voters will decide the issue in the Nov. 8 election.