1. 38%

2. What precisely is the problem here?

Science museums put small children inside bubbles all the time, and no one cries child abuse there. Perhaps it's an issue of consent?

3. Scientists successfully clone World's Most Terrified Dog.

4. An interesting article on religion and politics.

People choose their religions based on finding those religions reflecting their identities and values back at them.

Well, the smart ones do. The ones who have the wherewithal (and the ability) to choose in the first place.

Religion trades in metaphors that speak to deeper values and ideas. In and of itself, that’s no big deal. The same thing is accomplished in art, literature, bullshitting around the campfire, etc. But what I think helps create chaos is the sense that religion then asks the participants to take some of the metaphors not as stories about something else, but as literal truths.

In fundamentalism, yes. But I doubt you'd find many intelligent, liberal believers out there who take the Bible literally.

What the believers themselves believe and what is just metaphors for what they believe is hard to separate, even for them.

True, though.

Indefensible beliefs that have to be respected in politics is a serious problem in a political system built on the idea of deliberative democracy.

I don't have a problem with beliefs being respected and tolerated (within reason). Making a taboo of analyzing and criticizing those beliefs, though -- that's where we run into trouble. People seem to forget that respectful critique is possible.

5. He used...sarcasm.