Well things have been slow around BT this last week or two. Everyone’s busy with finals, holidays or trying to get things finalized for the end of quarter at work. However there were quite a few good science related discussions. I’ll start with today’s post at BCC on mental illness. It gets into a few topics we’ve discussed here before related to what our embodiment is like, how grace overcomes the fall, and of course the ever popular topic of free will. However they are also trying to get at the more practical and less theological issues. Check it out as it has been a good discussion.

Up at LDS Science Review, beyond their excellent links to pure science discussions, is a post about Sen. Buttars and his attempts to force ID into schools. The link is to a BYU Newsnet story. (Yeah, I could have just posted a link to stories about Buttars, but I want to share the blogging love.) They also have a new recurring article about the beginning of life and stem cell research.

Chris over at MoBlo has two interesting post regarding New Scientist and their discussion about fundamentalists. (here and here) As ever he gives some interesting and thoughtful comments.

A new blog called Vancouver Barefoot has up a post about rights for the fetus. While it doesn’t directly address the science issues, it clearly is a science related post.

Over at Mormanity Jeff brings up an analogy about evolution. I think the analogy fails for reasons I mention in the comments. But people might find it interesting and there is a long discussion in the comments.

Among non-Mormon sites, one that is of interest is “Is God and Accident?” over at The Atlantic. Paul Bloom writes on whether belief in God and the supernatural is just an accident of evolution rather than, as some claim, the attempt to be placated in life’s trials or the social glue theory. The book I plan on reading for my reading club, In Gods We Trust takes the social utility view. (Yeah, I’m behind – I still have to finish the Tomasello book. But you can’t believe how busy my month’s been)

Well that’s about it. I’d probably have more but I haven’t had the time to check all the blogs I’d normally check. Plus most blogs weren’t posting much last week. Let me know if I missed one. Just one non-science plug before I’m off to bed. We have up the first chapter in our Bushman reading club at M*. Check it out.