Brighty Goodness

The recent Bright's Bullentin passed along these links, so I'll pay 'em forward.

a) Thank Goodness! by my fav author Dennett. A recent health scare leads him to opine on the nature of intentions, consequences, faith and reason.

Do I worship modern medicine? Is science my religion? Not at all; there is no aspect of modern medicine or science that I would exempt from the most rigorous scrutiny, and I can readily identify a host of serious problems that still need to be fixed. That's easy to do, of course, because the worlds of medicine and science are already engaged in the most obsessive, intensive, and humble self-assessments yet known to human institutions, and they regularly make public the results of their self-examinations. Moreover, this open-ended rational criticism, imperfect as it is, is the secret of the astounding success of these human enterprises.

b) Nearly half of Americans uncertain God exists(Need more methodological details)