I also stayed away from the forums because I just didn't have time to participate and by the time I read through a interesting topic I really didn't want to start posting on a topic that was already pretty old. I don't care for the forums on Coursera. It might be easier if I could filter by recent topics so I can focus on the conversations that are fresher. (If that is already possible then I missed it some how.)

I do like the student evaluation process in the class I'm taking. There just doesn't seem to be a way to find those people and continue conversing on the assignment.

um, there is an option to sign up without facebook. Did so without any problems.

It probably won't be like this
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/2192/rivets

This is ridiculous. Many religions promote the idea of people thinking for themselves. Society of Friends and Unitarian Universalists are the easy ones, but Baptist congregations have their own interpretations of the core Baptist creed.

Try Unitarian Universalism.

Unitarian Universalist religion is non-creedal and follows seven principles http://www.uua.org/beliefs/principles/index.shtml
to try to make the world a better place. Not because there is some reward waiting, but because it's the right thing to do as a people.

Religion is helpful to build communities that come together to help make the world a better place. I'd be happy if atheists and agnostics also built communities to do the same.

I opt out all the time, but at the airports I go to they are not always running. But I also rarely see people opt out.

While going to church won't make you a better person unless you want to change, there are moral lessons to be learned and heard. Yes many churches are dogmatic. Some are not. There are a number of non-creedal churches (Unitarian Universalist, Quakers (Religous Society of Friends), and others.) I can't speech to religions like Buddhism or Hinduism though.

The point is where are people going to be hearing about treating people better if not at a church? Ideally the parents. Where else? And, sure churches have done bad things. So have governments and we still have those too.

Choosing not to participate in a religion just lets other people control the power churches/religion to influence behavior.

David Brin's book - The Transparent Society talks about this kind of city/state/nation over 12 years ago.

In general since the commonfolk will likely lose privacy the goal was to make sure the elites do to.

http://www.davidbrin.com/transparent.htm

Probably Charles Lee Smith, 1928 in Little Rock, Arkansas http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Lee_Smith

When my wife's mother died, we recorded her reading her favorite Christmas story and other favorite children's stories for us to play for our children (we didn't yet have children at that time). It was a nice way for our kids to eventually see my wife's mother.

So do I. I'd rather only see ads for what may interest me. This has to be a win for both me and the company buying the ad. I'm happier because I see stuff I'm interested in and they are happier because if I know about it I'm more likely to buy it.

I can remember complaining to Yahoo years ago about them advertising services to me that my computer didn't support. What was the point of telling me about some cool new service if Mac or Linux wasn't supported. Heck they had to know what system I was running, better they put an ad there that would actually be useful.

My kids have a idiosyncratic food reaction to corn and corn syrup. (We discovered it when they were infants.) We pretty much don't have anything in the house with corn. I hated to give up corn bread, corn chips and popcorn but with me the only one eating it (my wife gave it up too while breast-feeding) it was easier.

No processed foods, no fast foods (all their buns mostly have corn syrup). and just a few sodas now and then that don't have corn syrup. Only a few brands of ice cream without it.

We had trouble finding BBQ without corn syrup but found a few brands. Trader Joe's now has a brand of catsup without corn syrup but we did okay without it for a long time.

I made marshmallows from maple syrup so our kids could have s'mores at camp.

It has been a pain but it has also made us more aware of the sugar in foods and we just make our own or do without. Avoiding processed foods is the easiest way.

You mean like Thomas Jefferson who edited his own bible where he focuses on the teachings of Jesus and removing the supernatural? http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/JefJesu.html

Or take a look at the list of quotes from the founding fathers on religion. http://skeptically.org/thinkersonreligion/id9.html