MercatorNet. A voice for human dignity. Our focus is parenting and family issues, bioethics, religion, philosophy and entertainment.

Religion flourishes but atheism looks sick

Carolyn Moynihan | 23 January 2006

Why does atheism get such a good press and religion such a bad one when, as a global survey shows, religious people outnumber atheists eleven to one?

Match Point

William Park | 18 January 2006

Despite its trademark nihilism, Woody Allen’s latest film ends up showing that there is order in the universe.

Killing me softly with his song

Michael Cook | 18 January 2006

Euthanasia is back in the news. And no one is more qualified to lead the movement into the 21st century than Philip Nitschke.

Neutrality follies

Richard Bastien | 16 January 2006 | 2

Canada’s chief justice reckons morals are “subjective, arbitrary and unworkable”. Hmm. It’s an interesting principle for drafting laws.

Women converts find liberation in Islam

Carolyn Moynihan | 12 January 2006 | 5

Thousands of western women each year are exchanging hedonism for the headscarf and fasting at Ramadan. Does Islam have something to offer women that Christianity does not?

No more business as usual for stem cell research

Michael Cook | 12 January 2006

Revelations of fraud and unethical conduct in the world’s leading embryonic stem cell lab could lead to a rethink of stem cell ethics.

60 years after Nuremberg, how much have we learned?

Cason Cheely | 10 January 2006 | 1

The trial of German doctors who used prisoners for ghastly experiments during World War II is still relevant today.

Canadians battle over Church-State separation

Richard Bastien | 04 January 2006

The bitter debate over whether private religious beliefs should influence what policies politicians support has become an issue in this month’s election in Canada.

Breaking the spirit

Michael Cook | 03 January 2006

A government's legitimate need to interrogate terror suspects must not be allowed to slide into inhumane torture, argues Marc Zarrouati in this MercatorNet interview.

Freakonomics

Paul Brunker | 03 January 2006

This quirky best-seller about the economics of everyday life is high on entertainment value and low on content — with one controversial exception.

MercatorNet’s pick of 2005

Michael Cook | 31 December 2005

Since our launch last May, MercatorNet has published an amazing range of reading. Here are a dozen of our readers' favourites in 2005.

International adoptions: the role of the media

Adam Pertman | 30 December 2005

In adoptions, as in the rest of life, mistakes and even disasters happen, but this is a field in which the media should be especially careful not to sensationalise. The happiness of tens of thousands of children and would-parents is at stake.

What happens to kids who do drugs when they�re old codgers?

Michael Cook | 28 December 2005

New Year celebrations are often a time for recreation drug use. It’s not a good idea, says Britain’s foremost expert on the medical effects of illegal drugs, Professor John Henry.

Munich

William Park | 28 December 2005

Steven Spielberg has made a controversial but thoughtful film about Israel’s eye-for-an-eye payback for the murders of its athletes at the 1972 Olympic games.