2005 Newsletters

The Future of Immortality Richard Layton’s Discussion Group Report Our society's youth orientation has created a consumer culture devoted to prolonging our vitality and lives. Perhaps someday soon scientists will learn how to extend the h...

Life in a Theocracy Without a Free Press Brigham Young, wrote a vengeful ex-wife, "loses his temper every morning over the Salt Lake Tribune --the leading Gentile paper of Utah--and longs for a return of the days when one word of his would...

Ownership Society Richard Layton’s Discussion Group Report "As the American Founders knew and as generations of serious students have long known, an ownership society is a society of responsibility, liberty and prosperity," says Dr. Tom P...

How Secularism Became a Dirty Word Richard Layton’s Discussion Group Report "Four score and 15 years ago, our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and founded not on the authority of God but on the r...

University of Utah Accommodations Policy Gregory A. Clark, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Bioengineering Department, University of Utah presented  A Contrarian's Sincerely-held Beliefs Regarding the University of Utah Accommodations Policy to...

Love, Justice, and the Schools Richard Layton’s Discussion Group Report In facing your own mortality, what final message would you leave to posterity? Steve Allen, one of the world's most outstanding humanists of the 20th century, asked t...

The Quest for Happiness Richard Layton’s Discussion Group Report "Down through the ages, philosophers and poets, politicians and theologians, friends and strangers have argued about the nature of happiness. They haven't been able to settle o...

Global Warming Richard Layton’s Discussion Group Report by Cindy King "The Death of the Environmentalism: Global warming in a Post-environmental World" by Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus and an in-depth response "There is Something D...

What is the Real Danger in Appointing a Conservative Supreme Court? Richard Layton’s Discussion Group Report "Liberals talk as if the world will end if President Bush gets to name some Supreme justices." claims Benjamin Wittes in an article i...

Creating Living Entities Composed of Both Human and Animal Cells: Is It Moral? Richard Layton’s Discussion Group Report There are "valid scientific reasons" for creating chimeras--living entities composed of both human and animal cells--said t...

Our Lying Minds Richard Layton’s Discussion Group Report "I'd love to give you that pay raise," says your boss, but we're not in a financial position to make that happen right now; maybe next year." Or perhaps your children are fighting a...

How Rich is Too Rich for Democracy? Richard Layton’s Discussion Group Report By Bob Mayhew At what point does great wealth held in a few hands actually harm democracy, threatening to turn a democratic republic into an oligarchy? In a...