Scoop on Primates

An article published this week in the Birmingham Examiner and based on research conducted by the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology indicates that the latest census show a 90% decrease in the wild chimpanzee population in Ivory Coast. The reasons are deforestation, the growth in human population, poaching and civil war. The surviving population is mainly located in protected areas, such as the Tai National Park, which will lose external financial support in 2010. Read the article in the Birmingham Examiner . For more info, visit the site of the  Planck Institute . Visit this link for information on Ivory Coast and Tai National Park .

Is Religion opposed to evolution? As far as Buddhism is concerned, there is no opposition.  As indicated by the Dalai Lama in his new book "The Universe in a Single Atom", if a buddhist concept goes against scientific proof, then science must be accepted.  For more info, check out this review from the New York Times . In the speech he gave at Harvard University in 1993, Daisaku Ikeda , another Buddhist scholar, said: " Buddhism provides a philosophical basis for the symbiotic coexistence of all things.  Among the many images in the Lotus Sutra, a particularly compelling one is the merciful rain that falls everywhere, equally, moistening the vast expanse of the earth and bringing forth new life from all the trees and grasses, large and small.  This scene, depicted with the vividness, grandeur, and beauty characteristic of the Lotus Sutra, symbolizes the enlightenment of all people touched by the Buddha's Law.  At the same time, it is a magnificent tribute to the rich...