In 2007, Spherion, a career recruiting and staffing agency, asked 2,000 employees if they had ever taken office supplies for personal use. Nearly 20 percent of employees admitted they had. Surprisingly, the likelihood that someone would use company materials for personal use increased with education and salary level.

For example, 13 percent of employees with a high school education said they pilfered ...

Tiger Woods was put on the spot by an evangelical guest of Nike on October 9, 2006, during an exclusive golf outing for top business and entertainment executives.

That day, 30 people gathered at the Trump golf course in Los Angeles for the 2006 ''Tee It up with Tiger Woods'' event, which included a private golf session and lunch with the living legend. During the lunch, there was a question-and-answer ...

Those who know about these kinds of things say that you should never microwave your vegetables, because doing so removes all the nutritional value. Apparently, nobody explained that to the television executives at NBC. The network added Veggie Tales—a popular and thoroughly Christian cartoon—to its Saturday morning lineup in 2006. But Bob the Tomato and Larry the Cucumber got nuked, as many ...

A new religion invented by a Massachusetts psychologist has been gaining popularity over recent years. Called "Yoism," this system of beliefs is based on the "open source" principle—where the general public becomes a combined, creative authority and source of truth. One example of the "open source" phenomenon is the successful online encyclopedia known as Wikipedia.

Yoism operates and evolves ...

What does Star Wars Episode III: The Revenge of the Sith, have to say about absolute truths?

First, there is an interchange between Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi and his apprentice, Anakin Skywalker, who has allied himself with the evil Sith:

Anakin: “If you're not with me, you're my enemy.”

Obi-wan: “Only a Sith deals in absolutes.”

Later, though, Obi-Wan himself deals in an absolute, as he attempts to ...

In his book The New Absolutes, William Watkins identifies 10 core convictions that govern today's secularists:

(1) Religion interferes with freedom and must be banished from the public square.

(2) Human life is valuable only as long as it is wanted.

(3) Marriage is a human contract made between any two people, and can be terminated for any reason.

(4) Family is any grouping of two or more people.

(5) Sexual ...

Our church rented a theater to watch The Passion of the Christ on opening weekend. Afterward we gathered for dinner, discussion, and prayer. I returned home in a somber mood, deeply reflecting upon the sacrifice of Christ.

When I opened my mail that night, the first letter was from a local church, inviting me to visit their "special community." They listed the ways they were unique:

• No religious dogma—We encourage the freedom of individual thought and belief. A humanist view of life—Our faith is based on celebrating the inherent worth and dignity of every person.

In the Matrix Reloaded, Captain Lock is irritated by Morpheus' unwavering conviction that he has found the savior of humankind and tries to undermine Morpheus' convictions. But Morpheus holds firm.

Captain Lock: Not everyone believes what you believe.

Morpheus: My beliefs do not require them to.

Content: Rated R for language and violence

Warning: There is profanity in the immediate context of this quote. ...

Trail magazine, with 37,000 readers, is one of the most widely distributed climbing magazines.

The February 2004 issue provided directions for climbers descending Britain's highest peak, Ben Nevis. Returning from the 4,409 foot summit in bad weather requires explicit instruction. The article gave step by step advice on navigating the trial down. The directions were wrong.

Roger Wild, the mountain safety ...

Freedom does not mean the absence of constraints or moral absolutes. Suppose a skydiver at 10,000 feet announces to the rest of the group, "I'm not using a parachute this time. I want freedom!"

The fact is that a skydiver is constrained by a greater law--the law of gravity. But when the skydiver chooses the "constraint" of the parachute, she is free to enjoy the exhilaration.

God's moral laws act the ...