Quotes Roundup- Fall- Winter 2010

Anatole France:

An education isn’t how much you have committed to memory, or even how much you know. It’s being able to differentiate between what you do know and what you don’t.

Eliezer_Yudkowsky:

Reality has been around since long before you showed up. Don’t go calling it nasty names like “bizarre” or “incredible”. The universe was propagating complex amplitudes through configuration space for ten billion years before life ever emerged on Earth. Quantum physics is not “weird”. You are weird.

Steven Novella:

Questioning our own motives, and our own process, is critical to a skeptical and scientific outlook. We must realize that the default mode of human psychology is to grab onto comforting beliefs for purely emotional reasons, and then justify those beliefs to ourselves with post-hoc rationalizations. It takes effort to rise above this tendency, to step back from our beliefs and our emotional connection to conclusions and focus on the process. The process (i.e science, logic, and intellectual rigor) has to be more important than the belief.

Arthur C. Clarke:

Sometimes I think we’re alone in the universe, and sometimes I think we’re not. In either case, the idea is quite staggering.

Carl Sagan:

In science it often happens that scientists say, ‘You know that’s a really good argument; my position is mistaken,’ and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn’t happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.

Galileo:

Long experience has taught me this about the status of mankind with regard to matters requiring thought: the less people know and understand about them, the more positively they attempt to argue concerning them, while on the other hand to know and understand a multitude of things renders men cautious in passing judgment upon anything new.

Goethe, 18th/19th-century German poet, novelist, playwright and philosopher:

You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him.

Thomas Paine:

It is error only, and not truth, that shrinks from inquiry.

Martin Gardner:

Biographical history, as taught in our public schools, is still largely a history of boneheads: ridiculous kings and queens, paranoid political leaders, compulsive voyagers, ignorant generals – the flotsam and jetsam of historical currents. The men who radically altered history, the great scientists and mathematicians, are seldom mentioned, if at all.

Randall Monroe (Author XKCD):

You don’t use science to show you’re right, you use science to become right.

Mark Twain

The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.

Bertrand Russell

There are two motives for reading a book: one, that you enjoy it; the other, that you can boast about it.

From Sara Robinson, explaining perfectly the entire reason for the faux controversy over the “ground zero mosque”:

Conservatives can do without a god, but they can’t get through the day without a devil. Their entire model of reality revolves around the existence of an existential enemy who’s out to annihilate them. Take that focal point away, and their whole worldview collapses into incoherence. This need is so central to their thinking that if there are no actual enemies around, they’ll go to considerable lengths to make some (or just make some up).

Sir Winston Churchill:

Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened.

William Osler:

One special advantage of the skeptical attitude of mind is that a man is never vexed to find that after all he has been in the wrong.

Fred Brooks:

You can learn more from failure than success. In failure you’re forced to find out what part did not work. But in success you can believe everything you did was great, when in fact some parts may not have worked at all. Failure forces you to face reality.

Unknown:

The best substitute for brains is silence.

John Cleese:

The really good idea is always traceable back quite a long way, often to a not very good idea which sparked off another idea that was only slightly better, which somebody else misunderstood in such a way that they then said something which was really rather interesting.

kim hebert:

homeopathy is like paying to watch your body heal itself.

Samuel Butler

The man who lets himself be bored is even more contemptible than the bore.

PZ Myers, on burying his bible:

And so I have. I have treated my copies of the Koran and the Bible with greater respect than they deserve.

Right now, the pages swell with moisture, the fibers separate and the chapters turn into pulpy masses. Bacteria bloom and their colonies expand; fungi flourish and their hyphae infiltrate and convert cellulose into spores. The ink runs as nematodes writhe over the surfaces, etching the words with slime and replacing the follies of dead men with the wisdom of worms. The roots of flowers and grasses will fumble downwards to embrace the decaying leaves, and the roots of trees will impale the volumes laterally. Given only a little time, the madness will be reduced to compost.

At every instant in this gradual process of degradation, the books are being improved and given greater value. And with my decision to discard the poisonous symbols of past ignorance, I became a little more free.

J.B.S. Haldane:

My practice as a scientist is atheistic. That is to say, when I set up an experiment I assume that no god, angel or devil is going to interfere with its course; and this assumption has been justified by such success as I have achieved in my professional career. I should therefore be intellectually dishonest if I were not also atheistic in the affairs of the world.

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Quotes Roundup- Spring-Summer 2010

friends, these are my most recent biannual quotes i have read and enjoyed; please comment if you also enjoy. 

Thomas Paine (via froggey):

Any system of religion that has anything in it that shocks the mind of a child, cannot be a true system.”

Goethe:

Nothing is worth more than this day.

Peter Walker:

The supreme arrogance of religious thinking: that a carbon-based bag of mostly water on a spec of iron-silicate dust around a boring dwarf star … would look up at the sky and declare, ‘It was all made so that I could exist!

H.G. Wells:

When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race”

Bertrand Russell:

Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true happiness.

Neil deGrasse Tyson:

The stars in the universe far outnumber all the words ever uttered by all the humans who have ever lived.

Aldous Huxley:

At least two-thirds of our miseries spring from human stupidity, human malice and those great motivators and justifiers of malice and stupidity: idealism, dogmatism and proselytizing zeal on behalf of religous or political ideas.

Brennen McKenzie:

If you try to picture a pack of Chihuahuas bringing down and savaging an elk, the impact of thousands of years of artificial selection is obvious.

John Cage:

I can’t understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I’m frightened of the old ones.

Bob McCue (oh, how i heart mister mccue):

The most satisfying aspect of parenthood so far has been witnessing my children come into their own as adults. Becoming friends with these surprising human beings is as fresh as life gets. In this and so many other ways, life is sweet. I am a lucky guy who spends most of each day feeling grateful.

R. Feynman:

Physics is like sex. Sure, it may give some practical results, but that’s not why we do it.

Gerald Massey

They must find it difficult, those who have taken authority as the truth, rather than truth as the authority.

Arthur C. Clarke (in his Third Law of Prediction):

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

John Erskine

Music is the only language in which you cannot say a mean or sarcastic thing.

Richard Dawkins:

Hydrogen is a tasteless, invisible gas – and if you give it enough time, it will turn into people.

Anon:

Every morning I wake up on the wrong side of Capitalism.

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Global Warming Resources

the science is too complicated to understand, unless you are a climatologist, so we need to put our trust in where the scientific consensus is at right now.  and the consensus is that ever since 1750^[1] there has been a constant yearly increase of man-made global warming.  other questions about GW such as predicting the effects and future ruin of the earth is not known and one can have their own opinion about that part of the issue.

many articles here are authored by dr. steven novella, of the sgu.  he is my favorite science educator and skeptic on the planet.  he’s the closest thing to a “prophet” for me here on the earth.  i recommend listening to his podcast weekly.

articles on climate change:

“And in the end we have to trust scientists that they were able to detect a global warming trend of 1.5 degrees C since 1880, on the backdrop of all the local and short term fluctuations. I do trust the consensus (NASA can send out a probe and hit Saturn, so they have earned some trust) and I have not heard any arguments that I find compelling to distrust it. But I also understand why many in the public find it difficult to trust.”  (from article:  NASA – Last Decade Warmest on Record)

Scientific Consensus, Climate Change, and Vaccines

videos:

http://cogitatute.blogspot.com/2010/05/climate-denial-crock-of-week.html

Dylan Ratigan vs. Glenn Beck good explanation of climate change

Bill Nye:Those who think Historic Snowstorm disproves Global

other great links showing the consensus amongst climatologists:

Is there a scientific consensus on global warming? (probably the best site with quick-access info)

Scientific Consensus on Global Warming | Union of Concerned Scientists

Is there a scientific consensus on global warming?

climategate:

The Climategate Fiasco

hope that helps!

1.  IPCC. (2007) Climate change 2007: the physical science basis (summary for policy makers), IPCC.

SANDY, UTAH

Photo by R. Scott Lloyd

John Gee speaks to FAIR Conference audience on “the Larger Issue” pertaining to the authenticity of the Book of Abraham. Click for bio of FAIR Conference speakers

While critics of the Church often challenge the authenticity of the Book of Abraham in the Pearl of Great Price, they attach more importance to it than Church members do themselves, a Latter-day Saint Egyptologist said Aug. 6 at the annual conference of the Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research (FAIR).

Such critics lose sight of “the larger issue,” said John Gee, an associate research professor of Egyptology at the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship at BYU.

“The book of Abraham is true,” said Brother Gee, author of A Guide to the Joseph Smith Papyri, at the end of his presentation. “I think it can be defended. I think it should be defended. But it’s not the be-all-and-end-all of either apologetics or research or the scriptures.”

Brother Gee said that in many cases the argument about the Book of Abraham has become so complex that even some of the sharpest critics lose perspective and fail to be consistent in their contentions.

“We cannot afford to lose sight of the big picture,” he said.

He offered a few rules for “apologists,” a word that in this context means defenders:

First, it is not necessary to refute every statement by a critic. “The critic may be wrong about a point, but if it is not central to the argument, one can often let it slide.”

Second, not every argument or point is worth defending. “Even widely held opinions do not need to be defended if they are mistaken,” he said.

Third, truth is not well-served by a bad argument. “We apologists make no claims to perfection, either in ourselves or our arguments, so it is simply better to let go of bad arguments.”

Fourth, though God knows everything, “we do not and cannot,” he said.

“So if what is most important needs to be defended, what are some of the things that need to be defended?” he asked.

He suggested six: God exists; Jesus Christ is His Son; God talked and still talks with men through the power of the Holy Ghost; Jesus Christ atoned for the sins of the world; the Atonement is available to those who trust Jesus, turn from sin, make and keep sacred covenants, and follow the course throughout their lives; and the Book of Mormon is true, an authentic record of God’s interactions with actual ancient people.

“Now, we may be called upon to defend smaller points than these, but if these six things are not true, there is no point in the rest,” Brother Gee said.

“Now where is the Book of Abraham in this?” he asked. “It isn’t. The Book of Abraham is not central to the restored gospel of Christ.”

To illustrate, he said that of all the scriptural citations in general conference since 1942, the Book of Abraham has been cited less than 1 percent of the time. Most of those citations are the seven verses in Abraham 3:22-29, which tell of the pre-mortal existence.

“This is what we as Latter-day Saints care about,” he said. “It is what is important.”

The critics may regard that as vain superstition, he said, “but they seem to deem it not even worthy of attack. What they attack is simply not important to the Latter-day Saints.”

He said that is not to say Church members can or should forego the Book of Abraham, “but simply to give an idea of its relative importance. It is more important than some things and much less important than others.”

Brother Gee gave these summary points:

“First, the arguments about the Book of Abraham have become so complex that even the best and brightest of critics end up arguing unwittingly in favor of the LDS position. “The Document of Breathings made by Isis is not the Book of Abraham, and most Latter-day Saints have never claimed it was,” he said. “Can we agree on that issue and move on?

“Second, the critics do not deal with the issues arising from the Book of Abraham that Latter-day Saints care about. In that sense, their approach is legerdemain and bait-and-switch.

“Third, how the Book of Abraham was translated is unimportant. The Church does not stand or fall on the Book of Abraham.

“And fourth, regardless of how the Book of Abraham was translated, it is a remarkable document that tells us more about Abraham’s day than Joseph Smith could have known.”

He concluded: “These larger issues overshadow the often petty issues that we deal with as apologists, and it is high time we paid attention to the larger issue.”

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quotes roundup- SUMMER 09

every season i put out the best batch o’ comments that i’ve found in the last few months.  this edition may be my best yet!

Kirk Wilson

To say that the earth is only 6,000 years old is the mathematical equivalent of saying its radius is only 28 feet.

PZ Myers on an evolution-inspired school t-shirt:

Evolution is not a religion, no more than sky-is-blueism or gravityism or medicine or mathematics or their shop class. Would they shut down an auto repair class if an Amish family decried their heathen English ways? Pollitt is a pandering moron.

John Remy (from this personal, well-written post on his LDS ex-communication ritual):

Hopefully we’ll see each other as complex humans, worthy of compassion.  [there's a lot of wisdom in these words!]

George Hrab:

Is sex with your clone gay or just extroverted masturbation?

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Multi-Level Marketing

today i was doing some research on Multi-Level-Marketing companies (e.g. MonaVie, Noni, Isagenix, NutraSkin, etc.).  living in utah county, (the most MLM-dense county in the USA) we’ve all been presented with MLM pitches- and we may have even signed up for some.  last year i met an older couple who had made tons of money in Vegas through a MLM they had done in the past.  The secret, they told me, was that the company marketed them as their golden couple and stuck dozens and dozens of people below them in their “down line” so everyone could see an exemplar of success.  they were very up front when they told me that they could not recreate those same earnings when they tried to do it on their own, after the successful MLM went bankrupt (as most do).  they even knew all the tricks of the trade and had experience- but it went nowhere when their only potential down line suddenly shrunk to the small number of friends and family they personally knew.

Note:  please use caution when sharing anything with someone who is involved in a MLM.  they very much act like “true believers” in the sense that they have faith in the potential of their MLM, are motivated more by feelings/personal testimony rather than hard evidence, and may take criticism very personally.  so proceed w/ caution when sharing with others- or don’t share at all.

• from a wikipedia article (emphasis mine):

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a decision, In re Amway Corp., in 1979 in which it indicated that multi-level marketing was not illegal per se in the United States. However, Amway was found guilty of price fixing (by requiring “independent” distributors to sell at the low price) and making exaggerated income claims.^[16]

The FTC advises that multi-level marketing organizations with greater incentives for recruitment than product sales are to be viewed skeptically. The FTC also warns that the practice of getting commissions from recruiting new members is outlawed in most states as “pyramiding”.^[10] In April 2006, it proposed a Business Opportunity Rule intended to require all sellers of business opportunities—including MLMs—to provide enough information to enable prospective buyers to make an informed decision about their probability of earning money.

Another criticism of MLMs is that “MLM organizations have been described by some as cults (Butterfield, 1985), pyramid schemes (Fitzpatrick & Reynolds, 1997), or organizations rife with misleading, deceptive, and unethical behavior (Carter, 1999), such as the questionable use of evangelical discourse to promote the business (Hopfl & Maddrell, 1996), and the exploitation of personal relationships for financial gain (Fitzpatrick & Reynolds, 1997).” ^[18]

MLM’s are also criticized for being unable to fulfill their promises for the majority of participants due to basic conflicts with Western culture.^[19] There are even claims that the success rate for breaking even or even making money are far worse than other types of businesses:^[20][21][22] “The vast majority of MLM’s are recruiting MLM’s, in which participants must recruit aggressively to profit. Based on available data from the companies themselves, the loss rate for recruiting MLM’s is approximately 99.9%; i.e., 99.9% of participants lose money after subtracting all expenses, including purchases from the company.”^[20] In part, this is because encouraging recruits to further “recruit people to compete with [them]“^[23] leads to “market saturation.”^[24]

Similar claims regarding profits have been stated by The Times (“The Government investigation claims to have revealed that just 10 per cent of Amway’s agents in Britain make any profit, with less than one in ten selling a single item of the group’s products.”^[25]), high level “Emerald” Amway member Scheibeler (“UK Justice Norris found in 2008 that out of an IBO [Independent Business Owners] population of 33,000, ‘only about 90 made sufficient incomes to cover the costs of actively building their business.’ That’s a 99.7 percent loss rate for investors.” ^[26](case referred to is BERR vs Amway (Case No: 2651, 2652 and 2653 of 2007) which does list this as one of the points of objectionability: “c) because of the requirement that an IBO pay a joining and renewal fee and the likelihood that an IBO would purchase BSM there was a certainty that the Amway business would cause a loss to a large number of people (to the extent that out of an IBO population which exceeded 33,000 only building their business).”) and Newsweek (where it is stated based on MonaVie’s own 2007 income disclosure statement “fewer than 1 percent qualified for commissions and of those, only 10 percent made more than $100 a week.)” ^[27]

• Here is a short article from the Federal Trade Commission that i also recommend reading:  http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/invest/inv12.shtm
• and here is a longer article from a canadian lawyer and former mormon (“formon”) bishop:  http://mccue.cc/bob/documents/rs.multi-level%20marketing%20and%20mormonism.pdf
• my own experience in an MLM.

hope this might help in some way!

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quotes roundup- winter 08- spring 09

a little late in posting this, but here goes!:

stephen hawking, der spiegel (17 october 1988):

we are just an advanced breed of monkeys on a minor planet of a very average star. but we can understand the universe. that makes us something very special.

Saki:

A little inaccuracy sometimes saves tons of explanation.

Gerry Spence:

I would rather have a mind opened by wonder than one closed by belief.

fred doyle:

Space isn’t remote at all. It’s only an hour’s drive away if your car could go straight upwards.

Tri-fecta of doubt….

Carl Sagan:

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

Marcello Truzzi:

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof.

Pierre-Simon Marquis de Laplace

The weight of evidence for an extraordinary claim must be proportioned to its strangeness.

Paul Bert :

Modern societies march towards morality in proportion as they leave religion behind.

Louis Pasteur

When I approach a child, he inspires in me two sentiments; tenderness for what he is, and respect for what he may become.

Charles Richet

I never said it was possible. I only said it was true.

Jean Rostand

I should have no use for a paradise in which I should be deprived of the right to prefer hell.

Jean Rostand

In order to remain true to oneself one ought to renounce one’s party three times a day.

Publilius Syrus:

I have often regretted my speech, never my silence.

Dale McGowen (author of Raising Children Beyond Belief):

Much of the protest over “nonbeliever” is that it defines us in terms of religious believers. I care about this no more than the fact that “nonsmoker” defines me in terms of smokers and “non-idiot” defines me in terms of idiots. You don’t find many non sequiturs up in arms about being defined in terms of the hated sequitur, nor are the nondescript or noncommital often irate about comparisons to the descript and commital.

Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. seemed not to find their advocacy of nonviolence diminished by the lexical negation of violence. Nor does Nonviolent Peaceforce, the nonpartisan, nonprofit NGO (that’s “non-governmental organization”) for which I work. For each and all of these terms, the prefix is a non-issue.

So why do we continue to waste our pique on such terms as “nonbeliever” and “nonreligious”? I find them both useful and economical. Pile on your polysyllables and modifiers as you wish. I have things to do.

Jean Rostand

Kill a man, and you are a murderer. Kill millions of men, and you are a conquerer. Kill everyone, and you are a god.

Jean Rostand

Science has made us gods even before we are worthy of being men.

Jean Rostand

The divine is perhaps that quality in man which permits him to endure the lack of God.

Jean Rostand

When a scientist is ahead of his times, it is often through misunderstanding of current, rather than intuition of future truth. In science there is never any error so gross that it won’t one day, from some perspective, appear prophetic.

Alexis de Tocqueville

Consider any individual at any period of his life, and you will always find him preoccupied with fresh plans to increase his comfort.

He was as great as a man can be without morality.
Alexis de Tocqueville

History is a gallery of pictures in which there are few originals and many copies.
Alexis de Tocqueville

Slayer (lyrics):

Holy man open up your eyes
To the ways of the world you’ve been so blind
As the walls of religion come crashing down
How’s the ignorance taste the second time around

Tell me how it feels knowing chaos will never end
Tell me what it’s like when the celebration begins

Welcome to the horror of the revelation
Tell me what you think of your savior now
I reject all the Biblical views of the truth
Dismiss it as the folklore of the times
I won’t be force fed prophecies
From a book of untruths for the weakest mind
Join the new faith for the celebration
Cult of new faith fuels the devastation

[Read the complete lyrics]

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Lie to Me- Skeptics’ Take

i’m sure the skeptical/scientific community will add much more insight into the TV show “Lie to Me”, until then, here is what i was able to find in my short research (the following is in the format of a conversation between me my friend Keldwud):

some info on the show:

some people can tell when people are lying slightly better than others:

http://tinyurl.com/dcxm2b

http://tinyurl.com/dg78oo

women are supposedly better than men at detecting lies in one’s face.  the information in those links still doesn’t show that the guy’s abilities in the movie can be seen as science-based, but it may be possible to some degree.  remember, though, that polygraphs are not based on science and can be fooled.

http://skepdic.com/polygrap.html

hope that helps!  as i get more info about that from the skeptic community i’ll share it with you.

he replied, and i then replied to his comments (see how hard this is to follow so far?  well i don’t have the time to edit it- i’m already spending precious saturday night time so deal with good luck with the format  :

On Fri, Feb 20, 2009 at 10:09 PM, KELDWUD> wrote:

Thanks for the links
Yeah, I was figuring they were basing a lot of it off of real studies
but the way they were spinning it made me wonder what parts of it
*weren’t* real. A lot of it is plausible and then they make a good
case by showing famous people with the same expressions as proof that
they are all experiencing the same emotion.

yes, and as you and i both suspect they may be committing a post-hoc fallacy where you have lots of data (lots of pictures of faces) and you match these faces with what you’re looking for to support your theory.  many celebrity faces are shown in one scene’s example (some 20 or so i think) but how many thousands of pictures of celebrities lying were not shown?  it sounds too much like quote-mining Nostradamus in order to get an ambiguous quote that sounded like he predicted 9/11 or something else after the fact.  the book The Bible Code commits this fallacy as well:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lk3VgQgxiqE

…The only thing that it is missing is when people show those
expressions and they *don’t* mean what the others are feeling when
they show those expressions.

Wondering how effective his technique is in real world scenarios and I
am betting that his technique would produce valid hits more often than
not.

What do you think?

this is another very good point as to why even when someone may be generally better at telling when someone is lying, they will not be able to read many people who react differently when they lie.  at best, i think someone may be good at telling if people are lying if they are already familiar with the person (like in a family/friendship), or if they are women (like i said, it’s been shown that they are slightly better than males at detecting deception.from Michael Shermer’s The Science of Good and Evil, page 176 (emphasis mine):

To the extent that lie detection through the observation of body language and facial expressions is accurate (overall not very), women are better at it than men because they are more intuitively sensitive to subtle cues.  in experiments in which subjects observe someone either truth telling or lying, although no one is consistently correct in identifying the liar, women are correct significantly more often than men .  [...] People who are highly skilled in identifying “micromomentary” facial expressions are also more accurate in judging lying.  In testing such professionals as psychiatrist, polygraphists, court judges, police officers, and secret service agents on their ability to detect lies, only secret service agents trained to look for subtle cues scored above chance.  Most of us are not good at lie detection because we rely too heavily on what people say rather than on what they do.  Subjects with damage to the brain that renders them less attentive to speech are more accurate at detecting lies, such as aphasic stroke victims who were able to identify liars 73 percent of the time when focusing on facial expressions (normal subjects did no better than chance).

I think it’s kind of a mixed bag, but one thing i think must be on the bullshit side are the cute little face gestures he teaches as being indicators of dishonesty.  this black/white methodology sounds to simple to be true, too learnable that it would easily taught and widely used today in all of the professions listed above.  it seems that the aphasic stroke victims most likely used intuition and nothing that could be listed or depicted in a textbook (ie “this curl of the lip here suggests…”).

FWIW, that’s the info i could come up with so far… hope it helps someone else out in pointing them in the right direction.  good luck!  if you’re from San Fransisco, you can attend this on the subject as well:  http://www.psychologicalscience.org/convention/program_2009/search/viewProgram.cfm?Abstract_ID=15583

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safran vs. exorcist- true or false?

hopefully you’ve checked out all of the safran vs. god episodes (all 8 of them).  they’re great!  lots of laughs and religious skepticism.  but the last episode, safran actually gets possessed.  it’s a trip to watch and safran has never cleared up what happened.  he actually believes it may have been real, as do his camera crew.  watch the video:

so what happened? well i think i’ve figured out something plausible… first of all, this is most likely just hypnotism, or in other words a mutually agreed upon play between the exorciser and the “possessed”. in order for suggestive hypnotism to work, the receiver must be highly or moderately suggestible. i believe safran is quite suggestible: in watching all 8 episodes of safran vs. god you see safran being OPEN to new religions and worldviews. although he maintains a skeptical outlook during his experiences, he DOES want to experience “the spiritual” through drinking peyote all night, and in another episode says “i hope i really do get possessed tonight” while attending a Voodoo ceremony and seeing others dance and writhe on the ground. Clearly he was open, susceptible and suggestible. as far as i’ve read, any interviews after this video took place show safran actually believing what happened was real.*

in addition to safran’s suggestive demeanor, he gives himself over to the services of an extremely professional, intimidating and psychological bully. this seasoned mindfucker plays on safran’s fragile feelings of guilt and filthiness**, while feeding him fear of satan and christ. add to this how scary it would be to be commanded to keep looking into this crazy dudes eyes as he slaps you around with a bible and your done. i felt intimidated, threatened and scared just watching this, imagine now if someone controls not only what you are seeing, and thinking, but also controls your body movement by holding you down? your mind can freak out and will play along if the exorciser paints the hallucionoginic picture well enough.

any other thoughts/explanations?

 

*although not accepting any particular theology over another.
**remember the catholic father episode where he repents?

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Quotes Roundup- Spring 2008

oops!  i’m a little late on this one, but…

every three months i post a lump of good quotes i heard/read during the season (click on the category ‘quotes‘ on my sidebar to see my on-going collection). so, here are the quotes i’ve rounded up during this year’s spring season!

the first bunch came from mike‘s blog:

Bart Simpson:

Phew I’m glad we came to our senses and worship a 2.000 year old carpenter.

Bill Hicks:

If I thought the Jews killed God, I’d worship the Jews.

Woody Allen:

If only God would give me some clear sign! Like making a large deposit in my name at a Swiss bank.

Homer Simpson:

Suppose we’ve chosen the wrong god. Every time we go to church we’re just making him madder.

Homer Simpson:

I’m normally not a praying man, but if you’re up there, save me Superman!

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Jon Haidt And “The Happiness Hypothesis”

It is important to note that we are often far more capable of changing the basic conditions of our lives than we believe. THH sheds light on why we tend to unnecessarily stay in unhappiness producing circumstances.[7] On the other hand, the massive effort required to drag oneself from the middle class into the super wealthy category or achieve other significant social status markers, appears to pay negligible happiness dividends unless the process by which these symbols are obtained is itself enjoyable. That is, happiness is about the journey. Those who endure the journey in hope that the destination will pay off are almost invariably frustrated. And continuously arriving at seemingly desirable destinations (buying as opposed to earning, for example) is ironically depressing. Many major life events, such as moving to the climate that seems most desirable, winning the lottery, or becoming a paraplegic have surprisingly small happiness effects.

Today we effortlessly obtain more than any prior generation dreamed possible and are faced with a supreme irony – we have reached the Nirvana toward which our ancestors climbed, and it turns to dust as we grasp it.

Review by Bob McCue below. Highlights/bold by me.

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empathy for “the moderates”

the following post, along with POI’s recent podcast with Austin Dacey have helped me re-think some of my views towards the moderately religious.

writerdd (of the skepchick blog) had this interesting post which i respect since it’s coming from an open and skeptical mind:

Should We Embrace Moderate Christianity?

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Jesus and Mo: Bang

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colon cleaning and detox

websites like drnatura.com have a lot of people interested in colon cleansing and detox. with pictures and testimonials like the following one, it sounds promising:

The Root Cause and The Dirtiest Secret

So what is the root cause of most digestive ailments? Look at the picture below. How would you feel if long pieces of old toxin-filled fecal matter were stuck to the inside of your colon for months or even years? Would you feel constipated, bloated and lethargic? Would your bowels be irritated by this debris day in and day out causing what we call IBS? Just think about what else toxic build-up like this can cause? Stomach pain and constipation? Fatigue, gas and bloating? Headaches and indigestion? Weight gain and a large protruding belly? The list is almost endless.

science-based medicine has a couple of great articles on this alternative medicine. and if it’s worth doing or not.

Colon “cleanses”: A load of you know what…

Would you like a liver flush with that colon cleanse?

see also:  The Detoxification Myth (Skeptoid podcast #83) Read | Listen

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Anti-Science LDS

Statements like this illustrate why i’ll never go back to such an organization.

Quote by Thomas Monson, The Lighthouse of the Lord: A Message to the Youth of the Church, Ensign, February 2001:

Remember that faith and doubt cannot exist in the same mind at the same time, for one will dispel the other.

Should doubt knock at your doorway, just say to those skeptical, disturbing, rebellious thoughts: ‘I propose to stay with my faith, with the faith of my people. I know that happiness and contentment are there, and I forbid you, agnostic, doubting thoughts, to destroy the house of my faith. I acknowledge that I do not understand the processes of creation, but I accept the fact of it. I grant that I cannot explain the miracles of the Bible, and I do not attempt to do so, but I accept God’s word. I wasn’t with Joseph, but I believe him. My faith did not come to me through science, and I will not permit so-called science to destroy it.‘

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India: Black Magician tries to Kill Atheist on Live TV

…using black magic, of course.

Summary via Pharyngula:

The laughing fellow on the left is Sanal Edamaruku, president of Rationalist International and atheist. The cranky old man in the robes on the right is Pandit Surinder Sharma, a self-described Tantrik Magician. The scene is in a studio on Indian television, where the magician is trying to kill the atheist with sorcery. Sharma had said he could kill anyone with sympathetic magic inflicted on a doll made of dough, and that he could accomplish this in a mere three minutes … so Edamaruku confidently offered himself as a victim. The old fake went on for hours and failed.

After nearly two hours, the anchor declared the tantrik’s failure. The tantrik, unwilling to admit defeat, tried the excuse that a very strong god whom Sanal might be worshipping obviously protected him. “No, I am an atheist,” said Sanal Edamaruku. Finally, the disgraced tantrik tried to save his face by claiming that there was a never-failing special black magic for ultimate destruction, which could, however, only been done at night. Bad luck again, he did not get away with this, but was challenged to prove his claim this very night in another “breaking news” live program.

Edamaruku obliged and willing went to his “doom” that night.

The encounter took place under the open night sky. The tantrik and his two assistants were kindling a fire and staring into the flames. Sanal was in good humour. Once the ultimate magic was invoked, there wouldn’t be any way back, the tantrik warned. Within two minutes, Sanal would get crazy, and one minute later he would scream in pain and die. Didn’t he want to save his life before it was too late? Sanal laughed, and the countdown begun. The tantriks chanted their “Om lingalingalingalinga, kilikilikili….” followed by ever changing cascades of strange words and sounds. The speed increased hysterically. They threw all kinds of magic ingredients into the flames that produced changing colours, crackling and fizzling sounds and white smoke. While chanting, the tantrik came close to Sanal, moved his hands in front of him and touched him, but was called back by the anchor. After the earlier covert attempts of the tantrik to use force against Sanal, he was warned to keep distance and avoid touching Sanal. But the tantrik “forgot” this rule again and again.

Now the tantrik wrote Sanal’s name on a sheet of paper, tore it into small pieces, dipped them into a pot with boiling butter oil and threw them dramatically into the flames. Nothing happened. Singing and singing, he sprinkled water on Sanal, mopped a bunch of peacock feathers over his head, threw mustard seed into the fire and other outlandish things more. Sanal smiled, nothing happened, and time was running out. Only seven more minutes before midnight, the tantrik decided to use his ultimate weapon: the clod of wheat flour dough. He kneaded it and powdered it with mysterious ingredients, then asked Sanal to touch it. Sanal did so, and the grand magic finale begun. The tantrik pierced blunt nails on the dough, then cut it wildly with a knife and threw them into the fire. That moment, Sanal should have broken down. But he did not. He laughed. Forty more seconds, counted the anchor, twenty, ten, five… it’s over!

Video:  Part 1, Part 2 & Part 3.

Full story archived below:

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Winter (2007-08) Quotes Roundup

Happy Spring Equinox!

eis meus predileitos de recem…

Bill Maher:

you can’t be a rational person six days a week…and on one day of the week, go to a building, and think you’re drinking the blood of a two thousand year old space god. via

Prov 14:15, 18:

The simple believeth every word: but the prudent man looketh well to his going…
The simple inherit folly: but the prudent are crowned with knowledge.

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Meditation and Self Control

Have you heard about the guy who was buried in dirt in a construction accident and yet survived for two hours on almost no air?  Or have you seen the video of a monk who set himself on fire and died without squirming or screaming in pain?  crazy self control.  maybe.  i’m skeptical but very curious.  even sam harris is very interested in meditation so there may be something to it.  or not.

anyways, i recently sent this e-mail to the SGU and i wanted to pose the same questions to any readers/visitors to this blog as well:

Hey skepdudes and chicks!

First off, I’ve listened to all of your episodes and give all of my friends an mp3 disc of your shows for them to check you out too.  The woo is rampant here in Utah!

Anyways I have a couple items of interest on meditation:  The first is this news item where a buddhist construction worker was able to survive being buried alive in an accident for two hours on almost no oxygen, via meditation:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=528432&in_page_id=1811

The second story is one I have only heard about- it is about a monk (or Jainist, I’m not sure) who set himself on fire (Self-immolation) and did not scream in pain as he sat and died.  Supposedly there is video of this somewhere as well.

Meditation is cool, but I’m skeptical as to if it is actually <i>this</i> cool.

Thanks!

i just found the video of the monk sat on fire here:  http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=c06_1178706971.  a quick reaction/explanation may be that the video is so short that he could have squirmed and screamed to death afterwards.  maybe not.  interesting nonetheless and i’d love any input from you guys.

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super antioxidant crime fighting fruits

here in utah there are a lot of mlm‘s (see post mormon bob mccue’s take on why). many of them nowadays are based on who’s got the baddest-ass super antioxidants in their chocolate bars. i actually signed up for one almost two years ago. i forked out a thousand bucks to have the honor of selling the companies product to friends and family. luckily for me, though, i had recently stumbled upon skepticism and the skeptic’s guide to the universe podcast. yes, i could have been more savvy merely on my own by being less credulous to claims, but i actually needed to learn about critical thinking in order for my right brain to overpower my less-critical fantasy prone lefty. actually, is that the other way around? nope, i don’t think left and right even have anything to do with this. so anyways, i was sitting in a meeting where the mlm company was trying to sell their product (or more importantly the money-making side of it), and one of the speakers was crucial to the validity of their product and its claims.

the man was a doctor, and a cancer patient, and finally a user and product-pusher as well. he told us firstly the medical benefits to ridding your body of free-ranging radical antibodies (or something like that), we calmly nodded in agreement to his arguments (see just taking a doctor’s word for it), and he told us “go look for yourself on the internet” all of the research being done proving the importance of anti-oxidants. he then proceeded to share his own experiences (see anecdotal evidence) of how he has been getting much better with regards to his cancer, after using the super fruit. and finally he told us that he had friends in the audience who he is bringing into the mlm to show how exciting the business-end of it is as well.

with that triple-whammy of a presentation, you’d feel like a fool to not take advantage of this cash-producing health elixir. like i said, i had recently got into skepticism and critical thinking. instead of taking doc’s word for it, i checked out the research going on on pub-med. after a half an hour of research i could find hardly anything supporting the exaggerated benefits of anti-oxidants, and i actually came across several sites (from other doctors and scientists) countering the claim of these super fruits. one said that a $40 bottle of Noni (or other comparable product) will produce the same health benefits as a $2 bottle of orange juice.

another site warned of these kind of companies who use mlm as their method of distribution, the site advised “most of the time a company like this will have a spokesperson, who is currently using and selling the product, and may even claim to be recovering from cancer as a result”. well those kind of things hit me right between the eyes as it had called out the exact structure of the company i had just invested a grand in!

happily i quickly got out with a full refund (and bought a nice sofa with the money instead). but interestingly enough, when i tried to share this same information with some friends of mine who had also got into it, they quickly dismissed the information.  yes, they were already true-believers.  and you know how hard it is to change someone’s beliefs once they’ve made up their mind about something.  it was interesting to see cognitive dissonance at work even in the market place, but it’s there and significant.  (Michael Shermer has a great new book out on how we evolved to think and act in the marketplace.  i just listened to an MP3 of him speaking on the subject but i can’t find it again, so no link for you!)

so anyways, i was and am proud of myself for taking the time to do research about something and not just believing someone because of their apparent authority on the subject and their testimonials.  i am also proud of myself for doing the exact same with religion (see the parallels, anyone?)

great, skeptical articles:

• MonaVie and other “superfruit” juices, and
• Super Fruit Juices – The New Snake Oil

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Fasting: “it does a body bad”

bob novella also explores the myths about colon cleansing and “ridding toxins” from the body.   a good, quick read.

source

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What was your first cog dis?

what was your first experience with cognitive dissonance, or one of the first times that you realized something didn’t add up in your religious world-view?  for me i have a couple of really early ones (see post here, paragraphs 3 and 4- starting with the words “i think we all of us”- i know great grammar, right).  today i was thinking about the song i mentioned in my previous post by George Hrab called “Heaven Must Be Really Boring” (copy and save link to listen).  this was actually my first cog dis as a little kid.  i thought how boring it was when i absolutely obeyed all of the rules and was super perfect to my friends and family.  i thought how fun it was to be a trouble maker every now and then, doing pranks on people or just joking around and messing with people.  as a kid i didn’t think i could take it being in heaven where jokes must be strictly prohibited (unless you’re telling the latest jokes you heard from your second grader or something off of a laffy taffy wrapper).  “how boring”, i would think to myself.  so that was my first cog dis.  didn’t think the world would be interesting without good and bad, extacy and suffering.  even in the book of mormon it says that those things are necessary to exist together so how could there be a place where everything was sweet, never sour- you never broke a leg or got sick.  how could you savor food after going without for a day?  how could you appreciate the blessing goodness of health and normalcy without going through a few days of having the flu or food poisoning?  after i threw out my back last year for a day i couldn’t wait to just run around- i couldn’t believe the simple things i was taking for granted like being able to sit up and walk!  imagine if that was nothing to me anymore because i could fly anywhere i wanted or even travel by merely thinking of a location (LDS semi-doctrine).  and today i had a brother-in-law call my wife saying he would be so sad if he were a god enjoying his exaltation one day without his sister!   what?  how could you be enjoying your exaltation knowing you had family that was suffering in another place?  that wouldn’t be heaven!  …and all because your sister was a good person, good mother, good wife, good life- but she’s damned b/c she got it wrong when it came to earth’s theology exam?  i don’t believe in that god.  couldn’t imagine him separating people from their loved ones just b/c they couldn’t figure out “the most important message in the world”- that happened to be written in impossible-to-understand parables, and context of the times.  from the reason driven podcast, ep.1 Robert M. Price says:

and so this theoretically inspired book just doesn’t matter as long as it remains ambiguous.  take the part in Corinthians- if the trumpet call is not clear who’s going to come to battle, or who’s going to know what to do?

we’re right to be showing some skepticism towards this gospel that shows a cruel god in the old testament and immoral behavior in the NT.  and what if god, being a scientist himself (he created the elements and the universe, right? that makes him a scientist in my book), would he possibly applaud skeptical thought from an individual over blind faith from the same person?  would he not respect you more if you were honest to yourself and “doubted” than if you just said “shut up, brain” and insisted on believing?

my other cog dis as a kid was when i was 7 (under the age of accountability), not yet baptized and i saw a picture of a woman in a swimsuit.  i realized to myself that i could have sex with a girl if i wanted to (now that i think of it though i probably wouldn’t have been very successful picking up a girl) and it wouldn’t be a sin yet since i wasn’t baptized and didn’t have “the age of accountability” yet.  i realized i could do anything in the world and it would be okay.  i ended up deciding to just be a kid, play some pranks on people, joke around with my friends, maybe even tell some dirty jokes- in the end, i just wanted to have fun.

what was your first cog dis? comment below.

for more stories of first cog dis’s, see here.

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Links for Wednesday

• Just watched Sicko last night. Moore’s best film by far, IMO. a must-see for every american. this goes along the movie’s message:

France Best, US Worst in Preventable Death Ranking – CommonDreams.org

WASHINGTON – France, Japan and Australia rated best and the United States worst in new rankings focusing on preventable deaths due to treatable conditions in 19 leading industrialized nations, researchers said on Tuesday.

If the U.S. health care system performed as well as those of those top three countries, there would be 101,000 fewer deaths in the United States per year, according to researchers writing in the journal Health Affairs. via

• eating the body of christ- a new theory on the disappearance of His body (thanks, gus)
• Dementia drug instant hit

• US scientists claim a drug can reverse some of the early symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease – with the first effects seen within 10 minutes.

• idaho guy sees the mark of the beast on his hand and cuts it off, microwaves the hand (your usual steps to taking care of this latter-day ‘beast-itis’)
  • The New Testament Book of Revelation contains a passage in which an angel is quoted as saying, according to the New International Version of the Bible, “If anyone worships the beast and his image and receives his mark on the forehead or on the hand, he, too, will drink the wine of God’s fury.”
• Mike Huckabee wants to copy-paste the bible into the constitution!  (link to PZ Myers)

• The Cruise Indoctrination Video Scientology Tried to Suppress- Pretty crazy shiite.
• King of the Rats weighed One Ton!  Fossil hunters have uncovered the greatest rodent that ever lived — a one-tonne behemoth that bestrode the swamplands of South America some four million years ago.

  The newly-identified species is the greatest-known member of the order Rodentia and by comparison makes the biggest rodent alive today, the 60-kilo (132-pound) capybara, look like a pygmy shrew.

  The skull of the extraordinary beast was found in a broken boulder on Kiyu Beach on the coast of Uruguay’s River Plate region.

  Measuring a whopping 53 centimetres (21 inches), the skull has massive incisors several centimetres long.

  Despite this fearsome look, the creature was not carnivorous and looked more hippo-like than rat-like.

  Its small grinding teeth suggest it had only weak masticatory muscles for chewing food, and probably tucked into soft vegetation, fruit and squidgy aquatic plants in deltas, the experts say.

  The newly-found species has been dubbed Josephoartigasia monesi, in honour of Alvaro Mones, a Uruguayan palaeontologist who specialised in South American rodents.  via

• Penn Jillette has new Vodcast called Penn Says
• Your Inner Fish (author interviewed by Stephen Colbert)
• New Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe Podcast- a 5-minute bite-sized version available here
• Two Utah men try to purchase beer after 1 am (that’s a no-no here), are then denied, and:
  • the suspects then allegedly also asked if they could steal some beer, to which the clerk replied “yes, but Jesus is watching.”

    Investigators say the suspects showed a pistol, then took the beer and left $9 on the counter and could now face armed robbery charges if caught.

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the token atheist in movies

atheists in movies are always the kind who have no arguments for their worldview, but just arrived at disbelief b/c of the cruelness of the world.  these thoughts that follow by PZ Myers echo my own.  i recently watched The Reaping, where the atheist-skeptic (based on Joe Nickell) in the movie also fits this description perfectly:

I recently saw the new Will Smith movie, I Am Legend, last night. In short, it was far worse than I expected, with a drawn out and rather boring beginning (Smith is lonely, everyone is dead except for his dog. Got it), and the ending felt like a stapled-on feel-good absurdity that didn’t follow from the premise—and is only a happy ending if your dream of paradise is an armed camp of Christians. The only virtue I’d heard about the story is that the hero is openly atheist … but that was a disappointment, too, because I discovered he was the wrong kind of atheist.

Atheists in the movies aren’t that common. Most seem to be cast as amoral opportunists — the villains. They are rarely cast as the hero, and when they are there is only one atheist stereotype allowed in that role, and Will Smith filled it perfectly.

The acceptable atheist is the one who has faced so much tragedy, whose life has been damaged by cruel fate to such a degree that his declaration that there is no god is understandable. He is a failed Job; he’s portrayed not as an actual contented atheist, but as someone who has broken under the burden a god has placed on him, and is therefore a sympathetic figure, and also is implicitly endorsing the audience’s beliefs about god. Job without god, after all, is just a deluded loser.

That’s the standard trope: the atheist is a broken man, a nihilist, a cynic, someone who has come to his disbelief as a consequence of a devastating emotional experience. This is the kind of atheist theists are comfortable with — but it’s not the kind of atheists the New Atheists [who are not "new"] are, and especially not the scientific branch. We don’t fit into their unthinking convention, which is probably why they stuck us with the label “new”.

There are atheists who look on a tragedy and cry, “There is no god,” in despair. But we are atheists who look on beauty and complexity and awesome immensity and shout out, “There is no god!” and we are glad.

That’s the distinction we’ve got to get across. We are fulfilled, happy atheists who rejoice in the superfluity of the old myths. We generally don’t have a tragic backstory — quite the contrary, we’ve come to our conclusions because we have found natural explanations satisfying and promising.

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Happy Chrismahanukkwanzakuhsolsticemas!

Christmas this year was a ton of fun. last year i was in hawaii and the vacation-side of our hawaii trip was incredible, the holiday-side wasn’t so great. i had a couple of siblings who never wanted to leave the condo to go to the beach, go on hikes or do anything, and this caused some contention between us (our parents had spent a lot of money on the trip).

this year has been great, though. i feel the “christmas spirit”, i got a few days off of work to be with my family, cuddled as a family in bed this morning and will be surrounded by loved ones today. yesterday i spent the day last-minute shopping at our two local malls with all of my brothers and sisters and best friend. my grandma and my parents visited our new apartment. we hid the coffee-maker. my dad had a very special holiday-rant about “his amazing god-made heart and how his man-made mechanical valve (which is sustaining his life right now) just doesn’t compare to god’s marvelous creations (which didn’t last sixty years of human wear and tear). i thought it was incredible to see someone knock the very thing that saved his life- science. in the room there were also two survivors of surgery and one cancer survivor as well. we all owed our life to science. a hundred years or so ago we’d all have been dead. that was the norm for thousands of years now, was to expect a short lifespan- even with religious prayer and blessings being commonplace. life-expectancy didn’t change until science changed it.

our daughter has been so sweet this holiday season. she’s 7, and whenever anyone asks her what she wants for christmas, she says “just love”. she’s really sweet. no, i don’t think she’s deprived of love from her parents, haha, it probably has something to do with the fact that she just recently had a b’day full of presents and that her room is already overflowing with toys from us, her grandparents and her aunts and uncles. she’s borederline spoiled. but that’s what she always says is that she just wants love. very cute and mature, i think. she said she’s the only one in her class that said that to her teacher, too. “another boy said he wanted the whole world”, she told us later. whenever she asks about the existence of santa i let her think it out for herself. she usually ends up doubting but i can tell she likes to “play along” in the tradition like most kids do.

so i’m very thankful that this year was a good one for me and my family and i look forward to having this special time allotted culturally to be able to be with my loved ones. i also look forward to making some goals for the new year, and celebrating the holidays with some good parties.

to all my friends out there- MERRY CHRISTMAS!

…and remember to relax…christmas is fun! it doesn’t have to be true just like halloween doesn’t have to be true We don’t have to believe in a thing to like it.

and now for some skeptical links for christmas:

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links of interest

• okay, let’s talk about the blue guy, by rebecca
• “Little White Lies”, by Mitt Romney
• Curiosity, Aroused new skeptical radio show by rebecca (download)
• 2-D invisibility cloak for visible light created, by ScienceDaily
• Insurance: Why it Sucks, by Good Math Bad Math

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more on thanksgiving…

jesus and mo

daniel dennet:  “thank goodness, not god on thanksgiving”

the Skeptic’s Circle:  “The evolution of thanksgiving“

livescience:  what humans should be thankful for (click ‘more’)

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The Truth about Tryptophan

gobble gobble.

http://www.snopes.com/food/ingredient/turkey.asp

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demonic séances, satanic callings/summonings

hopefully that heading will grab the attention of a lot of people, especially anyone googling those words, or any devil-worshippers or Wiccans (not the same thing, mind you) that may be able to help out with the following:

***if anyone knows the mother of all demon-summoning séances (to call upon demons or whatever), i’d like to know what that would be.  there are actually two problems with this, however:  one, being that the Church of Satan or Satanists, are nothing more than atheists who enjoy halloween-type ceremonies and indulging in pleasure.  no claims to real demons there, though.  second problem is that if someone knew how to summon demons and were able to get anything other than normal house noises from a seance, then they would be able to claim Randy’s $Million.  soooo…. not much hope in this at all but it would be nice to not “wonder” about the possibilities of demons anymore, you know?

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happy halloween!

i wanted to write about two experiences halloween-ish that i’ve had but just haven’t found time to do it.  i’ll hopefully write about them soon.  regardless to say, last year for halloween i went to a real practicing witch (wiccan) and talked to her about magic and evil spirits, had her read my tarot cards etc., and last december when i was in hawaii i investigated a real “haunted” forest in Oahu.  the guy said i wouldn’t last a half hour in there alone but i brought a sleeping bag and camped out all alone.  these were two of my biggest and most recent investigations into the paranormal, i’m no Joe Nickell but i’d love to have a career like he’s had.  he was recently interviewed on the Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe so check out that interview.

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Haunted Houses

Joe Nickell (check out his interviews on the Point of Inquiry podcast) is the leading paranormal investigator.  The Reaping‘s (2007 thriller film) main character was based on Nickell.  Here’s an interview about some of his investigations:

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shermer on ‘the secret’

original article

more on ‘the secret‘.

The Real Secret

Michael Shermer 10.09.07, 6:00 PM ET

According to that sage dispenser of pop philosophy, Yogi Berra, “In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is.”

This is sound advice for anyone contemplating plunking down $23.95 for one of the hottest-selling books in America today, The Secret (also a DVD at $34.95), by Rhonda Byrne and a cadre of self-help gurus. Thanks to Oprah Winfrey’s endorsement, the series has sold over 3 million copies combined.

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Quotes- Summer Roundup ’07

It’s the end of the summer and at the end of each season i make a post lumping together the best quotes i’ve found, so here goes summer’s:

Maybe this isn’t the only Universe. There might have been a string of them, reaching back in time, in meta-time beyond time. In those other Universes, maybe the electron had more charge, and stars couldn’t form. Or maybe it had less, and every star collapsed into a black hole. But if you get enough Universes, and the constants change in each one, then eventually one will get the mix right. Stars will last for billions of years, planets can form, life can evolve, and on one blue green ball of dust, chemicals can get complicated enough that they could look inside themselves, understand what they see, and marvel at the very fact of their own existence.And maybe, just maybe, they can also figure out how it all came to be. This isn’t fantasy, folks, it’s science. It’s how things work. -Phil Plait

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An LDS Skeptic?

today i stumbled upon a blogger who likes to write on science and religion. about his background, he says:

I was born and raised in the Church, served a mission in the U.S., graduated from BYU, completed a Ph.D. in microbiology, and am now a postdoctoral researcher.

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Perry Passed Away

Perry’s wit, humor and great skepticism will be truly missed from The Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe.  No one can replace that sarcastic raspy voice.

Some links, of note:

• Funny quotes and audio files from the SGU including many by Perry
• Rebbecca (from Skepchick) mourns the loss

This is one of Perry’s last recordings on the show before he passed away.  He was kind of drugged-up in the hospital at the time so his “skeptical quote of the week” came out pretty funny.  You can listen to it here.

Hopefully someone reading this will find the Skeptic’s Guide for the first time find out how funny and smart Perry was.

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The Story of How I Lost My Faith

The Devolution of my Faith or the Evolution of reason in me

I’ve recently lost my faith in my childhood religion- Mormonism. It still hurts in some ways but is alleviating and invigorating in many more. I’ve posted my story here.

If anyone has any ideas how to restore a faith that’s lost, I’ve offered somewhat of a “challenge” at the end of the post. I’d love to hear what you think.

Here is a short letter I wrote to Steven Novella, host of the Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe:

I just wanted to let you know that your podcast has been extremely enlightening and liberating for me. Learning critical thinking skills from you (I give all of the credit to the 100 podcasts of yours I have listened to, and to Thomas Kida’s short book) has finally liberated me from my childhood religion- Mormonism. It is still hard for me to accept this and I question myself everyday but upon entertaining these thoughts I always come to the same iron-clad conclusion: the only thing acceptable for myself is science and reason (and skepticism)! Skepticism is, after all, only well-done science.

I love science like you can’t imagine (well i’m sure you can, actually). My brother does too- he quickly became an atheist and great skeptic after only months of being introduced to your podcast. To him, you are our current greatest skeptical mind. I’d probably have to agree with him.

Just to let you know, my brother and I both served two-year missions for our church and were highly dedicated to the faith.

I’ve written a post about my slow but sure “exit” from mormonism here:

http://onedudesms.wordpress.com/2007/06/21/last-post-sniff-sniff-tear/ (comment on it if you like!)

The reason I am writing you about this is, like i said earlier, you were “one of the nails in the coffin” for me to lose my faith in faith. Thank you so much!

I appreciate and listen to your podcast every week and little by little I’m chipping away at the hard shells of the people around me. The mind is a tricky thing to convince against it’s own pre-supposed notions. It could be an anthropologist’s dream to see the heatedly stubborn cognitive dissonance exhibited here in Utah, and by my father and some close friends. A psychologist’s dream as well, naturally.

Please keep it up- you are doing an amazing job with the skeptical rougues by your side. I just wrote your brother Jay about how your panel’s personalities compliment each other so well- hearing the wit, science and logical thinking from your podcast each week is better than any TV show on the air. It’d be awesome if the Skeptic’s Guide could get their own show on TV one day- it could change the nation little by little. Like it’s changed me. So thanks again and i’ll write to you again in a couple of weeks with some questions I have for you guys (like is modern man still not completely walking upright- notice how it’s natural for everyone to slouch).

I’ll let you go- thanks again Steve!

markii

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The Secret

So so funny. I need to sell my copy on eBay soon (a good-intentioned gift from my mother-in-law).

The Chaser’s War on Everything – The Secret


Here’s a quick, easy one-two from Michael Shermer:

The (Other) Secret

The inverse square law trumps the law of attraction

By Michael Shermer

An old yarn about a classic marketing con game on the secret of wealth instructs you to write a book about how to make a lot of money and sell it through the mail. When your marks receive the book, they discover the secret–write a book about how to make a lot of money and sell it through the mail.

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Phalluses and Fallocies Part 1- Nature

We are pattern-seeking animals and here are some great examples in Pareidolia (where one sees familiar objects in random natural objects). Pretty funny stuff. (see also: Part two- Logos, and Part three- advertisements)

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Phalluses and Fallocies Part 2- Logos

We are pattern-seeking animals and here are some great examples in Pareidolia (where one sees familiar objects in random natural objects). Pretty funny stuff. (see also: Part One- Nature, and Part three- advertisements)

A Dental Clinic in Latin America

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Phalluses and Fallocies Part 3- Advertisements

We are pattern-seeking animals and here are some great examples in Pareidolia (where one sees familiar objects in random natural objects). Pretty funny stuff. (also: Part one- nature, Part two- Logos)

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Hadjicostas the Homeopath: A Short Study of Fallacies

Steven Novella of the Skeptic’s Guide answers a Homeopathist’s (sp?) claim and scientific challenge promoting the efficacy of Homeopothy.  This gives Dr. Novella a great opportunity to disect the argument and exploit the fallacies it contained.

Great examples of Anecdotal Evidence (even in large numbers), False Dichotomy, and the Placebo Effect are included in the article.

Also of note Steven says,

The reference to quantum physics to explain apparently impossible effects, such as homeopathy, is becoming almost ubiquitous among promoters of pseudoscience. The strange behavior of atomic and subatomic particles described by quantum mechanics does not apply to the macroscopic world. Quantum effects do not apply to people, and quantum mechanics cannot rescue homeopathy or any similar pseudoscience from extreme scientific implausibility.

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csi: b.s.

Fan of “Law and Order: Criminal Intent,” “CSI”, or “CSI: Miami”? Ever wondered how close to reality these dramas really are? A reporter who attended the annual meeting of the American Academy of Forensic Science (AAFS) in San Antonio, Texas wrote an article about it. Here’s a snippet from MSNBC:

It takes weeks to get a toxicology report, not the 45 seconds (with musical accompaniment) you see on TV. DNA? That takes even longer and is a real budget buster. That is, if they can find it in the first place … apparently criminals don’t blithely leave their DNA around and even if they do, there’s the problem of contamination. And fingerprints? Don’t even get me started. Do you know how hard it is to find a useable print? I found out in San Antonio.

According to the law-enforcement officials I spoke to at the conference, the average police department doesn’t have money in its budget for the officers they need, never mind ballistic databases, photo-enhancing software and an in-Hummer scanner that match fingerprints at the crime scene.

msnbc

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2 Skeptic’s Reactions to Giving God Credit

It’s NOT a Miracle! 

by The Bad Astronomer

Man, I get tired of this kind of stuff:

A car crash in Nebraska on Jan. 25 threw Malloy up against the vehicle’s dashboard. In the process, her skull became separated from her spine. The clinical term for her condition is called internal decapitation.

That’s the gist of the article: a woman survives a bad injury that in most cases would kill the victim. But the amount of bad thinking that continues from there is astonishing. Let’s look:

Miracles do happen. That’s what doctors said about 30-year-old Shannon Malloy.

Ah yes, a miracle. It has nothing to do with pure statistics and probability. Or the fact that medical science has advanced enough to save someone’s life.

Dr. Gary Ghiselli, a chiropractor at the Denver Spine Center, said Malloy’s will to survive is what saved her.

A chiropractor said it was her will. Right. I suppose someone involved with what is at the very best a borderline quack field would say it was her will, and not, say, probability and medical science.

“I had a fractured skull, swollen brain stem, bleeding in my brain, GI tube in my stomach, can’t swallow, and nerve damage in my eyes (because they cross),” said Malloy.

Doctors are working on that but she has been lucky enough to get the halo removed.

I know I shouldn’t get upset when people talk about luck, but it still irks me. Luck is probability taken personally, as the saying goes. She wasn’t lucky to get the halo removed, it’s just the way things worked out. I have actually specially worked on not using the word “luck” anymore. It’s just another accepted notion that’s incorrect, and I don’t want to promote it, even colloquially.

“Oh my God, it’s a miracle,” said Malloy.

I guess then it was also a miracle that God made the terrible, horrifying accident to happen in the first place, too. You can’t pick and choose which random events to ascribe to God, folks. If He throws the dice for one, He throws the dice for all.

“It’s a miracle that she was able to survive from the actual accident. It’s a miracle that she’s made the progress that she’s made,” said Ghiselli [the chiropractor].

See above. I suppose then it’s a miracle her skull was severed from her spine, she sustained nerve damage, and she cannot see well or swallow properly.

That’s some miracle. Tell you what: I’ll take my chances on probability.

Oh, God. Not again.

by, Rebecca (from Skepchick)

It happens every time.

Without fail, whenever some truly monumental event occurs in the world, God swoops in and takes all the credit for the good, slipping away before anyone has a chance to blame Him for the bad. Like everyone else in the country, I’ve been following the Virginia Tech shooting all day. This morning, a man shot and killed 32 students, faculty, and staff, and injured 29 more.

Pam Tickle is a housekeeper on campus who managed to escape the horrifying ordeal with her life intact. When she heard the gunshots, she ran to a lounge with several students, where they locked the door and waited for police. After two hours, the police had control of the situation and the gunman was dead. Tickle told reporters:

I thank God because he was watching me today.

Before I go on, let me get a few things straight. This woman went through a terrifying experience, and no one can blame her for falling back on her faith for some kind of comfort. We can, however, criticize the culture that allows this kind of magical thinking to manifest. This is a very common expression, uttered at the end of football games, at the Academy Awards, and at the scene of catastrophes such as this.

I think this quote encapsulates what many atheists find so repugnant about a particular brand of religious thinking: the idea that those who survive do so because of God, with no thought given to those who died. If this woman takes comfort in the idea that God spared her life because she is special, because he was watching over her, then I’m happy for her. But, at the same time, I can’t help but be very, very sad for the 60 people who were gunned down for no reason at all. What about their friends and family? It’s awful to lose someone you love, and that pain can only be compounded by hearing that God specifically chose to protect some while allowing your loved one to suffer and die needlessly. Did God choose for them to die? Did they not pray hard enough?

Or was God just not watching them today?

On this last story I liked what one of the commenters said on the post:

1. DivaFFS said,

   To be fair, the indication is not that God was not watching over them… let me have a hypothetical conversation with a Christian on this one:

   DivaFFS: So if your god was watching over you, was he not watching over the ones that did get shot?

   ChristianFFS: He was looking after them as well.

   DFFS: But why did they get shot?

   CFFS: God has a plan.

   DFFS: A plan to have dozens of innocent people gunned down unexpectedly by a crazy guy?

   CFFS: It doesn’t make sense to us as humans. God works in mysterious ways.

   DFFS: So this tragedy happened for good, and it is part of god’s beautiful plan and something better is in store for the people who were injured or killed?

   CFFS: Yes.

   DFFS: But it’s still evil?

   CFFS: Well, yes.

   DFFS: How can it be evil and good? That makes no sense.

   CFFS: Oh ye of little faith……

   ChristianFFS smiles sympathetically at DivaFFS and leaves to find a place to pray for her soul.

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Quotes Roundup (Winter 07)

Here’s a collection of some of the best quotes I’ve rounded up this winter…

Steven Weinberg:

With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.

Bertrand Russell:

What is wanted is not the will to believe, but the wish to find out, which is the exact opposite.

Carl Sagan:

For me, it is far better to observe to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.

Mark Twain:

I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it.

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What A HUGE DOG! …or is it?

Here’s a very recent (and great) example of when you should use Snopes.com:

Here’s the story that accompanied this picture:

Hercules was recently awarded the honorable distinction of Worlds Biggest Dog by Guinness World Records. Hercules is an English Mastiff and has a 38 inch neck and weighs 282 pounds.

With “paws the size of softballs” (reports the Boston Herald), the three-year-old monster is far larger and heavier than his breed’s standard 200lb. limit. Hercules owner Mr. Flynn says that Hercules weight is natural and not induced by a bizarre diet:

“I fed him normal food and he just grew”…. and grew. ….and grew. ….and grew.

But alas… it was too good to be true

Here’s the scoop about this urban legend from snopes.com

…Here’s another good example:

Real?

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michael shermer mp3′s

I just found this website with a lot of Michael Shermer MP3′s to download and listen to- Good Stuff!

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Peter Popoff is Back!

Twenty years after being exposed by James Randi on the Johnny Carson Show Peter Popoff is back, and up to the same old crap.

(video)

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How to Win ANY Argument

by the way, this post is one part satire, two parts truth

Part One:

HOW TO ARGUE EFFECTIVELY

I argue very well. Ask any of my remaining friends. I can win an argument on any topic, against any opponent. People know this and steer clear of me at parties. Often, as a sign of their great respect, they don’t even invite me. You too can win arguments. Simply follow these rules:

DRINK LIQUOR

Suppose you are at a party and some hotshot intellectual is expounding on the economy of Peru, a subject you know nothing about. If you’re drinking some health-fanatic drink like grapefruit juice, you’ll hang back, afraid to display your ignorance, while the hotshot enthralls your date. But if you drink several large martinis, you’ll discover you have STRONG VIEWS about the Peruvian economy. You’ll be a WEALTH of information. You’ll argue forcefully, offering searing insights and possibly upsetting furniture.

People will be impressed. Some may leave the room.

MAKE THINGS UP

Suppose, in the Peruvian economy argument, you are trying to prove that Peruvians are underpaid, a position you base solely on the fact that YOU are underpaid, and you’ll be damned if you’re going to let a bunch of Peruvians be better off. DON’T say: “I think Peruvians are underpaid.” Say instead:

“The average Peruvian’s salary in 1981 dollars adjusted for the revised tax base is $1,452.81 per annum, which is $836.07 before the mean gross poverty level.”

NOTE: Always make up exact figures.

If an opponent asks you where you got your information, make THAT up too. Say:

“This information comes from Dr. Hovel T. Moon’s study for the Buford Commission published on May 9, 1982. Didn’t you read it?” Say this in the same tone of voice you would use to say, “You left your soiled underwear in my bathroom.”

USE MEANINGLESS BUT WEIGHTY-SOUNDING WORDS AND PHRASES

Memorize this list:

Let me put it this way
In terms of
Vis-à-vis
Per se
As it were
Qua
So to speak

You should also memorize some Latin abbreviations such as “Q.E.D.”, “e.g.”, and “i.e.” These are all short for “I speak Latin, and you don’t.”

Here’s how to use these words and phrases. Suppose you want to say,”Peruvians would like to order appetizers more often, but they don’t have enough money.”

You never win arguments talking like that. But you WILL win if you say:

“Let me put it this way. In terms of appetizers vis-à-vis Peruvians qua Peruvians, they would like to order them more often, so to speak, but they do not have enough money per se, as it were. Q.E.D.” Only a fool would challenge that statement.

USE SNAPPY AND IRRELEVANT COMEBACKS

You need an arsenal of all-purpose irrelevant phrases to fire back at your opponents when they make valid points. The best are:

You’re begging the question.
You’re being defensive.
Don’t compare apples to oranges.
What are your parameters?

This last one is especially valuable. Nobody (other than engineers and policy wonks) has the vaguest idea what “parameters” means.

Don’t forget the classic: YOU’RE SO LINEAR.

Here’s how to use your comebacks:

You say: As Abraham Lincoln said in 1873…
Your opponent says: Lincoln died in 1865.
You say: You’re begging the question.
You say: Liberians, like most Asians…
Your opponent says: Liberia is in Africa.
You say: You’re being defensive.

So that’s it. You now know how to out-argue anybody. Do not try to pull any of this on people who generally carry weapons.

Part deux:

As for me, I prefer Stephen Novella’s approach to this topic (and actually , I’d prefer to be involved in a conversation where neither party has already made up their mind, and is open to changing their views if necessary). Novella’s tips for argumentation and conversation can be found here, including explanations on how to recognize and avoid many logical fallacies. CHECK IT OUT!

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Skeptics Skeptical of Jesus’ Newly Encountered Tomb?

…But if someone has found Jesus’ bones in a coffin with his own name on it- and in Jerusalem, the Skeptic’s should be happy, right? This would actually confirm what they’ve believed all along. Now new “evidence” has just emerged, allegedly revealing that Jesus did not resurrect from his tomb and Skeptic’s are actually skeptical of this evidence? Why?

Well, unlike the misconception that many people have about skeptics, skeptics don’t simply disbelieve everything they hear (like the title skeptic somewhat implies). They care about and put their trust in good science. If they will demand scientific evidence for something contrary their beliefs (like most of us naturally do) they also demand good scientific evidence for something confirming their beliefs as well- as in this case. Damn their intellectual honesty and desire to promote good science!

The story of Jesus’ “found tomb”:

Earlier this week executive producer James Cameron (director of Titanic) and director Simcha Jacobovici announced that they believe they have discovered the tomb of Jesus and his family. The tomb was originally discovered 25 years ago in Talpiot Jerusalem. Ten ossuaries, or bone boxes, were discovered in the tomb. The ossuaries contain the following names: “Jesus son of Joseph,” “Maria,” “Mariamene e Mara,” “Matthew,” “Yose” and “Judah son of Jesus.” Cameron claims that he and his researchers have “done their homework,” and now they will present their compelling evidence in a new film documentary.

From Time Magazine:

Israel’s prominent archeologist Professor Amos Kloner didn’t associate the crypt with the New Testament Jesus. His father, after all, was a humble carpenter who couldn’t afford a luxury crypt for his family. And all were common Jewish names.

There was also this little inconvenience that a few miles away, in the old city of Jerusalem, Christians for centuries had been worshipping the empty tomb of Christ at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Christ’s resurrection, after all, is the main foundation of the faith, proof that a boy born to a carpenter’s wife in a manger is the Son of God.

But film-makers Cameron and Jacobovici claim to have amassed evidence through DNA tests, archeological evidence and Biblical studies, that the 10 coffins belong to Jesus and his family.

From LiveScience.com:

One of the caskets even bears the title, “Judah, son of Jesus,” hinting that Jesus may have had a son. And the very fact that Jesus had an ossuary would contradict the Christian belief that he was resurrected and ascended to heaven.

Stephen Pfann, a biblical scholar at the University of the Holy Land in Jerusalem who was interviewed in the documentary, said the film’s hypothesis holds little weight.

“I don’t think that Christians are going to buy into this,” Pfann said. “But skeptics, in general, would like to see something that pokes holes into the story that so many people hold dear.”

Not good skeptics who are into promoting good science, Pfann!

From Steven Novella’s Blog (a Neoroscientist and Skeptic- you should read this full article to how the scientific community traditionally deals with new claims and evidence like in this case!):

I don’t want to go over the details of the archaeological claims on this blog. For a discussion of the details listen to the next episode of the Skeptics Guide where we discuss it with archaeologist Kenny Feder. I do want to discuss Cameron’s decision to present the evidence in the manner he did – as a film documentary.

Traditionally new scientific evidence is presented to the scientific community either as a meeting presentation [...] or as a publication in a peer-reviewed journal. There is a reason for this tradition – it provides an opportunity for a large number of experts, with a variety of opinions, knowledge, and ideas, to pick over the claims and look for flaws, alternative hypotheses that have not been adequately considered, contradictory evidence that has not been accounted for, or other weakness in the data. This process is messy, and often has to go through many rounds of research before all data and all points of view are accounted for reasonably. Eventually a relative consensus is achieved, at least on some points, but research is a never-ending process and so new evidence or ideas might cause the consensus to be modified or reconsidered.

Once again, read the full article by Stephen Novella to learn a little bit more about how the scientific community deals with issues like this.

To top it off with a cherry on top, here is Jon Stewart’s take on the whole deal:

video Download (1933) | Play (2662)

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How to FLY like David Copperfield

Fly over here to see how this cool illusion works!

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Can People Talk to the Dead?

A good look into Cold Reading (a method used by “psychics” to speak with the dead). Featuring Michael Shermer.

Anyone can talk to the dead. It’s getting them to talk back that’s the hard part.

-Michael Shermer

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Penn Interviews Dawkins

Click here to download.

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