Carried away in Cincinnati

I was doing business in Cincinnati yesterday and today. It's a notably friendly city (I'm not being facetious) with a beautiful riverfront. The airport is only a few miles from the infamous Creation Museum. I was tempted to visit, but I really didn't want to hand over a big chunk of money, which would further encourage the gaudy intellectual dysfunction on display. Others have already done a thorough job of exposing the silliness. On a related note, a friend of mine stated that a few weeks ago, Cincinnati's well-touted Underground Railroad Museum was almost empty. After driving out to the Creation Museum (on that same day), he noticed that the Creation Museum's parking lot was packed with upward of 300 vehicles. Perhaps it is my iconoclastic attitude that instigated this rather unusual cloud formation, also near the airport. Was it a supernatural being trying to tell me something? Or maybe nature was rebelling because of my unrestrained love of hamburgers? It was in Kentucky, just south across the river from Cincinnati that I got carried away with my craving for burgers, though Big Boy maintained his goofy grin as I tried to take that big burger.

Continue ReadingCarried away in Cincinnati

Hitchens, Prayer, and Decency

Christopher Hitchens has esophageal cancer. He is undergoing chemotherapy. His prognosis is not good, as this is a particularly nasty form of cancer with a low survival rate. It turns out that many people are praying for his recovery, which I find ironic but wonderful. This is, I've been told, what true christianity is supposed to be like---extending the benevolence of your faith to those who might qualify as an enemy. If only all christians were like that. If only those who are like that were the loudest voices. Unfortunately, the screaming meme misanthropic anti-intellectual pre-Enlightenment ignoramus branch of the movement tends to dominate a lot of the discourse, from the supporters of Proposition 8 to those who are not only praying for Hitch to die, but are sending notice of such prayers to public fora and putting megaphone to mouth so as many people as they can blast with their message will hear. [More . . . ]

Continue ReadingHitchens, Prayer, and Decency

The real life differences between Christians and non-Christians

Other than attendance at church, how can one tell whether someone is a Christian? In this L.A. Times article, William Lobdell argues that Christian rhetoric often doesn't match up with the actions of those who claim to be Christians.

But judging by the behavior of most Christians, they've become secularists. And the sea of hypocrisy between Christian beliefs and actions is driving Americans away from the institutional church in record numbers.

Continue ReadingThe real life differences between Christians and non-Christians

Near death experiences as purported evidence of a soul

At AlterNet, Greta Christina has written an article titled, "Why Near-Death Experiences Are a Flimsy Justification for the Idea That We Have Immortal Souls." She argues that the evidence supporting the independent soul is "unfalsifiable."

[It] is flimsy at best. It is unsubstantiated. It comes largely from personal anecdotes. It is internally inconsistent. . . . The evidence supporting the "independent soul" explanation is flimsy at best. It is unsubstantiated. It comes largely from personal anecdotes. It is internally inconsistent. It is shot through with discrepancies. It is loaded with biases and cognitive errors -- especially confirmation bias, the tendency to exaggerate evidence that confirms what we already believe, and to ignore evidence that contradicts it. It has methodological errors that a sixth-grade science project winner could spot in 10 seconds. And that includes the evidence of near-death experiences. There is not a single account of an immaterial soul leaving the body in a near-death experience that meets the gold standard of scientific evidence. Not even close.
Christina bristles at the believer argument that scientists are "biased." Yes, they are, but not in the way that many believers argue:
Scientists are human, too: they don't want to die, and they'd be just as happy as anyone to learn that they were going to live forever.
Christina also points out that the trauma of near death is an altered brain state that can account for any altered perception:
Weird things often happen to people's minds during altered states of consciousness. Exhaustion, stress, distraction, trance-like repetition, optical illusion, sleep deprivation, sensory deprivation, sensory overload... any of these physical changes to the brain, and more, can create vivid "perceptions" that are entirely disconnected from reality. It's been extensively demonstrated. And being near death is an altered state of consciousness, a physical change to the brain.
I agree with Christina's arguments. I would extend them to those who suggest that they can give accurate accounts of what it is like to have a stroke, relying solely on introspection.

Continue ReadingNear death experiences as purported evidence of a soul

Richard Dawkins discusses the Greatest Show on Earth

In this Fora.TV video of a talk he gave at U.C. Berkeley, Richard Dawkins discusses his most recent book, The Greatest Show on Earth. In the early minutes of the talk, he explains why fossils are "icing on the cake" and he illustrates the "problem" with gaps by use of a humorous story. At minute 43:00, Dawkins explore the anthropic principle. At minute 49:00, Dawkins comments on the use of the word "why," as part of his comment on the question "Why are we here?" He explains: It's no more deserving of an answer than the question: "Why are unicorns hollow?" Dawkins also comments on the mechanism the creates conscious pain at minute 52:00, before declaring his own attempt to explain it to be incoherent. On the likelihood of a random mutation improving an organism, Dawkins points out that it is highly unlikely: "There are many more ways of being dead than alive." This video offers lots more engaging back and forth in the comments portion, following the main presentation. [More . . . ]

Continue ReadingRichard Dawkins discusses the Greatest Show on Earth