Super Bull

     It’s not yet football season, but I’m already hearing rumblings, and I’ve seen news bits on the the Rams cheerleaders.  But since, to my mind, all professional sports is of a fabric, some worse than others, I thought I’d post this essay I wrote some time ago, with modifications.
     An acquaintance asked me a while ago if I intended to watch the play-offs and I responded–automatically and immediately–with “what play-offs?”
     Such honesty can get you seriously dissed in this country.  But, yes, Virginia, there are people in the United States who know virtually nothing about pro sports.  Or semi-pro.  Or amateur.  Nothing about sports.
     When the Cardinals (my home team) are in the play-offs or whatever, heading for a pennant–which they do more regularly than I care to recall–I suffer at work, because suddenly none of the radios are playing music, but carrying the do-or-die commentary on the day’s Game.  People move about rivetted.  They have a glazed look in their eyes.  I’ve seen that look in others–religious fanatics in the grip of glossolalia.
     I don’t get it.
     No, wait.  Let me be clearer.  I don’t GET IT!
     Is it possible to grow up in this culture and not have an appreciation for athletics?  Sure, but that’s not what I don’t get. And for the most part, I’m not sure most sports fans have such an appreciation themselves.  I mean, I don’t think all those people who tuned in to watch the Team of the Month take another Super Bowl …

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Why Religion & Science Don’t Mix

This link is to the district court ruling in the Dover, PA trial about so-called Intelligent Design. It is worth reading in full, especially in light of the recent survey publish in Science about our understanding–lack of, actually–of biology.  Basically, the judge threw out the claim by the defendants, that evolution is “merely a theory” and that Intelligent Design is somehow legitimate science.

This, of course, settles nothing in the long run. The true believers who pulled this stunt to begin with will not be persuaded, nor will they long shut up. That’s fine, that’s their prerogative, and it’s as should be in this country. My hope is that this will not be the last shot fired in defense of science and reason, against irrationalism and spiritual chicanery.

The critics of Judge Jones’ decision have come out screaming that he has overstepped his authority. He has written a pretty scathing and detailed decision. I can certainly see that he has hopes it will be used in other districts, as a means to settle this–at least legally–where and when it crops up. I personally see his response as fairly restrained, considering the clear frustration behind it. He has invoked the ground state complaint of the conservative–it has been a waste of tax payer money.

The profoundest irony, politically, is that Jones is a George W. Bush appointee. The right-wing Jesus faction of the Republican Party must be seized with apoplexy at this. One of their own–one anointed by their own prophet-in-power–has …

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Banking laws for sale

Most American citizens believe that voters elect our state and federal legislators.  They would be wrong.  Elections are rigged by the massive amounts of money that fund them, and legislators are bought and sold in accordance with their campaign fund contributors.  This money does not come from you or me.  We could never hope to contribute enough to sway an election, we just don’t have enough to compete.  The money comes from corporations.  How do I know (besides from the minimal reports politicians must file)?  I know from the end result, from the laws that result.

Imagine yourself a working mother or father.  You work hard everyday.  You earn your paycheck, and like nearly everyone, it is spent when you get it.  If you are a poor family, maybe your optional luxuries include pizza out one night.  If your family is a little better off, maybe it means a real dinner out.  Then a little ‘hitch’ arises.  The electric bill comes in, and because it has been so hot, it is more than anticipated.  Or maybe the car needs new brakes.  Or maybe, heaven help you, someone gets really ill and you have bad or no health insurance.

So you borrow money.  You go to the payday lender down the street.  You know the kind, they are popping up all over the place.  Despite this kind of lending being legal (or thought up) only for the past couple of years, there are already more payday lending stores in this country …

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America officially flunks Biology

Reporting on the acceptance of evolution in 34 countries, the journal Science found that the United States ranked next to last, ahead of only Turkey. Among the factors contributing to America's low score are poor understanding of biology, especially genetics, the politicization of science and the literal interpretation of the Bible…

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Overwhelmed by fear: beware the “low road” of emotion

It is because we tout ourselves as the smartest animal on the planet we are oh-so-vulnerable.  As one can read in Proverbs 16:18, “Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.”

Human cognition is an unwieldy and fallible bag of mental tricks. Anyone who has seriously studied human cognition knows this. As Leda Cosmides and John Toby wrote: 

“The mind consists of a set of adaptations, designed to solve the long standing adaptive problems humans encountered as hunter-gatherers.”

Many people think, however, that they know how they think; they have faith that conscious common sense is always accurate and on target.  Common sense fails consider Freud’s rock solid finding: conscious awareness is only the tip of the cognitive iceberg. 

Common sense seduces us with powerful illusions, illusions that look like “uncontestable facts” to those of us who believe we can merely sit around and think in order to figure out how we think. Although common sense has led us well us for eons, it often leads to errors.  The Sun does not circle the Earth.  Our ears do not operate like microphones and our eyes do not work like cameras. “I” am not really a little person who seems to dwell in my head.  Science has shown that what the “thing” that constitutes me is a complicated and often self-contradictory bag of skills and strategies.  For many good examples of how we are often misled by the same heuristics on which we usually depend, see the …

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