Alternate Garden of Eden
24-Nov-10
via qwantz.com
Dr. Persinger’s God Helmet
10-Jun-10
via youtube.com
Via Robert Abbott.
Posted via web from crasch’s posterous
Buddhism – Religion and Self-control
27-May-10
“Thinking about the oneness of humanity and the unity of nature doesn’t seem to be related to self-control,” Dr McCullough said. “The self-control effect seems to come from being engaged in religious institutions and behaviours.”Does this mean that non-believers like me should start going to church? Even if you don’t believe in a supernatural god, you could try improving your self-control by at least going along with the rituals of organised religion.
But that probably wouldn’t work either, Dr McCullough told me, because personality studies have identified a difference between true believers and others who attend services for extrinsic reasons, like wanting to impress people or make social connections. The intrinsically religious people have higher self-control, but the extrinsically religious do not.
So what’s a heathen to do in 2009? Dr McCullough’s advice is to try replicating some of the religious mechanisms that seem to improve self-control, like private meditation or public involvement with an organisation that has strong ideals.
Religious people, he pointed out, are self-controlled not simply because they fear God’s wrath, but because they have absorbed the ideals of their religion into their own system of values, and have thereby given their personal goals an aura of sacredness. Dr McCullough suggested that non-believers try a secular version of that strategy.
“People can have sacred values that aren’t religious values,” he said. “Self-reliance might be a sacred value to you that’s relevant to saving money. Concern for others might be a sacred value that’s relevant to taking time to do volunteer work. You can spend time thinking about what values are sacred to you and making New Year resolutions that are consistent with them.”
via buddhism.multiply.com
Posted via web from crasch’s posterous
Free will is an illusion, biologist says
04-Mar-10
(PhysOrg.com) — When biologist Anthony Cashmore claims that the concept of free will is an illusion, he’s not breaking any new ground. At least as far back as the ancient Greeks, people have wondered how humans seem to have the ability to make their own personal decisions in a manner lacking any causal component other than their desire to “will” something. But Cashmore, Professor of Biology at the University of Pennsylvania, says that many biologists today still cling to the idea of free will, and reject the idea that we are simply conscious machines, completely controlled by a combination of our chemistry and external environmental forces.
via physorg.com
Posted via web from crasch’s posterous
Damage to One Brain Region Can Boost “Transcendent” Feelings | 80beats | Discover Magazine
16-Feb-10
By observing brain cancer patients before and after brain surgery, researchers in Italy have found that damage to the posterior part of the brain, specifically in an area called the parietal cortex, can increase patients’ feelings of “self transcendence,” or feeling at one with the universe. The parietal cortex is the region that is is usually involved in maintaining a sense of self, for example by helping you keep track of your body parts. It has also been linked to prayer and meditation [New Scientist].
The study, led by psychologist Cosimo Urgesi of the University of Udine in Italy, surveyed 88 brain cancer patients before and after surgery to remove their tumors. They were made to fill out a questionnaire regarding their beliefs, including a section to check their measure of “self-transcendence.” People score highly for this trait if they answer “yes” to questions such as: “I often feel so connected to the people around me that I feel like there is no separation”; “I feel so connected to nature that everything feels like one single organism”; and “I got lost in the moment and detached from time”. The same people also tend to believe in miracles, extrasensory perception and other non-material phenomena [New Scientist].
The scientists found that before the surgery, patients with parietal cortex tumors reported higher levels of self-transcendence than patients with tumors in the frontal cortex. After the tumors were removed, the parietal cortex patients had even higher self-transcendence scores, while the frontal cortex patients showed no change.
via blogs.discovermagazine.com
Via Alexis Bright.
Posted via web from crasch’s posterous
CTR cock ring
16-Jul-09
Hold tight to the iron rod indeed…
Your Religion Is False
18-Jun-09
Your Religion Is False is for sale! Check out Joel’s BIL talk for a flavor of the content.
Your Religion is False – BIL conference
10-Feb-09
Via savorie.
John 3:16
11-Jan-09
Via atheism
Does Religion Make You Nice?
09-Nov-08
Does Religion Make You Nice?
In a review published in Science last month, psychologists Ara Norenzayan and Azim Shariff discuss several experiments that lean pro-Schlessinger. In one of their own studies, they primed half the participants with a spirituality-themed word jumble (including the words divine and God) and gave the other half the same task with nonspiritual words. Then, they gave all the participants $10 each and told them that they could either keep it or share their cash reward with another (anonymous) subject. Ultimately, the spiritual-jumble group parted with more than twice as much money as the control. Norenzayan and Shariff suggest that this lopsided outcome is the result of an evolutionary imperative to care about one’s reputation. If you think about God, you believe someone is watching. This argument is bolstered by other research that they review showing that people are more generous and less likely to cheat when others are around. More surprisingly, people also behave better when exposed to posters with eyes on them.