In a very good book written by Mario Beauregard and Denyse O'Leary, titled The Spiritual Brain, (I would give it five stars, if I rated books with stars at my website) there is a chapter called "The Strange Case of the God Helmet" which describes a physical device that "scientists" place on their head so that low-powered magnets can stimulate the temporal lobes of the test subject. Seriously. The tin-foil hat crowd now has legitimate competition. Only a person who doesn't believe God exists and has apparently become desperate to prove it would deliberately try to artificially simulate the effect that belief in God has on people of faith. About neuroscientist Michael Persinger (co-inventor of the God helmet) Beauregard wrote: Echoing Dawkins, Persinger has called religion "an artifact of the brain" and a "cognitive virus." (page 81) Speaking of Richard Dawkins, he had to try the helmet himself, of course, but he didn't experience any of the hallucinations the helmet can allegedly sometimes cause. Persinger attributed the failure of Dawkins to "experience God" using the helmet was due to his "well below average" score in temporal lobe sensitivity to magnetic fields, whatever that means. Of course, Persinger had to publish the results of his 2002 "study" in the Journal of Nervous and Mental Disorders. Beauregard (and O'Leary) wrote: Persinger concluded two things: that the experience of a sensed presence can be manipulated by experiment, and that such an experience "may be the fundamental source for phenomena attributed to visitations by gods, spirits, and … [Read more...]
Hector Avalos: world’s biggest hypocrite?
I used to think that Al Gore was the biggest hypocrite in the world as he flew around in his private jet, and the inconvenient truth that he bought an $8.875 million dollar oceanfront property, after scaring the sellers into believing the oceans are about to rise and drown everyone on the coast. For Al to really believe his own nonsense, he'd have to understand geography about as well as Congressman Hank Johnson, who once thought the addition of eight thousand Marines to the island of Guam might cause the entire island to capsize. Surely Al didn't think the oceans would rise twenty feet on the east coast while sea level remained the same on the west coast. He couldn't possibly be that dumb, could he? Remember, for eight years Gore was only a heartbeat (or impeachment conviction) away from becoming the 43rd President of the United States. Personally, I think famous hoaxer P. T. Barnum would have been proud to call Al his son, I think, because it would be absolutely stupid to pay millions of dollars for oceanfront property if you really think it will be underwater in a few years. Nobody that stupid has millions of dollars for very long. But I think Al has nothing on Hector Avalos, an atheist college professor with some really big cohones. Avalos is (allegedly) a professor of religious studies at Iowa State University. The need for qualifying his professional title should become quite obvious, by the very next sentence. Almost eight years ago Hector Avalos wrote a book called The End of Religious Studies. Yet Avalos continues to draw a hefty paycheck … [Read more...]
Truth Be Known
I've been a fan of Neil Young's music going all the way back to his days with Buffalo Springfield. "Truth Be Known" is one of my favorite songs by Neil (backed by Pearl Jam minus Eddie Vedder, with Neil on lead vocals), on his CD Mirror Ball. Pearl Jam fans -- please don't rush out to buy the CD just because Stone Gossard and Mike McCready are playing rhythm and lead guitars behind Neil, and Jeff Ament is on bass. You might be disappointed. At least, listen to "I'm the Ocean" and "Big Green Country" before you make a purchase decision either way. In fairness, at the very least, you need to be aware that Eddie Vedder only sings a single verse on one song. It's not a Pearl Jam album, by any stretch of the imagination. Fans of Neil Young, however,..shame on you if you don't already own a copy. Neil's vocals are an acquired taste, but you've already acquired it, right? The guys from Pearl Jam certainly seemed to have invigorated Young on the 1995 release. I especially liked the guitar work of Gossard and McCready on "Big Green Country", and the lyrics from one particular verse in "Truth Be Known" that went: When the fire that once was your friend Burns your fingers to the bone And your song meets a sudden end Echoing through right and wrong Truth be known... There is great wisdom in those words -- nothing hurts worse than being betrayed by a friend. Try to imagine what Jesus must have felt like, when Judas kissed his cheek. Of course, if you're a conspiracy theorist like D. M. Murdock, you may not even believe Jesus existed. By strange coincidence, a … [Read more...]
Evolution and the origin of life: analysis by C. W. Bobbitt, PhD
This article written by (retired) Professor Charles W. Bobbitt explains his interpretations of the evidence that may explain the origin of life and the origin of species currently available to the scientific community. Only minor formatting changes have been made to improve its readability. Professor Bobbitt's thoughts regarding the origin of the universe and the Big Bang theory were published earlier here at southernprose.com. Since my book inspired the beginning of our conversation, I am taking the opportunity for shameless self promotion, perhaps even to sell a couple of books in the process. The original plan was to publish a photo of Professor Bobbitt with a short biography describing his background and academic credentials, but apparently our wires have gotten crossed, and the article has been ready to be published for several days. As always, reader comments are welcomed. [Special thanks to Joel Washburn for his expert assistance resolving a rather puzzling and difficult technical problem that prohibited earlier publication of this piece.] A FRESH LOOK AT THE ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF LIFE ON EARTH C.W. Bobbitt, PhD © Copyright 2014, C.W. Bobbitt In a sense, both Darwin and Wickramasinghe/Hoyle were right in their suggestions as to how life on earth began, as will be shown in this hypothesis; but first, let us make a few remarks to serve as a framework for this presentation, in order to avoid unnecessary and unproductive conflict. Mortal man has been endowed with an insatiable curiosity. He wants to know things simply because they are … [Read more...]
