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I first started studying philosophy (freelance) in the same way that I later learned that R. D. Laing did: Reading through the books in the local library in alphabetical order. What it lacked in thematic coherency it made up for in definitiveness. Why philosophy is important: All the great leaders and theorists of the past have been versed in philosophy; politics, democracy, social theory, theologians and the founding scientists were all largely philosophers. It enables people to think critically, widely, sensibly and cautiously. Epistemology teaches us about the dangers of assumption and how we cannot trust what we think we know (neurology and psychology now backs this up in a more modern way - check out Prof. Elizabeth Loftus' experiments on memory!). What people today discover by watching The Truman Show, Matrix, the Thirteenth Floor and other similar films, philosophers wrote about thousands of years ago. Unfortunately, this useful study of meta-truth is plagued by a serious problem. Nearly all philosophy courses concentrate wholeheartedly on the philosophers themselves. It's like studying physics by examining every argument Einstein had with anyone; on subjects such as society, politics, education and government. Why would someone who wants to learn physics spend much time on studying Einstein as a person? Theories and theorists should be largely seperate, and in this way science has massively overtaken philosophy as a useful tool. Critical thinking can be learnt anywhere, but in philosophy class you are most likely to learn the history, rather than any useful cognitive skills. Philosophy was useful, but unless it drops the concentration it has on philosophers, it is going to dwindle into history remembered as an off-smelling residue rather than the filling it once was. No-one in philosophy needs to know about Plato's forms any more than Geneticists need to know about Lamark. Philosophy has become almost a history of error. Having said that, there are many highly valued philosophers; such university professors often have multifarious talents in all academic areas. Sociologists, physicists, evolutionists and psychologists all require some philosophical knowledge (just like philosophers need science in order to inject some Earthbound epiricism into their ballooning imaginations). I'm thinking about doing a page. Any comments? Tags: epistemology, knowledge, philosophers, philosophy, science, truth
Current Location: Mönchengladbach, Germany
Listening To: "Kingdom" by L'Ame Immortelle
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New: "Devotion to the Beautiful Universe We Live In" by Vexen Crabtree: "That maths is both an artform, and a beautiful enterprise, is something that is often-repeated by those in-the-know. Likewise, it is a common theme that those who enjoy the sciences - the challenges of scientific theory - often have greater feelings towards their chosen fields than the cold experience of technical number-crunching pitted with moments of inspiration. The ongoing search for truth bestows upons its adherents a glowing satisfaction and awe at the wonder of the universe. Reality is simultaneously complex and simple, engaging and passive, black and white and colourful. Out of simple laws comes complexity, and out of the chaos of experimentation slowly comes understanding. The scientific methods of understanding the world can involve a person completely and fully; the intellectual and rational commitment to hard work and truth are obvious. Not so obvious is the emotional wonder and adoration that arises within those who seek the truth. Philosophers and scientists, as Dawkins' points out, have had a tendency towards an almost mystical and pantheistic love of the fabrics of reality." Tags: beauty, complexity, inspiration, love, pantheism, philosophy, reality, richard dawkins, science, universal, universe
Current Location: Mönchengladbach, Germany
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New: "What Causes Religion?" by Vexen CrabtreeThe conclusion reads: "Religions arise as collections of popular beliefs, codified and institutionalized by the progression of Human organisation. Eventually, the changing beliefs of the masses out-evolve the more dogmatic, established religions. The causes of the religious beliefs of Humankind are rooted in our psychology. Psychologists, sociologists, ethnographers and scientists tend to view religious beliefs as the result of mostly normal psychological systems being applied in the wrong context. A prime example is the way we get angry with cars and computers, and shout insults at them, or the way we tend to see patterns in random behaviour such as brownian motion (our 'hyperactive agent detection device'). Historical investigators such as William James have found that outstanding religious innovaters and leaders have frequently been psychotic, suffered from various mental problems and nervous instability. Experiments on the Human brain have allowed us to discover many of the specific neuronal networks that can misfire to cause us to have 'religious' feelings and experiences. Childhood fantasies, including an absence of death and the seemingly all-present, ever-caring and all-knowing parental figures who give us comfort, often become the basis for religious beliefs in adults. This hidden wishful-thinking mechanism feeds our ego (that someone cares about everything we do) and gives us consolation from death in the idea of an afterlife. Many strange things we 'experience' are cultural (therefore an aspect of upbringing), and once a scientific and critical understanding of them is attained, the beauty of the natural world displaces the appeal of the supernatural. Religion is self-inflicted delusion, illusion, smoke and mirrors." Related to: "Experiences of God" by Vexen Crabtree (2002)</p> </div> Tags: belief, beliefs, experiences, faith, fantasy, god, illusion, irrationality, myth, religion, science, sociology, supernaturalism, theology
Current Location: Germany
Current Mood:  happy
Listening To: "Aiges Mortes" by Ataraxia
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Sign this petition (you have to be a UK citizen): petitions.pm.gov.uk : We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Abolish all faith schools and prohibit the teaching of creationism...and "We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Abolish all faith schools and prohibit the teaching of creationism and other religious mythology in all UK schools"It's worth signing both. This is in the wake of the Vardy Foundation's slowly increasing chain of fundamentalist Christian schools (IN THE UK!!), whose science teachers' teach creationism rather than science, that is, they think the world is 6000 years old, and that most of science is wrong because it contradicts the Bible. Sign these petition and get everyone else to, too! My page on Faith Schools explains many of the issues, the contents of the page are: - Sectarian Schooling
- Sectarian schools breed cultural conflict
- Indoctrination versus Parental discretion
- Do faith schools provide better education?
- Fundamentalist Schools
- The Benefits of Abolishing Sectarian Schools
Tags: children, christianity, creationism, education, fundamentalism, indoctrination, petitions, schooling, science, secularisation, segregation, vardy foundation
Current Location: Germany
Current Mood:  annoyed
Listening To: "Krolok" by Wumpscut
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Conclusion reads:
The historical battles between religious institutions and science, such as those in physics, astronomy and biology, indicate there is something wrong with the religious approach to the study of reality. The underlying problem extends to individual intelligence and education, and is not just limited to the actions of religious bodies. Hardly any of the several-hundred Nobel Prize winning scientists have been Christians. Only 3.3% of the Members of the Royal Society in the UK and 7% the National Academy of Sciences in the USA, believe in a personal God. The more senior and learnéd the scientist, the less likely they are to believe in God. This effect is not limited to scientists. The children of highly religious parents suffer diminished IQs - averaging 7 to 10 points lower compared to their non-religious counterparts in similar socio-economic groups. As you would expect from these results, multiple studies have also shown that IQ is opposed to the strength of religious belief. 39 studies since 1927 (out of 43) have found that the more educated a person is, and the higher one's intelligence, the less likely someone is to hold religious beliefs. Tags: anti-religion, astronomy, belief, biology, education, god, intelligence, iq, national academy of sciences, nobel prize, physics, religion, royal society, science, scientists, statistics, stupidity, theism
Current Location: Germany
Listening To: "Pushing Me Away" by Linkin Park
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I've added quotes on The Great Prayer Experiment to my page "Prayer: Scientific Studies of Prayer". The results come after this nifty little quote from Prof. Richard Dawkins:
"Darwin's cousin Francis Galton was the first to analyse scientifically whether praying for people is efficacious. He noted that every Sunday, in churches throughout Britain, entire congregations prayed publicly for the health of the royal family. Shouldn't they, therefore, be unusually fit, compared with the rest of us, who are prayed for only by our nearest and dearest? Galton looked into it, and found no statistical difference. His intention may, in any case, have been satirical, as also when he prayed over randomized plots of land to see if the plants would grow any faster (they didn't)."
Anyway, the results of the 1800-patient scientific double-blind study, was: (the patients were divided into 3 groups): - Group 1: Received prayers, but were not told about them. This tests if prayers helped them recover more than normal patients. Their recovery was average.
- Group 2: Received no prayers, and were not told so. This tested if there was something about the experiment that was affecting the results. Their recovery was also average.
- Group 3: Received prayers and were told so. This tested the psychosomatic effects of knowing that one is being prayed for. This group "suffered significantly more complications".</p>
What amazing results!
The rest of my page on Prayer is my normal blunt arsenal of stark truths! Tags: charles bethea, christianity, health, prayer, praying, psychosomosis, richard dawkins, satanism, science, sociology, templeton foundation
Current Location: Germany
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Christianity Versus Astronomy: [Introduction:] Copernicus (1473-1543) enraged the Church by writing that the Earth might orbit the Sun. Christian theology holds that the great scheme of God revolves around Humankind; God's only son is a human, God created the Earth and all other animals for Mankind (Genesis 1:28 etc), and the destruction of creation centres around events occurring on planet Earth, to Humans. It was deeply challenging to Christians to face the facts that the Earth wasn't the centre of the universe. Also challenging were other basic facts of astrology; that the universe is massive, the Earth only one of many planets, and the likely fact that there is life elsewhere in the universe too. [... Conclusion reads:] Scientists had to suffer torture, silencing, imprisonment and death at the hands of Christians who didn't agree with newly discovered facts about the world. Christianity lost the first battle with astronomers who realized that, contrary to what Christians asserted, the Sun did not orbit the Earth, and that the Universe doesn't seem to be designed specifically for humankind. Copernicus (1473-1543), Kepler (1571-1630), Galileo (1564-1642), Newton (1643-1727) and Laplace (1749-1827) all fought battles against the Church when they published scientific papers challenging religious orthodoxy. Bible verses were all the theories Christians needed; and Joshua 10:12-13, 2 Kings 20:11, Isaiah 38:8 and Isaiah 30:26 all contradicted astronomers. But through intelligence and clever politics, truth gradually won out over dogma, and the Church retreated... only to go on to fight similar ignorant battles, and violently impose dogmatic errors, in the arenas of physics, biology and philosophy. Without such interference from theists, science would have been more than a thousand years more advanced! Kepler in the 17th century only revived Greek astronomical knowledge that was condemned and hidden by Christians (Ptolemy et al) in the second century. Tags: anthrocentrism, astronomy, christianity, copernicus, earth, galileo, gravity, kepler, laplace, newton, physics, ptolemy, religion, science
Current Location: Germany
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The Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science - a UK/USA charity committed to the teaching of science, headed by my beloved hero, Prof. Dawkins. He is the foremost evolutionary scientist, a wonderful writer and experienced educator, and he cares passionately and deeply about not only the search for truth, but the teaching of it to others. He is forceful, wise, direct, aggressively anti-religion, and a genuine and powerful force for good in the world. He is also increasingly productive (even at 65...) and vocal, and has some powerful backers and supporters. I've been toying with the idea of doing a fan-page, but, the new RDF website (linked above) is better than anything I could dream up, so, my fandom now consists of linking it, rather than trying to emulate. Click to buy from amazon.co.uk:   Tags: anti-religion, evolution, richard dawkins, science
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