Focused Babble (Praying) isn't projective

An anticipated study on praying for other's recovery came out recently and had shocking results. Praying for someone to recover makes no difference to their recovery. It does slightly increase there risk of complications though, lol. So what do I think of this study? While I remain open minded it only stands to reaffirm my beliefs. While other studies have shown the (mostly) positive effects of self prayer this just reinforces the fact that this is just a placebo effect.

It also send a neat message to religious people, you god won't change his plans for you!

How the Iraq situation looks to a poker player

To me it looks like the American's are sitting in a Texas Hold'em game. All the cards have come out, they have called and the other players have raised. The US can either drop (leave Iraq) and let the rest of the players fight it out. They could call (stay on course with the troops they have) or they could raise (increase troop levels) and try and push some players out. They have a lot of their wealth invested in the pot and its their turn.

No way to win

Recent discussion have made me think about no win genocide situations. It has and does happen when a majority of people decide they want a minority gone. What do we do as a capable nation? Do we follow "the prime directive" and let the underdeveloped fight amongst themselves thinking we are above the intervention of the less civilized? Or do we see ourselves merely as a collection of force that has been monopolized and can therefore act as one and protect the victims from their attackers since they are simply the victims of being powerless?
I'd always vote for the second since there will always be groups who want to wipe out other groups and the fact that the persecutors are democratically elected doesn't justify it.
Now I'm sure you all want to point out that if we get involved we are just empowering the victims and making the attackers the victims. There in lies the danger and why if the attackers are democratically elected it poses a no win problem. The fact that they are democratically elected and have still taken such a monstrous action is proof that this hatred is deep seeded in the population. So even if we stopped the immediate attacks they would start up again as soon as we leave and if we topple the attackers we are just as bad as they were and have a unstable situation were we have given false power to the minority they cannot hold without our help and we are stuck.
As I see it this is a general template to most intervention situations I know and there is no simple answer. Damned if you do and damned if you don't, although some would say then lets choose to not intervene and learn to live with the guilt.

Nightwatch (or the thought police for non-B5 fans)

It seems the US has implemented a large data collection and mining project. Since the US government is gunho on this type of stuff the only solution I can think of is a massive misinformation campaign. You can't convince people to not participate since they love to tattle-tale, but you should be able to convince large numbers of people to contribute credible but false information making the database useless. It's the only option I can think of for the short term.

Should we abandon Afghanistan?

After the stupidity of the Mohammed cartoon, I wondered when the next incident of 7th century religion meeting up with the present (or at least the Magna Carta) would occur. Well it's here. The trial of Mr Rahman is exactly that. Apparently we (the modern world) have spent billions and lives to 'liberate' the Afghan people so that they can execute someone from going from one religion to another. This is in direct contradiction to right to free-belief and you would think the newly minted constitution may protect him but it is written exactly to not solve something like this. If we let this one slide saying they are a new country and haven't gotten their legs yet we bare some of the guilt. It would mean all we have done is help another bunch of fascists rise to power. The west (specifically those paying and with troops) should make it crystal clear that if Mr Rahman is tried as a criminal we will pull resources and troops. I will not support a government that does not recognize human rights.
If you agree write to our government, Peter Mackay is the Minister of Foreign affairs: MacKay.P@parl.gc.ca

People don't like me!

In this survey it has found the obvious, atheist are distrusted in the US. Although, and this is really the nice part, the religious people's tolerance was related to their education, religiosity and exposure to diversity. So to clarify, dumb religious hicks dislike me the most. Oh well, guess I won't make any friends in that category.

Solution to pharmacist and the Plan B pill

There is a growing problem with letting pharmacists choose what prescription they want to fill depending on their "beliefs." There are plenty state battles about legislation to force or let them. I have a solution. Pharmacies should be forced to have at least one pharmacist who will fill the prescription. This way if there is a pharmacist who won't provide a service the other guy can take over.

The "unintended" consequence is that the market value of secular or professional pharmacists will increase and market forces will push the others out. It does not strike me as unfair to ask an applicant if they are willing to perform certain tasks that they will be faced with in a job application. It doesn't matter whether they are catholic or some other religion, only that they will do the entire job they are hired to do. It also would not be unfair to not hire some one who wouldn't fulfill all the requirements. The legislation would just empower/motivate employers and safeguard the prescription system.

If not the logical extension of this pharmacists allowed to have a conscious is that scientologist pharmacist can object to any psychiatric medication since they believe it cause by alien spirits. Vegan pharmacists can object to drugs from animal byproducts etc. We have to put an end to this.

Quiz the atheist

I just had a fun time with some Mormon missionaries. Three of them passed by as I was walking my dog and they started the conversation (I made sure it wasn't me since that could be unethical). After a general discussion about mormanism I revealed I was an atheist. They (politely) started asking me questions when I made it clear they could not ask me anything that would offend me. With slow simple answers and reference only to very basic ideas I answered all their questions. Although there questions where designed to try and make me turn to a religious belief or lake of (where they could jump in and tell me), my answers seemed to genuinely interest them. The fact that they changed question lines many times and only ask follow up questions to try and stump me showed they were well trained. But after a while one of the guys realized the reverse effect was happening since the other two were starting to ask follow up questions out of interest! I was even able to make them understand how a persons theism makes some discussions impossible (like the merits of political systems) and that some questions don't make sense (they liked this one, I asked what does a ball of negative radius look like). What was priceless was when I made the point that the message was more important than the messenger. I told them that philosophies attributed to Jesus had legitimacy regardless of whether he was a man-god or fiction, just like St. Nicholas could be revered without believing Santa Clause is real (Christians really respond to the St. Nick and Santa example of reality becoming fiction, there faces where priceless).

Interestingly this all happened as I was thinking what a funny thing it is in genesis when it says god rested on the seventh day. Why would god need to rest? And how did god count days? Does he have a god calendar and mope about Mondays too? They found this quite amusing but where stumped.

Overall I don't think there will be any lasting damage to their indoctrination, maybe just a chink, but the reason it was enjoyable was the tone. They were always polite, never yelled or got hot-under-the-collar and did not interrupt me! It's been soo long since I spoke to a non-atheist about religion with having to be cut off before finishing my answers. If only all religions taught manners we may be able to have more of these types of discussions.

How ghosts and god all in our heads

Tonight I went to the first big event of the Toronto Secular Alliance and what a great experience! The experiments that are being done and its implications are incredible. It has clarified in a simple way a lot of "mysterious" things you'd normally just dismiss. Now I have a lot to say so I''l try and be organized.

Firstly there was Dr. Buckman proposed hypothesis: believing in something, no matter how absurd, help us cope (at least at that moment). The idea is that the world is inherently a scary place and more so the less you know. So we try and understand (or make up a story) the phenomenon around us so it seems less random and threatening by giving it reasons and explanations. If we view religion/spirituality etc as a coping mechanism you can see why people defend their religion so desperately: if there coping mechanism is taken away the foundations of their world are destroyed. If all the ideas they used to get through hardships in their lives was shown to be wrong, reality would set in and they'd have to deal with the full onslaught without any coping mechanism. So if you could actually get through to a religious person and reason with them to show them their beliefs where wrong you'd be pulling out the very foundation of their world perception. No wonder they fight so hard and refuse to give into reason!

Next was Professor Michael Persinger and his experiments. He has been able in a laboratory setting to duplicate and create the feeling and viewing of ghosts as well as holy figures or god. It turns out that a magnetic pulse of only some tens of a nano Tesla (yes nano, its a resonance effect so not much power is needed) to a specific part of the right frontal lobe and then one to the part connecting the two hemispheres will generate the feeling of a presence (to the right or left or behind you). Now this is done in a sensory deprivation chamber with only the helmet on and blacked out goggles. Also it takes around 20 minutes until you have the full effect and it varies slightly per person (provided the same pulse shape is used). People will see things and interpret them in their own cultural way (like seeing a damn Vorlon). So what is happening? Our sense of self is in the left hemisphere and is in the language region of the brain, very grounded. It seems that the right lobe has a similar structure but since the right lobe is surrounded by the region of the brain associated with imagination and special awareness and so when this center is used you get a sense of being with something all around you and larger/greater than you. It turns out people with certain types of head injuries become prone (roughly 75%) claim there is a presence following them (exactly the same as what can be generated in the lab). So that is really interesting especially when you realize that the (AC) magnetic field needed is around what you can get from the earths! So a person who says a place is haunted isn't insane we just should interpret that as being a place of suitable varying magnetic fields. Also it means the person is more sensitive and introspective since those characteristics means a person is much more likely to sense these things.

The point of the talk in the end was to say that if we now understand that heavenly voices etc are simply manifestations of our brain perhaps we can change our reaction to them. See we are hard wired to make some mistakes. We see mirages. We are smart enough to not rush out into the desert after them because we have realized we are being tricked. So if people realize that maybe they aren't speaking to a deity, maybe they'll be less likely to kill in the name of it. So we won;t change what they believe, just merely make the point that the line of communication isn't exclusive so be wary. If we can change the reaction to the "god experience" we'd take a big step. Like telling the Arabs that the Jews can induce these via satellites to try and make them violent and humiliate themselves, maybe they'd think twice about murderciding.

Overt use of Religion in Terrorism

I used to get annoyed listening to the muslims on the news programs in Pakistanis etc, talk about how their god will help them and that they are "on a mission from god." I think the positive effect of this is to make people much less tolerant of religious statements. Obviously this isn't true for the completely indoctrinated (they are hopeless), but the moderates I think get really turned off. Since there is no end in sight against these fanatics maybe people in west will stop making religious statements (except for the funny dressed and big hat folk: priests, imams etc). Or at the very least it will make the moderates much more suspect of those claiming magic and divinity. That's a positive!!

Blair playing the god card

It's all over the British news that Blair said his actions in Iraq are to be judged by god. He should have used Allah, I think that would have went over better. :-)
Here is a funny spoof of the incident. I found it quite witty!