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I love this angry atheist lesbian scientist!


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299 replies to this topic

#1 Shannon Vyff

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Posted 16 October 2007 - 06:29 PM


http://gretachristin...sts-and-an.html

#2 Live Forever

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Posted 16 October 2007 - 07:00 PM

Very well placed anger.

#3 Athan

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Posted 16 October 2007 - 07:10 PM

That person has a long list of truth, if I do say so myself.

#4 Shannon Vyff

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Posted 16 October 2007 - 09:04 PM

Here is a new article on finding God in the brain:

http://www.sciam.com...&sc=WR_20071016

#5 basho

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Posted 16 October 2007 - 09:27 PM

http://gretachristin...sts-and-an.html

Fantastic blog entry! Now I am angry too [ang]

#6 eternaltraveler

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Posted 16 October 2007 - 09:47 PM

Here is a new article on finding God in the brain:

http://www.sciam.com...&sc=WR_20071016


Because of the positive effect of such experiences on those who have them, some researchers speculate that the ability to induce them artificially could transform people’s lives by making them happier, healthier and better able to concentrate.


lets induce them artificially in the context of the flying spaghetti monster

#7 Cyberbrain

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Posted 16 October 2007 - 10:28 PM

Time for a Revolution! [lol]

#8 maestro949

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Posted 17 October 2007 - 12:25 AM

[glasses]

Edited by wing_girl, 17 October 2007 - 04:28 AM.


#9 maestro949

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Posted 17 October 2007 - 12:27 AM

Oh, wait, this one's better

[angry]

#10 Shannon Vyff

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Posted 17 October 2007 - 04:25 AM

Hah I was at a philosophy group yesterday that meets up monthly in Austin, and at the end of the table I was on after 10 minutes of debate between a deist and an atheist--finally the atheist said the exact same thing "wish you hadn't wasted my time if you are just going to come down with the feelings thing" at the end :)  The funniest part was when people were going around saying what they were after a heated debate then pregnant pause... agnostic, deist, atheist etc.  and I said 'cryonicist' one guy said "Oh that is good,  what is that?" because he didn't recognize it, another person explained--then I had to explain all my beliefs, mainly that it does not much matter to me I'll find out either way, there are so many different beliefs in an afterlife I feel they cancel each other out.. I may get extra time to learn more, or else it just may not matter... it is however fun to meet people and explain cryonics, Mprize etc... :)

#11 maestro949

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Posted 17 October 2007 - 02:23 PM

Ha! Sounds like a fun group to throw something like cryonicist into the mix. The technophobe will always cower at the thought of dehumanizing human values via transhumanist ideas but when they try to do the mental gymnastics required to argue that suffering and death are something we should value it always boils down to feelings, something to do with it not being natural or overpopulation.

ps I think you accidentally deleted my original response. oops.

#12 advancedatheist

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Posted 17 October 2007 - 06:53 PM

Such efforts to reveal the neural correlates of the divine—a new discipline with the warring titles “neurotheology” and “spiritual neuroscience”—not only might reconcile religion and science but also might help point to ways of eliciting pleasurable otherworldly feelings in people who do not have them or who cannot summon them at will. Because of the positive effect of such experiences on those who have them, some researchers speculate that the ability to induce them artificially could transform people’s lives by making them happier, healthier and better able to concentrate.


Okay, this gives me the creeps. Think of what a religion-based totalitarian state could do with this technology, especially if it medicalizes religious nonbelief.

#13 Futurist1000

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Posted 17 October 2007 - 08:51 PM

Okay, this gives me the creeps. Think of what a religion-based totalitarian state could do with this technology, especially if it medicalizes religious nonbelief.

Hmm, that's something I never thought of. It is a possibility. Though feeling a crazy spirtual connection with god could have some benefits (assuming the spiritual feeling was directed towards a feel good, warm, loving god as opposed to a vengeful, spiteful god). It might not be all bad, but I would never want that forced on me. Where would rationality go, though?
Searching for god in the brain

In a series of studies conducted over the past several decades, Persinger and his team have trained their device on the temporal lobes of hundreds of people. In doing so, the researchers induced in most of them the experience of a sensed presence—a feeling that someone (or a spirit) is in the room when no one, in fact, is—or of a profound state of cosmic bliss that reveals a universal truth. During the three-minute bursts of stimulation, the affected subjects translated this perception of the divine into their own cultural and religious language—terming it God, Buddha, a benevolent presence or the wonder of the universe.

I could see some religious government using fMRI technology to make sure your devotion to god is real. That would be a scary possiblity.

#14 John Schloendorn

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Posted 18 October 2007 - 01:20 AM

Think of what a religion-based totalitarian state could do with this technology, especially if it medicalizes religious nonbelief.

Save the world by patenting this idea now! (for the next 20 years anyway...)

#15 Karomesis

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Posted 18 October 2007 - 01:52 AM

Here is a new article on finding God in the brain:


Wing_girl, are you religious?

I ask because you performed an abomination.....you capitalized the g in god. [:o]

#16 Live Forever

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Posted 18 October 2007 - 02:12 AM

Wing_girl, are you religious?

I ask because you performed an abomination.....you capitalized the g in god. [:o]

God God God God God

[tung]

#17 Luna

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Posted 18 October 2007 - 07:32 AM

lol that angry person is quite funny..

And just to join the party:
God! oh my God! we are capitalizing the g in God! how in the name of God can we atheists do so?

:)

#18 electric buddha

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Posted 18 October 2007 - 08:18 AM

I'm feeling comfortable and furious as well. OK, comfortable and mildly digruntaled, but still. I think I'm more angry that I'm so settled into a default assumption of being discrimated against for not believing in a god than I am for the actual discrimation.

#19 Karomesis

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Posted 18 October 2007 - 11:57 AM

God God God God God

tung.gif




Posted Image

[lol]

#20 Shannon Vyff

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Posted 19 October 2007 - 03:06 AM

Oh, well god means a different thing to say a Hindu, than God. God means something else to a Christian--I meant the typical Christian view of God. Allah, and Yahwey are called God too. So I mean the all knowing, loving guiding God that many people feel and love.

#21 advancedatheist

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Posted 19 October 2007 - 03:42 AM

Oh, well god means a different thing to say a Hindu, than God.  God means something else to a Christian--I meant the typical Christian view of God.  Allah, and Yahwey are called God too.  So I mean the all knowing, loving guiding God that many people feel and love.


What about the people who feel the need to call upon a Lower Power to find meaning in life?

#22 advancedatheist

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Posted 19 October 2007 - 03:43 AM

Speaking of no gods:


Edited by advancedatheist, 19 October 2007 - 04:33 AM.


#23 Agarikon

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Posted 19 October 2007 - 04:05 AM

The way I see it, believing in a universe which always existed or came forth from nothing is just as strange as believing in a God that always existed or came forth from nothing.

#24 advancedatheist

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Posted 19 October 2007 - 04:33 AM

The way I see it, believing in a universe which always existed or came forth from nothing is just as strange as believing in a God that always existed or came forth from nothing.


I find it odd that theists assume that a god's existence automatically gives life meaning and purpose. What if it turns out that god's existence has neither, at least as far as humans go?

Better yet, what if it turns out that god came into existence "through chance"?

#25 Athan

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Posted 19 October 2007 - 03:15 PM

The way I see it, believing in a universe which always existed or came forth from nothing is just as strange as believing in a God that always existed or came forth from nothing.


I agree.

1. There is no God.
-Then where did the universe come from?
2. There is a God.
-Then where did he come from?

If the answer to either those questions is:

1. Nothing
-How is that possible?
2. Something
-What, and where did it come from?

It almost seems as if there is an infinite amount of answers and questions.

#26 Shannon Vyff

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Posted 19 October 2007 - 05:34 PM

yeah, I started asking that question about age 7

I believed God knew my whole life, start to finish, all the things I'd do as an adult--if I'd go to heaven or not, and had influence in my life day to day-God was perfect all knowing and such, then I wanted to know where God had come from...

#27 advancedatheist

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Posted 19 October 2007 - 05:52 PM

I believed God knew my whole life, start to finish, all the things I'd do as an adult--if I'd go to heaven or not,


I don't see how "going to heaven" solves anything, either. What if god lets you into heaven and you choose to rebel, again with god's foreknowledge?

#28 jaydfox

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Posted 19 October 2007 - 07:06 PM

Did anyone following this link:
http://www.religious...e.org/texas.htm

Kinda pisses me off. At first I thought the site was highlighting laws that used to be on the books. But no, they're still there, even if rendered defunct by the Supreme Court.

#29 spacey

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Posted 19 October 2007 - 07:47 PM

Although I can recognize and understand some of her concerns I think that this type of behavior isn't contributing to the solution.

#30 Shannon Vyff

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Posted 19 October 2007 - 07:50 PM

Oh right, the philosophy group I was at, they debated that too.... should you not be able to hold office if you do not believe in God here in Texas, our UU church has a state rep, and city council member, as members for the benefit of being 'religious' but here is last Sunday's sermon:

http://www.austinuu.org/sermon/ (if that does not take you to Oct. 14th's then click on 'recent sermons')




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