Heaving Dead Cats » interesting

God Thinks Like You and He Personally Cares For You, Plus a Video To Cheer You Up

Neece — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 16:40:19 +0000

I have 2 studies to share with you then a video to cheer you up afterwards.

The first paper is titled ‘Believers’ estimates of God’s beliefs are more egocentric than estimates of other people’s beliefs’. It found through a series of 7 studies and surveys that people believe that god has the same beliefs that they have. Here is what they concluded:

The researchers noted that people often set their moral compasses according to what they presume to be God’s standards. ”The central feature of a compass, however, is that it points north no matter what direction a person is facing,” they conclude. “This research suggests that, unlike an actual compass, inferences about God’s beliefs may instead point people further in whatever direction they are already facing.”

Isn’t that convenient? It certainly explains how god can hate all the same people they hate, and basically agree with them about everything. It’s like knowing your dad will let you do whatever you want because he thinks just like you. It’s a license to act any way you like, with your god’s blessing.

Also, are you sure people set their compass according to god’s standards? Maybe instead they set god’s compass to theirs. That would be interesting to find out, although I don’t know how you’d do it.

The second paper is titled ‘Socioeconomic Status and Beliefs about God’s Influence in Everyday Life.’ It used data from two recent national surveys of Americans to examine people’s beliefs about god’s involvement and influence in their lives. Here are some of the findings:

Overall, most people believe that God is highly influential in the events and outcomes in their lives. Specifically:

82 per cent say they depend on God for help and guidance in making decisions;
71 per cent believe that when good or bad things happen, these occurrences are simply part of God’s plan for them;
61 per cent believe that God has determined the direction and course of their lives;
32 per cent agree with the statement: “There is no sense in planning a lot because ultimately my fate is in God’s hands.”
Overall, people who have more education and higher income are less likely to report beliefs in divine intervention.
However, among the well-educated and higher earners, those who are more involved in religious rituals share similar levels of beliefs about divine intervention as their less-educated and less financially well-off peers.

According to Schieman: “Many of us might assume that people of higher social class standing tend to reject beliefs about divine intervention. However, my findings indicate that while this is true among those less committed to religious life, it is not the case for people who are more committed to religious participation and rituals.”

82% depend on god to help them make decisions! That is incredibly disturbing to me. It’s one thing to ask your friend for advice in helping you decide something important. That person is REAL. It’s another thing to ask an invisible fantasy man for help. But according to the previous study, you’re just doing whatever you like because god thinks like you. Right?

Doesn’t this get a person off the hook, decrease their need for personal responsibility, if they can just say it’s all god’s doing? And isn’t it all incredibly delusional? Religious people who think god is personally involved in their daily lives must be the most adept people at cherry-picking information. They are great at seeing only the hits where chance makes it look like the sky daddy is helping them, and ignoring the millions of misses where their furtive pleas to god go unanswered.

So here is a video which might give you a bit of hope.

The internet: where religions come to die (almost 11 minutes). Some of it is exceedingly creepy and depressing, but it has a happy ending.

Information IS Beautiful!

Neece — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 07:26:42 +0000

Stumbling around the interwebs, I found a site that I think you might love. It’s called Information is Beautiful. David McCandless takes all kinds of data and ideas and visualizes it in appealing ways.

The one I found that I thought was amazing was Snake Oil?: Scientific evidence for popular health supplements. (That link takes you to the interactive version. See the static version here.) On the side is a show me button that flies out a list of uses and types of supplements. Choose what you’re interested in to filter the results. The bigger the bubble, the more popular the supplement is. The higher on the chart, the more evidence there is that it works. Notice how many bubbles are below the Worth It line. Remember, the supplements are only good for the conditions listed inside the bubble, which you can see by hovering over it.

What David says about the evidence:

We only considered large, human, randomized placebo-controlled trials in our data scrape – wherever possible. No animal trials. No cell studies. Many of the health claims made by the $23 billion supplements industry are based on non-human trials. We wanted to cut through that.

This piece was doggedly researched by myself, and researchers Pearl Doughty-White and Alexia Wdowski. We looked at the abstracts of over 1500 studies on PubMed (run by US National Library Of Medicine) and Cochrane.org (which hosts meta-studies of scientific research). It took us several months to seek out the evidence – or lack of.

The information is generated from a Google Doc, so when new research comes out it can be easily updated. Very cool indeed. The data has web addresses to the source of the research so you can see it for yourself. It’s not just anecdotal evidence.

David also has a chart on caffeine and calories. He even shows how much exercise it will take to work off that large iced mocha you had for breakfast.

He does two interesting charts about politics. The Left vs the Right. A world version and an American version. These are chock full of information.

His 2012 chart is also great. The left describes the believers, the right describes the skeptics, with information refuting what the believers say. Sources are listed at the bottom, and are available in a Google Doc.

His climate change chart shows global warming deniers vs the scientific consensus.

He has many more on his site as well. That’s just a few of my favorites.

A Chart of Religiousness, IQ, Morality and More

Neece — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 21:30:26 +0000

My friend Gerald found this interesting chart chock full of information. Of course, remember correlation does not necessitate causation, but it is striking how the numbers fall.

Links on the full page >>

State of the States: Importance of Religion – Gallup Poll, January 28, 2009
Average IQ Score By State
Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates (2008, US Census Bureau)
Law Enforcement, Courts and Prisons: Crimes and Crime Rates (US Census Bureau)
Divorce Rates by State, 1990-2005
Generosity in Canada and the US: The 2009 Generosity Index
Political Ideology: “Conservative” Label Prevails in the South (August 2009)
2008 State Well-Being Composite Rankings

Cross-posted from Morgantown Atheists

A New Pew Religion Survey

Neece — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 16:00:24 +0000

There is a new Pew Survey about religion of people coming of age around the year 2000 (called the Millenials) out. It’s quite interesting. I’ve included some of the charts and tables for you.

What is interesting is how the Millenials are less affiliated, but they still believe in the afterlife, miracles, angels and demons to a high degree. I think that’s where atheism is lacking for a lot of people; that comfort that there’s more to life than just the natural, that life doesn’t just end when we take our last breath. Personally I find that it makes life much more precious.

Let’s see some charts and tables!

Note that in the Unaffiliated group are the Religious Unaffiliated, people who describe their faith as “nothing in particular” but say that religion is somewhat or very important in their lives. Whatever that means.

If you take out the religious unaffiliated, you still get a much higher group of unaffiliated than the general population. Note how few people are still willing to label themselves as atheists.

Another chart showing age composition of religions.

Lots of people find religion to be very important to them. Note how religion seems to become more important as the different groups get older. Could that be fear of death?

53% of Millenials are certain god exists. Note the other groups as well.

Interesting how different groups view the bible or other “holy” book.

Here’s a chart for the last table. Note how the different groups change over time in regards to believing the bible is the literal word of god.

Notice how the unaffiliated still believe in the afterlife, miracles, angels and demons. I think this is significant.

How to obtain eternal life table, only the affiliated were asked, of course.

Views of homosexuality as always wrong.

Views on abortion. I’d love to see this as a chart over time.

Is evolution the best explanation for human life? Does Hollywood threaten values? Do you like bigger government with more services? Interesting numbers.

Are there absolute standards of right and wrong? Should government protect morality? Should churches talk politics? The unaffiliated stand out a bit here.

Opposition to prayer and bible reading in public schools. The Millenials stand out again.

So what do you think? Are you an Unaffiliated? Have you ever heard of Religious Unaffiliated? Do you think the Unafilliated results are too muddied by combining those numbers for the rest of the questions? I do. Does this poll seem hopeful to you, or not? And if you’re nonreligious, do you believe in miracles, angels and demons, and life after death?

Thanks to my friend Daniel, for letting me know this had been released.

Some Recent Scientific Studies

Neece — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 01:59:01 +0000

As you may have guessed, I love science. I thought I’d share some studies that have been recently published that seem interesting.

First, we’ll start with Norway. They took a novel approach to dealing with staph infections. They drastically reduced their use of antibiotics. Some time ago I talked a bit about refraining from using antibacterial soaps which are harmful to you and those you love. Anyway, Norway is now the most infection-free country in the world. And they did it by reducing their use of antibiotics.

Midday Naps boost your learning capacity! Good news for those of us able to catch a few ZZZ’s during the day. New research from the University of California, Berkeley, shows that an hour’s nap can dramatically boost and restore your brain power. Indeed, the findings suggest that a biphasic sleep schedule not only refreshes the mind, but can make you smarter.

Few professionals keep current with what’s going on in their field. This is disturbing but not surprising.

Nanotechnology creates a way to cheaply and efficiently make lightweight paper and fabric batteries, store energy, and still be stretchable! (I love me some nanotech) These are known as eTextiles. Imagine energy-storing wallpaper, charging your portables on the go by plugging them into your shirt. How about moving display clothing, high performance sportswear and wearable power for soldiers? Groovy!

Biogas may be even better than previously thought. Biogas from refuse produces 95 per cent less greenhouse gas emissions than gasoline, according to a new research report. With a few simple improvements to the biogas plants, the figure can rise to 120 per cent — i.e. biogas becomes more than climate neutral. This can be compared with the standard figures used today, which indicate that biogas produces 80 per cent lower emissions than gasoline.

An inexpensive, fast, accurate DNA test that reveals a person’s risk of developing certain diseases is expected to become a reality. Scientists have developed a method of pinpointing variations in a person’s genetic code at critical points along the DNA chain. The technique could be used to analyze DNA in a drop of saliva.

While research over the past couple of years is showing that taking vitamins may be more harmful than beneficial (get your nutrients in your food!), a large survey study finds that middle aged and elderly people with high levels of vitamin D could reduce their chances of developing heart disease or diabetes by 43%. Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin that is naturally present in some foods and is also produced when ultraviolet rays from sunlight strike the skin and trigger vitamin D synthesis. Fish such as salmon, tuna and mackerel are good sources of vitamin D.

More about Vitamin D:Vitamin D is quickly becoming the “it” nutrient with health benefits for diseases, including cancer, osteoporosis, heart disease and now diabetes.

How about this? Scorpion venom could be an alternative to morphine, with no side effects!

Routine Driving, even for experienced drivers, increases the chances of accidents. The findings of the study show that the brain is more active and reacts more along unfamiliar routes. When the test persons became familiar with the routes, the activity of their brains became less; this was the case for both the experienced and inexperienced drivers. This means that drivers drive on familiar routes without consciously orientating themselves.

A Brain-controlled cursor doubles as a neural network. Scientists have found that watching a cursor respond to one’s thoughts prompts brain signals to become stronger than those generated in day-to-day life. The finding holds promise for rehabilitating patients after stroke or other neurological damage. It also suggests that a human brain could quickly become adept at manipulating an external device such as a computer interface or a prosthetic limb.

So there you go, some recent random studies from the scientific world.

I’m Curious!

Neece — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 02:56:59 +0000

The other day I shared my favorite podcasts, one of which was the SGU. Well, I just found a new one! From Skepchick.org with Rebecca Watson comes a new podcast called Curiosity Aroused. There’s one episode up now which is about calorie restriction for long life. The episode is about 20 minutes long and you can subscribe through iTunes.

In the first episode, they talk to Monica Reinagel who is pretty neat in her own right. She’s a nutrition expert and through her short podcast and blog she helps weed through the hype and nonsense of nutrition. As a person who wonders what is fact and what is bullshit when it comes to food, diet and the like, it’s very cool to find a resource for good information.

Here are her sites:

www.nutritiondata.com: her blog is on here along with a wealth of information.

http://nutritiondiva.quickanddirtytips.com/: Her podcasts are on here. If you go to listen or read and episode, you can then find the link to iTunes to subscribe and get them all. They are each about 5 minutes long.

Do you have any great resources for good nutrition and diet that are based in science and research? Please feel free to share!

Podcasts and Internet Radio Stations You May Enjoy

Neece — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 14:02:18 +0000

Want to expand your mind and be entertained at the same time? Here are a list of podcasts and radio shows you can listen to online or on your iPod through iTunes. Most of these are scientific/ skeptical in nature, but I’ve thrown in 2 religious ones because they are both excellent.

My Favorites:

SGU: The Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe and a 5 minute weekly podcast at the same place; SGU 5×5: a weekly Science podcast produced by the New England Skeptical Society (NESS) in association with the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF) : discussing the latest news and topics from the world of the paranormal, fringe science, and controversial claims from a scientific point of view.
Scientific American’s Science Talk (they have other podcasts here): Join host Steve Mirsky each week as he explores the latest developments in science & technology through interviews.
Reasonable Doubts (Your Skeptical Guide to Religion): A special focus on counter-apologetics. They provide detailed counter-points to the fallacious logic and blatant misinformation used by religious apologists when attempting to discredit skepticism and provide rational arguments for their dogmas. They also defend the sufficiency of reason, science and naturalistic philosophies to provide a satisfactory and morally compelling understanding of the cosmos, human nature, art and culture. They try to do this all with fair-mindedness and humor. Winner of the Peoples Choice Podcast Award for best religious/inspirational podcast of 2009
The Naked Scientists and another podcast, Ask the Naked Scientists: The Naked Scientists are a group of physicians and researchers from Cambridge University who use radio, live lectures, and the Internet to strip science down to its bare essentials, and promote it to the general public. Each week, listeners of all ages and backgrounds tune in on a Sunday evening to hear creator Dr. Chris Smith, together with his entertaining scientist sidekicks, interview renowned scientists and researchers from all over the world and take science questions on any subject live from the listening public.
StarTalk with Neil DeGrasse Tyson: a radio show devoted to all things space and is hosted by renowned astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson.
Mr. Deity (video, not podcast, but you can subscribe through iTunes): a webshow that looks at the every-day life of the creator and everything he must endure as he attempts to manage his creation.

My friend and fellow science lover Brent sent me a list of his favorites as well, which is actually what sparked this post:

The Center for Inquiry’s Point of Inquiry: Point of Inquiry explores CFI’s three research areas:
- Pseudoscience and the paranormal (Bigfoot, UFOs, psychics, communication with the dead, cryptozoology, etc.)
- Alternative medicine (faith healing, homeopathy, “healing touch,” the efficacy of prayer, etc.)
- Religion, humanism, and secularism (church-state separation, the effects and proper role of religion in society, the future of secularism and nonbelief, etc.)
  Rotating hosts Chris Mooney, Karen Stollznow, and Robert Price bring engaging and thought-provoking interviews and commentary on a broad range of topics to each episode of Point of Inquiry.
NPR’s Science Friday: A weekly radio talk show on NPR from 2-4pm on Fridays. Each week, they focus on science topics that are in the news and try to bring an educated, balanced discussion to bear on the scientific issues at hand. Panels of expert guests join Science Friday’s host, Ira Flatow, a veteran science journalist, to discuss science – and to take questions from listeners during the call-in portion of the program.
Groks Science Radio Show and Podcast: a weekly science radio program and podcast produced in Chicago, USA and Tokyo, Japan. The show broadcasts on radio stations across the country and can also be heard as a podcast. Each week, the hosts, Dr. Charles Lee and Dr. Frank Ling, take an in-depth look at recent events in the world of science and technology, and examine the effects of recent discoveries on our daily lives.
Each episode features an interview with a leading scientist, researcher, or industrialist discussing stimulating work in their field. The show often includes a humorous and entertaining segment; plus the world famous question of the week!
IEET: Changesurfer Radio: a weekly, syndicated public affairs radio show transmitting a sexy, high-tech vision of a radically democratic future
Fast Forward Radio: A convergence of emerging technologies and emerging possibilities is at the heart of this, the greatest period of transformation in human history. Our world is changing in ways that are hard to predict…sometimes even hard to imagine. FastForward Radio is your guide to an astounding future that lies ahead — and that will be here sooner than you think!

Feel free to contribute your favorites!

Heaving Dead Cats » interesting

God Thinks Like You and He Personally Cares For You, Plus a Video To Cheer You Up

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Some Recent Scientific Studies

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I’m Curious!

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