Kool-Aid Psychology and the POWER of Positive Thinking

Michael Shermer

How optimism trumped realism in the positive-psychology movement
magazine cover

I am, by nature, an optimist. I almost always think things will turn out well, and even when they break I am confident that I can fix them. My optimism, however, has not always served me well. Twice I have been hit by cars while cycling— full-on, through-the-windshield impacts that were entirely the result of my blissful attitude that the street corners I had successfully negotiated hundreds of times before would not suddenly materialize an automobile in my path. Such high-impact, unpredictable and rare events are what author Nassim Nicholas Taleb calls “black swans.” Given enough time, no upward sloping trend line is immune from dramatic collapse.

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I Want to Believe

Michael Shermer

In a 1997 episode of The Simpsons entitled “The Springfield Files” — a parody of X-Files in which Homer has an alien encounter in the woods (after imbibing 10 bottles of Red Tick Beer) — Leonard Nimoy voices the intro as he once did for his post-Spock run on the television mystery series In Search of…: “The following tale of alien encounters is true. And by true, I mean false. It’s all lies. But they’re entertaining lies, and in the end isn’t that the real truth? The answer is no.”

No cubed. The postmodernist belief in the relativism of truth, coupled to the clicker culture of mass media where attention spans are measured in New York minutes, leaves us with a bewildering array of truth claims packaged in infotainment units. It must be true — I saw it on television, at the movies, on the Internet. The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, That’s Incredible, The Sixth Sense, Poltergeist, Loose Change, Zeitgeist the Movie. Mysteries, magic, myths and monsters. The occult and the supernatural. Conspiracies and cabals. The face on Mars and aliens on Earth. Bigfoot and Loch Ness. ESP and PSI. UFOs and ETIs. JFK, RFK and MLK — alphabet conspiracies. Altered states and hypnotic regression. Remote viewing and astroprojection. Ouija boards and Tarot cards. Astrology and palm reading. Acupuncture and chiropractic. Repressed memories and false memories. Talking to the dead and listening to your inner child. Such claims are an obfuscating amalgam of theory and conjecture, reality and fantasy, nonfiction and science fiction. Cue dramatic music. Darken the backdrop. Cast a shaft of light across the host’s face. The truth is out there. I want to believe...Read article

Yamani or Your Life

Christopher Hitchens

I have just finished reading one of the most astoundingly stupid and nasty documents ever to have landed on my desk. It consists of a letter from a law firm in Saudi Arabia, run by a man named Ahmed Zaki Yamani, to a group of newspapers in Scandinavia. I quote directly from its main paragraphs:
Over the past months my law firm has been contacted by several thousand descendants of the Prophet, who have learned about your newspaper's republication of the drawing, depicting their esteemed ancestor as a terrorist suicide bomber with a bomb in his turban.

As descendants of the Prophet, these individuals feel personally insulted, emotionally distressed and defamed by your newspaper's re-publication of the drawing. They have therefore retained my law firm and instructed me to approach you …

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Seatbelts?

Bible Atrocities

GENESIS 34:13 – Shechem had premarital sex with Jacob’s daughter Dinah, which angered Jacob’s sons. Shechem and his father, Hamor, agree to circumcision for the men in the city in order for Shechem to marry Dinah and make Jacob’s other daughters eligible for the men of the city. Three days later, while the men are still enduring the pain of circumcision, Jacob’s sons attack the unsuspecting city, killing Shechem and Hamor with swords, looting the city, seizing the flocks, herds, possessions and wealth, plundering the houses and carrying off their women and children.

GENESIS chapters 6 & 7: Unhappy with the wickedness of man, God killed every living thing on the planet except Noah’s family. Men, women, infants and animals drowned in unimaginable terror and agony.

GENESIS 19:6- In Sodom, Lot’s home was assaulted by a homosexual mob seeking to have relations with two angels. Lot volunteers his virgin daughters to the crowd, saying “you can do what you like with them” as long as the guests are left alone.

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Jesus backward

Arrrr, there be a star

Wiccan Wife

I am struck by the glorious potential of the Wiccan female as wife material.
"Why a Wiccan?" you might ask. jsm was rather harsh in his judgement of their religion, but the precise scriptural details don't concern me. Several things seem very clear to me about Wiccan females: read more

One more jab at witchy nonsense...Encyclopedia Dramatica

Why People Believe Invisible Agents Control the World

Souls, spirits, ghosts, gods, demons, angels, aliens, intelligent designers, government conspirators, and all manner of invisible agents with power and intention are believed to haunt our world and control our lives. Why?
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Let us pray

NSS supports Penn & Teller’s right to attack the Vatican on TV

An American TV show, in which the NSS features, has come under ferocious attack from Catholic groups, who are calling for future series to be dropped. One internet site where the show was available for viewing has taken it down...http://www.secularism.org.uk/nss-supports-penn-and038-tellers.html
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