Athée Canadien
Science
Evolution Is True
May 12th
Even though you already accept that evolution is true, you will find this video educational and entertaining. You may also learn some personal info about Jerry Coyne.
Is God Just Another Human?
May 9th
Scientists have often wondered if the brain has a specific area for dealing with the spiritual or with “god”. Well, a Danish neurologist, Uffe Schjodt, and his team have found that talking to god (or praying), as far as our brain activity is concerned, is no different than talking to our friends and family.
Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) Schjodt found that the areas of the brain that activate during prayer were the same ones that activate while talking to other humans.
A couple things from Schjodt’s article stood out to me:
The brain did not evolve to communicate with invisible supernatural beings.
and
Praying, it seems, is subserved by the basic processing of our biologically evolved dispositions like other complex cultural phenomena, in this case the evolved human capacity for social cognition.
Schjodt’s article is a good read and written in a way that even us with no brain for science can understand. I find the idea that our brain processes talking to God as it does talking to other humans pretty logical and I believe it supports the belief that God is a human creation.
CBC journalist Richard Handler has a good article on Schjodt’s findings.
Know who else was an atheist??? Hitler! (and other arguments of this type)
May 4th
Irrespective of whether you accept that the earth is getting hotter, you will hopefully find this attempt to argue against it embarrassingly tragic. It’s amazing to see such a blatant and epic ad hominem fallacy in billboard format. I can only hope that, as the Guardian article says, supporters of heartland.org will pull their funding and distance themselves from such idiocy.
Dawkins’ Beautiful Mind
Apr 29th
In the video “Beautiful Minds: Richard Dawkins,” the young Richard Dawkins reminds me of John Lennon
At approximately 5:40 Dawkins decribes the way he used to read: “in a clandestine way.”
My favourite quote comes at 6:54:
And we are African apes. And we are a rather recent off shoot from other African apes.
Psychology of God
Apr 28th
Are religious people stupid or just ignorant? Are they irrational or weak-minded? They must be delusional or maybe just too cowardly to face reality. They certainly aren’t logical…
I remember when I first starting becoming confident in my atheism, it was a long time ago, but I remember thinking all of these things. For me, atheism was not so much a lack of belief, but rather a total relief. Not because I was afraid of sin, or hell(I was never really indoctrinated into the nastier aspects of religion. Satan was as real as Santa Claus) but because the whole thing was so weird and unbelievable. The idea of a creator, in the Deist sense, seemed reasonable to my childhood mind, but the peeping-tom god of Christianity, really?
Then my interest in human psychology and philosophy led me down the road to atheist enlightenment. There are good reasons humans believe in the supernatural. Many common sense notions, that don’t hold up under careful scrutiny, pervade religious thought, and religious belief can help us deal with our existential insecurities.
But that’s the rational part. Then there is the part where people speak in tongues and hear the voice of god. I never quite understood that. So I find this sort of thing fascinating.
Evangelicals believe in an intimate God who talks to them personally because their churches coach them in a new theory of mind. In these communities, religious belief is “more like learning to do something than to think something. . . . People train the mind in such a way that they experience part of their mind as the presence of God.”
This is also why I find dismissing religious belief to be counter productive, as I think it can tell us quite a bit about what it means to be human, if not why we are here.
G-spot goes missing
Apr 20th
No, not that one, get your minds out of the gutter.
Scientists have speculated that the human brain features a “God spot,” one distinct area of the brain responsible for spirituality. Now, University of Missouri researchers have completed research that indicates spirituality is a complex phenomenon, and multiple areas of the brain are responsible for the many aspects of spiritual experiences.
Not really surprising, in my opinion, considering how complicated human psychology can be. And for me, its kind of a relief, knowing there isn’t some node in my brain working against me.
Morality, revisited.
Apr 4th
My friend recently posted a blog on morality. He decided he’d go with the argument that objective morality necessitates the existence of god. Objective morality exists, therefore god must exist.
Here is my answer to his blog posting. Let me know what you think. Am I way off base? Feel free to comment on his blog, too; he’d love the traffic, even if you disagree! More >
Collapse of scientific standards?
Mar 27th
While I recognize that religion is a more serious concern for science south of the border, I’m not one of those people who sees it as being our major concern in Canuckland. By far the more dangerous issue for us, in my opinion, is the rise of quack medicine in Canada. Its got a lot of big-money behind it, and Health Canada is ill-equipped to deal with it effectively.
“I do worry that very quietly … we’re witnessing the collapse of scientific standards that we’ve come to really rely on,” said Dr. Lloyd Oppel, the B.C. Medical Association’s spokesman on alternative medicine. “Health Canada is a sick mechanism; sick in the sense that they are not functioning.”
What’s more, while people these days are leaving the churches in droves, the lack of critical thinking, and lack of concern, when it comes to alt-med is quite scary.
Braco – The Gaze of Miracles
Mar 13th
Although the site primarily deals with theistic material concerning the major world religions, it is important not to forget to be skeptical about the quiet little “miracles” happening in the corner of the proverbial room. More >
What if a Pill Could Cure Religion?
Mar 11th
I was listening to the radio recently on the way to work and the morning show hosts were talking about a blood pressure pill and its unusual side effect. It seems that scientists at Oxford University recently discovered that a common blood pressure pill may make people less racist. Yes, less racist.
I have always thought of racism as a pretty binary state – you either are or you are not – but perhaps I am wrong. Regardless, I am sure you see where I’m headed with this:
If a learned behaviour like racism can be eased by taking a pill then why not religion?
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