Category: Religion

Posted on

Will the Presidential Candidates Debate Science?

The U.S. presidential candidates been invited to a debate on science. Will they come? I don’t know, but the thought of Mike Huckabee using biblical references in discussing science could lead to some very fun sentences. For example, if he wanted to get apocrypha-l, when talking about the bioethics of artificial wombs, he could bring up the Gospel of Thomas 15:

Jesus said, “When you see one who was not born of woman, fall on your faces and worship. That one is your Father.”

Of course, Mike Huckabee didn’t major in math, so I worry that he won’t attend for fear that the debate might test his calculating abilities (math phobia burns wide and deep.)

Posted on

Plotting Religion iff Freedom

Last week Mitt Romney, in a speech on religion, said that “Freedom requires religion, just as religion requires freedom.” Or, as I like to put it, “Religion iff Freedom.” This bothered me more than a little bit, until I realized that I could turn it into an empirical question. Or a least a question where I could make a plot! Below is a plot of importance of religion in people’s lives versus their political freedom for a 39 countries:
Continue reading “Plotting Religion iff Freedom”

Posted on

Spoon Bending Is Trivial for Quantum Kooks

I guess “trivial” is in the eye of the beholder (or the eye of the guy who doesn’t understand quantum theory):

I have always maintained there is no such thing is supernatural or paranormal. All observed phenomena, if accurate, are natural and normal. We call something supernatural or paranormal when we can’t explain it. Once we know the
explanation, its science. Before that it’s spooky. Everything I write about can be understood if you understand non locality and non local correlation and the inseparability of mind and matter as different expressions of consciousness. Let’s not waste any more time on spoon bending. For millions of people it’s now a trivial example of mind and matter as inseparably one.
Love and God bless!
Deepak
P.S. Dear Skeptisch, please come to NY at your own expense and I will make sure you can experience spoon bending for yourself. If you can’t, or don’t want to do that, then stop talking over and over again about the same thing. It’s boring

I think “it’s boring” means something like “dude, stop cramping my book sales.” Thanks to hana for pointing me to this gem.

Posted on

Quantum Peace

JohnQPublic points me to a new use of quantum theory. World peace:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsvEkPNitdQ&mode=related&search=[/youtube]
At about 4:30 you’ll find my favorite line: “…the radiated influence of peace in the environment grows roughly as the square of the number of people doing it together…” Can we expect Grover speedups in achieving world peace if we use quantum theory?

Posted on

Out of Body

From a New York Times article:

Using virtual reality goggles, a camera and a stick, scientists have induced out-of-body experiences — the sensation of drifting outside of one’s own body — in healthy people, according to experiments being published in the journal Science.

Link to links to articles here.
Doesn’t this make you want to go out and buy some VR goggles, a camera, and a stick? Seriously if someone set up a stand in a mall to do this, I’d want a ride. Reminds me of a story my dad told me about how he would sell electric shocks to the local kids instead of lemonade. It makes me worry, however, whether someday they will be able to induce Alien abduction experiences as well. Might not be quite as pleasant.

Posted on

Many Universes, But Not All Lead to Salvation or the Simpson's Movie

It
[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=OL50ddCSJmo[/youtube]
is
[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=q-O7Nteshv4[/youtube]
coming!
[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=3r-YJOrY28w[/youtube]
Maybe, finally, after all these years of waiting, we will learn just exactly what “Quantum Presbyterianism” is:

Homer: [opens door to find Kang and Kodos standing there] Hello — oh great. Mormons.
Kang: Actually, we’re Quantum Presbyterians…

I’m thinking it involves a doctrine which says that you are spiritually doomed to branches of the wavefunction which are condemned by God, but the divine intervention of God can lead you to those branches which are not condemned. Or something like that.
“Spider pig, spider pig…”

Posted on

Pontiff and Evolution

That other Pontiff has declared that he “believes in evolution.” Am I the only one who read “[reclaim] a dimension of reason we have lost” and thought of string theory? (That’s a joke peoples, so don’t get your stringy hair in an uproar!)

Posted on

Lightning Rods Against God's Fury

I recently picked up Discarded Science: Ideas that seemed good at the time… by John Grant, a delightful little book about ideas in science that just didn’t pan out (hmmm….how many of my papers will be relegated to that dustbin? Ack, down that pathway lies depression.) When I was but a wee lad I spent many hours reading books about the Loch Ness monster, UFOs, and Bigfoot. (Not only did I learn to debug before I learned to program, apparently I learned pseudoscience before I learned science. Hmmm.) My experience with these early pseudoscience books has led me to think an important part of understanding science is to understand what is not science. Plus I am a real sucker for the kind of half baked arguments that are a stable of those pseudoscientific books. My favorite passage from the book so far is a classic illustration

…In November 1755 the most destructive earthquake ever to strike the northeastern US hit at Cape Ann, some 50km south of Boston. The Reverend Thomas Prince, of South Church, Boston, knew at once who was to blame: Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), for having invented the lightning conductor. Before Franklin’s scheme of putting pointed metal rods on tall buildings had been universally adopted, God had been able to express His wrath by blasting something with lightning. Now that the presumptuous Franklin had taken that option away from Him, He was having to use earthquakes instead.

Which leads, of course, to the question of just how many tools of God has Science destroyed?