Letters to the Editor
-
I enjoyed it.
Yes, it's repetitive on Salon's part. I'm not quite convinced that it won't alter people's opnions. Well, what single interview can do that? But Wolpert's calm, friendly manner, and his good argument in favor of his position (he uses logic, not vitriol) might have an effect on people's thinking.
Of course, when your interviewee makes a point of saying his friend saw a ghost that gave accurate information she couldn't have come by on her own, and your interviewer recounts his grandfather's very odd experience at the time of his own grandfather's death, and a scientific study that supports ESP phenomenon is included in the article, it kinda shoots a hole in the theory. Even if those occurances don't strictly prove God's existence, or the existence of the supernatural.
-
Making sense of the world is hard work.
Belief in God is the feedback howl of emergent self awareness.
Don't criticize the fact that humanity hasn't outgrown superstition yet. It is happening, slowly.
It's hard work.
-
If Triangles had a god
He'd have 3 sides.
But so? I'm sure I'm even more degrees of separation from Joan Walsh than I am from the President of France but we're supposed to believe in Joan even though I can't take it as anything more than a leap of faith this Mystical Creature Exists.
And yes, God does indeed have three sides.
-
Those peace-lovin' Beatniks, the Atheists
Yes, you're right, all wars are caused by religion. People only kill and torture in the name of religion. People like Stalin. Oh, and the Chinese government...and those crazy religious fanatics, the Nazis, who believed people should learn to worship the state instead of that pesky God.
And before all the hysterical hand-waving starts from the atheist camp, neither am I claiming that religious belief makes people "better." My point is that people will use all kinds of ideological justifications to do evil. It has to do with viewing yourself as somehow being apart from other people due to a component of your ideological identity that allows you to view others as not like you, whether that's "religious infidel" or "homosexual" or "not-white" or whatever. You might as well blame the differentiation of human skin pigment on all the world's ills.
For such a bunch of "smart guys" as you scientists would have us all believe, the scientism/radical materialist proponents sure can be incredibly reductionist. Why not stick to natural science and leave the big thinking to the rest of us?
-
The paranormal
I find it curious that here I am, approaching middle age, yet I've never once in my entire life had these strange experiences that so many people talk about, seeing ghosts, telepathy, UFOs, thinking about someone and suddenly they call etc. Frankly I think it's all self-delusion. I've been a skeptic all my life so I'm not predisposed to believe in these things. But I've noticed that people who are open-minded about the paranormal are precisely the ones that have these experiences. I think they simply want to have them so their minds play tricks on them . . . "Wouldn't it be interesting and special if grandpa sent me a message as he died? Oh, but I think I did see his picture knocking the wall, didn't I . . ." Well, no. You retrospectively created the "memory" because your fantasy life is quite strong.
-
So very wrong...also maybe right
Lewis Wolpert is a smart guy, and also a kook. He makes some amazing mistakes of thought. Einstein theorized about the unbroken connection between electrons even if separated by distance, -the "spin up, spin down" reflection being instantaneous reactions- before we had instruments sensitive enough to measure them. In fact, much of what science has uncovered about the universe was an inkling first in some creative scientist's mind, before it was accepted, testable and falsifiable.
He says, “I mean, we want a cause as to why we're here, but I'm afraid there isn't one.”
This statement is an expression of belief, pure and simple, not of scientific conclusion or empirical evidence to the contrary, and what’s more it shows an astonishing lack of imagination.
Wolpert holds beliefs for which there is no proof, just like any religious person. He discounts effective treatments that have survived thousands of years longer than any religion, and wisdom that is equally ancient, just because he isn't aware of any "proof".
Hey, I can't hear a dog whistle, but blow one around a dog and you might be convinced there's sound beyond human sensitivity. It's equally probable that there is energy beyond any of our current technology's capabilities also.
It's one thing to say, "I doubt it", and rather another to say "It's nonsense", or "it's not possible".
As for his equally specious claims about the “selectability” of religious people from an evolutionary perspective, I'd like to see the control groups, peer reviews, and data on such claims. I doubt religious belief, specifically, is the root of the benefits he describes.
Seems more like he's pandering to the religious to mitigate reaction to some of his more "outrageous" statements.
I think it’s time for atheists to come up with a new name for their belief system. I think the label sucks, and doesn’t accurately describe the belief system. Plus it’s just so limited to define one’s self as in opposition to the very thing one believes doesn’t exist. Look at all the baggage that usually comes along for the ride that is just as full of fantasy as any religion ever was.
-
Beware, Heathens!
The Flying Spaghetti Monster will get you all.
www.venganza.org
-
Monotheism
What I find funny about believers is that they don't seem to realize the anthropomorphism involved in their beliefs. God to them is basically a great big human being. Someone referred to "infinite consciousness." What is that, pray tell? Consciousness is something humans have (and which we don't even understand very well in our own case. Yet you think you know what God's consciousness would be!) You've simply added the qualifier "infinite." Just as others say God is supremely good, perfectly merciful, absolutely loving, omniscient etc. These are just human characteristics blown up to really big proportions.
I think it was Spinoza who said that if a triangle could speak, it would say God was perfectly triangular. He hit the nail on the head with that one.