Ask me anything. Almost.
Recent Responses
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Quietness of the neighborhood. I've lived behind Wilshire Blvd for toooo long.
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I have zillions! :-) A few contemporary faves: Batman Returns, The Tailor of Panama, Gods and Monsters/Miller's Crossing/anything by Carter Burwell, Pan's Labyrinth, Schindler's List, The City of Lost Children.
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Dr. Harriet Hall, Will Shortz, and David Tennant.
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Well, people are entitled to wear stuff they find attractive or interesting even if they don't understand it. I think it's hipsters who tend to care more about that kind of thing. And even if the person is a total poser, it just takes a few brief questions to revoke the geek cred. ;-)
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Simpsons. Back when.
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Wow. Tough! 10 songs I love, in no order: The Story by Brandi Carlisle; And She Was by Talking Heads; Anthem from "Chess"; Todos Me Miran by Gloria Trevi; Amado Mio by Pink Martini; Hotel California by The Eagles; Mood Indigo by Ella Fitzgerald; If I Loved You from "Carousel"; Feelin' Good by Nina Simone; Stay by Oingo Boingo; Istanbul by TMBG. I think that was 11.
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Nothing. I've already given up enough; one day wouldn't make any difference. I'll take another day of pain in lieu of losing anything else.
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Not remotely. I love being Aunt Joey to my friends' kids, but have never had any desire to have my own. And becoming disabled by chronic illness added about a dozen more reasons not to have them. The cats get spoiled rotten instead. :-)
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Impossible to pick one favorite, but "And She Was" by Talking Heads would be in my top 5.
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This goes for all my friends: stuck by me through my illnesses, including the rough patches where I was a crappy friend, and continue to be there for me no matter what. (No mention of my husband only because I answered this question previously with an anecdote about him.) ;-)
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Not realizing that when my grandmother said "goodbye" to me on the phone that last time, she completely knew she was going to die that night. I should have picked up on it, and said more.
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As I understand it, and that isn't very well, there are some branches of science that share some parallels with spirituality. I'm thinking of theoretical physics, for example, where what I've read about it implies that there's a certain amount of "faith" involved, which I'm sure is a very crude way of putting it. So to that extent, I think there might be some overlap, in that scientists are operating on assumptions that cannot currently be observed, tested, and proven, like infinite-dimensional space.
I see belief in a creator as completely separate from science, although not necessarily incompatible. (As long as a religious scientist also believes in all the laws of science, that evolution is a fact and the planet is 4.5 or so billion years old, and so forth.) Religion and spirituality belong in the realm of that which science cannot and probably will not ever know; they are for personal guidance and not for explaining the way the universe works. -
An anonymous concern troll? At last, I have arrived!
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In my bedroom, mostly. I'm kind of hard to miss.
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@joneko Don't worry, I would never mistake a question like this for a troll. You are right that many people believe themselves to be rational thinkers, and it may seem as though there is no way to measure this. But there is.
Thinking rationally, or critically, requires a person to test a belief with this question in mind: "how do I know this to be true?" The supporting evidence that is produced as a result can then be examined. If it falls into the realm of science (like medicine), there is a system in place to examine the evidence. As many anti-science people will insist on reminding you, science does not know everything. But it is beyond all doubt the best process we have for analyzing our world objectively and empirically.
Probably the biggest source of contention comes with religious beliefs. Without any judgment, it is a simple fact that belief in any god is irrational, for the simple fact that there is no way to prove god's existence. It is a belief that comes purely from faith. But too many religious people fall back on holy texts as their source. Their faith blinds them to the truths about, say, the Bible, such as when it was written and who it was written by (not God). As far as these people are concerned, they are thinking rationally when they insist creationism be taught in classrooms, because of their religious belief. And they certainly consider scientific fact to be "irrational." But every perspective is not valid here. The Bible is not an acceptable source for a scientific theory.
Everyone has some irrational beliefs. For example, there are some medical treatments that based on my personal experience and/or anecdotal evidence from many other patients, I believe are effective. However, as far as science goes, the jury is out. Therefore my belief may be reasonable, but as the adage goes, "The plural of anecdote is not data." I cannot use my belief, no matter how reasonable, as proof of anything. And I think this is fine *as long as* people recognize that beliefs like these are not entirely rational. The problem comes when people don't recognize their irrational beliefs as such, and start seeing anyone who disagrees with them as "irrational" no matter what.
This is my overview and I hope I answered your question somewhat in my ramblings. It's a complicated one. I do think there are grey areas, but generally speaking there are good yardsticks for what is a rational thought process and what is not. -
Why yes! First I would suggest subscribing to "skepticzonepodcast" on YouTube. You'll find lots of good stuff from Richard Saunders, Dr. Rachie, and Brian Dunning. Also a search on "Richard Wiseman skeptic" turns up a variety of good clips. For more flash, Jamy Ian Swiss is another great magician and skeptic, and there's at least one clip of him doing some debunking (three card monte). Also Derren Brown is a mentalist who is interested in debunking the tricks people use in cold reading.
That should be a good start to search on, but if you prefer links to specific clips, I'd be happy to suggest a few. -
I'm not entirely sure of your question, but...thanks? :-)
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