Understanding A Depression Treatment

"Stimulating the brain with magnetic fields can help relieve the symptoms of depression in some people, but scientists haven't been sure precisely why it works. A new study offers some insight: The process reverses brain signals going in the wrong direction."

Click on the link below for the details:

We May Finally Know Why Magnetic Stimulation of The Brain Can Ease Depression

Sports Betting: What Could Go Wrong?

"You’ve probably encountered an advertisement for sports betting in one form or another. In the past few years, there’s been a marked rise in the number of online sports betting ads from companies like DraftKings and FanDuel. Gambling companies now spend billions of dollars a year on advertising. At the same time, there’s growing concern over the effect betting is having on our experience with sports, the lack of comprehensive federal regulation, and its addictive potential. Eric Lipton is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and New York Times investigative reporter. He’s spent years following the sports betting boom. Lipton joins WITHpod to discuss how we got to this moment where sports gambling ads are integrated into almost every sports broadcast, the role of lobbying in the explosion of online betting, how the space is policed, and more."

Click on the link below for a podcast discussing the dangers of this "entertainment." (Hint: the USA banned it decades ago for reasons.)

The Explosion of Online Sports Betting

Children Today Have Different Issues Than Most Of Us Did

"Today, we take a look at the trials and tribulations facing the youth today as men and boys are being surpassed academically by women and girls, and girls are suffering disproportionately under the weight of the toxic forces of social media."

Click on the link below for a podcast exploring the new reality for today's youth:

The Kids Are Not Alright (Boys, Girls, Culture, And Social Media)

Why Are People Antiscience?

"From vaccination refusal to climate change denial, antiscience views are threatening humanity. When different individuals are provided with the same piece of scientific evidence, why do some accept whereas others dismiss it? Building on various emerging data and models that have explored the psychology of being antiscience, we specify four core bases of key principles driving antiscience attitudes. These principles are grounded in decades of research on attitudes, persuasion, social influence, social identity, and information processing. They apply across diverse domains of antiscience phenomena. Specifically, antiscience attitudes are more likely to emerge when a scientific message comes from sources perceived as lacking credibility; when the recipients embrace the social membership or identity of groups with antiscience attitudes; when the scientific message itself contradicts what recipients consider true, favorable, valuable, or moral; or when there is a mismatch between the delivery of the scientific message and the epistemic style of the recipient. Politics triggers or amplifies many principles across all four bases, making it a particularly potent force in antiscience attitudes. Guided by the key principles, we describe evidence-based counteractive strategies for increasing public acceptance of science."

Click on the link below for a scholarly, in-depth look at the danger and harm of anti-science, as well as its causation and recommended remedies:

Why are people antiscience, and what can we do about it?

Herd Mentality: The Good And The Bad

"When we come together in groups we can be so much more than the sum of the parts. But sometimes groups are just much more stupid. Collective stupidity is the flipside of collective intelligence, and we see it a lot on social media. Why are groups sometimes collectively stupid and sometimes not? What can we do to be more intelligent in groups? In this video, I explain the most important points."

Click on the link below for better understanding of this psychological biological trait:

Collective Stupidity -- How Can We Avoid It?

Happiness: What Is It And How Is It Achieved?

"Dr. Robert Waldinger is director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development, which has been investigating the human experience since 1938. Now he’s sharing his findings in a new book, "The Good Life: Lessons from the World’s Longest Scientific Study of Happiness," and he explains all to Walter Isaacson."

Click on the link below for this positive interview:

What's the key to Happiness?

Lotteries Exposed

"The history of lotteries spans over four millennia. The modern version of them arose out of a need for a form of more state funding that wouldn’t raise taxes. Jackpots have reached record levels in the past few years. And 'Americans now spend more on lottery tickets every year than on cigarettes, coffee or smartphones,' writes historian and author Jonathan Cohen. Cohen is author of 'For a Dollar and a Dream: State Lotteries in Modern America,' a comprehensive history of America’s lottery obsession. In the book, he points out that lotteries are much less profitable for states than some proponents say, but on the other hand, they are extremely lucrative for private companies that manufacture tickets. Cohen joins WITHpod to discuss the evolution of lotteries, changes he thinks should be made to the way they are run, public misconceptions about the revenue generated by games and why he says state-run lotteries shouldn’t exist."

Click on the link below for more:

Has the Lottery Played Us?

Answered Prayer Fallacy

All religious belief is unsupported by objective evidence. Religious people who believe in divine intervention usually claim that their prayers are answered by God. Since physics tells us that the Laws of nature are regular and fixed and if they were subject to intervention by a God (miracle?), we would expect dramatic effects within our reality. Science has never confirmed any such event and since such would be an extraordinary event requiring extraordinary evidence, it is reasonable to conclude that prayer effects are most likely the result of the fallacy of Post Hoc Ergo Propter (After this, therefore because of this): correlation interpreted as causation. Regarding the claims of medical miracles, the realities of spontaneous remission and unusual events are ignored.

Comparing Religious Indoctrination With Other Child Abuse

The following essay is the best justification for considering religious indoctrination of children an abuse I have read:

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Is Teaching Young Children Religion a Form of Child Abuse?
© 2000 by Larry Gott

Most people suppose they know what constitutes child abuse. Abuse may generally be defined as action or behavior towards a child that causes harm. But what, exactly, do we mean by harm? Is it always clear-cut?

Reasonable people would agree that hitting a child hard enough to cause bruising or other injury constitutes abuse. But, even though many states have called spanking abuse, many parents believe it is not. It is open to debate. Burning a child with cigarettes is clearly abuse. But smoking around children, even though it is known that secondhand smoke causes cancer, heart disease, and respiratory problems, is not so clearly abuse in the minds of many. The matter is open to argument.

Other gray areas include shouting at one’s kids. That’s just “normal” in many households, but, carried to extremes, it can be abusive, too. Belittling and shaming children, also can be called abusive. Calling children names, labeling them (“you’re stupid,” “you’re destructive”), and threatening them (even if the threats are not carried out), all are forms of abuse, depending on which experts you choose to listen to.

Admittedly the grayest of the gray areas is the teaching of children. Can the secular and religious education of children be abusive? Secular teaching may be more or less effective in preparing children for their adult lives; more in cases where children are taught how to think, to reason for themselves and derive answers from evidence; less where they are taught what to think and the conclusions at which they should arrive.

I've come to believe that teaching religion to children is a form of child abuse. Parents quite naturally think that their children should be taught whatever the parents believe. In a seemingly never-ending cycle, parents who were themselves brainwashed as children pass along to their own children the religion they were taught. It never occurs to them to examine what they’ve been taught to see whether it has been helpful or harmful.

Rather than teaching children that some behaviors are harmful, religion (Christian religion in particular) teaches them that their very natures are evil, their thoughts corrupt and their actions so vile that they deserve to be tortured for eternity unless they continually beg some implacable cosmic bully for forgiveness. Children are taught that an invisible god, or one of his minions, is looking over their shoulders at all times. While many adults resent the proliferation of surveillance cameras, they teach their children that someone who can see through walls is always watching them. It is a wonder, given that kind of upbringing, that most people are not schizophrenic.

Stuffing immature minds full of dogma when they haven't the means to sort through it critically damages the developing psyche. No amount of post-adult reason ever completely liberates the subconscious from all that ecclesiastical baggage. The pain it creates is lifelong and debilitating.

Teaching children religion is abusive because it creates confusion and discourages critical thought. Further, it fosters guilt, which is particularly destructive, because it remains in the subconscious long after the reasons for it are recognized and understood.

It needs to be said that, while some teaching may ultimately be harmful, it does not constitute abuse in the sense that the parent or teacher intends harm or is indifferent to the consequences of the teaching. The harm done is the end result of a cycle that started eons ago. Unfortunately, relatively few people as adults thoroughly examine what they’ve been taught. The whole idea of “faith” is designed to repress critical thought and to encourage acceptance instead. The result is that faulty thinking is passed on from generation to generation. Anything that makes the mind work less well, or causes emotional pain may be characterized as harm, and its inculcation is abuse. 

Can You Spot The Logical Fallacies In Advertising?

"I don't want to shock anyone, but here's a piece of frightful news: Sometimes products are marketed using fallacious logic. That's different from lying about your product; marketing with logical fallacies is a way to make your product sound great by appealing to our natural tendencies to be susceptible to fallacious logic. Tell us something about your product that sounds persuasive — regardless of whether it's actually a real merit or not — and we get all impressed. Today we're going to look at the practice of spotting logical fallacies in the marketing of products, and we might even try doing a little of it ourselves."

Click on the link below for an interesting podcast looking at the psychological manipulations being used by virtually all advertisers: 

Marketing with Logical Fallacies

Are All Forms Of Persuasion Regarding Dealing With Republicans Futile?

"Today, we take a look at some of the factors driving hyper-partisanship in the US right now along with multiple arguments to not give up on the power of persuasion."

Click on the link below for a podcast presenting the psychology of the Republicans and suggestions for using it to appeal to what is deeply important to them:

The Pillars of Polarization and Persuasion

Much Of What We Accept As Science Is Not So

"We too readily accept whatever we are taught. Not Tomasz Witkowski! He sets an example that we all should follow: he questions everything! His questions lead him to discover that much of psychology, culture, and even science itself is not supported by credible evidence. This book will challenge you to reconsider some of your most cherished beliefs and to realize that much of what you thought you knew is wrong. Prepare to be discombobulated by his revelations."

Click on the link below for a book review by Harriet Hall, the SkepDoc, of the latest book by renowned debunker Tomasz Witkowski, which exposes the non-science behind much that is passed off as such:

Tomasz Witkowski Busts More Myths

Why Our Brains Tell Us There Is A God

All of us science-based thinkers know how difficult it is to dissuade people from accepting their intuition over the findings of science. There is no greater example of this than the issue of claiming God communicates with us personally/one-on-one. The last segment of a recent podcast from the Freedom From Religion Foundation focuses on the latest information on the subject by interviewing scientist and author John C. Wathey about his new book, The Phantom God: What Neuroscience Reveals about the Compulsion to Believe: "Wathey argues that the feeling of God’s presence is spawned by innate neural circuitry, similar to the mechanism that compels an infant to cry out for its mother. In an adult, this circuitry can be activated under conditions that mimic the extreme desperation and helplessness of infancy, generating the compelling illusion of the presence of a loving, powerful, and all-knowing savior. When seen from this perspective, the illusion also appears remarkably like one that has long been familiar to neurologists: the phantom limb of the amputee, spawned by the expectation of the patient’s brain that the missing limb should still be there."

Click on the link below for the podcast segment (timestamp approximately at 25:00):

Phantom God

Exploding Myths In Culture, Science, And Psychology

"We too readily accept whatever we are taught. Not Tomasz Witkowski! He sets an example that we all should follow: he questions everything! His questions lead him to discover that much of psychology, culture, and even science itself are not supported by credible evidence. This book will challenge you to reconsider some of your most cherished beliefs, and to realize that much of what you thought you knew is wrong. Prepare to be discombobulated by his revelations."

The most important trait of a science-based thinker is to realize that you can be wrong in your beliefs. After all, science is performed by imperfect humans with a limited knowledge base. Ironically, it is this trait that has advanced society through positive change based on objective evidence. Unfortunately, virtually all other worldviews are resistant to change.

Click on the link below for a book review concerning the above realities:

Fads, Fakes, And Frauds

Astrology: Yes, It's STILL A Thing

"It’s a science thingy, but more fun! A recently published study claims that belief in Astrology correlates with some negative personality traits, like narcissism. But, is it a Good Science Thingy(tm)? Or did Mars being in retrograde cause the researchers to overstate their conclusions? It’s definitely one or the other!"

Click on the link below for a humerous analysis of the possible correlation between this belief and negative personality traits:

Does Belief in Astrology Correlate with Narcissism?

How Did Religion Evolve?

"Naturalism Next joins me to discuss 'the cognitive science argument against theism.' We talk about the psychology of religion, hyperactive agency detection, signaling theory, and more on the evolutionary origins of religious belief. Crucially, theories from modern cognitive science of religion are antecedently more likely on naturalism than on theism, and so provide good evidence against theism.

"We have plausible natural mechanisms that account for religious belief and practice – how they form and how they spread. The persistence and prevalence of religious belief can be understood through the framework of evolutionary theory and cognitive science of religion, providing us an answer to the question, 'If God doesn’t exist, why does nearly everyone believe in God?'"

Click on the link below for an enlightening, balanced podcast on the history and science of religion:

How we have religion

A Reminder: Your Brain Alone Is Not Reliable

Recently, I have received a great deal of push-back on my Facebook page regarding some topics, for example: chiropractic, acupuncture, corporal punishment, GMOs, and nuclear power. Frankly, their arguments are no different than the Intelligent Design folks. As I frequently say, tell me what other than the consensus of scientists actually working in the discipline under discussion will give you a better understanding of reality regarding such.

Regarding consumer products, including food from GMOs, unfortunately, there is a strong unsupported conspiracy theory that for-profit corporations cannot perform unbiased scientific studies. Should we ignore any research funded by companies or special interest groups? Certainly not. These groups provide invaluable funding for scientific research. Furthermore, science has many safeguards in place to catch instances of bias that affect research outcomes. Ultimately, misleading results will be corrected as science proceeds. (link)(link)

Self-Esteem: Beware Of Narcissism

"Plenty of research shows that there is a relationship between self-esteem and subjective well-being, or a general sense of happiness in life. Hence we understand the drive to build self-esteem in the next generation. While conceding that the intentions are good, however, Dutch psychologists Eddie Brummelman, Sander Thomaes, and Constantine Sedikides argue that the methods we often use to raise self-esteem may be creating a generation of monsters."

One does not have to look far to see the truth of these researchers' findings. Click on the link below for the details:

How You Can Raise a Narcissist

Steven Pinker In-Depth

"Even as a young teenager, Dr. Steven Pinker (@sapinker) prized rationality as a virtue, and considered himself an anarchist. He changed that belief, however, when evidence indicated that anarchy was not a path to human flourishing. In this special episode, a co-production with the New Enlightenment Project, previous Podcast for Inquiry guest Lloyd Hawkeye Robertson returns as a co-host. Together, Lloyd and Leslie explore with Dr. Pinker whether universities are betraying their mission, how the human brain spectacularly fails while also working wonders, the loose connections between science and technology with social and moral progress, and what humanity needs to do to continue to thrive for the next 50 to 100 years."

Steven Pinker is a world-renowned intellectual who has many detractors regarding his focus on the red herring of a "woke" academia and other Neo-Liberal/Conservative thinking (link)(link). However, click on the link below for a deep and broad picture of his views on several important topics:

Steven Pinker Discusses Rationality and Humanist Values

Childhood Indoctrination: The Evil

I have posted many times on the harm of indoctrinating children into any religion (link). In essence, calling subjective experience/intuition evidence of a god to a young impressional mind blunts the reasoning ability of the child and makes the victim malleable to harmful ideology (link). 

Please take a half-hour of your time and click on the link below for a video exposing the thinking and actions of Christian apologists regarding how and why they poison young minds into unsupported and harmful dogma.

Brainwashing of children exposed