May 10
What I’m reading. Focusing on Hindu mythology right now…
Apr 3
Back in 1998 I interviewed one of my favorite Jungian authors, June Singer, for the old Jung Index web site. The interview is no longer available on the internet and it would be a shame to lose it. The format of the interview was collaborative – over email – so many people participated and were able to ask questions. So, here is the original interview from November 1998 – a tribute a great woman, who brought Jung’s psychology within my reach.
Read more
Sometimes I just beam with joy that I lived in the intellectual capital of the world, Atlanta, Georgia USA. A place where it’s okay to ban Olympic volleyball on the grounds that there may be some of them contagious homosexual players; a place where we skipped the chapters on Africa, Asia, and South America so that we could take the required “Georgia History” course; a state where legislators debate whether or not the Jews conspired to lead us all into believing that the earth rotates around the sun. I’m so proud to be a part of all of this. Meanwhile, we are getting our economic asses handed to us by India and China (on the continent we decided to skip); massive genocide is occurring on another continent that we couldn’t identify without someone pointing it out to us; South Americans are becoming a majority social and economic power in America and we don’t have a clue about their culture … but, golly, we know where Stone Mountain is.
I pick on Georgia because it’s just a shinning example of the current state of education in America. Conservative Christians want to teach that the Earth is a few thousand years old and that Adam and Eve rode to church on dinosaurs. Now, the brilliant Representative from Georgia, Ben Bridges (R) has blown the cover off the biggest conspiracy of all time. According to Bridges, “Indisputable evidence — long hidden but now available to everyone — demonstrates conclusively that so-called ‘secular evolution science’ is the Big-Bang 15-billion-year alternate ‘creation scenario’ of the Pharisee Religion,” reads the letter that went out under Bridges’ name. “This scenario is derived concept-for-concept from Rabbinic writings in the mystic ‘holy book’ Kabbala dating back at least two millennia.”
Capitol Annex has the full Earth Doesn’t Move Memo here. The proposed legislation in GA can be found here and the attachments and addendum. It’s hard for me to comprehend that people actually believe this. It’s as if their brains stopped developing after they were 2 years old. That’s the only explanation I can come up with. These same people think that if we build a wall around our country we will be able to keep out people that look and think differently than us. We wouldn’t want to learn a new language, think critically about important scientific and social issues, or be able to identify anything on a world map other than the closest WalMart.
There was a great interview on the Colbert Report a few weeks ago with another of Georgia’s finest, Representative Lynn Westmoreland (R). He recommended hanging the Ten Commandments in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate because it was an important part of America. In fact, it’s so important that when asked to recite them he said, “You mean all of them? Um… Don’t murder. Don’t lie. Don’t steal Um… I can’t name them all.” Then, when asked how we could balance the budget he recommended getting rid of the Department of Education. It would be funny if it wasn’t so sad. A video of the whole interview is available here.
Have people always been this stupid? Is it at all time, new low or am I just coming to some consciousness about it. It seems that the collective IQ dropped about 100 points since the beginning of the new millennium. Luckily, if American children aren’t educated in math and science, children in other countries will be. While they are creating new medical and engineering breakthroughs, American home-school children will be learning that the Earth is flat and that you don’t need medicine as long as you pray really hard. They will all laugh together when talking about a time in American history when people actually believed that the universe was older than 6,000 years old. Ha! Ha! Those silly old fools – everyone knows the Jews Devil put fossils on the Earth just to trick us. Hey, come on. Let’s go see the laser show at Stone Mountain!
“When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross.” – Sinclair Lewis
From this week’s New York Times Magazine: “God has always been a puzzle for Scott Atran. When he was 10 years old, he scrawled a plaintive message on the wall of his bedroom in Baltimore. “God exists,” he wrote in black and orange paint, “or if he doesn’t, we’re in trouble.” Atran has been struggling with questions about religion ever since — why he himself no longer believes in God and why so many other people, everywhere in the world, apparently do.” Read more…
Feb 13
Did you know that you can stop light? This concept has been around since Einstein’s days when he proposed that at absolute zero all motion stops and all matter blurs (this was based on previous work by Satyendra Nath Bose). It was only a matter of time before a few scientists actually figured out how to capture light in this state and move it somewhere else. What does this mean for normal folks? Well, not much … yet. The practical applications are pretty sci-fi. It means that information can be stored as light and then moved (at the speed of light) somewhere else – aka “Beam Me Up”. I doubt I will see the real applications of this sort of technology in my lifetime, but it’s a major step forward in particle physics.
This concept has always fascinated me – I mention it here. Physicists have known for a long time that the speed of light is variable (though used as a constant in most equations including light). However, this fundamental constant of nature is now no longer just variable – it can be stopped. I wish Bose and Einstein were alive today to see this. The one human endeavor that continues to leap forward is science. Politics, culture, war, religion, and disease are still the same as they were 2,000 years ago and not very inspiring. However, nature has given us this wonderful way of looking curiously at the world and asking why, how, when? That our little minds could glimpse something true about the universe is profound. I cherish these moments because science gives me hope.
Nature has put together a cool interactive section about this on their website. Take a look.
“A new poll shows that 66% of Americans think President Bush is doing a poor job of handling the war in Iraq… and the remaining 34% think Adam and Eve rode dinosaurs to church.” -SNL
Dec 29
It’s only a matter of time before Battlestar Galactica becomes a major motion picture. Why? Well, it’s not because of the special effects (which are good) nor is it because of the acting (which is not always so good) – it’s because the writers have tapped into the mythological themes that were only alluded to in the original series.
These mythological themes, or motifs, pull in people that would not ordinarily be interested in science fiction. The myth effect was an important component of the success of Star Wars and it looks like this fact was not lost on the writers of the new Battlestar series. Read more
Sep 17
In 1922, President Woodrow Wilson wrote, “Like every other man of intelligence and education, I do believe in organic evolution. It surprises me that at this late date such questions should be raised.”
Why is it that American’s are so susceptible to emotional rhetoric and uncritical thinking? In a time when science is saving the lives of so many people, math and science enrollment is down. Math and science not only teach critical thinking, they help advance truth.
Currently in America there has begun a subtle shift to theocracy over democracy. The symptoms of this are emotions over logic, the legislation of personal morality, and a focus on Christianity as the one truth. This is a disturbing trend. America was founded on freedom of religion – not just Christianity, but all religions.
There’s never been a war fought in the name of science. No country has gone to war because they didn’t believe in M Theory. However, year after year countries go to war over religion. Why is this? How can something that is such a positive force in so many people’s lives also be such a negative? Rupert Sheldrake said, “I think there’s a very widespread sense of disenchantment with this disenchanted world. People aren’t going to start a spiritual quest unless there’s a sense of need, and I think there’s a very widespread sense of need.”
I agree with Rupert. I’m not sure what is going on though. Why does spirituality seem to be incompatible with reason? The more I learn about science, the more spiritual I become. Of course, I don’t believe everything I read though – whether it’s in a scientific article in the journal Nature or in the King James Version of the Bible.
How is it that at a time when TV shows like CSI are so popular, public interest and ‘belief’ in science are at an all time low? The same people that trust DNA evidence in court rooms around the country also doubt ironclad proof of the decay of carbon atoms to date organic matter. The science is the same – it’s based on molecular chemistry and has been tested to destruction and remains solid after almost 50 years of blasting away at it.
In my opinion, people are intellectually lazy and as science has become more complex the bar to understanding has gotten higher and higher. So, people have just stopped trying. Instead they’ve done the opposite and decided that all truth could be found in a single book. The future of America is uncertain. The last Dark Age, caused by the advent of Christianity, lasted for over 1000 years. I have faith that even if a dark age is on the horizon, the strength of truth and the power of reason will prevail over superstition and uncritical thinking. Carl Sagan concurs and concludes his book, Demon-Haunted World, with these words, “The candle flame gutters. Its little pool of light trembles. Darkness gathers. The demons begin to stir.”
Sep 5
Imagine there’s no heaven, it’s easy if you try. No hell below us, above us only sky. Imagine all the people living for today. Imagine there’s no countries, it isn’t hard to do. Nothing to kill or die for, no religion too. Imagine all the people, living life in peace…
Imagine no possesions. I wonder if you can. No need for greed or hunger. A brotherhood of man. Imagine all the people. Sharing all the world. You may say Im a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope some day you’ll join us, and the world will live as one.
(c) John Lennon
Aug 1
It’s been over a decade since (1) Richard Noll first put a challenge to Jungians: prove that analytical psychology rests on firm scientific ground, otherwise agree that it’s just a religion or pseudoscience. He was right to make this challenge. In my opinion, Jungians have lost their way – attaching themselves to new age voodoo, astrology, and any other practice that will sell books to the masses. Remember, Jung was an M.D. and did research according to the experimental method. Some of his best early work on complexes is the foundation on which much of modern psychology is based. Read more
Linen Theme by The Theme Foundry
Copyright © 2012 Nautis Project. All rights reserved.
