Research has confirmed my suspicion that church attendees are more likely to be ESJ on the MBTI.
Self-report that an individual makes decisions on the basis of thinking does not necessarily indicate that the individual's thought processes are logical or effective. Since people are aware that intelligence is socially valued, they are probably more likely to exhibit a bias for overreporting themselves as Ts. Most people are likely to overestimate the effectiveness of their thinking, in some areas at the least. One presumes that Sarah Palin fondly imagines that her thought processes are logical. An ill-informed, illogical, or magic-thinking thought is still a thought. So, S combined with T may be selectively ineffectual in promoting critical thinking. Data suggests that superficial, illogical, and emotional thinking are prevalent problem.
I stumbled across a blog in Australia in which the blogger decries the potential lunatic, fear-filled reactions of American Christians to the projected Obama/Biden victory. See: The anti-Obama Christian bloggers.
"Moreover, I have to say that I am starting to get concerned about where this will lead. Polls suggest a much greater chance of an Obama win than a McCain win, which means that a situation might arise in which a great number of angry, terrified Christians are faced with an Obama White House and a Pelosi/Reid Congress.
What will these Christians do? Hopefully they will settle down, look back at what they believed in the lead up to his victory and then begin to exmaine [sic] their beliefs more objectively. Unfortunately, given the propensity of American Christians to be convinced that fiction is fact (eg Harry Potter and Satanism) I don't think this is going to happen. I'm worried, though, that violence may occur in response to an Obama/Reid/Pelosi victory as Christians take up the arms guaranteed by the constitution, refuse to pay taxes and begin overt resistance to the world of evil that they believe exists in the form of Obama and the Democrats."
Dream on, buddy, "objective examination of beliefs" and fundamentalist Christianity are diametrically opposed.
Fundamentalist American Christians are "angry and terrified" because, in their ill-intentioned bid for power, Doofus (top left) and Dotty (right) have been telling lies and whipping up hatred against Obama, presumably because they read the unthinking emotionality of their "congregation" well.
(I probably did not need to clarify whom I am calling Doofus and Dotty.)
How else could Brat Maverick hope to win with a platform that can be summarized as: "Let's cut down on Washington waste while continuing to spend billions on a war that we will not admit cannot be won."?
In essence:
"He is interested in two things, and two things only: making you afraid of it,and telling you who's to blame for it. That, ladies and gentlemen, is how you win elections."
The writer is clear and fair, yet is an "evangelical" (what is Australia coming to?). I take this to indicate that he is familiar with the emotional reactivity that passes for thinking in fellow fundamentalists.
"That means I do believe in the spirit world, including the existence of Satan."
What an interesting example of philosophical tension!. He recognizes the disconnection between Harry Potter and the mythical "fallen angel", Mormon brother to Jesus, and yet he believes in equally ridiculous notions. Proof positive that otherwise intelligent people can entertain indoctrinated stupidities that are utterly without evidence. They call if Faith, I call it something completely different.
She's an upper-case-R (for Redneck) Republican, and she has repeatedly displayed her cognitive challenges, so I suspect that it's both.
To recognize that SNL is repeatedly taking the mickey, she would have to have both a sense of humour (recognition of irony) and a more realistic opinion of her own capabilities.
Neither of these qualities seem to be prominent in upper-case-R (for Redneck) Republicans.
"Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) is a personality disorder defined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the diagnostic classification system used in the United States, as "a pervasive pattern of grandiosity, need for admiration, and a lack of empathy." [1]
The narcissist is described as . . . being excessively preoccupied with issues of personal adequacy, power and prestige.[2] Narcissistic personality disorder is closely linked to self-centeredness." [wiki]
(And, based on my professional observations, NPD is the form that sociopathy most often takes in females.)
What were the Republicans thinking when they chose this .... er....person as a candidate for VP????
I sincerely hope that their blatantly foolish decision will save the planet from another four years of what a friend termed "Republican rule".
To illustrate my contention that religious works are the only good thing to come of religion, I coupled images with Thomas Tallis' Spem in Alium. Unfortunately, this version does not show the images to best advantage.
Below is the larger image on YouTube. In order to do justice to the photographs, it is much better to watch this in high quality.
A passing . . . er . . . man got his mormon knickers in a twist over Holy Drawers, Batman! Let's call him Knickers. I deleted the following diatribe from comments because I wanted to yank down his sacred bloomers in public. Here is his nonsense in all its over-emotional glory, color coded in brown, with my rejoinders interspersed.
If you think that by showing Sacred things on the internet, so everyone can see, is going to break the mormon religion or actually have people believe what you "think" goes on... maybe you better do your homework a little better next time.
I pulled the image of the sacred knickers, aka "the garment", from the Internet, where they were available for the gaze of anyone interested in uninteresting underwear.
"Sacred" is a man-made category that has no intrinsic validity beyond that assigned by claimants and accepted by the credulous. Admittedly, if I were to personally see God stitching up these unattractive garments and planting the divine kiss of approval on them, then I might accept their designation as "sacred". I still would not wear them because I approve of the actions ascribed to God about as much as I approve of Dubaya's. Perhaps less.
I should love to have a satirical, long-buried, little-visited post bring down the mormon (I’ll happily drop the uppercase) or any other delusion-inducing religion, but I did not, as Knickers believes, write that post in that hope. It was whimsical.
I always love the way people like Knickers employ quotation marks – he meant to cast aspersions on my intellect by the use of inverted commas around the word think. And yet I am unmoved by his insinuations. As to what goes on in the mormon religion, I have inside information, there is information all over the Internet, and there are those exciting photos of undies. I actually had done my homework, as he may well have realized. He merely thought to throw me, or readers, off the scent.
People have been trying to get people to hate the mormons for hundreds of years, but for some unknown reason their numbers keep getting larger!!!
I nearly fell off my chair laughing at the statement: "but for some unknown reason their numbers keep getting larger!!!"
To be telling the truth that the reason is unknown, Knickers would have to be unaware that mormons bang on people's doors in an attempt to draw new, income-tithing suckers into the LDS Church. This would indicate either that he is immensely ignorant or that he is lying. He's actually probably an adolescent "elder" who's currently paying to go on a mission. (Yup, folks, this immensely wealthy Church expects its missionaries to pay their own way.)
I am informed (by a mormon) that mainstream Christians do not even consider mormonism to be a Christian religion. But hate? Nobody has ever asked me to hate mormons. I think that mormons and JWs are widely held in mild contempt, partly because of their irritating proselytizing and partly because of the exaggerated stupidity of their claims.
And this little tiny thing that you have done, has no effect on any mormons, the thing it has an effect on is your salvation! The mormons are going to rise again, just wait..andwhere will you be?
One wonders at his bothering to comment, then.
I love the predictable way that Knickers finishes with a threatening flourish. A good old fallacious appeal to fear that may fool religionists but that has no effect on atheists.
Where will I be when the mormons, who have never actually been in a majority, rise in numbers? Hopefully, should such stupidity ever surge dramatically, then I will already be dead. By this I mean that “I” will no more exist as a sentient being than I did prior to development of my central nervous system. And nor will any others, mormons included, who have shuffled off this mortal coil. No God means no Hell, no Heaven, and no cause to fear anything except natural disasters and the consequences of human stupidity.
I'll say it again – the only really great things to come out of religion are structures such as cathedrals, religiously funded painting and sculpture, and sublime music such as the following. The high quality version is slower to download, but well worth the extra time.
Hmn, I'll grant that some interesting philosophy was generated in a vain attempt to justify the purported existence of the nonexistent. Nowadays, much stupidity is expended on equally vain attempts.
If you have watched "The Tudors" then you will have noticed Thomas Tallis.
I thought that the following comment from About Kitty was worth pasting into the 'main-frame':
It's beautiful now because we are not listening to the words. If you consider that it was intended to be sung as a hymn to reinforce peoples beliefs, it's like any other hymn.
However, I somehow doubt that someone will unearth a Kent Hovid video in 500 years and say "As long as you don't think about what he's saying, it's beautiful!" :-)
I have never put my hope in any other but in you,
O God of Israel
who can show both anger
and graciousness,
and who absolves all the sins of suffering man
Lord God,Creator of Heaven and Earth
be mindful of our humiliation
____
I sincerely hope that nobody will know of Kent Hovind in 50 years, let alone 500! Of course the greater portion of the beauty of Tallis' piece was undoubtedly in the music and performance, rather than in the words, even to his religious contemporaries. Only the educated and wealthy – equivalent in those days – would have understood the Latin. Any but the tone deaf could have responded to the beauty.
Here's the Latin
Spem in alium numquam habui praeter in te
Deus Israel
qui irasceris
et propitius eris et omnia peccata hominum in tribulatione dimittis
Domine Deus
Creator coeli et terrae
respice humilitatem nostram
One of Tallis' most famous compositions, the 40-voice Spem in alium, also alludes to a strong allegiance to Roman Catholicism, with its mix of voices both polyphonic and chordal. Spem is also a work with an interesting history in its own right. It was ostensibly the result of a challenge by one of the composer's supporters, the Catholic Thomas Howard, fourth Duke of Norfolk (executed not long after as the result of trumped-up charges accusing Norfolk of colluding with Mary Queen of Scots). The work challenged was Striggio's 40-part Ecce beatum lautam; the challenge was for an Englishman to produce a work that would excel this piece produced by an Italian. Tallis answered the challenge, perhaps to defend England's creative honour; or to prove himself as an old man still capable of creating great work; or to produce - like many composers - a masterwork which history would remember him by. At any rate, Tallis set to work answering Howard's challenge. And answer it he did: Apparently after its first performance at the palace of Nonsuch (or the Long Hall), owned by Henry Fitzalan, 12th Earl of Arundel, Spem in alium moved Thomas Howard enough to remove a heavy gold chain from around his neck, placing it around Tallis' own, thanking the older Thomas for the glorious piece he had crafted.
Whether Tallis was a subversive Catholic, following one faith professionally but the other one in private, or merely demonstrating a love of the old liturgy he knew as a child, one may never know for certain, but it is clear that Thomas Tallis' music stands up not just for its creative merit, but as a reflection of one man's response to the tumultuous - and often treacherous - politics of Tudor England. [source]
Globally, the pandemic discussed in this video killed more people than the Great War, which it followed. Misnamed because some cases were reported (rather than being hushed-up) this pandemic ultimately killed an estimated 50 million worldwide. Do you recall the 'identity' of this forgotten epidemic?
"Who Knows Where The Time Goes?" written by Sandy Denny. Kate Rusby has a wonderful voice and an interesting version, if you can get past her Yorkshire "u"s.
1 Cha b' e sneachda 's an reòthadh bho thuath, Cha b' e 'n crannadh fuar bho 'n ear, Cha b 'e 'n uisge 's an gailleon bho 'n iar, Ach an galair a bhlean bho 'n deas Blàth, duilleach, stoc, agus freumh Canan mo threubh 's mo shluaidh.
Séist: Thig thugainn, thig co-rium gu siar Gus an cluinn sinn ann canan nam Féinn, Thig thugainn, thig co-rium gu siar Gus an cluinn sinn ann canan nan Gaidheal.
1 It was not the snow and frost from the north, nor the cold withering from the east, it wasn't the rain or the storms from the west, but the sickness from the south that has faded the bloom, foliage, stock and root of the language of my race and my people.
Chorus Come, come on, come with me westwards until we hear the language of the Fein, Come, come on, come with me westwards until we hear the language of the Gaels.
2 Far a nuas dhuinn na coinnleirean òir 'S annt' caraibh coinlean geal ceir Lasaibh suas iad an seòmair bhroin Tìgh-'aire seann chanan a' Ghae'l 'S sud o chionn fhad' thuirt a namh Ach fhathast tha beò canan a' Ghae'l.
2 Pass over to us the golden candlesticks and put in them the white waxen candles light them up in rhe mourning room of the wake-house of the Gael's old language That's what the enemy has long been saying but the language of the Gael is alive yet.
3 'S iomadh gille thug greis air a' chuibhl' 'S an du-oidhch' thog fonn Gàidhlig a chridh 'S iomadh gaisgeach a bhrosnaich 'sa bhlair Gu euchd nuair bu teòtha bha 'n strì O Ghaidheil, o caite 'n deach t' uaill 'Nad fhine 's 'nad chanan 's do thir.?
3 Many a lad who has spent a while at the wheel in the darkness of night has had his heart lifted by a Gaelic song; and many a hero has spurred on on the battle field to valour where the fight was hottest; O Gael, where has your pride in your race and your language and your country gone?
4 Uair chite fear-feilidh 'sa ghleann Bu chinnteach gur gàidhlig a chainnt Ach spion iad a fhreumh as an fhonn 'N aite gàidhlig tha canan a Ghoill 'S a Ghaidhealtachd creadhal-nan-sonn 'S tir mhajors is cholonels 'n diugh th' innt'.
4 Once if a kilted man was seen in the valley it was certain that Gaelic was his language, but they have torn his roots from the ground, in the place of Gaelic is the foreigner's language, and the Gaeltachd, cradle of heroes, today it is a land of majors and colonels.
5 O chanan ta leath ri mo chridh M' aran m' amhlan is m' anal 's mo smior 'S tu cho aosd ri fraoch-dosradh nam frith Shloinneadh og leat beinn, leitear is sgur Ghaidheil, 'gad easbhuidh, 's 'gad dhith 'S clarsach aon-theud, is cuislean gun fhuil.
5 O language that's close to my heart, My food, my spice, my breath, and my strength, you are as old as the abundant heather on the hills The hills, slopes, and peaks were named by you when they were young Gael, you're needing and you're wanting, like a stringless harp or a vein without blood.
6 Ged theich i le beath' as na glinn Ged 's gann an diugh chluinntear i nis mo O Dhuthaich MhicAoidh fada tuath Gu ruig thu Druim-Uachdar nam bo Gigheal, dhi na Eileanan Siar Bi na claimheamh 's na sgiath'n ud dhoirn.
6 Although it has escaped with its life fom the valley, although it's rare today that it's head any more from Strathnaver [MacKay's country] in the far north right down to Drumouchter where the cattle are nevertheless, for it in the Western Isles the swords and shields are taken in hand there.
7 Ged nach chluinntear nis mo i 'san dun No 'n talla-nan-cliar is nan còirn Ged tha meòir chloinn'icCreumein gun luths O 'n tric feasgair ciuin dhoirteadh ceòl Gigheadh, anns na Eileanan-siar 'S i fhathast ann ciad chainnt an t-sloigh.
7 Although it is heard no more in the city or in the festive hall of the laureates, Although the strength has gone from the MacCrimmons' fingers from which often music would be poured out in the evening Nevertheless, in the western Isles, there it is still the first language of the people.
8 Tha na suinn le 'm bu bhinne bha t' fhuaim 'Nad linn thir nam fuarbeannaibh ard Aig an druim anns na uaidhean nan suain Suas air eirigh mo thruaigh tha nan àit Eadhon siar ann an duthaich-MhicLeoid Linn og oirt a ghàidhlig rinn tair.
8 The heroes to whom your sound was sweetest in your time in the land of the cool high bens are on their backs at rest in graves and risen up, Oh woe, in their place, is even in McLeod's country a young generation who despise you, gaelic.
The top video is of the Berry Brothers (James, Warren, Ananias) and the bottom videos are of the Nicholas Brothers (Fayard, Harold). If you have never heard of them it's not because they lack talent. So, there must be another reason. I can't begin to imagine what it might be. Can you?
Why I am glad that I live in Canada: not because I shall ever need to avail myself of a legal, provincially funded abortion, but because the majority of Canadians support the concept of a woman's right to choose.
Dr. Henry Morgentaler – Auschwitz survivor, Canadian physician, controversial activist for the rights of women to choose abortion – has been awarded the Order of Canada. This is the latest, and most prestigious of a series of awards honouring his service to women.
Morgentaler has endured repeated arrests, physical attacks, and the bombing of his abortion clinic. All his arrests resulted in acquittals. The 1988 Supreme Court ruling in Morgentaler et al. v. Her Majesty The Queen1988 (1 S.C.R. 30) ended all statutory restrictions on abortion in Canada. The decision was based upon Section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which states that: “Everyone has the right to life, liberty, and the security of the person and the right not to be deprived thereof except in accordance with the principles of fundamental justice.”
"Everyone", of course, applying to sentient children and adults and not to fetuses.
Needless to say, the minority anti-abortion lobby is bitterly trooping out the predictable, tired old arguments about "murdering babies".
Not Dubaya – who would not be missed except by family and Conservative Special-Interest Groups – the other George, the smart George, the George who had a way with words, the George who saw sense.
Contrary to theistic propaganda, one of the many benefits of being an atheist is that atheists need not fear what does not happen after death.
Those left behind, will miss this funny, irreverent man.
Thanks for entertaining the planet, George!
George Carlin: May 12, 1937 – June 22, 2008 (struck down by cardiac disease, not 'God')
Well, in truth, I don't believe a lot of things that I'm told. The latest tall tale to arouse my skeptical side concerns Dubaya's IQ.
An ad on YouTube's index page claims that Dubaya's IQ is 125, and invites the credulous and unwary to test their own IQ. The obvious answer is that anyone who clicks really does need their IQ tested!
Perhaps this unbelievable number represents a raw score rather than a normalized score. No sober person with a verbal IQ close to 125 could possibly make so many bloopers. For Dubaya's normalized global IQ to be 125, he would have to be a genius in other areas. The world would be a better place if he really could do the math.
___
Ha! A friend, who's IQ is a lot higher than 125, actually did click on the ad. As expected, it was a "pull". The test itself was full of trivia rather than reasoning questions, and the result was only obtainable by providing an email address or a cell phone number – an invitation to be spammed, in other words. My guess is that all participants would be informed that their IQ is higher than Dubaya's – and this much would probably be accurate.
The Germanic neologism translates as "moral illness". Does the squawking chicken come before the rotten egg, or vice versa?
"It is commonly held that religion makes people more just, compassionate, and moral, but a new study suggests that the data belie that assumption. In fact, at first glance it would seem, religion has the opposite effect. The extensive study, “Cross-National Correlations of Quantifiable Societal Health with Popular Religiosity and Secularism in the Prosperous Democracies,” published in the Journal of Religion and Society (JRS) examines statistics from eighteen of the most developed democratic nations. It reveals clear correlations between various indicators of social strife and religiosity, showing that whether religion causes social strife or not, it certainly does not prevent it."
"The question is one of causation, and there is no clear answer. Whether religion leads directly to dysfunctionality, or religions merely flourish in dysfunctional societies, neither conclusion from this study flatters religion. The first tells us that religion is a hindrance to the development of moral character, and the second that religion hinders progress by distracting us from our troubles (with imaginary solutions to real problems). This study is complicated enough that I do not think that we can draw definitive negative conclusions about religion. But we can at least conclude, contrary to popular belief in this country, that it is not a given that religious societies are better, healthier, or more moral. What we can be clear about from this study is that highly religious societies can be dysfunctional, whereas by comparison secular societies in which evolution is largely accepted display real social cohesion and societal well-being. "
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