by VorJack
Psychiatrists Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jethá have a new book out entitled Sex at Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality. Ryan blogs about its thesis over at Psychology Today:
Biologists distinguish sexual monogamy from social monogamy. As DNA testing has grown cheaper in recent years, we’ve learned that most species formerly classified as [...]
From this perspective, religion is not innate, but rather a cultural development that we might call “cognitive-emotional cheesecake”. I adapt this metaphor from Steven Pinker’s claim that music is not innate, but rather amounts to “auditory cheesecake”. A preference for cheesecake is not innate, since cheesecake did not exist during the early stages of human [...]
by VorJack
… to these books about self-help. Self-help is a multi billion dollar industry in America, selling millions of books. Here are a few that take a look at the movement from the outside.
Legacy of the Occult
Pullquote: ”The leaders in [New Thought] have had an intuitive belief in the all-saving power of healthy-minded [...]
It’s said that we make our own luck. I believe that, at least most of the time. We can’t always control our circumstances, but we don’t have to have our circumstances control us. (Do you like that? Just call me Pastor Florien.)
Richard Wiseman did a study on “lucky” & “unlucky” people. I found his analysis [...]
by Jesse Galef –
Overcoming personal bias can be one of the most difficult tasks in searching for the truth. The particular experiences and influences in our lives are – to a large degree – out of our control and yet they play a huge role in shaping our beliefs. And it’s not [...]
by Jesse Galef
Why are dirty underwear, mutant clover, and amputated mammal appendages associated with good fortune? How did humans develop our “lucky” rituals? And why are they usually gross when you think about them? I hope to address two of these three questions, read on to find out which.
A lucky charm I made [...]
by Jesse Galef
I’m always astounded at how poor data-gathering devices we humans are. Forget all the hallucinations and misinterpretations, we simply don’t notice or retain most of what happens around us. Here’s a great demonstration (via Richard Wiseman’s blog)
I was pretty pathetic. How did you all do?
This is one of the reasons we developed [...]
by Jesse Galef
Can you tell the difference between Aliens and Demons? If you were visited in the night by an intelligent, non-human entity, could you really distinguish between them? (In a sidenote I’m not addressing right now, how would you know the voice in your head is God and not a tricky demon? How do [...]
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Malvond: No one, unless you count the previous commenter. I said I’m not convinced that people aren’t. :) QotD: Kids?
GOD ALL DAY: God finds ways into peoples lives. Weather it through dreams or life experinces and your right everybodys... The double standards of God
Entropist: These idiots are wrong on so many different levels, its hard to... Glenn Beck’s “Restoring Honor” Rally – Interviews With Participants
Just a Guy: Me an my wife have negotiated infidelity. Meaning she can be with other guys as long as she doesn’t hide... Negotiated Infidelity
Gwenny: Absolutely not! The world has plenty of people having kids. A child consumes HUGE amounts of resources, which from both a... QotD: Kids?
Siberia: Or maybe they know they have neither patience nor inclination to deal with the fruit of their loins and thus, rather than be... QotD: Kids? Siberia: Well, it wasn’t exactly my (or anyone’s) choice, was it? I didn’t exactly ask to be born. It was my... QotD: Kids?
DDM: Repubs and Dems. He’s saying they only take first impressions and... Glenn Beck’s “Restoring Honor” Rally – Interviews With Participants
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