tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21605329.post3894577909512638830..comments2024-03-29T05:19:17.638-07:00Comments on The Neurocritic: Atheists Are Neurotic and Religious Zealots Are AntisocialThe Neurocritichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08010555869208208621noreply@blogger.comBlogger19125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21605329.post-22771348643633790602009-04-09T14:16:00.000-07:002009-04-09T14:16:00.000-07:00I completely agree with the title.I completely agree with the title.AmiyaMaxhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15377884408239081072noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21605329.post-22576955391596269052009-04-08T04:25:00.000-07:002009-04-08T04:25:00.000-07:00"Anonymous" missed a subtlety. True believers can ..."Anonymous" missed a subtlety. True believers can not make mistakes. They do what their religious leaders tell them to do except when they feel like doing something else. In which case they may obtain easy forgiveness from their religious leaders by confessing (and often by writing a check to them).<BR/><BR/>Atheists answer to higher moral values than an invisible super buddy (as interpreted by self-serving religious leaders). Not only are mistakes possible there is no easy forgiveness for making them. <BR/><BR/>Anonymous said: "Why would an atheist worry about mistakes? If the universe is purposeless, than what difference mistakes?<BR/><BR/>A religious person believing the universe has purpose might worry about mistakes...."Nerissahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08188786959596205027noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21605329.post-59108956633898402812009-04-01T19:32:00.000-07:002009-04-01T19:32:00.000-07:00This is getting old, Dr O Nuallain. Just because I...This is getting old, Dr O Nuallain. Just because I don't want to read your paper doesn't mean I'm a creationist. Have you read any of the other 467 posts in my blog (besides this one)? Hmmm?The Neurocritichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08010555869208208621noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21605329.post-86223707398517416902009-04-01T19:04:00.000-07:002009-04-01T19:04:00.000-07:00Quote..."I can pretty much say whatever I want wit...Quote...<BR/><BR/>"I can pretty much say whatever I want without learning about the Hilbert transform and the "dark energy" of the brain......."<BR/><BR/>Indeed. <BR/><BR/>And creationists too can ignore the last few hundred years of science. <BR/><BR/>Then again, isn't there a little clash about that somewhere in American culture?Seán Ó Nualláin https://www.blogger.com/profile/03710328468542084086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21605329.post-21193804325191467222009-03-29T18:49:00.000-07:002009-03-29T18:49:00.000-07:00Hi Human Project, Thanks for mentioning Zuckerman'...Hi Human Project, <BR/><BR/>Thanks for mentioning Zuckerman's book, I hadn't heard of it before. It's not a message that devout Christians want to hear. They'd rather believe in Santa Claus...<BR/><BR/>And I'm glad I made you laugh!The Neurocritichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08010555869208208621noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21605329.post-70309460451445222492009-03-29T13:03:00.000-07:002009-03-29T13:03:00.000-07:00BTW, this was hilarious, thanks for the chuckle......BTW, this was hilarious, thanks for the chuckle... <BR/><BR/><I>If you're going to spam my blog (and many others) with your irrelevant self-promotion, I can pretty much say whatever I want without learning about the Hilbert transform and the "dark energy" of the brain.</I>HumanProjecthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03579380219478093167noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21605329.post-55019260162769183972009-03-29T12:58:00.000-07:002009-03-29T12:58:00.000-07:00Anonymous #1 professes the "Santa Clause" theory o...Anonymous #1 professes the "Santa Clause" theory of religion, which is that the reason to "be good" is because Santa knows if you're naughty or nice and you don't want to get coal for Christmas.<BR/><BR/>Philip Zuckerman and Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi are examples of scholars who explained that in the contemporary world, the behavior of the non-religious tends to be more moral (in terms of concern for others) than the behavior of religious believers.<BR/><BR/>Example, Zuckerman's book: “Society without God: What the Least Religious Nations Can Tell Us About Contentment”<BR/><BR/>For Christians, is this because the Christian God is easier to fool than Santa Claus -- sin your whole life and then a quick death-bed conversion and you're all set... Or better, a little shopping around and you can find the denomination whose brand of in-group superiority is just right for your particular history.HumanProjecthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03579380219478093167noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21605329.post-3484583005876442292009-03-26T16:51:00.000-07:002009-03-26T16:51:00.000-07:00I meant "spamming" in a figurative sense, not a li...I meant "spamming" in a figurative sense, not a literal sense. I publish all comments, <B>except</B> for real spam that sells stuff [but on occasion it's <A HREF="http://neurocritic.blogspot.com/2009/02/voodoo-of-peer-review.html#c7251710815379841877" REL="nofollow">entertaining</A>] and personally insulting invective from anti-psychiatry trolls.The Neurocritichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08010555869208208621noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21605329.post-22191484634305185142009-03-23T14:20:00.000-07:002009-03-23T14:20:00.000-07:00First of all, there is no spamming involved - all ...First of all, there is no spamming involved - all my comments go through a moderator, including in this case your good self. So to include a comment and then accuse someone of spamming is difficult to understand.<BR/><BR/>Secondly, I have maintained the rights of the paper and am happy to continue to send it gratis to anyone who wants to read it and then comment on it, as I have already done. <BR/><BR/>When the person in question does so, they will find that my findings <BR/>of "null spikes" are completely independent of the synchronization of gamma; the argument is considerably deeper. Wrt artifacts like blinking etc, these have been handled by the Freeman lab methodology used in my paper for some decades now.Seán Ó Nualláin https://www.blogger.com/profile/03710328468542084086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21605329.post-46489037471784741772009-03-19T21:01:00.000-07:002009-03-19T21:01:00.000-07:00Sean - With the greatest of respect, your comment ...Sean - With the greatest of respect, your comment betrays startling pomposity.<BR/><BR/>If you're going to spam my blog (and many others) with your irrelevant self-promotion, I can pretty much say whatever I want without learning about the Hilbert transform and the "dark energy" of the brain.The Neurocritichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08010555869208208621noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21605329.post-79991222044396571912009-03-19T20:52:00.000-07:002009-03-19T20:52:00.000-07:00With the greatest of respect, the comment by the "...With the greatest of respect, the comment by the "Neurocritic" above betrays startling ignorance<BR/><BR/><BR/>Nobody is saying for a second (or whatever sampling criterion) that gamma synchrony ipse facto leads to zero power. However, the point being made is that we are able precisely to calculate the effect gamma has on the "dark energy' of the brain (which constitutes 18% or so of total body metabolism). This uses the Hilbert transform, a more precise index than simple Fourier for this context. <BR/><BR/>To continue; if Neurocritic wants to debate, while I feel there is a steep learning curve, I would recommend the following path;<BR/><BR/>1. Read the work with Walter Freeman I published last year in "integrative Neuroscience"<BR/><BR/>2. Do some DSP, find out what the hilbert transform is<BR/><BR/>3. Until then, stop making a complete ass of himself<BR/><BR/>St Patrick's week - Great to be Irish, if only for the week<BR/><BR/>SeanSeán Ó Nualláin https://www.blogger.com/profile/03710328468542084086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21605329.post-6367283172209028382009-03-11T14:03:00.000-07:002009-03-11T14:03:00.000-07:00Administrator - It costs $59.00 to purchase your p...Administrator - It costs $59.00 to purchase your paper, so I doubt many of us will be reading it. However, synchronized gamma in the human scalp-recorded EEG can be attributed to microsaccades under many conditions (<I>Transient Induced Gamma-Band Response in EEG as a Manifestation of Miniature Saccades</I>, <A HREF="http://tr.im/hfQO" REL="nofollow">Yuval-Greenberg et al., 2008</A>).<BR/><BR/>Also, synchronized gamma does not consume "zero power." In fact, the <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Functional_magnetic_resonance_imaging#Background" REL="nofollow">hemodynamic signal</A> of fMRI correlates closely with synchronized gamma oscillations in visual cortex (<A HREF="http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/309/5736/948" REL="nofollow">Niessing et al., 2005</A>).The Neurocritichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08010555869208208621noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21605329.post-47099261018324429712009-03-11T13:15:00.000-07:002009-03-11T13:15:00.000-07:00Anonymous #1 - It is interesting to consider an in...Anonymous #1 - It is interesting to consider an inversion of the findings. In religions where guilt is a primary motivating force (e.g., Judaism, Catholicism), one can imagine higher levels of neuroticism and greater concern about making mistakes. Conversely, a recent paper suggested that <I>Encouraging a Belief in Determinism Increases Cheating</I> (<A HREF="http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/119410409/abstract" REL="nofollow">Vohs & Schooler, 2008</A>) and perhaps greater indifference to making mistakes.<BR/><BR/>Anonymous #2 - To clarify the religious preferences of the study participants, not all were fundamentalist Christians. In Study 1: 39% Christian, 21% Muslim, 14% Hindu, 11% Buddhist, and 15% other (including nonreligious). In Study 2: 33% East Asian, 33% South Asian, 28% Caucasian, and 6% other (they did not record religious affiliation for Study 2).The Neurocritichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08010555869208208621noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21605329.post-73002452051345824622009-03-11T04:38:00.000-07:002009-03-11T04:38:00.000-07:00'Religious people' according to this study are fun...'Religious people' according to this study are fundamental Christian zealots ... I'm glad I now know that religious persons are just trying to ease their existential pain ... those poor saps.<BR/><BR/>Religious persons cope with existential uncertainty:<BR/><BR/> "strengthening convictions and narrowing attention away from inconsistencies" <BR/><BR/>This is due to the religious person's 'blind faith', I'm guessing? Those religious persons, gotta love'em.<BR/><BR/>‘‘I aspire to live and act according to my religious beliefs,’’ ‘‘My religious beliefs are grounded in objective truth,’’ and ‘‘I would support a war that defended my religious beliefs.’’<BR/><BR/>Those religious persons, always out to make war to protect their faith ...<BR/><BR/>"These results suggest that religious conviction provides a framework for understanding and acting within one's environment, thereby acting as a buffer against anxiety and minimizing the experience of error."<BR/><BR/>That's it, from now on I refuse to hire any 'religious persons' ...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21605329.post-56361076084235236872009-03-10T16:40:00.000-07:002009-03-10T16:40:00.000-07:00Hi!I’ve just published what I believe is a breakth...Hi!<BR/><BR/>I’ve just published what I believe is a breakthrough paper on meditation and consciousness (formal abstract and link below) which may relate to this debate. It is the first to interrelate the work on synchronized gamma in consciousness with the well-attested work on gamma in meditation. It adduces experimental and simulated data to show that what both have in common is the ability to put the brain into a state in which it is maximally sensitive and consumes zero power, briefly. It is argued that this may correspond to a “selfless” state and the more typical non-zero state, in which gamma is not so prominent, corresponds to a state of empirical self. Thus, the “zero power” in the title refers not only to the power spectrum of the brain as measured by the Hilbert transform, but also to a psychological state of personal renunciation.<BR/><BR/>While the general perspective is compatible with panpsychism, a more practical consequence is that the beneficial health effects of meditation may partly be due to the fact that the brain’s “dark energy” consumption normally absorbs about 18% of the body’s metabolic production. During these monets of “zero power” this energy is freed up for repair and healing.<BR/><BR/>The paper is;<BR/><BR/>Zero Power and Selflessness: What Meditation and Conscious Perception Have in Common (Sean O Nuallain) and it’s at<BR/><BR/>https://www.novapublishers.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=10068<BR/><BR/>Abstract<BR/><BR/>This paper attempts to reconstrue the art and science of meditation in the context of an overall theory of cognition, and with reference to evidence from simulated and real data analysed in a neurodynamical framework. First, we discuss the phenomenology of meditation and its relation to the known evidence. It is argued that meditation is on a continuum with the types of conscious mental activity characterized by synchronized gamma. Specifically, it is suggested that gamma synchrony in meditation allows the normally prominent background noise of the brain momentarily to subside. Secondly, a set of experiments using both simulated and real data and interpreted in a neurodynamical context that bear on the issue of meditation is described. Thirdly, the theoretical and experimental frameworks are brought together into an overall perspective that impacts on cognition as on applied experientialism. Most of the material alludes to books and other refereed published material by the author.Seán Ó Nualláin https://www.blogger.com/profile/03710328468542084086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21605329.post-39256756986739120172009-03-10T01:03:00.000-07:002009-03-10T01:03:00.000-07:00Why would an atheist worry about mistakes? If the ...Why would an atheist worry about mistakes? If the universe is purposeless, than what difference mistakes?<BR/>A religious person believing the universe has purpose might worry about mistakes.<BR/>I'll bet this study isn't replicated.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21605329.post-33408710381137990702009-03-07T22:35:00.000-08:002009-03-07T22:35:00.000-08:00Greg - You're right, it's not especially surprisin...Greg - You're right, it's not especially surprising...<BR/><BR/>And a big <B>Welcome to the Blogosphere!</B> to you, The Science Police!The Neurocritichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08010555869208208621noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21605329.post-66529867224605420422009-03-07T21:57:00.000-08:002009-03-07T21:57:00.000-08:00Dear NeurocriticFollowing your blog and those of k...Dear Neurocritic<BR/><BR/>Following your blog and those of kindred spirits (e.g., http://neuroskeptic.blogspot.com/) has finally galvanized us into action. <BR/><BR/>This is us, throwing our Prussian Pickelhaube Helmets into the ring.<BR/><BR/>Thanks for all you've done to help us get off our collective asses. <BR/><BR/>The Science PoliceThe Science Policehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01565182138762026435noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21605329.post-23168149324909863682009-03-05T10:26:00.000-08:002009-03-05T10:26:00.000-08:00So atheists are more worried about their mistakes ...So atheists are more worried about their mistakes than religious people are. Is this a big surprise?<BR/><BR/>Maybe this is simply a sort of mental immunization effect caused by glossing by all of the cognitive dissonance created by believing a religion.Greghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04037439918279912195noreply@blogger.com