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Is a "better" religion one that improves people's behaviour (pragmatists would say so!), or is a better religion one that is close to the truth (idealists, unite!)?
Religions that are appealing probably fit in the former category, whilst potentially dry and academic religions (and science) fit in the latter case. I reckon the 'masses' will nearly always hold dear religions that are mostly appealing and only secondarily accurate.
Most journals and blog sites are blocked by the very heavy firewall that exists in this country... but I just found that Vox works!
I will have normal internet access later this year.
Was up at 2am (after getting away from the Gate only at 10pm), to man the security desk... after my shift finally finishe at 9am, instead of sleeping, I went off into London because the thought of staying in my temporary work accomodation in Hounslow was so depressing, I'd rather be knackered than there.
Human Stupidity pages by Vexen Crabtree:
Idiot, n. A member of a large and powerful tribe whose influence in human affairs has always been dominant.
I'm slowly finishing the wonderful book "Neuroscience" (Bear, Connors and Paradiso), all about the brain, and thought I'd share three of the random things I've noted:
- To quote from a book by James Horne entitled Why We Sleep, "Many people feel that, despite 50 years of research, all we can conclude about the function of sleep is that it overcomes sleepiness"
- Some animals (but not Humans) can die from lack of sleep.
- Us humans spend about 1/12th of our lives dreaming.
I've added these to "The Biology of Dreaming" by Vexen Crabtree (2005).
I haven't got a page about the biology sleep in general, just about dreaming and nightmares and dream analysis and the like. On the same website is a dream diary containing dozens of my most epic and fascinating dreams, although I (unfortunately) haven't been having them for a few years now. Too busy!
"Field experiment [studies are those] in which children or teenagers are assigned to view violent or non-violent programs for a period of a few days or weeks. Measures of aggressive behaviour, fantasy, attitude, etc. are taken before, during and after the period of controlled viewing. [...] Almost without exception, they confirm the results of laboratory studies - in general, children who view violent TV are more aggressive than those who do not. [...]
The longitudinal panel study [can] tell us about cause and effect and which normally uses sound sampling methods. The aim is to discover relationships which exist over time between TV viewing and social attitudes and behaviour and so it is concerned with the cumulative influence of TV -[...] for example, in a 20-year follow-up of 400 children, heavy exposure to TV violence at age eight was associated with violent crime and spouse and child abuse at age 30, at all socioeconomic and intelligence levels (Huesmann and Eron, 1984). Sims and Gray (1993, cited in Newson, 1994), in a paper presented to the House of Lords Broadcasting Group, pointed to a vast world literature linking heavy exposure to media violence to subsequent aggressive behaviour. [...]"
Quote from "Psychology: The Science of Mind and Behaviour" by Richard Gross, p424-426
Added it to: "The Mass Media: TV and Video Violence" by Vexen Crabtree
Another journal, another profile... thanks to Gail for inviting me to this one... will wonder around and find out if it has any useful features/services that other journals don't...
Vox seems very cluttered, far too many graphics, a step towards a MySpace style GUI. I will slowly learn to customize it all I hope!
