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 Source/Author: Andy Coghlan |  Posted on: August 7th, 2010
WHEN we fall under the spell of a charismatic figure, areas of the brain responsible for scepticism and vigilance become less active. That’s the finding of a study which looked at people’s response to prayers spoken by someone purportedly possessing divine healing powers.
To identify the brain processes underlying the influence of charismatic individuals, Uffe Schjødt of Aarhus University in Denmark and colleagues turned to Pentecostal Christians, who believe that some people have divinely inspired powers of healing, wisdom and prophecy.
Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), Schjødt and his colleagues scanned the brains of 20 Pentecostalists and 20 non-believers while playing them recorded prayers. The volunteers were told that six of the prayers were read by a non-Christian, six by an ordinary Christian and six by a healer. In fact, all were read by ordinary Christians.
Only in the devout volunteers did the brain activity monitored by the researchers change in response to the prayers. Parts of the prefrontal and anterior cingulate cortices, which play key roles in vigilance and scepticism when judging the truth and importance of what people say, were deactivated when the subjects listened to a supposed healer. Activity diminished to a lesser extent when the speaker was supposedly a normal Christian (Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsq023).
Schjødt says that this explains why certain individuals can gain influence over others, and concludes that their ability to do so depends heavily on preconceived notions of their authority and trustworthiness.
It’s not clear whether the results extend beyond religious leaders, but Schjødt speculates that brain regions may be deactivated in a similar way in response to doctors, parents and politicians.
Source/Author: Gora Vikas | Posted on: July 12th, 2010
January 7-9, 2011 (Friday-Sunday)
at Tiruchirapalli , Tamilnad
Theme: “ATHEISM—AN ALTERNATIVE CULTURE”
We are happy to inform that VIII World Atheist Conference is jointly convened by Dravidar Kazhagam, Atheist Centre and The Rationalists’ Forum on 7,8 & 9 January 2011, in Tiruchirapalli, (Trichy), a city centrally located in Tamil Nadu which is well connected by road, railway and air. The conference is being conducted by the movements founded by great atheists, social reformers and humanists - Periyar E.V.Ramasami (1879-1973) and Gora (1902- 1975).
Already we have received positive responses of participation from many from abroad including Levi Fragell, former President, IHEU, Norway, Roy Brown, former President, IHEU, (Switzerland), Kristin-Mile, Secretary General, Norwegian Humanist Association, Pekka Elo, Finland Humanist Association. From India, Prof. P.M. Bhargava, former Vice-Chairman, National Knowledge Commission of Govt. of India; Dr. Samaram, National President, Indian Medical Association; Lavanam, President, Samskar; Prof. Ramachandran, Vice Chancellor, Periyar Maniammai University; Prof. B.Pb. Parikh, Ex-VC, South Gujarat University, Baroda, Babu Gogineni, Executive Director, IHEU; Dr. Innaiah, Director, Center for Inquiry; Prof. Narendra Nayak, President, Federation of Indian Atheist and Rationalist Associations; Prof. Dhaneswar Sahoo, Bhubaneswar; U. Kalanathan, Ex. Gen. Secretary, FIRA; K.G. Rao, General Secretary, FIRA, Goa; Ch. Vidya, Ex-MP Dr. Chandana Chakravarthy, J. Mythri, Chair person, Atheist Centre, and many others will be participating in the World Conference. Please plan from now on to come and participate in this important international event.
The Registration Fee for a delegate is Rs. 400. It may be remitted through a Crossed Demand Draft on any bank favouring “Dravidar Kazhagam” payable at Chennai. For details:
Co-ordinator, VIII World Atheist Conference
84/1 (50), E.V.K.Sampath Road, Vepery, Chennai – 600 007
e-mail - atheistconference2011@gmail.com
Fax: 044 2661 8866
Conveners of the Conference:
Dr. K. Veeramani, President, Dravidar Kazhagam, Periyar Thidal, 50 E.V.K.Sampath Road,
Vepery, Chennai – 600 007 &
Dr. G. Vijayam, Executive Director, Atheist Centre,
Benz Circle, Vijayawada 520010 email: atheistcentre@yahoo.com
Source/Author: Vishal Arora | Posted on: June 13th, 2010
A journey into Sai Baba’s smalltown fiefdom, where decades-old allegations of sex abuse, murder and deception continue to linger.
ABOUT THREE-AND-A-HALF HOURS from Bangalore, past farmers’ fields and some hills, a small village came into view. The rural area gradually gave way to an airstrip, where a private jet was parked, and then to uptown buildings—resorts, hotels and a huge, pink building, the Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences, Prasanthigram, a ‘super specialty hospital’ designed by English architect Dr Keith Critchlow, close to the Sri Sathya Sai Hill View Stadium, inaugurated in November 2006 by then President of India APJ Abdul Kalam, who also happens to be a well-regarded nuclear scientist.
This is Puttaparthi, a small town in the Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh spread over approximately ten square kilometres. The names of almost all hotels and shops start with ‘Sai.’ Pictures of Sathya Sai Baba are everywhere—on all shop hoardings, on the backs of auto-rickshaws, in lifts and telephone booths and even inside the Puttaparthi police station and the post office. The pictures also carry prominent Sai Baba-isms: ‘Help Ever, Hurt Never,’ ‘Love is God, Live in Love,’ ‘Unity, Purity and Divinity,’ ‘Love All, Serve All,’ and so on. With his benevolent teachings, his emphasis on communal harmony, and his numerous social work projects, Sai Baba seems like Puttaparthi’s own deity.
Everything in the village appears in line with Sai Baba’s worldview. There are many massage parlours—Sai Baba himself claims to be a “masseur healer.” Given his aversion to alcohol and tobacco, cigarettes and liquor are sold only secretly. But you can find several paan shops—Sai Baba is a paan (betel leaf and nut) eater, as his stained teeth also suggest. Almost all restaurants are vegetarian, mirroring Sai Baba’s philosophy that “meat eating fosters animal qualities in man making him descend to the demoniac level.” Puttaparthi often seems like Sai Baba’s personal kingdom.
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Source/Author: Narendra Nayak | Posted on: May 18th, 2010
With the many recent claims of people living without food and water, it has become very necessary to examine the issues that have been raised, particularly the methods used to verify the claims of these people. There is this man from Kerala who claims to have extracted energy from the sun by staring at it and converting it to the energy needed to keep his bodily processes going on. There is this man from Gujarat claiming to have been blessed by a goddess who pours something down his throat, and so he does not need any food or water. He also claims to have lived for seven decades without these!
These recent reports have provided much needed threads for the Hindutwavadi gang to cling to. Their illusions have recently been dashed by scandal after scandal and they had been in desperate search for new icons and they have been provided by these new idols proclaiming that they can live without food and water. It is not that these claims are new! We have been hearing of these since time immemorial like the stories of ancient sages living on air for thousands of years and such. But we have not seen one till this day! Those who are around today make desperate attempts to hide their age by dyeing their hirsute appendages and wearing wigs to hide their bald patches! We have sterling examples of the contortionist, the pilot turned Baba, the afro wigged Puttaparthi guy and innumerable such examples. The squeaky voiced patent holder for breathing has a few carefully preserved strands of gray in his mane and beard!
Let us take a look at why one cannot live without food or/and convert solar energy to meet the energy requirements of the body. There is no method by which solar energy can be converted into carbohydrate in animals and that is why we are dependent on the solar energy converted into carbohydrate by the plants and organisms which can do this. Those plants that do this must have a pigment that can trap solar energy- i.e., chlorophyl. None of the people who have these claims have any green color and obviously do not have chlorophyll! Even assuming that they have it, they would have to spend all day in the sunlight to convert enough of the energy for the dark hours! How does one store that? The most efficient form for storage of energy is fat which can given an energy of 9 kcals/gram. Assuming a minimum energy need of at least 50 kcals/hour, for the dark hours one needs 600 kilocalories of energy which would need the storage of at least 65 grams of fat between the sunlight and dark hours! There is no known metaboilc process which can convert sunlight into that in any animal!
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