Rational Thoughts: Unlimited

A collection of rational thoughts from a true atheist. Rationality, to me, simply means questioning all that's been established as Obvious in our minds. Questioning the obvious is just the first step towards rationalism and leading to atheism… Think about it, and be your own authority rather than trying hard to define some sort of authority (call it god, energy or whatever) outside of yourself.

Comments By Email Posts

Don’t leave it to the stars or God

Source/Author: PK Surendran |

Posted on: February 21st, 2011

Reason it out, say freethinking techies

Rationalists of the world, unite, was the call of the day as young techies gathered to encourage the spirit of free thinking and scientific temper through information technologyat the two-day workshop of Bangalore Freethinkers and Karnataka Rationalists Association held at Vignan Bhavan, Banashankari.

Technologists and freethinkers, Pankaj Kulkarni, Anil Gulecha, and Varun John came up with proposals for social activism for the cause of freethinking.

They said that at a time when religious fervour and indoctrination were leading to dangerous consequences, such as terrorism, rationalists and freethinkers should go beyond the dialectical mode of rational thinking and get directly involved in social activities and humanitarian works for the sake of rational thinking and scientific enquiry.

They wanted the movement to take advantage of mass media and secular non-governmental organisations to spread the message that freethinking liberated them from the shackles of religious fanaticism and dogmas. The argument that the movement should leave the concept of god, and attack the priesthood and religious institutions to remove superstition and intellectual slavery were also raised.

Brain shuts off in response to healer’s prayer

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.

Beyond Bodily Needs: Prahlad Jani & The Solarian Scam

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!

Rational Thoughts: Unlimited

Statistics

Login

My Rankings

Brain shuts off in response to healer’s prayer

Beyond Bodily Needs: Prahlad Jani & The Solarian Scam

Blogroll