Please share; What am I accepting that has no proof. (I am going to assume you are using the word proof incorrectly and there could not possibly be proof for the existence of a god. There is no God in math. I will assume that you are making a mathematical claim as some sort of ‘evidence,’ and that ‘evidence’ is the actual word you meant to use. So what claim am I accepting without evidence? Please share.
As a friend, I think it’s time you laid off the smack. You’re starting to sound like me after I’ve forgotten a few doses of the dopamine blockers.
You’ve mumbled and jumbled my words. I said it’s the theist would accept something that has no proof.
Fuck no! I’m not trying to provide evidence for Gid in my equations.
The part about God is that stupid people believe in him. Smart people discard the concept. Crazy people have conversations with Him.
That was - to say - I value the opinions of atheists over theists because they are, by and large, a few IQ points ahead of the other.
Prof. Jason H. Steffen, a member of Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
From: About — Prof. Jason H. Steffen
Dr. Steffen is an Associate Professor of Physics at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. His work is primarily on the properties, formation, and dynamical evolution of planets and planetary systems. He was a long-time member of the science team for NASA’s Kepler mission where he contributed to the discovery and characterization of thousands of planets and planetary systems. Prior to joining UNLV, he was research faculty at Northwestern University and the Brinson Postdoctoral Fellow at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory near Chicago Illinois.
Dr. Steffen received his PhD and MS in Physics at the University of Washington, Seattle, and his Bachelors degree in Mathematics and Physics from Weber State University, in Utah.
…(heavy sigh)… Ugh… Well, Dave, as much as I hate to do this, I’m afraid I have to put in my two cents worth here in Ratty’s favor. Basically, there are absolutely some intelligent Christians out there. No doubt about it. However, doesn’t necessarily mean they aren’t stupid. For example, my brother-in-law. PhD (literally a doctor), professor and high level administrator (of some sort) at a very high-ranking college, and gay. I love the guy to death, and he can be funny as hell sometimes. Yet, he is a faithful Christian who believes in God and the bible. Moreover, he truly does lack a great deal of common sense and critical thinking skills. And like I tell my wife (and she agrees), for all of his schooling, diplomas, and academic accomplishments, the poor guy is truly stupid. Okay, granted, I’m not the sharpest crayon in the box, but I’m not the dullest either. Even so, I fully admit I can be pretty damn stupid sometimes. (Just ask my wife.) The difference, though, is that I can typically correct my stupidity if somebody points it out to me. (Or if I learn the hard way on my own.) Sadly, though, some folks just ain’t able to make those corrections. Hence, they remain stupid. Anyway, just my opinion, for what it’s worth.
***I stand corrected… *** Please excuse me Mr. Ratty. SIDE NOTE: It gives me the opportunity to demonstrate the correct way to respond to someone having made an ass of one’s self. Take a picture, it will do you good. Okay, I could have made the comment without the little snarkiness on the end; but then you would have known I was on meds for sure.
It takes a big dick to admit when one is wrong. You proved yourself out there today. Let’s keep up the positive energy. I’m getting a really good vibe from the forum right now.
I really question whether or not IQ tends to measure anything other than one’s ability to do well in university or research. Educated idiots abound in the world around us. Two of the most dimwitted peodple I ever hired were medical doctors. They were hired to perform roles as social workers. Well, doctors are supposed to have people skills and problem solving ability. In both cases I was proved to be sorely mistaken. How they made it as doctors, I will never know. They failed horribly as social workers.
Most people in my profession are educated idiots who can’t think their way around a corner. So many people have a favorite theory or idology and simply work from that one framework. Everything in the world fits into the same mode of operation. In my training we called this, ‘The Washing Machine Principle.’
You load all the clothes into the machine add soap and turn it on. When the whites don’t come out exactly white and the colors aren’t exactly bright, you just do it again. You keep doing the same thing over and over and expect a different outcome. Then, when you get completely frustrated and nothing has changed, you claim there is something wrong with the machine. In theirapy, these therapists blame the clients. The client didn’t do the homework; The client isn’t trying, etc… Clients on the other hand, blame the therapists. ‘Therapy doesn’t work.’
Well, do be honest, therapy is not supposed to work. WORK: activity involving mental or physical effort done in order to achieve a purpose or result. The client is supposed to work. Coming to therapy is only a part of the work that needs to be done, and, sometimes it is enough. The fact that you spend money and go someplace to talk is often enough to facilitate a change. It is a change in your routine and a change in the way you do things. It can also lead to other changes. But there is much more a therapist can do to get you to work. Sometimes, not working, is work. Trying not to work on the problem can be work. This gets theoretical. The goal of a good theirapist is to not work, and, get the client to do the work he or she needt to do to get to a beeter place.
Why am I on this topic??? Oh yeah. Educated idiots abound in the world around us. Probably true in every profession and certainly true at the 3 colleges I attended and the University I eventually completed.
That’s Tin Man Steaking up on your ass with the Vibro-6000. RUN! You get that tingly feeling because the ground is vibrating. Get your ass out of there NOW!
I guess the vibro came with the heart?
It’s funny hearing you talk about therapy. I imagine you are this very empathetic, insightful active listener in the office.
And then you let loose and you revert to your own primordial state where the best advise you seem to give your self is something along the lines of “fuck it! If it ain’t broke don’t fix it. If it is broke, tell it to fall in line with the rest of the schleps!”
You have a good point. I know a few PhD’s who have great difficulty tying up their shoelaces.
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I worked with perpetrators not victims. How much empathy do you need to call people on their lies and bullshit. Do good theirapists are generally rip-off artists. They convince you that you have deep seated problems and that it will take you a long time to get over them. COMPLETE BULLSHIT. They tell you that you have to 'Work On Your Issues." Complete bullshit, and a way to keep you coming back for more. Empathy is for human beings, not for the things human beings do. I show up as a human being and expect my client to do the same. (Think about that! Just be human! How many human beings have you ever sat down with and talked to. Real human beings just two people sitting and talking. No games.) Empathy is over rated and if it is faked, there isn’t a person I have ever worked with that would not see through it. An honest human reaction trumps empathy every time.
Think of it this way.
The analogies are many.
A good parent does not raise a child. A good parent raises a child to be an adult.
Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.
If you are willing to learn, no one can help you. If you are determined to learn, no one can stop you.
You are what you do, not what you want to do.
I never lose, I either win or learn.
If it’s not going to matter in 5 years, don’t spend more than 5 minutes on it.
Can you look at these and see the common thread? Each and every one of them has a single focus as do most words of wisdome.
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Scientology.
I fully agree. When I was fucked up and living a very destructive life, it was my recognition I had a problem and my willingness to change and put in the hard work that was effective.
Additionally, it was no jesus or god, it was me that made it happen.
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One of the reasons Scientology hates psychology is because L Ron stole most of his ideas from Freud and simply repackaged them. Getting on the meter and discussing your problems, freely associating, hitting blocks, working through them, it’s all Freudian Psychoanalysis. Hubbard himself spent years in psychiatric treatment. Hubbard claimed he worked as a volounteer in a psychiatric clinic. He had a long history of involvement with psychiatric treatment. His system of clearing (going clear), IS, an offshoot of psychoanalysis.
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The other is because his theories as laid down in his seminal “Dianetics” were roundly dismissed by the establishment.
Incidentally it is not psychologists that L Ron hated as much as Psychiatrists and the pharmaceuticals that went with it.
Ron stole wholesale from Buddhism, Maslow and other behavioral psyches. There is not one original idea in any of his maunderings. All stolen , even “thetans” was a n idea from another writer.
My entire family on SWMBO’s aide are ex scientologists with youngest stepson in Seaorg until his 19th birthday.
Psychoanalysis has also been debunked along with scientology, as a crock of BS.
Traditional psychoanalysis doesn’t even pretend to be any kind of a science, so it’s not fair to call it a pseudoscience. As in the case of any religion it was made up by a charismatic person with a brilliant and inventive mind, then codified by his followers, and I freely admit its holy books are fascinating to read as any fiction.
No, psychoanalysis has none of the trappings of any science, including pseudo, but it has all the essential earmarks of an established religion.
The entire theory is unfalsifiable. Psychoanalysis, in a nutshell, is a process without a goal. It is the free assiciation of the unconscious into the conscious. It assumes ‘id, ego, and superego.’ It assumes, unconscious mind, conscious mind, as if there is a real distinction. It assumes that as the unconscious becomes conscious neurotic behaviors will cease. It assumes that the way to discover what is going on with the unconscious is through a process called ‘regression.’ It assumes that a client who refuses to discuss any part of his or her life is being ‘resistant’ and that resistance must be broken down to allow the free association of information from the unconscious to the conscious. The average duration of psychoanalytic treatment is 7 years. 7 years at $100 per hour or more, treatment. There is no indication that psychoanalytic treatment does anything and the intervening variable is the process of maturation. As we mature, we naturally learn new ways of interacting with the world. We can not just allocate these changes to psychoanalysis.
One thing psychoanalysis does, is that it makes you talk like Woody Allan. If you ever listen to him, all his speech is laiden with psychoanalytic termonology. Pretty much like a Scientologist. Psychoanalysts, in addition to doing regression and free association, teach their clients the vocabulary of the treatment methodology, 'Your blocking, sublimating, having a reaction formation, displacement, undoing, denial, etc… These things may be good to know, and they are certainly useful if one is going to engage in self observation to try and figure out why they behave in ways they do. It gives one a language of meaning. But to run about and see the whole world as if it fits into this psychoanalytic box, like a Christian Zealot, is crazy. Listen to Woody Allen, that’s what he does. He believes in he Religion of psychoanalysis. And the foundation of psychoanalysis is just as unfalsifiable as the God hypotheisis.
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