Topics Started by HB
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Holy Hell
by HB inapologies if this has been mentioned on here before but i didn’t find it by doing a search.
if you are interested in the inner workings of cults, you might want to watch out for a new documentary film called ‘holy hell’ which is due to be released in may 2016 and was premiered at the sundance film festival in january.
it was described by critics as a powerful and ground breaking film and the audiences at sundance loved it and gave it a standing ovation at almost every screening.
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When is a theory 'just a theory'?
by HB inthe titles of cofty's excellent recent posts are all preceeded by the words "evolution is a fact...".
richard dawkins is encouraging people to use the term 'fact' in relation to evolution, especially when debating with creationists as the word 'theory' is confusing to many, and the latter often takes the discussion off on an often unproductive tangent.
the following may be of interest, it's from the bbc website - part of a regular series of articles called 'the vocabularist', discussing the origin and meaning of words: .
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Time Machine
by HB incaveat 1: those who believe jesus is truly the son of god may wish to avoid this post.
although my thoughts are only proposed for mild amusement and interest and in no way intended to offend, for some, the concept behind the idea may be an affront to preciously held beliefs.
if that’s likely to be the case, kindly just don’t read.
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Results of an international survey - Love, Health, Money, Power etc, what do you most want in life?
by HB insome of you might be interested in the results of a 'yougov' survey into peoples aims in life.
see: https://yougov.co.uk/news/2015/12/23/wants/.
over 18,000 people in 17 countries were asked to think about their lives and to say which of 12 key areas they most want in life and which single one they want most overall.
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Scientists: Earth Endangered by New Strain of Fact-Resistant Humans (satire)
by HB inminneapolis (the borowitz report) scientists have discovered a powerful new strain of fact-resistant humans who are threatening the ability of earth to sustain life, a sobering new study reports.. the research, conducted by the university of minnesota, identifies a virulent strain of humans who are virtually immune to any form of verifiable knowledge, leaving scientists at a loss as to how to combat them.. these humans appear to have all the faculties necessary to receive and process information, davis logsdon, one of the scientists who contributed to the study, said.
and yet, somehow, they have developed defenses that, for all intents and purposes, have rendered those faculties totally inactive.. more worryingly, logsdon said, as facts have multiplied, their defenses against those facts have only grown more powerful.. while scientists have no clear understanding of the mechanisms that prevent the fact-resistant humans from absorbing data, they theorize that the strain may have developed the ability to intercept and discard information en route from the auditory nerve to the brain.
the normal functions of human consciousness have been completely nullified, logsdon said.. while reaffirming the gloomy assessments of the study, logsdon held out hope that the threat of fact-resistant humans could be mitigated in the future.
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Spiritual people are more likely to be mentally ill, but at least they think life has more meaning.
by HB inas an aside to the recent thread discussing what 'spirit' is, this article is about 18 months old, but may be of interest if you haven't seen it before.. the study (or at least this summary of it described on the mail online news website), doesn't define what exactly is meant by a 'spiritual' person, but i personally take it as a very broad term covering everything from new age hippies who feel they have a relationship with the energy of the universe or those who are striving to reach innner calm by meditating and living a simple life communing with nature, to beliefs in astrology, feng shui, and a host of other paranormal phenomena, plus many shades in between.
some 'spiritual' beliefs are obvioulsy just superstitions, but others are currently neither provable nor disprovable by science.
maybe it's open to debate, but i guess if a belief can be demonstrated as 100% true by science, it's not considered 'spiritual'.. one interesting point is that apparently unlike some surveys undertaken in the us, this one from the uk found "no clear relationship between religious belief and happiness".. hope this doesn't offend anyone who considers themselves spiritual, that's really not my intention; but at least it's not branding anyone as "mentally diseased"!.
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BBC article lists ALL JW predictions for the end of the world
by HB inthearticle below is on the main bbc news webpage today.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-24432491 .
bob geldof has said the human race might have as little as 17 more years before "a mass extinction event".
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How Scientology Changed the internet - BBC article
by HB inthought some of you might be interested in this bbc article dealing with the ways that scientology has tried to prevent ex members spreading negative information about their church on the internet.. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-23273109#.
the various battles between digital rights acticivist and the church of scientology are covered, particularly in relation to google and you tube.
this was quite funny in retrospect:.
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TV programme: Watchtower mags are Junk Mail
by HB inthought you might like to hear about a programme on uk tv (channel 4) yesterday in which jws featured.. it was a light-hearted and quirky programme called junk mail britain where the presenter who has hoarded all his junk mail for the past 5 years, went out into his community (willesden, nw london) to meet the people behind the various businesses and companies who were trying to get his custom via leafletting.. http://www.channel4.com/video/brandless-catchup.jsp?vodbrand=junk-mail-britain.
it was fun and much more interesting than you might think from this brief synopsis.
he met everyone from taxi drivers to pizza takeaway firms to find out how much business they got from junk mail and then interviewed some of the people who trailed from door to door dropping unwanted leaflets through letterboxes.
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New Creationist museum in Portsmouth UK
by HB init appears that creationist views are gaining a foot-hold here in the uk too.. see http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7613403.stm.
by julian joyce .
bbc news .