Revisiting the Theory Of Abiogenesis (The Origin Of Life) And Why Creationists Hate It

The theory of Abiogenesis (which is often erroneously conflated with the theory of evolution) has been problematical for years. What is sought is a basic explanation for how fundamentally non-living matter could acquire the properties and attributes of life, including being able to reproduce.   For a short video presentation, go to:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=W3ceg--uQKM

In principle this isn't that remarkable a stretch, since we already know there exist living entities at the "margins" - the viruses- which display no attributes of life until they infect a host. Once in a host, they can appropriate its cell machinery to churn out billions of copies of themselves.

All of this, of course, can be done without appeal to supernatural agency.

Enter now an Aussie crackpot named Ken Ham whose Wikipedia profile discloses: "a former president of Answers in Genesis, a creationist apologetics organization that operates the Creation Museum and the Ark Encounter. Ham advocates biblical literalism, accepting the Book of Genesis creation narrative as historical fact and believing the universe and the Earth were created together approximately 6,000 years ago."

Naturally such a bozo would no more be  able to process or accept abiogenesis than Darwinian evolution -   since it renders his biblical cartoon deity redundant.  Moreover, Ham remains upset that Neil deGrasse Tyson dared suggest life on earth started without the help of God, in one COSMOS episode years ago. All Tyson did is honestly state that the very origins of life “are not yet understood”. Because abiogenesis has yet to turn up any verifiable results—not that they have claimed any are verifiable—AiG is calling that evidence of a clear flaw. But what’s clear is that Tyson isn’t just a threat to creationists. Their big target is the reputation of science.

AiG  seeks to discredit the underlying biological science, using this standard trope:

“Abiogenesis has never been observed in experimental biology and violates the most fundamental law in biology, the law of  biogenesis. Nevertheless, the authors of the review are confident there was a naturalistic chemical origin for life.” [Biogenesis is the natural law that life comes from reproduction by living things].

However,  in a remarkable find published in The New Scientist (Vol. 209, No. 2794, p. 11) some years ago, two investigators: Kunikho Kaneko and Atsushi Kamimura, made a remarkable breakthrough in devising a testable model that is able to replicate the Abiogenesis process. The two basically solved the problem of how a lipid-coated proto-cell can divide into two (displaying reproduction) when the genetic material replicates. Recall in an earlier blog post where I showed the hypothetical proto-cell reaction wherein a self-sustaining coacervate droplet can use one or two basic reactions involving adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and adenosine diphosphate:

L*M + R + ADP + P -> R + L + M + ATP

ATP + X + Y + X*Y -> ADP + X*Y + X*Y + P

In the above, L*M is some large, indeterminate, energy-rich compound that could serve as ‘food’. Whatever the specific form, it’s conceived here to have two major parts capable of being broken to liberate energy. Compound R is perhaps a protenoid or lipid-coated proto-cell, but in any case able to act on L*M to decompose it. The problem with this earlier hypothesis was that such lipid-coated proto-cells lack the machinery to allow for easy division.

Kaneko and Kamimura solved this by taking their inspiration (for their model) from living things in which DNA and RNA code for proteins and the proteins catalyse replication of the genetic material. This goes back to biochemist Jacque Monod's concept that the organism is a self-constructing machine. Its macroscopic structure is not imposed upon it by outside forces, instead it shapes itself autonomously by dint of constructive internal (chemical) interactions. 

 For example, there is the Krebs cycle for aerobic metabolism, whose pathway  is:

CH2 COOH-coenzyme A +  2 H2O ->   2 CO2  +8 (e- + H+) + coenzyme A

possessing a self-catalytic feature in that intermediate products necessary for the cycle to occur are generated by the cycle itself. In this case, Oxalo-acetic acid combines with acetic acid to begin the cycle and is regenerated from malic acid at the end of the cycle.

Like a machine, every organism, down to the very ‘simplest’ (e.g. amoeba) , constitutes a coherent and integrated functional unit. Clearly enough, the functional coherence of so complex a chemical machine, which is autonomous as well, calls for a cybernetic system governing and controlling the chemical activity at numerous points

 Thus in the Kaneko- Kamimura model one has a self-perpetuating system in which a cluster of two types of molecules catalyse replication for one another while also demonstrating rudimentary cell division.

In the Kaneko - Kamimura  (K-K) model, as with DNA, the genetic material replicates much more slowly than the other cluster molecules but also takes longer to degrade, so it enables lots of the other molecules to accumulate. Following replication of the heredity carrier the copies drift apart while the molecules between them break down automatically creating two separate entities (see image).

This was  and remains an exciting breakthrough but some further investigations are needed, specifically ways to circumvent the problem that (in real life) membrane lipids around an RNA molecule don't typically catalyse RNA replication. However, this isn't insurmountable, because all one need do (theoretically) is replace the lipids with hydrophobic peptides.  (In a future post I will explore how modern physics is helping to address this problem).

Basically what the K-K experiments show is that while abiogenesis hasn’t been directly observed it does provide  a materialist model that can account for it in a peripheral way. Since such a materialist model exists, it means that all supernatural explanations become redundant. If one therefore continues to use them, he commits the fallacy of ignotum per ignotius.  That is,  “seeking to explain the not understood by the less well understood.”

Thus to claim abiogenesis “has not been observed” (directly) – which is partially true, and then to say this proves the creation story -  is something that would even raise the eyebrows of an intelligent  kindergartner . Indeed it not only commits the fallacy of ignotum per ignotius, but also the fallacy of circular reasoning – since AiG and Ham are basically claiming that which they must set out to prove independently. Even if nothing existed for abiogenesis, they would be obliged to prove supernatural creation.   It simply isn't cricket to try to use a naturalistic failure (in their mind) as positive “evidence” for their extraordinary claim.

More importantly the AiG claim that abiogenesis  “breaks the law of biogenesis”  is dishonest. The law of biogenesis (attributed to Louis Pasteur)  states that life cannot come from non-life, but Pasteur did not demonstrate that any such impossibility- only that it does not happen in everyday life. As shown in the K-K model it is at least possible that such can take place.

Now, add to that the Miller-Urey experiment. The Miller and Urey experiment basically applied an electrical discharge to a chemical brew resembling the Earth’s primitive reducing atmosphere. This brew included ammonia and methane, as well as hydrogen and water vapor. The effect of the discharge transformed the mix into a diverse yield of organic compounds. These included amino acids, as well as substances such as formic acid and urea that normally occur in living organisms.

The very fact so many organic compounds could arise is remarkable in itself, given the vast number of possible compounds that might have emerged. And while it is true that the discharge didn’t produce actual living cells, there is no reason – given enough time,- that a primitive pre-biotic cell in the distant past could not have emerged given the building blocks left behind

None of this was mentioned by Tyson, but it could have been and would likely have made the creationist crowd's heads explode even more.  Never mind.  In that memorable COSMOS episode Tyson gave  viewers a naturalist’s explanation for the world, and when he said science does not yet know something, that was no concession  of the failures of science, but instead a powerful example of the necessary honesty in which science thrives.

 That AiG sees the words “I don’t know” as a weakness shows the lengths of intellectual dishonesty they are willing to invoke to pull the wool over their followers’ eyes. (Though again, Tyson also could have shown more support for abiogenesis – such as by invoking  the Miller-Urey experiment- to make this less likely.)

No absolute proof yet for abiogenesis?  No  problem!  We atheists will take what we can get incrementally -  and if a naturalist universe can be delivered easily,  in bite- sized pieces by an affable showman like Neil Tyson-   so much the better.  

What Did Justin Bieber Have To Do With Reviving The PizzaGate Insanity On Tik Tok?

"I duz know Pizzagate be real cuz I research it! Oh, and Justin did give us a signal with he hat!"

'PIZZAGATE CONSPIRACY' THRIVES ANEW IN TIK TOK ERA'

So screamed  the header in yesterday's Denver Post (p. 4A),  catching my attention, especially as I had thought the vile Pizza Gate conspiracy bunkum was long since dead and buried.  So I was not prepared to read this lead- in paragraph:

"Four minutes into a video that was posted on Instagram last month, Justin Bieber leaned into the camera and adjusted the front of his black knit beanie. For some of his 130 million followers it was a signal."

Who would have believed the idiotic conspiracy nonsense known as "PizzaGate" would surface again in this election cycle?   And from a purported "signal" by Justin Bieber, or so millions of his followers construed it.   (To quote Janice: "Those kids need to get a life away from the stupid screens!")

For those who don't remember  PizzaGate was born in 2016 in online forums like 4chan and Reddit, where right-wing supporters of Donald J. Trump pored over hacked emails from John D. Podesta, Hillary Clinton’s senior campaign adviser, looking for evidence of wrongdoing. Some emails referring to Mr. Podesta’s dinner plans mentioned pizza. A 4chan participant then connected the phrase “cheese pizza” to pedophiles, who on chat boards use the initials “c.p.” to denote child pornography.

A huge pusher was Michael Flynn, the recently released (thanks to Bill Barr's interventions) co-conspirator with Trump in the Russian 2016 interference, who had tweeted at the time:

"Until Pizzagate proven to be false, it'll remain a story."

The dimwit clearly not grasping that there is no logical basis to prove a negative. One proves positive claims or propositions (see e.g. my posts on symbolic logic) not negative claims.  But this is par for the course in Trump land.  Flynn even went on to write:

"U decide. NYPD Blows Whistle on New Hillary Emails. Money Laundering. Sex Crimes w. Children etc."

In fact, the NYPD blew no such whistle, and indeed the FBI admitted they had nothing, i.e. on trying to tie Anthony Weiner's emails to any suspect and nefarious misdeeds.  Never mind, the thing was humped right up to the election, even as articles came out pointing to the transparent rubbish, e.g.  as one writer from the UK Guardian put it:


"In any other year a story like 'Pizzagate'  would get you laughed out of a room. The conspiracy theory that Hillary Clinton was part of a sex-trafficking ring run out of a pizza shop is bizarre and disturbing from start to finish.  But in 2016, a year when nothing makes any sense any more, it can be cited as a motive for a crime".

Never mind, the hijacked brains invested in this bullshit were 100 percent convinced  they were really global citizens conducting a "worldwide citizen investigation" to rout the "evil motherfuckers and elites"  behind it.

The nature of the whole fiasco, when I considered it in retrospect, was that it had much more in common with a mind virus, packaged as a conspiracy ideation,  than a "theory".  Indeed the latter is absolutely the worst term to use.  When one speaks of a theory he at least means something with a residue of rationality, a degree of empirical evidence and consistent explication and sense, even if later proven wrong.

The  mind virus is radically different, but must be understood if we are to parse the latest Pizzagate mutation.    This evidently started with a documentary:  “Out of Shadows,” made by a former Hollywood stuntman,. This offal was released on YouTube in April and passed around the QAnon community.  See e.g. the nature of QAnon in this earlier post:

Let's Get This Straight: QAnon Are Conspiracy Cra...

 Recall  that the three primary attributes of a mind virus (as originally set out by Jacques Monod, in his Chance and Necessity) are: 

1) performance value, 

2) propagation value and 

3) infectious value.

Performance value incorporates the particular vehicle (or medium) that produced the most immediate and pronounced changes in the brain exposed to it.  There is little doubt this was the mockumentary 'Out of the Shadows' which had all the earmarks of a psychotic ideation ripe for dispersal to the uninformed, ignorant and gullible. 

 Propagation value indicates how far and wide  the particular  mind virus is spread, and what means were employed to achieve this.  Again, not hard to discern:  In May, teenagers on TikTok - with too much free time on their hands-  began promoting both the mockumentary and codswallop about Justin Bieber touching his beanie as a signal he was a Pizzagate victim. as reported earlier by The Daily Beast.

Specifically, someone  with little more than air between the ears had posted a comment asking Bieber to touch his hat if he had been a victim of a child-trafficking ring known as PizzaGate. Thousands of comments then flooded in, but there was no evidence that Bieber had seen that message. However, his innocuous gesture set off a flurry of online activity, which highlighted the resurgence of the mind virus.  As with all such viruses, any unrelated gesture, word, or wink is instantly transmuted into something sinister.  Add in some confirmation bias and Voila!  the "conspiracy" is alive and well.

Infectious value embodies the ease with which other brains can be infected. And we now know that most of Bieber's followers - since he did touch that hat-   became convulsed with hysteria as the apparent confirmation appeared. Viewers quickly uploaded hundreds of videos online analyzing Bieber’s action. Of one thing we may be sure: None of those videos had any remote resemblance to the Zapruder or Nix  films of the JFK assassination.  That was hard, cold brutal fact with a head exploding and brains erupting.  As opposed to superimposed brain burps on mental flatulence.

But this is how infectious value takes hold and so the videos were translated into Spanish, Portuguese and other languages, amassing millions of views. Fans then left thousands of comments on Bieber’s social media posts asking him if he was safe. Within days, searches for “Justin and PizzaGate” soared on Google, and the hashtag #savebieber started trending.  All now translating into powerful confirmation of a mind virus at work in millions of infected brains.

 Now, fast forward: A  week ago (as reported in the NY Times), Rachel McNear, 20, watched “Out of Shadows,” which has now garnered 15 million views on YouTube. She then turned to Twitter, where she came across Mr. Bieber’s supposed association with PizzaGate. After reading more on Instagram, YouTube and Facebook, she created a one-minute description of her "research"  on the topic and posted it to TikTok on Monday.

Okay, here's a newsflash: NO serious research of any sort is "posted" to a medium like Twitter or Tik Tok - which I refer to as cartoon media.  If you wish to post serious research you do so in a blog post, or better a paper that has a chance of publication in a magazine or journal.  So what Ms. McNear produced was not "research" but a verbal cartoon begotten from a mind virus she absorbed after being exposed to the original source of infection, 'Out of the Shadows'.   One can only express sympathy for her, as with the other infected, and hope that in future they inoculate their brains with critical thinking.  (Which, alas, is no longer imparted in our educational system  - even a university level.)

More worrisome, PizzaGate is now reaching a level that nearly exceeds its 2016 fever pitch, according to an analysis by The New York Times. TikTok posts with the #PizzaGate hashtag have been viewed more than 82 million times in recent months. Google searches for PizzaGate have skyrocketed.  All this again points to the infectious value as well as propagation value of the original meme.  This is especially given it soon appeared in bogus publications like The Vigilant Citizen and The New Nationalist on Facebook and Instagram. On Twitter and YouTube, other users amplified the content.
  
According to the Times analysis:

"In the first week of June, comments, likes and shares of PizzaGate also spiked to more than 800,000 on Facebook and nearly 600,000 on Instagram, according to data from CrowdTangle, a Facebook-owned tool for analyzing social interactions. That compares with 512,000 interactions on Facebook and 93,000 on Instagram during the first week of December 2016. From the start of 2017 through January this year, the average number of weekly PizzaGate mentions, likes and shares on Facebook and Instagram was under 20,000."

Let's again note this is not a joke, and while the temptation is to howl with  laughter at the kids' gullibility - it can lead to tragedy.  Weeks after the November 2016 election, Edgar M. Welch, 32, a North Carolina resident, drove six hours to Comet Ping Pong to free what he believed were enslaved children. He shot several rounds from a military-style assault rifle into a locked closet door of the pizzeria and eventually surrendered to the police. In 2017, he was sentenced to four years in prison.

According to Alice Marwick, a disinformation expert at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, quoted in The NY Times:

“PizzaGate never went away because it encompasses very potent forces,  including children’s safety and the power of elites.  But now there is so much scaffolding from people who have researched it, it wasn’t hard for others to pick up from there.”

Which, of course, doesn't explain why the sordid bunkum is tied to stalwarts in the Democratic Party and its leaders, Why not the Repukes who are, after all, the corporate party who have given trillions to the wealthiest and now want to rip away health care in the midst of a pandemic?  It doesn't add up.  Logic would dictate that the GOP and Trump be the presumed instruments for such foul deeds, but that isn't the case, it's Hillary, Podesta and other Dems for god's sake.

Pat Banister the Bajan psychiatrist who I've cited in previous posts, in connection with her theory of mind to do with conspiracy ideations, had to deal with similar hysteria back in 1973.    At that time Barbados was rife with rumors of children being taken for Obeah purposes.  (Obeah is a kind of primitive Bajan practice analogous to the Haitian voodoo).  Kids around the island -  166 square miles so rumors spread fast- became convinced the "Baccoo man"  was out hunting for them to use in an Obeah ritual.  The unfounded rumors spread after it was (mistakenly) reported some kids had "vanished".  (They'd actually been sent away to relatives in the states, mainly Brooklyn, a prime Bajan destination.)  This then led to several cases of hysteria that Dr.Banister had to deal with.  The only solution at that time was for the teens to be committed to the Psychiatric Hospital where they'd usually be administered  ECT and given largactyl.

One would hope the teens and others infected by this latest PizzaGate mind virus would not also need similar therapy to secure their mental release from the "demons" of batshit crazy bunkum  now infesting their brains.   As the Guardian author concluded his piece:

"Pizzagate is a lie but what it says about our society is real"

What it says about our society  - much of it - is that it has lost the ability to reason. A nation capable of reason in a critical thinking context would never fall for transparent  twaddle like PizzaGate.

See Also:

2020 Elections | Internet

TikTok Teens and the Trump Campaign: How Social Media Amplifies Political Activism and Threatens Election Integrity

Excerpt:

TikTok teens and K-pop fans took over anti-Black Lives Matter hashtags such as #WhiteLivesMatter and drowned out the anti-Black Lives Matter messages with GIFs and memes. When people on social media platforms look for these hashtags, they’re met with seemingly unending images and fan videos of popular K-pop groups such as Twice and EXO.  This, in turn, leads algorithms on social media platforms to classify such trending hashtags as K-pop trends rather than political trends, thwarting the anti-Black Lives Matter activists who tried to use the hashtags to promote their messages.

The Hard, Unadulterated Truth: Science Does Not Need Religion To Advance Or Improve

 

David DeSteno, a professor of psychology at Northeastern University has argued in a NY Times op-ed that Science "can learn from religion".   The question is: 'What?' For example he writes;

"I am no apologist for religion. As a psychologist, I believe that the scientific method provides the best tools with which to unlock the secrets of human nature. But after decades spent trying to understand how our minds work, I’ve begun to worry that the divide between religious and scientific communities might not only be stoking needless hostility; it might also be slowing the process of scientific discovery itself."

This, of course, is provably untrue given that religious precepts, principles, dogmas and claims offer no way to make valid scientific predictions.   None of them, for example, can help a solar physicist predict the next CME or X-9 class solar flare. As for the "endless hostility"  this has transpired because assorted religions - mainly Christian - insist on trying to condemn or ostracize scientific findings - whether Darwinian evolution, or the Big Bang.    More to the point, the consistent invocation of supernatural entities is an absolute non-starter for genuine science so these claims are not likely to be greeted with any amity by natural science.

DeSteno goes on:

"Religious traditions offer a rich store of ideas about what human beings are like and how they can satisfy their deepest moral and social needs. For thousands of years, people have turned to spiritual leaders and religious communities for guidance about how to conduct themselves, how to coexist with other people, how to live meaningful and fulfilled lives — and how to accomplish this in the face of the many obstacles to doing so."

Again, not really relevant or useful for most natural science.   The assertion - if true - that religions offer "a rich store of ideas about what humans are like" - may be of some use to psychology, but not to physics, astrophysics, organic chemistry or evolutionary biology. Again, none of those areas will benefit from any "guidance" that such religious traditions may offer.   As for guidance on "how to conduct themselves" there is already a vast store of such knowledge which is embedded in evolutionary ethics, most recently elaborated in Michael Shermer's  excellent book: 'The Science of Good and Evil" . As Shermer writes (p. 244):

“In provisional ethics moral choices correspond to scientific facts in being provisionally right or wrong, where moral or immoral means confirmed to an extent that it would be reasonable to offer provisional assent. It remains provisional because, as in science, the evidence might change. “

Shermer also emphasizes that provisional ethics rests firmly on the foundation of Darwinian evolution. Darwin, after all, “founded the study of evolutionary ethics  which belongs to a long tradition of ethical naturalism that dates back twenty five centuries to Aristotle. Because Darwin’s biological explanation of morality was grounded in natural inclinations, it has been called ‘Darwinian natural right’.”

Clearly then, there is no similarity between scientific ethics and supernaturally mandated bunkum, or the need to invoke religious traditions to figure out how humans can improve their behavior.. 

DeSteno carries on, oblivious to how his core arguments have already been rendered moot:

"Just as ancient doesn’t always mean wise, it doesn’t always mean foolish. The only way to determine which is the case is to put an idea — a hypothesis — to an empirical test. In my own work, I have repeatedly done so. I have found that religious ideas about human behavior and how to influence it, though never worthy of blind embrace, are sometimes vindicated by scientific examination."

The problem, however, is that religious ideas - which ultimately depend for their coherence on supernatural memes and agents- cannot offer empirical tests of their claims anyway. In any case, any and all potential hypotheses, say as might apply to human behavior, are already covered and explained under evolutionary ethics. The other problem is that the religious temperament and mind is too often grounded in premoralism.  This was best highlighted by Cheryl Mendelson in her book, 'The Good Life', which provides a key core perspective, (p. 157):

"The premoral mind confuses the disgusting with the wrong and retains an infantile fear of things sexual. Its rationality is overcome by emotion, fantasy, wish and projection.."

The implication here is enormous: it means that  religions are most likely to condemn or outlaw actions they perceive to be "disgusting" and conflate  with "evil" or "immoral".  We already are aware of the RC Church's pathological fear of all things sexual - leading it to condemn dozens of sexual acts such as premarital sex, masturbation and use of artificial contraception.   To fix ideas, one can cite St. Augustine, who wrote ('The Adulterous Relations', II, 12): 

"It is impermissible and shameful to practice intercourse with one's wife while preventing the conception of children. This is what Onan did, the son of Judah, and that is why God killed him".

In fact, this is a gross misinterpetation of the Onan passage but is also what is probably responsible for engendering the masturbation bogey. Since from then, "spilling seed" was equated to "onanism" and onanism to masturbation.  Also, no surprise that from Augustine's passage the Church still regards use of artificial contraception as "mutual masturbation" and a mortal sin - one incidence of which can send the sorry soul to Hell if it dies before confessing.   This was confirmed in the Loyola University Ethics course I took over 1966-67, given by Fr. Alvin Holloway, e.g.

What was Fr. Holloway's science? Well, Church "natural law" which is no real science at all, simply postulating that any act which doesn't conform with the Vatican's conception of "natural" is mortally sinful. Or to cite Pope Pius XI's  encyclical Casti Connubii  the "sin" of artificial contraception entails making primary a sexual aspect that in reality is only "secondary". According to that pontiff:

"Since therefore the conjugal act is destined primarily by nature for the begetting of children, those who in exercising it deliberately frustrate its natural power and purpose sin against nature."

Which, of course, is BS.  Indeed, as biologist Elizabeth A. Daugherty  points out ('The Lessons of Zoology'. in Contraception and Holiness, p. 110):

"Why do we call secondary the ends of the sexual act which have been accorded in fullness to us, and why do we call primary the end which we share with the lower animals?"


Good question! But that seems to be the sort of input that DeSteno advises us to adopt to have less divisive relations with religion. Oh, I almost forgot, it was Julian Pleasants in the same monograph who pointed out that the Church once believed it "natural" that some men be enslaved because they were “unable to manage their own affairs” (ibid.)  So why be surprised when the same Church seeks to ordain all her members abide by a sexuality more fitting of lower primates?  

This leads us to DeSteno's next bit of codswallop:

"Consider the challenge of getting people to act in virtuous ways. Every religion has its tools for doing this. Meditation, for example, is a Buddhist technique created to reduce suffering and enhance ethical behavior. Research from my own and others’ labs confirms that it does just that, even when meditation is taught and performed in a completely secular context, leading research participants to exhibit greater compassion in the face of suffering and to forgo vengeance in the face of insult.

Another religious tool is ritual, often characterized by the rigid following of repetitive actions or by engagement with others in synchronous movement or song. Here, too, an emerging body of research shows that ritualistic actions, even when stripped from a religious context, produce effects on the mind ranging from increased self-control to greater feelings of affiliation and empathy"

Interesting here is how he omits the number one bogey tool for trying to force people to behave in "virtuous rays": Hell! 


And, of course, the invocation of "Hell" necessarily has meant the supplemental invocation of supernatural agents like "Satan" and "demons" to wield the tortures - inflict them on those who have not embraced virtue in whatever guise.

E.g.



                                                                                                                   



So, in other words, De Steno has dodged the main tool - not anything empirical - that's been used and still is to drive respective flocks to obey silly commands or dogmas.

To DeSteno's credit he does admit, citing Steven Pinker for insight, i.e.:

"When I broached this body of research with the cognitive scientist and religious skeptic Steven Pinker, he emphasized that it was by no means a vindication of religion as a whole. He made a point to differentiate between what he called religious practices and cultural practices, with religious ones being those more likely to have doubtful supernatural rationales (like using prayer to contact a deity for favors) and cultural ones having more practical justifications (like using ritual to foster connection and self-control)."

Adding:

"While I can see Professor Pinker’s point — and I agree with him that religion as a whole must be judged by its full set of positive and negative effects — the dividing line between cultural and religious can be blurry. The Jewish practice of Shabbat, for instance, stems from a divine command for a day of rest and includes ritualistic actions and prayers. But it’s also a cultural practice in which people take time out from the daily grind to focus on family, friends and other things that matter more than work."

But why the need to go outside Christendom to the Jewish Shabbat? What? He can't find any compelling cultural practices among the Christian religions? Say as opposed to blocking abortion or Planned Parenthood clinics, calling artificial contraceptives "abortifacents" and filling teens with dread if they go to sleep without making a "full act of contrition" - say if they masturbated once.  So given all of this backstory it's kind of choice to next read:

"My purpose here isn’t to argue that religion is inherently good or bad. As with most social institutions, its value depends on the intentions of those using it. But even in cases where religion has been used to foment intergroup conflict, to justify invidious social hierarchies or to encourage the maintenance of false beliefs, studying how it manages to leverage the mechanisms of the mind to accomplish those nefarious goals can offer insights about ourselves — insights that could be used to understand and then combat such abuses in the future, whether perpetrated by religious or secular powers."

Well, he's correct there! Certainly in respect to how religions "leverage the mechanisms of the mind to accomplish nefarious ends".   But one doesn't need to be involved in any religion or to read religious fare to grasp that leverage. I can recommend Howard Bloom's book, 'The Lucifer Principle', which explores in depth the gestation of memes in all religions, and how these memes can induce all manner of  vile behavior from burning heretics and "witches" to beheading "infidels". 

Then there is the best explication ever of mind viruses as memes, i.e. in Jacques Monod's book, Chance and Necessity'  (Chapter 5, 'The Kingdom and the Darkness',  Collins Books, UK, 1970 )  Basically, Monod ties the spread of inherently primitive, anti-human and perverse ideas to a kind of mind-to -mind infection. He does this also by appeal to actual empirical (biological-chemical processes). Hence the  basis for the "mind virus",  though that specific term is introduced later in Richard Dawkins' book, 'The Selfish Gene' .  See e.g. a summary here:

[PDF]

the selfish gene - Home page

old.unipr.it/arpa/defi/econlaw/SELFISH%20GENE.pdf

DeStenos babbles on:

"Science and religion do not need each other to function, but that doesn’t imply that they can’t benefit from each other."

This may possibly be so, but not until religion jettisons all of its supernaturalism, all the assorted memes, agents and McGuffins.  Else, there is nothing really that genuine science can learn from religion.

DeStenos does end his essay with a faint note of promise by reference to what Millennials are into:

"A yearning for a science-religion synergy is growing in some circles. Ms. Tippett cites as an example the Formation Project, an initiative designed by a group of millennials who are looking to cultivate their inner lives and form a community by combining ideas from psychology and neuroscience with practices from ancient spiritual traditions. In doing this, she points out, these young people are not blindly accepting any doctrine. They are asking questions and choosing what works based on evidence. In short, they are doing exactly what I think the communities of scientists and clergy need to do in a more rigorous way and on a much larger scale."

To which I say, 'Bravo!' if the millennials aren't seduced by supernatural hokum and bunkum, or have their critical thinking undermined in any way.  The point is that irrespective of how they combine these "ideas from neuroscience" with "ancient spiritual traditions" they ensure the former are not subtly corrupted or diluted by the latter. And before they plow ahead, I strongly suggest they read Jacques Monod's monograph.  I would also heartily recommend these young folks get their hands on: Why God Won't Go Away: Brain Science and the Biology of Belief' wherein the authors (Andrew Newberg and Eugene D’Aquili) show clearly why the brain's belief claims can't be trusted.

 Most critical is how the brain’s OAA (orientation and activation region) translates an image into a religious reality which is described in detail.This is in connection with a person given an image of Christ and asked to focus on it. Within minutes, neurological measurements, i.e. from PET and SPECT scans, shows how domination of the image- attuned brain proceeds. This is via electrical discharges spiraling down from the right attention area (right OAA) to the limbic system and hypothalamus “triggering the arousal section of the structure”. The authors’ test results and ancillary investigations are important as they are based on genuine empirical science- not a bogus substitute

DeSteno ends:

"Will it work? That’s an empirical question. But if we choose not to investigate it, we’ll never know. And I suspect we’ll be the poorer for it."

Fair enough. But if we do choose to investigate this supposedly "empirical" question, we agree to do so by rigorously empirical means - not baloney or specious supernatural mumbo- jumbo!  In other words, not "empirical" merely because a pro-religious writer opts to throw that word around.

Harvard Rescinds Admissions To Ten Right Wing Garbage Purveyors - But This Is No 'Free Speech' Issue!

"Doh! Dey found my memes! Now I ain't goin' to Hahvd!"

Let us acknowledge that even if you are a Nazi-worshipping maggot of the Right, and perhaps have half a brain  - you will have your Harvard admission rescinded if the "memes" you post are extreme. Such as the case with ten incoming Harvard freshmen who had their places rescinded by the university for sharing a series of ultra-Right, proto -fascist "memes". (Actually, more consonant with depraved eruptions from the respective lizard brains of the participants.)

The "memes" so-called  - a designation way too grand for their actual vile nature,  were posted in a Facebook group message called “Harvard memes for horny bourgeois teens” and “General Fuckups”. The story was first reported by the Crimson.     Even one of the "least" offensive posted by one person in the original clique is simply too abominable for words.

This was clearly compliments of a pro-Trump knuckle dragger who has problems with immigration, and Mexicans in particular. It is right that Harvard spotted this refuse, as well as other offensive garbage on the site (e.g. a Rabbi shown along with the caption: 'Why don't Jews eat p*ssy? - Because it too close to the gas chamber).  What were these arrogant little turds thinking? Did they truly believe they'd never be found out? Did they truly think that disgusting "joke" is a meme?

Jessica Zhang, who is also about to join Harvard’s Class of 2021, left the group after seeing what was being posted in it. She told The Tab: “Some people replied with ‘lol’, a fire emoji or ‘omg’ and found them either funny or shocking…more and more people began leaving the chat when they saw those memes.”

In fact, in line with what I wrote above, I would not even call them "memes".  They are plain, revolting brain expulsions with no chance at all of being replicated or circulated - at least by sane and sensible people. The first explication of the meme  was in the Chapter, 'The Kingdom and the Darkness' in the book, Chance and Necessity' by Biochemist Jacques Monod (Collins Books, UK, 1970)

Monod listed three attributes:

1) Performance value (what change does the mind virus bring about in a person's behavior?)

2) Propagation value (How far and wide is the mind virus spread and what means are employed to achieve this? I.e. fear of "Hell", fear of physical retribution (stoning, beheading in Islamic enclaves, etc.)

3) Infectious value: (How easily are other brains infected with the mind virus? What specific attributes of the mind virus facilitate this infection?)

I warrant the "memes" circulated by the degenerates who had their Harvard admissions rescinded met none of these. The very fact Zhang notes "more and more people leaving" discloses the impact one of revulsion than replicating them. (Though to be sure we can't prove that, but I do suspect these kids learned that this was filth they didn't wish to get into)

The assorted garbage - not memes - included jokes about the Holocaust (see the one example above), pedophilia, suicide, racism, school shootings, and bestiality, were apparently among those linked to the rescinding.  I have only shown two in this post to provide the context and basis for Harvard's rescinding. Again this is distinct from a free speech issue because unlike the U.S. - Harvard (like most universities) determines its own standards and honor codes. If these students had taken the time they'd have learned that according to Harvard college admissions policies, the university  "reserves the right to withdraw an offer of admission if the admitted student engages or has engaged in behavior that brings into question their honesty, maturity or moral character.”

Read more here: http://www.fresnobee.com/news/nation-world/national/article154418494.html#fmp#storylink=cpy

So, if a student or students don't comply with them then yes, they can have their admissions rescinded. Btw, the little dolts caught by Harvard would also be advised that in the course of job screenings, corporations do exactly the same thing, i.e. examine your Facebook page, timeline, posts. They also will Google you to search for affiliations, positions they may not tolerate and feel free to rescind any employment offer if they don't like what they see. A word to the wise: what you think is cute or clever in a FB post, can be toxic to your career.

Perhaps now, entitled pro-Trump fascists in the making will think twice before glorifying or circulating their garbage - believing they are immune to repercussions.

Crackpot "Pizzagate" Tale Promoted By Michael G. Flynn Almost Led To D.C. Tragedy

"Doh! I  duz know Pizzagate true 'cuz a real general did tweet it!"

I want to begin by knocking out the crappola bilge that off the wall, wild claims qualify as "conspiracy theories". No, they do not. They are pure unadulterated bullshit that no rational mind ought to entertain.. That includes the "Jade Helm" nonsense about the military taking over TX, as well as assorted other claptrap - including that the feds are "buying up all the ammo" to deny 2nd amendment rights, and especially the noxious waste "Pizzagate" - which reared its ugly head again over the weekend.    All of these are what I refer to as debased mind viruses or mental infections. The origin of mind viruses can be traced specifically to the chapter, 'The Kingdom and the Darkness' in the book, Chance and Necessity' by Biochemist Jacques Monod (Collins Books, UK, 1970)

Monod portrayed the spread of inherently primitive, anti-human and perverse ideas, to a kind of mind-to -mind infection. Hence the later coined term, "mind virus".  That is what "Pizzagate" is, not a conspiracy theory and certainly not even a conspiracy hypothesis.

I had no idea, zero, what "Pizzagate" was until watching yesterday evening's lead news story about a brain-jacked lunatic - Edgar Welch- who drove 9 hours from North Carolina to try to "free" child sex slaves at a D.C. restaurant called Comet Ping Pong . Evidently, this insane, insipid mind virus has been circulating on the web since the end of October. It has been traced to a lunatic named Michael G. Flynn, the son of Michael T. Flynn - actually tipped to be Donald Dump's national security advisor - if you can believe it.

As one writer on The UK Guardian put it:

"In any other year a story like 'Pizzagate'  would get you laughed out of a room. The conspiracy theory that Hillary Clinton was part of a sex-trafficking ring run out of a pizza shop is bizarre and disturbing from start to finish.  But in 2016, a year when nothing makes any sense any more, it can be cited as a motive for a crime".

Before viewing the news segment, I got a heads up on the cockamamey BS circulated online by the American Right after reading an op-ed by Richard Thieme in The Milwaukee Journal -Sentinel in which Thieme wrote:

"I was asked to submit a bio to a local group as a possible speaker. My topics were misunderstood, distorted by the framework through which the contact for the group read them, and he sent an email defining the speech he hoped I could produce:

' ... it would be fantastic to have a ‘dream speaker’ that could link the topics of the Power-Elite, Occult ritual, who’s teaching them how to do this, why they are doing it, pedophilia, bohemian grove, Eyes Wide Shut parties, the Clintons, technocratic globalism, child trafficking, mainstream media, mainstream entertainers/Hollywood, Alien/UFO government mythology, Lolita Island, War, Alister Crowley followers, state-sponsored assassinations, CIA, FBI and much much more. ... a speaker who can skillfully link all of these dark connections in an eloquent, matter-of-fact way.'

The email provided a link to a video in which three men discussed all this and more in sensational unsupported terms and added satanic ritual, cannibalism, and child rape to the antics of the power elite, crimes that are unreported by “the media” because publishers are at those parties, participating in rape and human sacrifice, hence unwilling to tell the truth about them.

That group is a mainstream group. That video has more than half a million hits. That absurd narrative collects unthinking people into a homogeneous group, which by repetition reinforces the credibility of their assertions. In a similar vein, I am sometimes asked after speeches if I believe we went to the moon or have rovers on Mars."

I then did a follow-up Google search after watching the news yesterday evening and learned "Pizzagate" is a whackadoodle patch of nonsense  launched by Michael G. Flynn as well his crackpot  old man. . I am not going to dignify this pile of horse shit by repeating it in any detail, only to say it was confected by morons with too much time on their hands  - with the same reptile brain features as conspiracy lunatic Alex Jones, e.g.


It basically was assembled from a host of disparate incidents, events including photos of NYPD officers hauling supposed bags with email evidence out of a residence, speculation about Anthony Weiner and his sexting propensity and the presence of some Hillary emails left on his computer, by wife and HRC aide Huma Abedin. Supposedly all this in tandem with a paranoid schizophrenic's claim about :Hillary's "predilection for underage children".  Add in the phenomenon of stupid repetition and 'Voila!' - millions of idiots gobble this fake news like it's the real thing.

As one skeptic website (inverse.com) already noted, the Comet pizza place where all the horrific acts were supposedly taking place didn't even have a freaking basement!

Never mind, the hijacked brains invested in this bullshit are 100 percent convinced  they are really global citizens conducting a "worldwide citizen investigation" to rout the evil motherfuckers and elites behind it. Puh-leeze, get a life already, Sparky!   The kicker in all this is Michael G. Flynn's assertion in one tweet that:

"Until Pizzagate proven to be false, it'll remain a story."

Uh no, laddie. See you have it ass-backwards. It is logically impossible, indeed futile - to prove a negative. Tell me that 6 inch Martians are building tiny canals on Mars right now and it is my job to "disprove it" - and I will refer you to the nearest psych ward that offers ECT. That's not the way proof and disproof work - at least for those of us in touch with reality. (And as one who likely now faces metastatic prostate cancer - based on results from a new genetic test-  that's as grounded in reality as it gets. I don't have the time to indulge in half -assed bullshit circulated by clueless  screwballs).

No, the way it works is you proffer the claim and then you cite the evidence to support the claim. If you can't outright prove your contention you are at least charged with providing high QA support by way of documents, evidence. Oh, and that doesn't include photo-shopped images or edited videos that are a farce.

Daddy (Michael T.) Flynn isn't much better, tweeting 6 days before the election:

"U decide. NYPD Blows Whistle on New Hillary Emails. Money Laundering. Sex Crimes w. Children etc."

In fact, the FBI blew no such "whistle" instead admitting they had nothing, nada and basically jumped the gun in trying to tie the emails found on Anthony Weiner's computer to any nefarious deeds.  The real question, of what "U ought to decide" - is whether an unstable crackpot lunatic like this belongs anywhere near the seat of executive power. If he can make up bullshit like this what sort of bunkum might he confect - involving the Chinese- say to try to get Donald Dump to launch a missile attack on the Spratly Islands?  You tell me. Personally, I wouldn't trust this deranged imp or his son to even take the nuclear football to an NSA meeting.

When one speaks of a "theory" he at least means something with a residue of rationality, consistent explication and sense, even if later proven wrong. But these noxious tweets spouted by the Flynns and their supporters are straight out of Kook-land. The email cited by Richard Thieme (blue highlighted) above. "Power elite occult rituals"? "Eyes wide shut parties?" "Lolita Island"? These are the stuff of seriously disturbed paranoid fantasies which no one of any intelligence, mental stability or common sense ought to be feeding his neurons. 

A warning ought to be attached: "This balderdash is harmful to your mental health".  As it certainly turned out to be for the sorry Edgar Welch, who now faces an insecure physical future too after firing a round from his AR-15 into the Comet Ping Pong floor after realizing the fake news of "Pizzagate" had mind- fucked him. But too late! He'd driven nine hours to make a point that ended up being empty with him holding the bag....errr....gun....thanks to buying into the Pizzagate crap.

As I noted in my October 28 post ('Separating Paranoid Balderdash from Rational Conspiracy Thinking'), "Pizzagate" and other cockeyed nonsense like Alex Jones' claim that Newtown was a "false flag" are the stuff of an irrational, indiscriminate, paranoid culture not a serious conspiracy research community (such as one finds with most who investigate the JFK assassination-  supported by actual physics).  

In the same post I cited Barbadian psychologist Pat Bannister who envisaged the latter as the province of mature, rational, educated adults. The former, on the other hand,  constituted  the realm of the semi-literate or poorly educated who fancied themselves adults but really weren't.   They were more like overgrown children playing elaborate paranoid games. Irrationalists like the indiscriminate conspiracy monger, Alex Jones and yes, his lunatics. in arms, Michael G. and Michael T. Flynn.

Will the Pizzagate insanity stop now that Welch himself has essentially verified it's horse shit? Not bloody likely, because - as my spiritually inclined sister-in-law Krimhilde has aptly put it - some people will always feed their minds with the basest material.  As she told me when I last spoke with her in May of this year:

"Attraction of so many to porn, debased stories, gossip and lies is the outcome when we accept only the animal level mind and refuse to rise above it. Our politicians and leaders must seek to rise above this degraded low vibration mind and listen more to the higher Voice within, The still, small voice that beseeches each of us to embrace truth, to follow it....not lies"

While I don't necessarily agree with all her spiritual analogies and turns of phrase, I do think she is on to something. That also means that wretched and debased muck like Pizzagate will continue making the rounds on the net until people become  "the sentinels at watch at the front gates of their minds" - to use my late father-in-law's phrasing. (From Science of Mind)  In other words, people have to take ownership for what they themselves put into their minds, recognizing  "garbage in, garbage out".  We can blame the sources themselves up to a point but ultimately we choose what we will accept and reject. If we accept tawdry, unsupported and degraded filth then that is what our minds will reflect. And sadly, that filth will eventually resonate in our very personality and being - limiting and defining all future perceptions, choices.

Richard Thieme's ending words also ring out:

"The inability to discriminate between plausible and crazy plus the impossibility of knowing what’s real in this perpetual fog of information warfare causes anxiety and fear, which people counter with narratives to comfort the afflicted soul. Then it’s called “truth.” When we feel helpless and lacking control over our lives, we project impossible narratives onto fragmented data and comfort ourselves with theories which, if examined closely, would be seen to be foolish"

And to quote from the Uk Guardian author:

"Pizzagate is a lie but what it says about our society is real"

Sadly, the Trump voters have foisted upon us a cabal with only the most degenerate and degraded notions to offer up for consumption. A toxic mental cocktail of perverse ideation that has created an alternative degenerate mind virus "reality".  Since two realities cannot co-exist and lead to a stable union - say for a  nation - it means we are all for the high jump now unless these purveyors of lies are finally shut out of their efforts to seize power. That means we need dozens of state electors - mainly in Trump taken states- to turn the tables on December 19th and choose to be faithless electors.

See also:

http://brane-space.blogspot.com/2016/11/yes-there-is-non-violent-way-to-prevent.html

And:

http://www.salon.com/2016/12/06/michael-flynns-conspiracy-minded-son-who-tweeted-about-the-pizzagate-theory-is-on-donald-trumps-transition-team/

And:

http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/chris-floyd/70159/in-like-flynn-blowback-for-filth-peddling-fascists