I was ironically enough interviewed on Whyte Avenue today for the Edmonton Sun, who was looking for people to comment on a recent poll saying 23% of Canadians do not believe in a god. I should be appearing in the Streeters section of the Edmonton Sun tomorrow (with my girlfriend and partner-in-atheism Sonia).
Update: Here’s the link.
Do yourself a favour and see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Then forgive them for the somewhat of a stretch for the ending, and just enjoy the ride.
I would have to say it is one hell of a fun movie.
This looks like the start to a kickass summer of blockbusters. Here’s a look into what I still want to see by the end of the summer.
First, what I want to be good (and likely should be):
And what I want to be good, but has potential to suck (I’ll hold out seeing these until the initial reviews give some glimpse):
Here I want to describe a sub-culture of Christianity that can be seen in evangelical churches, as well as throughout organizations like Campus (Crusade) for Christ. They are what I’d like to describe as “feel-good Christians.”
The basic idea behind this religion is that they really disagree with how the Christian religions have destroyed and abused the messages of Jesus Christ in the bible. Their view is that the message of Jesus was about love (and lots of it, but not sexual, so don’t go getting ideas), and community. Their writings and messages emphasize Jesus saving people, being reborn, and so forth.
Many often do not even want to be associated with mainstream religion, using words like “community” instead of church and meeting in coffee shops, classrooms, and night clubs, instead of churches.
I picked up the book “The Integration of Science and Spirituality: Subtly Matter, ‘Dark Matter’, and the Science of Correspondence” by Deno Kazanis, Ph.D. from the Edmonton Public Library today. The book is self-published, so it is unlikely to ever cause a stir. Nevertheless, of the handful of pages I was able to quickly skim there are some blaring inconsistencies that should be addressed.
First, the author Kazanis is a M.S. in Physics from the University of Cincinnati, and a Ph.D. in Biophysics from The Pennsylvania State University. He also has a lot of experience with Taoism, Buddhism and other Eastern philosophies. One would think this would be the ideal candidate to tie the realms of “science” and “mysticism” together. However, it seems Kazanis failed to learn about how science really works.
The main theme of the book is that dark matter, as posited by quantum cosmologists (as what makes up “95% of the universe” – in fact in only comprises 23% of the universe, with the even more mysterious dark energy comprising 73%), which permeates luminous (or ordinary) matter without being detected, is the source of all spiritual and mystical phenomena.
I recently attempted to read through Soul Cravings by Erwin Raphael McManus. This was one of two books being given out freely by Campus (Crusade) for Christ at the Week of Welcome Clubs Fair on campus last semester (the other was Lee Strobel’s “Case for a Creator”). Below are my (while reading) thoughts and comments on the half that I managed to read.
I can barely get through the introduction to the section “cravings” (there are no page numbers, just “entries” so I’ll reference as such) before running into blazen inaccuracies:
It’s not coincidental that psychology is the study of the soul…
Psychology studies the mental state of people, the interactions between thoughts, emotions, and actions, or from Wikipedia:
Psychology (from Greek: ????, psych?, “soul”, “self” or “mind”; and ?????, logos, “speech” lit. “to talk about the psyche”) is an academic and applied discipline involving the scientific study of mental processes and behavior.
Then,
Is it possible that much of what we call psychosis and neurosis is really about us being soul sick?
No… Science has shown a strong link between chemical imbalances and these issues. There is no science behind the “soul.”
I was recently asked to provide a brief interview about the University of Alberta for its centennial. Here are my answers:
>> Name
Ian Bushfield
>> Age
22
>> Hometown
Balzac, Alberta
>> Year in School
Entering 5th
>> Major/Course of Study
Engineering Physics
>> What were your reasons for choosing the University of Alberta?
It was still close to Calgary, however let me move out, and the UofA seemed a better school for engineering than the UofC.
>> Did you consider other schools as well?
Not really, I looked briefly at the UofC, but didn’t end up applying there. I only applied to the UofA and got in with no trouble.
>> What has your overall experience been like?
Very good, I lived in Lister Hall for 2 years (2 Henday), and have been active in various aspects of student life.
>> Is it the college experience you expected?
I didn’t know too much what to experience coming in, but I have enjoyed my time thus far.
>> What is something you were surprised to learn about the school once you were enrolled?
There’s a lot of free food and pizza if you know where to look.
>> What makes it such a great place to study?
The campus is very beautiful in the summer and fall, and the buildings have a good variety of old and new architechture.
>> What would you like to say about the school I did not ask?
I feel the university has a proud history, with generations of proud UofA alumni. Sometimes the school of late feels like it’s a bit too focussed on its reputation and prestige than on the students attending it. The students make the university and we have an incredible population of
students at this school. I’m always proud to be a representative of the UofA.
I felt like posting this here for the last question. My school, and likely many others, have been active in moving from a student-based institution to a factory for giving out degrees.
When events like Engineering Week, which hold legends of unimaginable expressions of free spirits, have been reduced in size and even renamed, for fear of offending our Faculty, our school loses some of its touch. This past year we saw the university administration attempt to pass through drastic changes to the residence hall association (but failed), and to remove credit card payments from the list of options, both without consultation, and in past we have witnessed the closing of graduate residences, and many other sweeping moves. There’s little doubt why the end of the school year saw the formation of the “Dare to Deceive” protest group.
With all that however, I do still like this school, and I value the degree I’m working towards. However, I feel it could have come without the same level of admistrative bull shit.
For those who don’t know, there’s an intelligent-design creationist in Toronto by the name of Denyse O’Leary, who wrote the book “The Spiritual Brain” which tries to develop a “non-materialist view of neuroscience.” As with most creationist books this is one of those regions where if it was science she would have published papers in journals, and not books.
The goal from her new blog “Colliding Universes” is stated as:
I hope to write a book with a physicist about the “God vs. the multiverse” conflict: Is our universe fine-tuned or are there zillions of flopped universes out there, so that it only looks that way. For now, I will just make notes about things that may (or may not) find their way into the book. [emphasis added]
The Centre for Inquiry has recently opened a chapter in Calgary, Alberta, which aims to bring many of the Centre’s services to our province. The first CFI in Canada was opened in Ontario just over a year ago and it has had great success since.
One of the key services already started at CFI Calgary is called Secular Organizations for Sobriety, which is a secular alternative to Alcoholics Anonymous. Why is a secular alternative needed, try the twelve steps:
Over at The Kory Story there’s a set of posts posing questions from Chuck Klosterman (personally not familiar with him, but the questions are interesting enough), and so here are my answers:
Greta Christina has a(nother) great post on her Blog. This one examines the “harm reduction” model of public health which essentially accepts human flaws, and works to do as much as possible to fix the situation, but accepts limitations. For example: STD/contraception instruction to teenagers, anti-needle sharing programs for addicts, etc. She extends this idea to her life in general, suggesting that we should generally try to make things better, but admits that we can’t always make things perfect. And she concludes:
It lets you be both an optimist and a realist.
It’s a great article, go read it.