What struck me, however, going through the Internet and appropriate literature, when doing my research, how many pseudo scientists there are. Not only in neuroscience but in all fields especially in evolution, medicine, health foods, UFOs, and many other areas. The frightening thing is that many have gone mainstream and are given credibility by Museums, TV programs, Clinics, schools and even Universities. Some of this “research” is even funded by taxpayers’ money (see also “Pseudoscience creep” by Jessie Haynes, at www. Scijourno.com). It is no wonder that real science often gets buried by these pseudoscientific “conclusions”. When a liquid is diluted to the point that only a few molecules are left in a solution, ask yourself is it worth paying money for this miracle medicine. Medicine is especially prone to deception because of the placebo effect. Who is to be believed? Be skeptical, logical and keep an open mind.
The latest research in Neuro Science and Alzheimer’s Disease shows that when brain function deteriorates, so does awareness and that when the brain stops functioning so does awareness. The conclusion, therefor, is obvious. When there is no awareness the existence of Heaven, Hell or God, becomes a moot point. When researching about this subject one finds an enormous amount of so called research by parapsychologist, who are desperately, and so far unsuccessful, trying to prove that the supernatural exists, that Mediums can speak with the dead, and can foretell the future. They compromise the scientific method to keep this very profitable pseudo scientific industry going. There are many more of them, some with very prominent credentials, who keep coming up with conclusions that there is an awareness not related to brain function then genuine researchers. Their motives vary from not be able to accept scientific facts that do not confirm to their beliefs, cognitive dissonance, to wanting to hang on to their jobs and/or making money. It is very difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff. NDE, near death experiences, and terminal lucidity experts, are around everywhere using these instances to proof that there is life after death by making “near” and “after” equivalent. They are not! They also pronounce someone death for a while and then when they come “back” to life, they interview them and use these anecdotal testimonies to “prove” that there is life after death. Were they actually dead? I think not. When my heart was stopped for a quadruple bypass operation, I was not dead, my heart was not dead, but suspended and then revived. Brains who stopped showing electronic signals, and then restarted were suspended. The fact that these patients’ brains restarted showed they were suspended but not dead. So to separate the wheat from the chaff one can use the following criteria. If the “research” uses “resurrected“ patients to “prove” life after death, ignore them, near death is not after death. Find the few who are sincerely looking for reality rather than trying to fit their findings to their preconceived notions.
What struck me, however, going through the Internet and appropriate literature, when doing my research, how many pseudo scientists there are. Not only in neuroscience but in all fields especially in evolution, medicine, health foods, UFOs, and many other areas. The frightening thing is that many have gone mainstream and are given credibility by Museums, TV programs, Clinics, schools and even Universities. Some of this “research” is even funded by taxpayers’ money (see also “Pseudoscience creep” by Jessie Haynes, at www. Scijourno.com). It is no wonder that real science often gets buried by these pseudoscientific “conclusions”. When a liquid is diluted to the point that only a few molecules are left in a solution, ask yourself is it worth paying money for this miracle medicine. Medicine is especially prone to deception because of the placebo effect. Who is to be believed? Be skeptical, logical and keep an open mind.
2 Comments
On one of the many forum discussions about Evolution vs Creationism I received the following post:
"Unfortunately, Benjamin there are a number of evolutionary views and they do not all agree with each other. So who is to say that your view is correct and the opposing evolutionary view is wrong. I was immersed in evolution throughout my years in school and it seemed that every year the new hypothesis was thrust upon us and the old was trashed. Not until I left school and started reading more widely did I realize that not everything that some so called scholar tells me is the truth. You have to seek the truth and sometimes that can be very hard. I wish you all the best for your future, keep an open mind." My response was as folllows: Let me first rephrase your quote “Unfortunately, there are a number of evolutionary views and they do not all agree with each other. So who is to say that your view is correct and the opposing evolutionary view is wrong.” as follows: “Unfortunately there are a number of different religious views and they do not all agree with each other. So who is to say that your view is correct and the opposing religious view is wrong” Furthermore you must mean fortunately! In science the more we discover, the more correct the theory. When there is disagreement one does more research and when a consensus is formed some ideas are discarded and new directions explored. To quote you “You have to seek the truth and sometimes that can be very hard“. This way the theory becomes closer to the truth all the time. the geocentric model of the solar system was replaced by the heliocentric system in such manner. Some fought that idea at the time but evidence piled up so most astronomers changed their mind in spite of the objection by the church. (Some people even still think the earth is flat, “google” the Flat Earth Society, after all, they say, if you stand out in the field you can "observe" it is flat and that's the truth!). Just because an idea doesn't pan out right away, you don't disregard it, you do more research, that's why archeologists don't stop exploring to come closer to the truth all the time. The problem with religion is that it is regarded to be the ultimate "truth" so there is no need to explore any further. As a matter of fact that has happened in the past when Arab mathematics in the 9th and 10th century (we still use Arab symbols for our numbers) stopped developing because the religious leaders called it the work of the devil. Our western advances in science came nearly to a halt in the dark ages because of religious resistance. Now who needs to keep an open mind? Death Main article: Death (wikipedia)
See also: Neural correlates of consciousness and disorders of consciousness Death was once defined as the cessation of heartbeat (cardiac arrest) and of breathing, but the development of CPR and prompt defibrillation have rendered that definition inadequate because breathing and heartbeat can sometimes be restarted. Events which were causally linked to death in the past no longer kill in all circumstances; without a functioning heart or lungs, life can sometimes be sustained with a combination of life support devices, organ transplants and artificial pacemakers. Today, where a definition of the moment of death is required, doctors and coroners usually turn to "brain death" or "biological death" to define a person as being dead; brain death being defined as the complete and irreversible loss of brain function (including involuntary activity necessary to sustain life).[18][19][20][21] According to the current neuroscientific view, consciousness fails to survive brain death and ceases to exist.[22][23] Research from neuroscience considers the NDE to be a hallucination caused by various neurological factors such as cerebral anoxia, hypercarbia, abnormal activity in the temporal lobes or brain damage, whilst some parapsychologists and NDE researchers have pointed to them as evidence for an afterlife and mind-body dualism.[29][30][31][32][33][34] My Most Important Message Neuro Science and Alzheimer’s Disease research strongly suggest that when the brain dies, awareness dies. I am convinced that further research will reinforce that notion. When there is no awareness there is no possibility of an afterlife. The existence of Heaven, Hell, an Intelligent Designer or any God becomes moot. My favorite statement is that if you wonder were your awareness or consciousness is going after you die, it is going to the same place where you were before you were born. This realization that your life, as you experience it now, is the only chance you ever get, to perceive this grand and overwhelming Universe, is a life changer. Just think, if every human, regardless of politics, ideals or life style could be convinced of that, religious strife would disappear, no one could be recruited as a suicide bomber or willing to die in a useless war. Research money would stream to medical research to extend and improve the quality of life and the environment. There would be less incentive spend money on research to invent more powerful ways to kill. More money would be directed to try to colonize space for an ever expanding human kind. In conclusion, every one would value life much more than we do now and appreciate the lives of the people around us, no matter from what country we came or race we originated. This one notion, of this life, you now live, is the one time, only chance, you will ever get, must be spread until everyone is convinced. Let’s get going! What are you waiting for! With the world in turmoil, we in the West do think that changing all countries to a democratic form of government would solve many problems. Let’s examine that premise. Real democratic reform takes a long time. The western countries took hundreds of years before workable versions were established. Going in, overthrowing kingdoms, dictatorships or religious driven societies and then, through elections establish a new way of government was not very successful. It is naïve to think that it solves any problems. Hamas was elected in the Gaza strip, the Egyptians elected the Muslim Brotherhood. Majority rule made the situation worse instead of better. Even in the western nations it took a long time to get it to work in a fashion. First only landowners could vote and women were excluded. Minority rights had to be fought for and true representation of the “common folk” is still a big problem. In the emerging nations democracy often ends up as the “dictatorship” of the majority and minority rights go out of the window. Religion also plays a big role. Often the elected representatives are heavenly influenced by non- elected powerful religious leader who reside not only inside but also out side the nation. Even the Leaders of the most powerful nation on Earth have often consulted with unelected religious leaders.
The powerful people who control the money, often “buy“ the people’s choice and have an undue influence on the policy makers. Paid for, deceitful propaganda, is used to create fear. Fear is the greatest motivator. The right and the left make extensive use of the fear factor to get people to even vote against their own interest. In Canada with a three party system, the government can form a majority government with less than 40% of the vote and ignore the majority of the voters. The emerging nations, overthrowing dictatorships must first learn to respect the minorities in their country. We also must constantly try to fix the flaws in our system as well and through our influence help the emerging nations to establish true democracies were minority rights are protected and the influence of unelected religious leaders, who claim to have received their power from a deity, is minimized. The influence of the Rich can only be curbed by strict election laws. Good luck with that, we have a long way to go! We KNOW that we had no awareness before we were conceived and it slowly developed after the neural network developed in the fetus.
We now KNOW, through the latest neural research, that awareness is a brain function. The electrical/chemical functions in the brain are the processes that cause awareness. We also KNOW that dreams, visions, NDEs and hallucinations are brain functions which can be induced by illness, chemicals produced by the body or introduced into the body by various means such as eating, drinking, injections, breathing and so on. We also KNOW that when the brain dies, awareness dies. We can observe that very vividly, especially if you have a close relative, with Alzheimer’s disease. My mother suffered from this dreadful disease. Slowly, but surely, her awareness died slowly when her brain function deteriorated. There is only one conclusion to be drawn here. We have only one chance of being aware of the universe, make the most of it. This is what we KNOW for sure. Our awareness, after we die goes back to the place it was before we were born. All other speculations (and wishful thinking) are based on fiction and fantasy dreamed up by humans, without ANY proof. I don’t care how you want to twist it. It is immaterial whether there are any Deities or Intelligent Entities around. If they are, we would never experience it since when our brain stops working, so does our awareness. This is not speculation, we OBSERVE it. Many speculations and hypothesis have been developed and discussed endlessly. Many philosophers have debated religion for centuries but none of them have offered any REAL FACTS to back up their explanations. I challenge any one to refute this LOGIC using KNOWN FACTS only. Please do not challenge the findings of neurological research with denial, as is done in the evolution/creation debate. If you want to challenge the research, come up with other authenticated, peer reviewed research to prove your point. Do not use speculation and wishful thinking. See my "rant" on Utube Using facts instead of fantasy. http://t.co/sjEQ382ebd New research in neuroscience indicates that political orientation, such as ”left” and “right” do not come from the way the individual perceives the world we live in but that they are part of a born in tendency of the brain of the individual, which would explain why they are so difficult to change. Avi Tuschman, in his book ”Our Political Nature” outlines the research pointing in that direction. Each person’s values are determined by the biological structure of the brain. If this is true, it does not bode well for the politics of the future. It does explain why so many people vote against their own interest even if the facts indicate clearly that’s the case. It also explains why cognitive dissonance is so prevalent on both sides of the spectrum, whether in politics or religion. The political or religious values range from one extreme to the other, just like the intensity of cognitive dissonance ranges from mild to severe. If we are hard wired in one direction or another then it is understandable that changing one’s mind is difficult.
Avi Tuschman’s conclusion is as follows and I quote: “I have drawn together dozens of cutting-edge insights from neuroscience, primatology, and genetics, and they lead to this revealing conclusion: our political orientations are deeply ingrained natural dispositions, molded within each of us by powerful evolutionary forces” I would like to add that I strongly suspect that the same applies to religious orientations. |
Ben Vande
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