Willie71

I have worked in Forensic Psychiatry for most of my career, and agree with you 100%. I don't see people as good or evil, but think we are born where we are due to the social and genetic lottery. People make sense just the way they are. I have worked with 10 teenage murderers, and countless sex offenders. Looking at their life history, they make perfect sense. Every generation talks about "the kids these days" and in general, little was changing, until now. I've been following the research on this, as we have observed trends in forensics that suggested youth were changing. In the past 5 years, there has been a wealth of research on the increased entitlement and decreased empathy in this generation. The changes aren't subtle either, such as a 40% decrease in empathy compared to a couple generations ago. It's not specific to forensics either.

Nonsense.

Charity can be measured many ways. I don't donate much money wise, but I frequently donate my time me to help others. I do pro bono mental health assessments, I repair bicycles and motorcycles, I donate clothes and shoes, I donate custom knives etc. the amounts would be in the thousands of dollars yearly.

More cherry picking and assuming that only the high end predictions are worth mentioning. Doesn't this get old ever?

Much more simply, psychologically well for work typically means a lack of psychosis, lack of severe depression or anxiety that would prevent one from completing their duties. What you are describing about being well/unwell is not consistent with any distinction I have seen in my 21 years in the profession. Either the assessor did a terrible job (quite possible) in explaining things to you, or you misheard what was said. Did they diagnose you with Asperger's disorder by any chance?

Scientific success decreases the need for faith. If people are worried that disease is regulated by the magic man, that need a hotline to him through the church. Or, it could just be ignorance.....

An unconscious individual, such as someone in a coma is a strawman argument. However, people sleepwalking, or under the influence of drugs or alcohol make behavioural and judgement decisions without conscious awareness. The evidence shows that our brains process the information before we are consciously aware of the information. What does that tell you? It tells me that awareness happens after the brain has processed the information, meaning the conscious reasoning is not the driver of the decision, but likely an artifact of how the brain processes.

What would change my mind? Quite simple, even one methodologically sound peer reviewed article that contradicts well known principles. I haven't seen a single credible source disputing the well known mechanisms of climate change.

What sources are you referencing? I am not aware of neurological studies that support the idea of free will. If this is your opinion, that is fine, but it's not supported by the evidence.

Consciousness has nothing to do with free will. Our physiological responses to stressful and calming stimuli are not within our conscious control, and our consciousness is simply a bi product of the neural processes that are ongoing. It seems like this can't be true, but when looking at the available data, its hard to reason for free will/won't. Consciousness may be related to language acquisition. http://onthehuman.org/2011/01/human-language-human-consciousness/

+10 on this. Especially theory. I feel like a broken record clarifying what theory is to my religious family.

Isn't the definition of a miracle something that does not have an explanation? I always found referring to the 'miracle of childbirth" puzzling.

There are several ways to get information to stick in your brain, and these are dependent on the largely misunderstood and poorly researched learning styles. To increase recall, skim the outline and summary of the material first, then read it in its entirety. Next look at the summary again. Now, read the material carefully, and relate it to what you already know. Take notes, or jot down correlations, or for some people, make mental notes. This is much more important for adult learners than children based on changes in the brain as we age. I did a two month lit review on adult learning for my job last spring. This is the key for adult learning (for most adults, but not all) so try it and see if it works for you. Adult learning works best when relevance of the information is established. Relate what you are reading to examples in your work, or life.

This is a perfect example of lack of knowledge. It should be easy to point out the glaring mistakes. When someone claims there are no errors in the bible, I can recite 20 of them off the top of my head. When someone claims ADHD meds cause addiction, or sedate people, I can list multiple lines of evidence against that. When someone says exercise us as effective as antidepressants, I can exp,ain the flaws in those studies in detail. When someone makes bizarre claims about heat treating the steel in a knife, I can explain at the phase transformation level why it is bunk. It has nothing to do with respecting the other person, it has to do with having the knowledge.

The three main possibilities are: 1. There is no god. 2. God is perfectly willing to let you suffer. This is rationalized as testing people for the afterlife, or the result of free will, which god created, so it comes back to him anyway. 3. God is jealous and punitive, which he says he is in the bible. I personally go with 1.

I don't agree with this. Ferguson settled down once a more reasonable police presence was provided. The Ferguson police tactics were especially inappropriate, and violated a number of constitutional and human rights. https://timedotcom.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/ferguson-report-executive-summary-final.pdf This is definitely worth a read. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/14/police-militarization-ferguson_n_5678407.html?1408034805

The situation in Ferguson is a perfect example of what happens to a community that is disenfranchised and becomes hopeless. The police are militarized, and there are well known inequities in the treatment of blacks and whites. Poverty, substance abuse, and crime are all social norms. People outside of the area dehumanize the residents, and see them as deserving of what they get. This view has been fed by the right wing propaganda for a few terms before Obama was elected. The belief that these people get what they deserve is so entrenched that they believe the investigation into the police corruption and abuse of power is simply a way for activists to make money, not because there are real problems. The way the police handled the protests is the best way to incite a riot. Its like they did it on purpose. I have a hard time thinking they could have "accidentally" been so incompetent to get the recipe right for violence. Could you imagine living in a place where your rights are violated, you are held illegally, assaulted by police, and reporting it either did nothing, or resulted in more abuse? With no options, what do you do? Ferguson is EXACTLY what one would expect it to be, based on the conditions at play. There is nothing wrong with the citizens, they are completely normal, and show normal reactions to social injustice.

I work in mental health, but cannot diagnose online. Some things to explore with someone you trust, and who is qualified is to address burnout, or if you might be experiencing the start of depression (not diagnosing here, just asking about possibilities.) it might be as simple as boredom and disillusionment.

I hope this is a typo. CO2 doesn't warm anything. CO2 affects what happens to the energy from the sun. If this isn't a typo, then.......

I will freely admit that my religious knowledge decreases significantly when moving away from the Abrahamic religions. But to say my level of understanding is "Dawkins" level is silly. There is ample evidence from a sociological, psychological, anthropological, and neuroscientific level to address the processes of religion. Religion is not beyond scientific study. That view has been maintained from the perspective that faith does not require proof, and on the surface seems logical. On the other hand, providing evidence for a positive assertion can be measured, while "proving" a negative is much more difficult. My comments are not on one form of dogmatic religion, but on the process of religion. The assertion that philosophy endorses religious view is lacking in evidence. There are a number of philosophical viewpoints that do not in any way support religion. Instead of taking weeks to explain why science, or atheism is "wrong" how about an overview, like the one I provided a few posts above? A sampler if you will.

I always understood this to be related to the limitations of language, which are based on "common sense" interpretations of the world, which in simple terms are a very crude, innacurate reflection of reality. Our senses cannot detect most of what the universe is doing or not doing, so using language that is incapable of describing the universe accurately is inappropriate. Visualizing (ie. thought experiments) and mathematics are how the universe can be "understood." Language is simply not capable of describing the universe.

Here is a reasonable summary of the effects of several associated factors, including gun ownership, mental illness, violent video games, and media in general to violence. It mirrors the research I have looked at. If anyone wants references to some of the better studies, I will post them Its time consuming for me, but I will if its wanted. http://washington.cbslocal.com/2013/09/24/studies-suggest-complex-link-between-guns-violent-video-games/

This is an interesting take on the issue. One would need to prorate the decrease in crime in general over the time period and try to attribute a specific causal relationship to numerous variables and control for them . The studies that do this show that well adjusted kids are much better able to distinguish between fantasy and reality, but at risk kids don't fare as well. The desensitization to violence is well established, but the link to desensitization and committing violence is less well defined. Its an interesting topic, and one that has been discussed many times at my previous job, where I worked doing assessments and treatment with young offenders and their families.

do you have any specifics regarding what I am so misinformed on?

Sam Harris, The Moral Landscap, also The end of Faith and Free Will. Not purely philospohical, but there is enough discussion of philosophy that they fit.