Exorcism...better go see a psychologist.

Just watched a show on the Discovery Channel...it was called "Exorcism, is it real?"

Well, the obvious answer is, NO, but it was interesting all the same.

You had images of poor, gullible, emotionally damaged, and in some cases obviously mentally disturbed people, being scammed by preachers preying on the victims mental state. There were even what was obviously stage hypnotism going on, perpetuating the "demon possession" they believed they had.

The disturbing part was that these troubled people were being treated as if anything that was happening to them was nothing to do with their mental state..."it's the demons", or the old mainstay, "the devil made me do it"...nothing was actually done to address the base problem that these people had. They were being told that whatever pain they were going through, whatever problems they had, it's OK, simply let the preacher lay on hands, let him mumble a bit of pig-latin, let him sprinkle you with some water, and the nasty demons will go away. Well, until next week...oh, and bring money.

Exorcism is based in an ancient world view from the middle ages, when people knew nothing about mental illness, knew nothing about mental disorders, and basically had no idea about how the mind worked. Must be demons. This was perfectly understandable in those times. But now we understand things a lot better...there should be no need for hokey ideas like demons possessing people.

One of the ideas that seemed to come through is that believers seem to want to blame demons, blame satan, blame anything.
The main thing they don't want to face is that humans are capable of true evil...inside every person is a little mental governor, like a rev limiter on a car engine. The comedian Tim Allen puts it best when he says we all have a little lunatic inside us...most of us easily ignore the lunatic, letting him come out sometimes when we do something foolish, but most of us keep the lunatic in control. However, some people, truly evil people, have no idea how to control the lunatic, and let him have free reign.
Most people don't want to face the fact that people like Jeffrey Dahmer, Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Ted Bundy, and other evil people great and small, are all just ordinary guys, who have let thier inner lunatic run wild...people don't want to really admit that one step away from thier ordinary everyday life, inside thier very head, lives a true demon who, given it's head, would be capable of evil of a biblical scale.

It was said a while after September 11th that the "Middle East" (pretty broad term...) is very lucky that they didn't do something to truly offend strongly the whole of the Western world, something which had produced a very tiny number of protesters in the west...something like, say, parking a nuke in the middle of London or New York or Rome and destroying those cities utterly...they said that if the right "push" of an extreme enough scale were given, the right "let's just take all those idiots out once and for all, lets do it and the hell with the laws of war", that civilised western man, with all of his technology behind him, could if he wanted to unleash hell on a scale unseen before...religious suicide bombers would have nothing on an angry West, backed by modern science of all sorts, using the full resources of biological, mechanical, and tactical knowhow, all turned to one purpose, the extermination for once and for all of any who stood in thier path. It is a frightening thought what we could be truly capable of if we forgot about our restraint, if we let the lunatic inside do what he wanted to.

Commentators who spoke this disturbing idea might have been on to something...westerners might like to think we are rational, reasoning beings, far above the evils and excesses of those we call our enemies, but just below the surface, waiting for the right trigger, lurks that primitive man sitting around the campfire in a cave hoping the gods bless the hunt tomorrow.

It is up to us to realise that we have progressed beyond this, think rationally, and not look to gods, demons, and the devil when things go wrong.

Where is the evidence? Skeptics need to know.

I'm sick of all the crap on TV, and the media in general, pushing the idea that homeopaths, psychics, and other assorted new age whackos are actually a firm science with a basis in any sort of reality.
We had the TV show, "The One", which tried to find "Australias best psychic", if there is such a thing. The tests they showed were taken on using the tried and true methods of cold reading, deductive reasoning (finding a kid in the bush), and other simple, mundane methods.
Now I get pay TV hooked up, and start watching supposedly science based channels like Discovery and National Geographic, and what do I see? More psychic claptrap being treated unquestioningly...from specials on Nostradamus, to crap circles (yes, I spelt that right...), to what I hoped was a serious show on ancient Chinese ships which may have travelled around the world. Near the end of the show, they showed an "expert who has found what he believes is evidence of Chinese ships on the western US coastline". Expecting a scientist or at least an archeologist, but instead they showed some knob wandering around dowsing with a couple of wire rods for the ship wreck buried deep under the sand...he was touted as having found gold mines, oil, and other things, and when he bored down with a small drill, he found shreds of wood...and excitedly said it was from the "keel", and other areas...the thing is, they were little shreds of rotted wood...they looked very like, I don't know, bits of driftwood...just like you'd find on any beach anywhere in the world...

Homeopaths peddle water...sorry, very pure water...as medicine. They have even tried to peddle vaccines for serious illnesses! Homeopathy is based on a middle ages view that water somehow has a "memory"...it retains a sign of whatever has been mixed in with it. Seeing as how the supply of water on this planet is a constant, and always has been here in one form or another, I wonder if they realise that the molecules in a glass of water have come in contact with everything from the intestines of a Brontosaurus to every chemical you can think of?
It can be worked out that at the dilutions that homeopaths use, all you would have to do it drop one aspirin in the Pacific Ocean, and you would have a higher concentration of the medicine than in most homeopaths dilutions.

The thing is, if these dowsers, card readers, and associated psychics, ghost whisperers, and hangers-on, really and truly have powers of some sort, and can prove it, then go see James Randi...his organisation has a massive prize for anyone who can turn up and prove it in a controlled test, under conditions mutually agreed to by both parties. I believe the prize is up to a million bucks at present. The Australian Skeptics also have a prize, I think of $100,000, for anyone here who can prove it.

Now, any time anyone has done carefully controlled tests on these people, nothing happens beyond what would be expected to occur from chance. Dick Smith has organised water divining tests, and it has showed nothing, several times. Water divining is more about reading the land...go to a dry-looking property, and read the landscape...if there is a long depression running across the landscape (better if it has a line of trees along it), then try drilling around there for water. No need to wander around muttering with your two bent sticks, no need to take money off desperate farmers.

Psychics claim they have helped police departments look for lost people...Daniel Morcombe here in my home state of Queensland is a perfect example...the poor lost boy, taken several years ago from a bus stop, has been the target of a concerted police and public campaign. However, his family has also been set upon over the years by psychics, wasting police time and annoying the family. Police in missing person cases will follow any lead, no matter how small, and these self-styled experts waste police time by sending them down the wrong path time and time again. No police force in the world has used psychics, and none have ever proved successful when they have put forward thier ideas.
No, sorry...I will withdraw that...there was a case of one psychic who went to a police department in the USA, with details about a missing person...they had details of where the body was, what would be found nearby, and what had happened. The predictions proved 100% accurate...and then the psychic was arrested and charged with murder...nothing like making a correct prediction when you are the one who did it in the first place...

Psychics, tarot card readers, and other assorted gurus, if used for entertainment purposes, are a bit of fun..however, when they start preying on the gullible, the sick, and the desperate families of the missing, they stop being entertainment, and start being something much, much worse.

I will put a couple of links here to the Australian Skeptics and James Randi's website (hope they don't mind).

Do yourself a favor...visit these sites, spend a couple of hours there, and broaden your mind.

http://skeptics.com.au/
http://www.randi.org/

Admit you like the movies that critics hate or which aren't "cool"...!

Waterworld, The Postman, Tron, ET, Planet of the Apes (with Mark Walberg), Thunderbirds (the new version), Supernova, Sunshine, Barb Wire, and a dozen others.

Go on people...admit it...what are the movies you really honestly enjoy, but that the critics and media hate?

I love Waterworld...it's a great movie, Dennis Hopper hams it up amazingly well, a true over-the-top strong man leading a bunch of suitably whacko bad guys.
I love The Postman...another underrated film, panned widely by critics, yet it tells an original storyline.

I usually base my movie watching decisions on critics reports...if they hate it, I make it a point of going to see it as soon as possible.

Not many people seem to remember, but there were actually some critics reports back when ET came out, which panned it for being childish, overly sentimental, unrealistic (it was a sci-fi film you wankers...), and with a poor story line.
After it started making millions at the box office, critics started to reappraise it, and I bet you couldn't find one now who would admit being amongst those few who hated it.

Who else will come out and admit that they actually like the movies that most people hate?

Gun Laws show their worth.

OK, I always knew that the gun laws brought in back in the 1990's were a farce...they punished and banned law abiding shooters and hunters from owning many different types of firearm, while allowing criminals, drug producers, and other scum to do whatever they want. This is what comes from not realising that "breaking the law" is the top of the job description of a crook.
Now in the central Queensland coastal city of Rockhampton, the local army cadets were simply trying to update thier replica, and I stress REPLICA, firearms which are used for training and ceremonial purposes. They wanted to move from the old .303 rifle, which dates back to WW1, and get the modern Steyr light machine gun, which the army uses now. This was so they can use the same techniques and methods as the army, with REAL guns, uses.
The problem is that the local police have said the army cadets are not allowed to buy these replicas. They are, believe it or now, classed the same under the law as THE REAL THING!
That's right...plastic replica firearms are classed the same as full-auto firing machine guns which the army uses.

This shows the basic wrongness of the gun laws...the gun laws...hell, ANY laws...should be aimed at the people who break them, while creating a minimum of disturbance to the normal man-in-the-street. Sporting shooters have always said, make it a more serious offence before the law if you use a firearm in the commission of a crime. Say that the statutes say that you should face around 2 years in jail for a robbery...if you use a firearm to threaten the person, then automatically make it 6 years.

Of course, this is assuming that the usual soft crap doesn't happen in the court...we have all seen stupid cases where someone commits a horrible crime, is "sentenced to 10 years jail", yet further down the news column they reveal "eligble for payrole in 3 years...less with good behavior."
How the hell does that work? If you are sentenced to 10 years, you should get 10 years MINIMUM.
Any time anyone brings up the idea of minimum, not "maximum" sentencing, as it takes away the idea of "leniancy and taking other things into consideration by the judge"...hey buddy, stiff shit...if you don't want to do the time, try not breaking the law asshole!!!

So on the one hand, we have law abiding young people who have volunteered to do thier bit for thier country and stay off the streets are getting shafted by stupid restrictions on a simple replica firearm to further thier training with, and on the other, we have criminals who are allowed to virtually do whatever they like, while knowing they will face a minimal sentence if they do get caught.

Great message to young people and a prime example of how our legal system works...

Richard Dawkins is my Hero.

OK, it's time it was said, nowadays the public idolise people who run around playing games and sports, calling them heroes and stars and worthy of adulation.
You are playing a damn game...go have fun, show us how good you are, but don't expect us to treat you like kings and queens for taking recreation to a higher level.

You wanna know who I idolise and look up to? People who make me think. People who make us all think. People who find cures for diseases, people who open new doors of science and who show us the wonder and beauty of the world and the universe on any scale from the flagellar motor of a bacteria to the large scale layout of a galaxy or a supernova.
These are the people who need our adulation, need our funding, and need our respect. I still long to see a serious T-shirt saying something about a scientific discovery.

Lately, as I have been sitting in my locomotive cabin waiting for the train to load, I have been reading a lot. The book have read twice lately is "The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins.

Here is a man who is making us think, making us consider that there just might be something a little odd about blindly believing in an imaginary friend in the sky who at any moment might chuck a hissy fit and strike down a city of men, women, and children dead in a moment.
As Professor Dawkins says in his fine book, the people who believe in the literal truth of the bible have most likely never read the whole damn thing.
I have read the Bible twice...the second time I read it because I couldn't believe half of what I had read the first time through. The joke labels are you can print out to paste on bibles at the library are absolutely true: the labels say "Parental warning: contains violence, sex, nudity, incest, genocide, murder, rape, slavery, and occult themes".
If we are to take the literal truth of the Bible, the God of the Old Testament is a ruthless, egomaniacal, psychopathic, capricious lunatic who only requires your total and complete adulation, or he will do something nasty to you, your family, your dog, and your entire civilisation if he is really pissed off.

I should point out that I was a good boy and went to Sunday school, went to church each week (although when I was small, I do recall it was to play quietly with the Matchbox SuperKing Ford wagon that our neighbor used to bring in the pocket of his suit...that little shelf behind the pew really came in handy.) I was even a member of the Presbeterian Order Of Knights,
My "conversion" came at a time I can recall even to this day. I had always been a science nut, absorbing every book and article I could find. My highest marks were in science and physics at school, and I loved astronomy as well. My parents, to thier eternal credit, never pushed any kind of religious extremism on me or tried to dissuade me from my enthusiam for science and evolution. I seem to have grown up with a pretty firm moral base even though I was never a bible-thumping christian soldier.

In 1982, I was 17 years old and a member of a Presbeterian youth group...at one of these meetings, my outlook on religion was to change. Truth be told, me and most of the other guys there were in it for the pretty girls, friendship, outings, and to show off our hot cars.
There used to be a prayer each week, and sometimes bible lessons which were mostly harmless. One evening, as we were sitting around talking about some bible story, one of the girls mentioned that they had visited a national park where they were shown aboriginal paintings. They were told that they were around 25,000 years old. I merely nodded, but then came the words which changed my outlook. This pretty, clear headed, and otherwise intelligent girl then said "But of course we just giggle and knew that couldn't be right". I was puzzled, and asked why. She looked me right in the eye and said "Well, we all know the Earth is only 6000 years old, so those painting can't be that old."
In that instant, my brain gave a little jolt...I was honestly stunned and lost for words...I stammered out a reply, saying "Umm...yes it is...they carbon date stuff found there and work out the age." I still didn;t really grasp what she was saying...her sister chimed in to agree, and several others around the circle all nodded blindly in agreement.
Then one of the others said, "Carbon dating doesn't work...do you know they killed a seal once near a science place in Canada and carbon dated it to see how old it was, and it said it was over 300 years old?".
Now, at that time, I didn't know enough about the little details of carbon dating to know that an error of 300 years is nothing...when you are dating stuff hundreds of thousands of years old, 300 years is nothing. Then again, I might have been aware, but I was too stunned to use it as a comeback.

That was the turning point...I knew then that here was a group of people who I was firm friends with, who were educated, intelligent people, a couple who had been my girlfriends, yet I knew nothing about them.
They were based in a world view that meant that they believed the world was younger than some of the Bristlecone Pine trees, younger than the domestication of the dog, and only a little older than the pyramids.

Now I know to look at the truth and beauty of the world around me, to look into the stars through my telescope and know that some of those stars I look at have light which left while mankind was living in caves, and that all the animals and plants we see are related all the way back to a common ancestor, down a long chain of evolution and a series of trial and error, with the fittest surviving.

Use your brains, people, and read a damn book...start with The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins...