Cleanliness not so close to godliness?
December 10, 2008
A recent study from the UK finds that “being too particular about cleanliness can make you a lenient judge”:
“Dr. Simone Schnall, a psychologist at University of Plymouth, stated that people who tend to wash their hands before making judgments are more likely to pass relaxed verdicts.”
(HT: SharperIron)
Are you dreaming?
December 1, 2008
Apparently there are ways to tell if you’re awake or dreaming. Differences between the two states are listed at LucidWiki (HT: Victor Reppert).
Psychoanalyze your blog
November 25, 2008
… with the Typealizer. Just write your blog’s URL and voilà (HT: Razib Khan).
Go ahead … cry
November 11, 2008
Jan Lynn tells about a recent study that finds crying can be a good (ie, therapeutic) thing.
“If your mom ever told you to ‘Go ahead… cry it out,’ she may have actually been prescribing the best response for your emotional health.”
She also shares this statistic:
“A woman cries an average of 47 times each year, a man just seven.”
Who knew?
Does pornography stifle brain activity?
October 30, 2008
It would seem so. Justin Hart posts this article at Credo discussing a test carried out on two Christian men — one a pornography addict, one not:
“In the MRI machine we had each of them perform various tasks … The control patient (the non-addict) showed activity in the cerebral cortex and other parts of the brain that deal with cognition. For the addict, it was blank, dead, black and disturbing. …”
Review: A New Inner Relish: Christian Motivation in the Thought of Jonathan Edwards, by Dave Ortlund
October 28, 2008
Reviewed by John Hendryx at Reformation Theology:
“I was not planning to read this one at all but casually picked it up off our store bookshelf the other day to skim through. Having been immediately captivated by it, I read further and found that I could not put it down. … Ortlund does a great job of explaining why motivation is a critical component of our faith, influencing every aspect of our sanctification and lay at the heart of Edward’s theology.”
Artificial intelligence approaching human-likeness
October 21, 2008
As reported recently at Slashdot.
Read this summary at theology & culture:
“One fascinating study with the aggressive advancement of computers is the concept of ‘artificial intelligence.’ This is the idea that a computer can reach a ’sentient’ state, whereby it can ‘think’ and ‘reason,’ much like a human being.’
Brain scientist: virtue must be practiced, learned
October 21, 2008
A fascinating essay at First Things: On the Square by R. R. Reno on recent neurological research that supports what Christians have been saying all along:
“Our solutions to ethical problems, Cohen’s work shows, are influenced by the intercommunication between different parts of the brain. Subjects with a high degree of neural activity linking the brain stem to the frontal lobe tend to allow emotional responses to override rational assessments of moral dilemmas. Subjects make more rational decisions, he reports, when the neurological activity from the primitive part of the brain is blocked from interfering with the frontal lobe. Cohen then concludes that these patterns of open and blocked communication are not fixed by nature. They solidify over time. Our brain patterns are vulcanized, as he puts it, and this occurs by the constant repetition of these patterns. The river cuts its channel.”
Read “Brain Science and the Soul“.
