tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30312228.post6930792078158865542..comments2023-11-03T06:26:00.486-07:00Comments on Ms. Kitty's Saloon and Road Show: Unpacking Source #5, HumanismUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30312228.post-69414665650661369202008-02-14T12:51:00.000-08:002008-02-14T12:51:00.000-08:00Well, one answer to Steve's question, is that lie-...Well, one answer to Steve's question, is that lie-detector tests will be much improved. At one point I had to chance to go after some of that research support, and didn't (my expertise partly overlaps what is necessary). But one of my former doctoral students has used his expertise in the study of brain electrical activity in that area. He has also published a book on evolutionary neuropsychology. Steve is on the money, the relationships are that close, and that worrisome.LinguistFriendhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02695715246663202212noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30312228.post-69243451607819191162008-02-14T07:50:00.000-08:002008-02-14T07:50:00.000-08:00Good thoughts, both of you. Thanks.Good thoughts, both of you. Thanks.Lilylouhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02328027965155428624noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30312228.post-72646233586317488962008-02-13T17:04:00.000-08:002008-02-13T17:04:00.000-08:00Rev. Ms. Kitty wrote:-snip-"These days, most human...Rev. Ms. Kitty wrote:<BR/>-snip-<BR/><I>"These days, most humanists are willing to concede that you just can't measure everything and must needs take some things "on faith". Love, for example, is a bit hard to measure scientifically."</I><BR/><BR/>Kitty,<BR/><BR/>Penile plethysmograph jokes notwithstanding, love may be hard to measure scientifically.<BR/><BR/>But "hard" is not the same as "impossible."<BR/><BR/>Perhaps one could look at correlations in brain functioning (measured by MRI or other instruments) with self-reported emotional state? Maybe "being in love" correlates with repeatable and measureable changes in brain functioning?<BR/><BR/>Additionally, when one person says that he or she loves another, one can observe that "love" affects behavior. Even though love may be an "intangible," this intangible emotion does interact the material world in a way that is in theory "scientifically measurable."<BR/><BR/>In the 19th and 20th century, the collision between traditional religion and the philosophies of humanism and methadological materialism happened over evolutionary biology.<BR/><BR/>I suspect the 21st century collision will be over neurobiology. What impact will neurobiology have on religion when spirituality, prayer, meditation, etc become measurable materialistic phenomena?Steve Caldwellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12333184436301854794noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30312228.post-71013972080626103152008-02-13T16:46:00.000-08:002008-02-13T16:46:00.000-08:00Well, I think that I am a member fo the American H...Well, I think that I am a member fo the American Humanist Association, at least for the next 4.5 years since I re-upped last June. But I really ought to be a member of the UUCF and the Jewish Humanist group too, except that I suspect that they really would not know what to do with me. I recall how Dostoevsky wrote with great condescension and cruelty of a "remarkable capacity for the most contradictory sensations" of such situations (I will provide the Russian text to anyone masochistic enough to want it). But he was a rat.LinguistFriendhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02695715246663202212noreply@blogger.com