March 23, 2010

It May Be Harder Than You Think To Hide Your Lying Eyes

A new study just came out, and it was both interesting and really obvious at the same time.

Right handed participants eye movements were measured as they were told to randomly pick new numbers. When the new number was higher, even before they stated the number, they looked to the right. When it was a lower number, they looked to the left.

I'm not sure if right handedness is a key here, because we naturally associate higher numbers from left to right, unless you are reading Hebrew. It would be interesting to see how left handers react and both those who read and think in Hebrew right handers and left handers react.

The article does mention poker. I wonder if that means that when a high number shows up, a person responds naturally by looking to the right, or if it only happens if the poker players hand is bettered by the card.

Maybe this is the key to what makes a good poker player. They don't move their eyes, and they pick up on other player's eye movement, even subconsciously (sometimes a gut feeling is based on real evidence, whether the player knows it or not).

As for lying about your age. I wonder if this right left movement has more to do with what is deemed better. For example, if you are 49 and say you are 39, I think you would tend to look to the right and up, but if you state you are 59, you may look to the left and down.

I was always told that looking up to the right (for a right handed person) means one is imagining (or lying), while looking up to the left has more to do with remembering or thinking.

Looking down is being submissive and could have to do with guilt. I'll never forget that image of Susan Smith doing a press conference and looking down (and even closing her eyes looking down) when lying about her kids being kidnapped and hoping they would just come back (even when she knew they were in a sunken car). Here is the video of her lying eyes (unfortunately the audio is disabled):


Fortunately, the audio isn't disabled below:

March 14, 2010

I Found A Home: The Landover Baptist Forum

Finally, a place where I can let it all hang out and feel completely welcome. My name over at the Landover Baptist Forum is Brother Baconeater.

I started off by letting everyone know my views about evilution by posting the popular Youtube video I made on the subject three years ago:

I was then asked to put something up about myself in the intro section, as well as my favorite bible quote, so of course, I complied:

Hello All
My name is Brother Baconeater. I'm a bit confused, that is why I don't belong to any church right now.
I live in atheist Canada, and everyone knows it isn't a cool thing to let people know how much you love the Lord, so bonding with other strong believers like me has been pretty hard right from childhood all the way to where I am right now, pushing 50.
I know, I know, I shoulda moved to Georgia or Texas where I would be accepted, but I never had the nerve to.
The real reason I'm confused is that I like both the Christian God, and Jesus of course, but I like the Jewish God a lot too. That guy knew how to deal with people who pissed him off.
I like the Christian God because you need to believe in Him to get into heaven for ever and ever, but the turn the other cheek stuff just doesn't make sense.
I'm not crazy about the Jewish God though because he seems to be wishy washy about evilution. The Christian God has no doubt that evilution is false which it it.
Oh, and the Muslim God? Forget it. He tells people to blow themselves up in front of children for no good reason. At least the Jewish God had a reason to kill kids.
__________________
"Take your son, your only son – yes, Isaac, whom you love so much – and go to the land of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains, which I will point out to you." Genesis 22:1-18


I was then asked how many children I have sired. My reply:

I haven't sired any kids. I saved myself for marriage. Got married at 32. The evilutionist doctor gave me all kinds of gibberish reasons why nobody was getting pregnant but I know the real reason why. My sperm died of old age.
I shouldn't have waited so long, but masturbation is a sin, so I was stuck between a rock and hard place.


The acceptance has been overwhelming so far. I even had the nerve to start a thread with a question I've always had:

Is There TV In Heaven
I'm worried about being bored for at least part of eternity. I hope TV is there and we get all the channels, of course with a VChip.
I wonder if it will be just a bunch of reruns or we'll get new series too.


I got a bunch of replies so far. One spurred my inquisitive mind to click on. Pastor Ezekiel wrote: "I hear that He has a non-stop barbecue going, with all the grilled steaks and chops you care to eat, and the most Heavenly beer you can imagine, served in chilled mugs, with bowls of cashew nuts."

This caused me to ask another question (I hope they don't think I'm some sort of pest):

This is another thing I wonder about. I love bacon, hence my name. I know it is a fact that animals don't go to heaven, though I'm not sure where they go, so how can there be steaks and bacon in heaven? Especially fresh meat.
It is heaven, I'd expect my meat to be fresh.
I know that if I went to church regularly I would know the answer, but as I mentioned in my intro, I live in atheist Canada, so it is almost impossible to find a church that is even half free of The Devil's influence.


So far, I love The Landover Baptist Church. I think there are some real Christians there too, but you know the way The Devil works, sometimes it is hard to tell.

Check out the Landover Baptist Map of the World:

February 27, 2010

Intelligent Children Most Likely To Become Atheists

A new study suggest that atheism and liberalism are perspectives, concepts, ideals (whatever word you want to use) that are not biologically designed.

In other words, our first human ancestors were very conservative by nature, caring about their immediate family while being indifferent or non caring to others.

I kind of think that hunters can't really be the most empathetic people on this planet, whether hunting for food or sport.

All humans have an innate raw intelligence, but it seems that there are some that have an enhanced intelligence.

Let me take a stab at it. The ability to look at things from all sorts of perspectives without doing so consciously. The ability to fathom many possibilities with a worldview dependent on evidence and what is probable.

The study says that humans are naturally paranoid, and this is why religion was a natural fit.

I say that it if I saw lightning, and I couldn't explain it scientifically, as our ancestors couldn't, I too would need to believe in a supernatural entity as being the cause. It was the only thing that made sense back then. Once you have explanations for the unknown, then you can be focused enough to hunt, eat, survive, procreate, and take care of the newer generation.

Things have changed now. We have scientific explanations. Those who have special intelligence tend to get that there is really no evidence or need for a God, that homosexuality is not a choice, that other human beings have feelings regardless of whether you know them or not, and that teaching fairy tales in science class is absurd.

February 12, 2010

Post 666: How To Make Something From Nothing

I see it happen every two weeks when my pay check is deposited into my bank account.
Anyway, the problem with time and something from nothing is tackled by Mr. Deity (Abbott and Costello style!):

Nothing from something is very possible. Try this argument with a Fundy: Use a pair of jeans of an active kid as an example, check the fabric on the knees out, now after time, what happens to the knees of jeans for a young kid?; You wind up with a hole where the knee fabric was once there. Nothing from something. Hah!

I think I may have jumped the shark with this post, my 666th post since I started blogging.

January 31, 2010

The Ultimate Atheist Themed Movie Doesn't Mention Atheism

I'm not one to go to the movies. Never was, never will be. I'm content with waiting a year or two, and then watching it on the Movie Channel for which I pay $17 or $18 a month. I like movies, don't get me wrong, but I'm just not motivated to have to watch them in public on a big screen.

I've been married now almost 20 years. The last movie my wife and I saw was Forrest Gump around 14 years ago, no wait, it was South Park Uncut 10 years ago. Sure, I would go more if she was into it, but she isn't either. Who said we have nothing in common?

Last night I watched a movie called Whatever Works on the Movie Network. Missed the debut by around a year I guess. It isn't hard to get me to watch a Woody Allen flick, even if Woody Allen isn't in it. This one had Larry David in it...could have easily been Woody Allen maybe 10 years ago.

This movie was the ultimate in atheist themed movies that I can remember seeing. Larry David plays a divorced genius who was once considered for a Nobel Prize in Physics. Totally neurotic, and even suicidal (an atheist stereotype to an extent, because of the realization that just about everything is meaningless from an objective perspective, which is Larry David's perspective in the movie). Actually, it is relationships and love and luck that continues to keep Larry David alive (from trying to kill himself more often).

The movie is funny throughout, and I can see Fundies walking out on it. It pokes fun at the hypocrisy of Bible Belters as well. Three out of three became their own person once moving to the agnostic world of New York City.

I could be wrong, but I don't recall the word atheist being uttered once. But the movie is full of lines an atheist would say.

Here is the trailer:


Another brief review can be found at Atheist Spirituality.

Another review with another scene at Atheist Movies. This post is from yesterday, I swear to Darwin I didn't see it before I wrote this post up this morning.