Looking at the display of dozens or so magazines, I was struck by how little truth there was to anything in them. The bits of truth haphazardly stuck here and were invariably completely worthless truths, like a celebrity break up. Every week I walk past this collection of falsehoods without a second thought, but today I reflected on the impact they have. These are very popular magazines that many people take seriously. Whether it is about rocky times in a celebrity's love life or 150 new sex positions to try out, people will eat it up. It's packaged as information, when it is anything but. These abuses from supermarket tabloids are worrisome, but much more concerning are when more credible magazines publish crap.
A recent times article discusses the "a growing body of scientific evidence [that] suggests that faith may indeed bring us health." Of course, they give a line or two later in the article mentioning the skeptical arguments that tear it another three or four assholes, then they ignore those arguments for the remainder of the article. How about how every finding discussed in the article is perfectly described by the placebo effect?
That's undeniably true — up to a point. But it's also true that our brains and bodies contain an awful lot of spiritual wiring. Even if there's a scientific explanation for every strand of it, that doesn't mean we can't put it to powerful use
Hint:We -don't- have wiring specifically designed for spiritual thoughts. Certain things HAPPEN when people have "spiritual" experiences, but there's nothing that indicates that spirituality is any way hardwired into the brain. It is entirely possible (and in my opinion, likely) that spiritual thinking is simply a byproduct of some combination of actual positive survival traits.
Also, what parts of my body have spiritual wiring? Is it my knees because they allow me to kneel before God? Or perhaps it's my perfectly symmetric hands that permit the most wonderful union for directing my prayers to the heavens. Maybe it's the human ass that he gifted us with. With His infinite wisdom he undoubtedly knew that it would be useful for 21st century magazine journalists with no substantial news to write to pull an article from.
One last closing quote:
But he has also found that those people who give help fare even better than those who receive it — a pillar of religious belief if ever there was one
Hint: Helping other people isn't a pillar of religious belief, it's a pillar of not being a selfish prick. Pillars of religious beliefs are things like wearing funny clothes, participating in bizarre rituals, and getting really mad when people believe in other gods.
