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December 3, 2013 2 Comments 3,716 Views

Yesterday, 7th of July 2013 was the eighth anniversary of the terrorist attack in London. The attacks led the British government to launch initiatives to identify why and how one becomes radicalized[1] and develop measures to counter the terrorism threat. …

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November 13, 2013 7 Comments 6,187 Views

Homo sapiens has enjoyed singular success at tweaking the environment because of the unique psycho-social wiring of the human mind ( Pagel ). Hearkening back to the nature-nurture debate, the human mind is a multi-dimensional intellectual construct that emerges from …

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September 27, 2013 4 Comments 4,970 Views

Introduction: From time immoral, history has provided us with myriad examples of the mistreatment of one group of people by another.  The Old Testament reminds us that the people of Moses were abused and enslaved by the ancient Egyptians. The …

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September 4, 2013 1 Comment 4,915 Views

On June 2, 2011, Mark Guarino reported in the Christian Science Monitor that the Louisiana Science Education Act managed to survive a recent legal challenge in the Louisiana legislature. Sadly, that does not bode well for science education in Louisiana, …

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June 11, 2013 11 Comments 10,070 Views

What does Psychology, Sociology, Behaviourism, and emotional, psychological, physical, and spiritual abuse have to do with each other? A concern with uplifting the human being, transcending pain and suffering, and moving towards holistic health and wellbeing. Or not. Sometimes it is just about command, control, and fitting people into the System. But not here, and not from now on. The winds of change are blowing, a hurricane is coming, and no amount of self delusion, self deception, or social propaganda are going to turn those winds away.

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May 22, 2012 6 Comments 4,449 Views

Is our socialization process a process of ideological indoctrination? As part of our socialization we learn “how the world really works.” Our religions teach us of a cosmic “fight” between good and evil, science teaches us about the struggle for survival and “survival of the fittest,” and everybody talks about how its OK for the “winners” to dominate the “losers.” It is all part of the natural (or divine) social order! But is it really, or is it just indoctrination. You be the judge.

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May 22, 2012 Leave a comment 1,210 Views

Visualization and imagination create the world. Or, as Dr. Tim says, reality starts with fantasy. Or, as I like to say, as above in consciousness, so below in matter. No where is this more clear than in the area of science fiction where reality consistently lags behind fantasy only by a half century or so.

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January 24, 2012 9 Comments 2,587 Views

Epistemology = How do we know the world that we know? Ontology = What is the nature of the world that we know? In this short article Dr. Tim argues not only that the world is a materialist presence that exists independent of our observation (his ontological statement), but that this materialist presence can be known basically through a process of empirical trial and error. The empirical trial and error is necessary because the human is fallible, given to delusion, and open to manipulation and contrivance. That much is true, we are too easy to fool it seems. But is that in our nature, or is it a function of our flawed socialization process? That’s the rub. Personally, I think socialization but then hey, this a Sociology journal and I’m a sociologist, so maybe I’m biased (or maybe, it is the Truth).

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