Skepticule Extra Podcast #27


SkepExtra-027-20120520

Skepticule Extra shownotes for episode 027 20120520

This is the twenty-seventh episode of Skepticule Extra — otherwise known as the triPPPle Paul podcast.

Paul Baird
Patient and Persistent
http://patientandpersistent.blogspot.com

Paul Thompson ("Sinbad") 
The Skeptical Probe
http://skepticalprobe.blogspot.com/

Paul S. Jenkins
Notes from an Evil Burnee
http://www.evilburnee.co.uk

Many thanks to James Croft for being our guest for this episode

    Send feedback to feedback@skepticule.co.uk, write a review oniTunes or post a comment below. There is also a Skepticule Extra Forum for further discussion of topics covered in the show (plus other topics). Follow the link to try out the forum.
    Skepticule Extra is a production of Willowsoft Communications

    Creative Commons License
    Skepticule Extra is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.

    Direct download:
    http://traffic.libsyn.com/revup/SkepExtra-027-20120520.mp3

    Posted by Unknown on Monday, June 4, 2012 at 8:37 AM
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    Halal meat production - Brutal or humane?



    This post is in response: to "The Big Questions". (Series 5 Episode 15) screened on BBC 1 on 29th April 2012 presented by Nicky Campbell.

    The topic being debated was "Should halal and kosher meat be labelled?"

    The argument presented by the pro halal guests was that there is no need to label halal slaughtered meat products because halal slaughter is more humane than the slaughter of a stunned animal.

    Watch this video and decide for yourself.


    The video is extremely graphic. Don't say I didn't warn you.

    The first few seconds shows a standard animal slaughter.
    The rest of the video shows how Muslims insist their animals are slaughtered.



    Fast Food Chains in the UK sell Halal meat without any indication it is Halal.
    • Domino's Pizza:- Most of their Chicken is Halal
    • Pizza Hut: - Some Chicken is Halal
    • KFC:- Some Chicken is Halal (Excludes Halal only branches)
    • Nando's:- A Small amout of Chicken is Halal in all branches (Excludes Halal only branches)
    • SubWays:- Less than 5% Halal - Not Stunned (Excludes Halal only branches)
    • MacDonalds, Burger King and Wimpey:- Do not sell Halal food in the UK

    Supermarkets in the UK are selling Halal meat without any indication it is Halal.
    • Tesco:- All New Zealand Lamb is Halal - 35% of UK Lamb is Halal
    • Waitrose:-All Lamb is Halal -
    • M&S:-All New Zealand Lamb is Halal -
    • Sainsbury:-All New Zealand Lamb is Halal -
    • Asda (Wal-Mart):- Refused to Comment
    • Somerfield:-All New Zealand Lamb is Halal -
    • The Co-op:-All New Zealand Lamb is Halal -
    The Food industry is selling us Halal Slaughtered meat and are not telling us it is Halal or what a Halal Slaughter is.

    Muslims tell us Halal Slaughter is much more humane than the way the west slaughter animals.
    You decide.

    This is done in the name of Religion.

    References:
    Daily Mail - News article:


    Posted by Unknown on Sunday, April 29, 2012 at 5:38 AM
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    Armageddon May 27th - Oh No, Not again!


    Yet another "End of the World" Prophet enters the crazy world of Christian prophecy.

    Harold Camping has hardly faded from memory and yet another Prophet of the End Times has already stepped up to the plate to tell us when we are all going to be destroyed by God. Ronald Weinland from the Church of God has been chosen by God himself to tell the world we are going to be destroyed on MAY 27th 2012.

    This isn't some arbitrary calculation based on a selection of numbers found in the text of the Bible, NO. This is a direct Revelation from God to Ron.

    You See, When God dictated the Book of Revelations to John, John didn't understand what all this Acid-Trip-Imagery actually meant. Luckily for us, God has told Ron what it all means and has tasked Ron with a mission to tell the rest of humanity.

    This does beg the question why God would choose a man with no credibility whatsoever to deliver the most important message ever to be given to the human race.

    The most important message ever to be delivered to the human race is available for free download in PDF or Kindle format from Ron's website at  http://www.the-end.com/Download_Free_Book.asp

    It's difficult to figure out Ron's motives, he's giving his publications away for FREE and there is a complete absence of a 'Donate' button on any of his sites. It couldn't possibly be for publicity because when Ron's... er.. sorry God's prophesy fails to materialise it will turn Ron into a target of ridicule and label him as a False Prophet.

    Ron has given some radio interviews and he sounds sincere, lucid, sober and he doesn't have a southern accent.

    Perhaps, just maybe he genuinely believes he's received instructions from God.


    Here's the sequence of events according to Ron..
    The prophecies revealed in this book explain the demise of the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Great Britain, and much of western Europe, which will be followed by man's final world war. This last war will be the result of clashing religions and the governments they sway. Billions will die! The destruction of this time will far exceed the very worst times of all human history.
    As these events unfold, the world will increasingly become aware of the authenticity of the words in this book and realize that Ronald Weinland has been sent by God as His end-time prophet.

    Hmm... not very specific. In fact there is a huge amount of wiggle room here. What will actually happen on May 27th? Could the world financial markets collapse, World War III start and conclude with the destruction of mankind all on a Sunday afternoon or is it going to take a little time to ramp up to full blown Armageddon. Ron says it will ramp up 2 to 3 weeks before the 27th with terrible destruction and Christ will return on the 27th.

    Presumably, when nothing much happens Ron will claim one of the following:

    • The events have been initiated and will become apparent... soon.
    • The events all happened invisibly it the spirit realm.
    • Ron convinced God through intense prayer to give mankind a second chance.
    • He misunderstood some important factor and it will now be in 3 months time.
    • I got it wrong.

    He does make some additional weird statements:-

    • He believes the British are not British, they are all Jewish or descendants of one of the tribes of Israel.
    • The Germans (Bad Guys) are descendants of the Assyrians and along with China and Russia will be the instigators of nuculer (yes nuculer) war.
    • Americans, Canadians and Australians are all descended from the Tribes of Israel and God migrated those Tribes from Israel to their current locations.

    I would suggest that if Ron doesn't understand what happened in the past, he may not be best qualified to inform us about the future.

    But then again.... He could be right.

    I wonder if Ron would consider entering into a legal contract to sign over all of his assets to me on May 28th 2012, after all he won't be needing material possessions by then. I wonder what he values most, his faith in God or his material possessions.

    Ron's End Times Website:-
    http://www.the-end.com

    WCEM Radio Interview with Ron
    http://www.cog-pkg.org/audio/download/interviews/2012-01-11_WCEM_Interview.mp3



    Posted by Unknown on Friday, April 13, 2012 at 3:17 PM
    0 comments

    Skepticule Extra Podcast #23





    The Skepticule Extra Podcast #23 is out now.
    SkepExtra-023-20120325
    Skepticule Extra shownotes for episode 023 20120325

    This is the twenty-third episode of Skepticule Extra (or the paultrio podcast).


    Paul Baird
    Patient and Persistent
    http://patientandpersistent.blogspot.com

    Paul Thompson ("Sinbad") 
    The Skeptical Probe
    http://skepticalprobe.blogspot.com/


    Paul S. Jenkins
    Notes from an Evil Burnee
    http://www.evilburnee.co.uk












        Send feedback to feedback@skepticule.co.uk, write a review oniTunes or post a comment below. There is also a Skepticule Extra Forum for further discussion of topics covered in the show (plus other topics). Follow the link to try out the forum.
        Skepticule Extra is a production of Willowsoft Communications


        Creative Commons License
        Skepticule Extra is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.


        Direct download:
        http://traffic.libsyn.com/revup/SkepExtra-023-20120325.mp3

        Posted by Unknown on Tuesday, April 10, 2012 at 3:24 PM
        0 comments

        The Clergy Project



        Teresa MacBain - coming out - American Atheists Conf. 
        [March 26, 2012]



        This is a heart warming and inspiring speech from Pastor Teresa MacBain coming out as an Atheist at the American Atheists Conference in March 2012.

        There are many thousands of clergy who are trapped in a system they no longer believe in. They are forced into a life of dilemma and dissonance, preaching and perpetuating beliefs they know to be false.

        They are trapped because they have no professional skills that will give them an income outside the church.
        They stand to lose their whole social network.
        They will often be rejected and ostracised by their communities and even their own families.

        The Clergy Project is a good cause to be involved in.
        Provide the support infrastructure.. a social network.. and let them know they don't have to live a lie. Show them the escape route.

        Teresa McBain did it and what did she lose.. She lost her bigotry, her hatred and her guilt.

        Your mission (should you choose to accept it) is to find just one clergyman who wants out of religion and show them how.


        Links:-
        The Clergy Project
        The Thinking Atheist Podcast (The Clergy Project)

        Posted by Unknown on at 3:05 PM
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        Skepticule Extra Podcast #21




        The Skepticule Extra Podcast #21 is out now.

        SkepExtra-021-20120212


        Featuring The Thee Pauls.







        Posted by Unknown on Tuesday, March 6, 2012 at 12:16 PM
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        Why we believe as we do.


        Why we believe as we do. (and the Jello Dome model)

        You can not "Choose" to believe in a thing.

        It would be absurd for a Baptist to say "Today I think I will believe in Zeus". And then stop being a Baptist and really believe in Zeus. They would simply be a Baptist saying they believe in Zeus, going through the motions but not genuinely believing. You can not change your beliefs by choice. It irritates me every time I see Christians Accusing others of "Choosing" not to believe in their particular brand and variant of God.

        Belief is caused by mental conditioning and the environment we experience every day. This conditioning causes a channeling of a person's thought processes towards a particular conclusion or world view.

        The strength of a belief or faith depends on many things, such as the duration of the conditioning stimulus, the intensity, the degree of compliance or conflict of any new stimuli with existing conditioning. If the new stimulus is strong enough or persistent enough it can cause people to change their world view.

        Let me explain how IMHO belief works. Most people can visualise this explanation and start to recognise their own conditioning and environmental stimuli. This explains how all religions, all delusion, all perception and all beliefs work.

        Visualize your sub-conscience as a huge Jello Dome.

        When you are born, this dome is smooth, it has no beliefs, no bias, no marks or impressions on it's surface from life's experiences.... a clean smooth Jello dome.

        As you experience the world through your senses, small impressions are made on the surface of the Jello.

        Imagine it like hot water being flicked, sprayed, dripped, poured etc, on the surface from thousands of different directions, velocities and distances. The hot water melts a little bit of Jello and leaves a track where the melted Jello ran down the side of the dome.

        Life is full of millions of different stimuli, experiences and circumstances. This equates to splashes of hot water coming in from all different directions and heights and angles.

        Imagine if you hear the same song over and over, This is like identical splashes of hot water  coming in repeatedly from the same direction. After a time this would leave a deeper track than songs that you only hear once. This is how you learn a song, repetition. It's how you learn a skill or the words to a play. The more you interact with that stimulus, the deeper the tracks in your mind and the easier that skill becomes.

        Habits can be explained in the same way. If you do the same thing at the same time each day, in the same way, it becomes habit. This is like a slow steady drip of hot water on our Jello dome model. After a while the track left by the drip is quite deep and it is difficult to make alternative tracks. The water will tend to flow down the path of the existing melted track. Your behavior will become more predictable, tending to following previously learned behavior. This is when a habit is hard to break. It's difficult to recondition your mind or to get the water to follow a different path.

        A Traumatic event can radically change our behaviour very quickly. This equates to the intensity of the water. Extremely hot water would represent a very intense experience. It would melt deeper into the Jello and leave a deeper impression on our Jello sub-conscience. It could be an event of great magnitude, which could be represented by a large volume of hot water leaving a deep and wide track in our dome. These experiences could be strong enough.... or the tracks could be deep enough to alter or erase previously learned  behavior/conditioning/beliefs etc.


        Religion uses all of these principles to various degrees.

        Repetition.
        The same stimulus delivered in a consistent way at regular intervals. Hymns, Prayers, the Sunday service. constant repetition of learned behaviour. religious ritual is designed to do exactly this. Even to just getting you to say "Amen" or "praise the Lord" after a given stimulus is a small part of the conditioning. Religious ritual and ceremony is simple conditioning by repetition over a period of many years.

        Traumatic experience.
        You just have to read Christian Testimonies. There are millions of people who have latched on to various belief systems in the wake of a traumatic experience. If you want to relate this to our Jello Model, It's like the Trauma has liquefied and softened a large part of our Jello dome. The slightest stimulus from any direction will result in deep tracks in the extra soft susceptible Jello surface, often completely erasing all previous conditioning.

        Skillful charismatic preachers will often try to give the victims/congregation a very intense religious experience. People leaving these churches after an intense conditioning session will exhibit signs of induced euphoria and mild hysteria.

        Jehovah's Witnesses..... The WTS tend to use continuous conditioning. This is similar to the continuous conditioning you would get in a monastery, convent or doing missionary work. JW's Live, breath, eat, sleep, fart and shit WTS doctrine all day long. The WTS have another trick too. Jehovah's Witnesses are strongly discouraged from talking to non-Jehovah's Witnesses unless they are "Witnessing". If a JW is "disfellowshipped" (kicked out), they are ostracised. You are not allowed to communicate with the reject at all. They are not to debate other religions. They are under strict guidelines of who they can communicate with and under what circumstances. In our Jello Model, this relates to excluding other stimuli. To block off random splashes that may contaminate the carefully prepared conditioning tracks laid down by the WTS.

        Other cults do this to an extreme degree and cut of all experiences other that the message being conveyed by the cult leadership. This results in gross deformation in our Jello dome. All stimulus will follow the deep tracks laid down by the intense conditioning from one single direction. In these extreme cases of fundamentalism, everything, all experiences are perceived and explained in terms of the single set of conditioning tracks. There are no other possible explanations because there are no other tracks in their Jello model.

        Everyone is subject to the conditioning we get from our experiences and our environment. I am familiar many different religions, none of them has left a deep set of tracks in my subconsciousness. I come from a scientific background, so my conditioning is towards a scientific explanation. Stimuli/experiences/splashes of hot water will tend to follow the tracks towards a scientific explanation because that's the most natural place for those splashes to run towards in my Jello model subconsciousness.

        A Fundamentalist Christian will have deeply conditioned tracks in the area of religion and supernatural beliefs. So any random experience will tend to be given a supernatural explanation in that persons mind.

        If you are conditioned towards supernatural explanations, Supernatural explanations will feel comfortable and more reasonable because that is the easiest path for your subconscious to deal with these experiences.

        Exactly the same experiences in someone who is conditioned towards a different religion will feel perfectly comfortable with a very different explanation.

        Something that appears to be obvious and self evident to one person will be totally absurd to another person.

        As it stands, this model of our subconsciousness gives no one truly objective knowledge or an objective perception of truth. Everything is distorted by our conditioning and our life experiences. The only tool we have to give us a more objective view is "Formalised Logic". It is unbiased, unemotional and unaffected by subjective thinking and personal conditioning. Very few people can set out a 100% Formalised Logical argument for complex issues such as religion because Logic often goes against our preconditioned perceptions. We don't realize we're doing it but what we believe to be logically consistent in a complex issue is almost always biased by the conditioning of our minds towards the tracks in our mind.
        If you come up against a brand new issue that you've never come across before, totally unrelated to anything you've experienced before, you will normally be neutral on the subject. The first impression will lay down the smallest of tracks in that Jello sub-conscious brain model and any subsequent information will be slightly biased in the direction of those tracks. Of course a strong piece of evidence can redirect those tracks in another direction. First impressions are often lasting impressions. 

        Think about the things you believe now, your current world view and see if you can determine why you believe as you do. What was the environment like that caused you to accept those beliefs. If you have changed you world view, ask yourself why. Was it a constant drip drip, an intense event or an event of great magnitude.

        The worst crime of all is to believe you are not affected by your conditioning and that your perceptions are 100% objective.  Only fools claim they know the absolute truth. 

        Posted by Unknown on Monday, March 5, 2012 at 2:52 PM
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