tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764506766343254616.post5194279140312552756..comments2024-03-26T14:20:38.103-04:00Comments on The Thought Criminal: What Does Atheism Have that Christianity Doesn't? Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764506766343254616.post-14929315621253127382017-04-02T16:21:20.300-04:002017-04-02T16:21:20.300-04:00"What Does Atheism Have that Christianity Doe..."What Does Atheism Have that Christianity Doesn't? "<br /><br />"Chorus Girl: What do these South Americans got below the equator that we don't? " -- FLYING DOWN TO RIO 1933steve simelshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13247393763004076992noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764506766343254616.post-5750042279499519812017-04-02T16:11:11.048-04:002017-04-02T16:11:11.048-04:00" atheism has got nothing that is of any use ..." atheism has got nothing that is of any use to people who don't want to live as conceited, arrogant, snobs. "<br /><br />Good point, Sparkles. Now get back to us when your religiosity has prevented you from being a conceited, arrogant, perishing snob ignoramus.steve simelshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13247393763004076992noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764506766343254616.post-72909471634439588482017-04-02T09:35:16.467-04:002017-04-02T09:35:16.467-04:00I remember using some programmed texts when I took...I remember using some programmed texts when I took German and when I reviewed some math that I was really impressed with how well they worked. Then, later, I realized that it only worked with a certain kind of subject matter, the kind of stuff that you usually needed to drill by rote and that it wasn't all that impressive an accomplishment to make such rote learning more efficient. It didn't constitute a major break through in understanding of how the mind (I can't remember if Skinner would have insisted on "brain" or not) worked, it wasn't any more of a breakthrough than a thoughtful, efficient 3rd grade teacher might have come up with. Later I saw a Plane Geometry textbook by one Royal Avery (now, that's a WASP name if ever there were one) which seemed to me to have done largely what Skinnner invented decades before he did. <br /><br />I remember a friend of mine who had a BS in psych, when I told her about a local "school" for the mentally retarded in Maine where they used cold showers as negative conditioning her answer wasn't that it was cruel and immoral it was "Everyone knows negative conditioning doesn't work." Apparently not everyone did, not even the many behavioral psychologists who hung out a shingle as therapists, who most famously used to deliver shocks to the genitals of those who were scientifically trying to drive the gay away. <br /><br />I also remember that case of the girl who was the victim of extreme abuse and neglect who fell into the hands of the then fashionable behaviorists who were going to condition her into normalcy. Only to abandon her as they failed, tragically. I often wonder what happened to the poor woman. I'll bet it wasn't more than a hiccup in the well-paid academic lives of the scientists who did it. The Thought Criminalhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01381376556757084468noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764506766343254616.post-10529812531398940092017-04-02T08:39:38.927-04:002017-04-02T08:39:38.927-04:00As W.H. Auden said: "Of course behaviorism wo...As W.H. Auden said: "Of course behaviorism works. So does torture."Rmjhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11265837684238199954noreply@blogger.com