Category Archives: Psychology

Ben Carson and the range of human psychology; Michael Shermer and the perception of the real world

Posted on Saturday 7 November 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

This New Republic piece, The Truth About Ben Carson: Smart People Can Believe Crazy Things, addresses what I find most interesting about this Republican candidate who, though evidently a brilliant neurosurgeon, seems to have surrendered his intelligence in so many … Continue reading →

Posted in Psychology, Science | Comments Off on Ben Carson and the range of human psychology; Michael Shermer and the perception of the real world

The Atlantic on trigger warnings; Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on the war on reason

Posted on Tuesday 29 September 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

I mentioned a while back the cover story on The Atlantic magazine’s September issue, The Coddling of the American Mind, by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt. (Haidt is the author of the book The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are … Continue reading →

Posted in Conservative Resistance, Culture, Morality, Provisional Conclusions, Psychology, Religion | Comments Off on The Atlantic on trigger warnings; Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on the war on reason

Links and Comments: Jerry Coyne; Max Planck; Creationism and Education; Human history and progress; and others

Posted on Thursday 11 June 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

Finished reading Jerry Coyne’s new book Faith Vs. Fact, subtitled “Why Science and Religion Are Incompatible”, which I took extensive notes on that at some point I will summarize here on my blog. Meanwhile, Coyne did a Q&A with National … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Notes, Psychology, Religion, Science | Comments Off on Links and Comments: Jerry Coyne; Max Planck; Creationism and Education; Human history and progress; and others

How Science Works, Concerning that Retracted Gay Marriage Survey, and the Ironies

Posted on Monday 25 May 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

New York Times op-ed: What’s Behind Big Science Frauds? Other links: SFGate: Study retracted: 20 minutes actually CAN’T change a homophobe’s mind The New Yorker, Maria Konnikova: How a Gay-Marriage Study Went Wrong This concerns a report from a few … Continue reading →

Posted in MInd, Psychology, Science, The Gays | Comments Off on How Science Works, Concerning that Retracted Gay Marriage Survey, and the Ironies

Links and Comments: Dan Dennett, Emotional Intelligence, Worst Predictions, Jeffrey Tayler

Posted on Tuesday 5 May 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

Via Morning Heresy, Dan Dennett is interviewed at Religion Dispatches about, among other things, why the edifice of religion seems to be cracking: Protecting your inner workings is becoming very difficult; it’s very hard to keep secrets. Religions have thrived … Continue reading →

Posted in Psychology, Religion, science fiction | Comments Off on Links and Comments: Dan Dennett, Emotional Intelligence, Worst Predictions, Jeffrey Tayler

Links and Comments: Politics and Ideology; About Changing One’s Mind

Posted on Monday 4 May 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

Politics and Ideology: This theme has been around for some time: Republican economic policies rely on ideologies (ideas about government non-interference, about individual freedom, about the moral turpitude of the poor, etc.), while the actual evidence shows that the country’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Morality, Psychology | Comments Off on Links and Comments: Politics and Ideology; About Changing One’s Mind

A Month’s Worth of Links and Comments

Posted on Friday 1 May 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

New York Times, March 20: In the Age of Information, Specializing to Survive The Internet makes it easy to learn almost anything. And yet And yet, even as the highbrow holy grail — the acquisition of complete knowledge — seems … Continue reading →

Posted in Children, Culture, Economics, Evolution, MInd, Morality, Narrative, Psychology, Religion, Science, The Gays | Comments Off on A Month’s Worth of Links and Comments

Naïve Physics

Posted on Friday 24 April 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

Here’s a fascinating article from The Conversation: Infections of the mind: why anti-vaxxers just ‘know’ they’re right (via). My interest in this piece isn’t about anti-vaxxers per se, it’s about the more general issue of how people form beliefs, what … Continue reading →

Posted in Physics, Psychology | Comments Off on Naïve Physics

Links and Comments: Pale Blue Dot; 10 Commandments; Evolution; Tribalistic thinking; Answers for Creationists

Posted on Friday 13 March 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

I have a batch of links with notes from almost a month ago that I never got around to posting. Let me catch up. On the theme in recent posts of awe-inspiring graphics or videos, here’s a piece by Phil … Continue reading →

Posted in Astronomy, Evolution, Psychology, Religion, Science, Ten Commandments | Comments Off on Links and Comments: Pale Blue Dot; 10 Commandments; Evolution; Tribalistic thinking; Answers for Creationists

Links and Comments: Perceiving Reality; Controlling the Narrative

Posted on Wednesday 4 March 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

Several key posts from last week, that I want to capture before I’m on the road for another couple days. First, the viral dress thing is possibly the most widely circulated example ever of how you can’t always believe what … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Psychology, Religion | Comments Off on Links and Comments: Perceiving Reality; Controlling the Narrative