The Story Behind the 'World's Most Famous Atheist' Richard Dawkins

British zoologist Richard Dawkins turned evolutionary theory on its head when he published his book, "The Selfish Gene," in 1976. His recently released autobiography, "An Appetite for Wonder," sheds light on the first 35 years of Dawkins' life, from his birth in Kenya, to his fascination with science at Oxford, to the origin of his gene-centered view about natural selection. He joins us in the studio.

Host: Michael Krasny

Guests:
Richard Dawkins, evolutionary biologist and emeritus fellow at the New College at Oxford University; and author of many books, including "The Selfish Gene" and "An Appetite for Wonder"

Psychic Fraud News - Episode 8 - Doreen Virtue and New Age Angels - 5th Oct 2013

Doreen Virtue's business is very well organised and all too often not based on the accounts of the religious idea of angels, more her own ideas and more often ones she has picked from other new age authors, she used nice art work to add class and as a result she makes massive amounts of money by imposing a new religious view of the ever helpful angels.

Understand that she is a guru much like David Icke minus conspiracy beliefs, the use of what seems to be an always right philosophy of basic perspectives seems very attractive because it seems to be very true to people who don't think beyond the simplistic questions.

In many ways Doreen creates a cult mentality around her belief, herself as an ever righteous guru, without the narcissism, instead a very inclusive ever positive perspective that is fine-tuned to create an appealing new age religious view. As a believer you are expected to accept what is said by a teacher/guru, if you don't the cult/group thinking is maybe your not ready for this knowledge and/or you holding on to past negativity, the cure for this negativity in new age is to accept without allowing yourself to question.

Funny how religion tries to say your dark, bad, broken, misshaped, undeveloped, lesser, negative, or even evil if you don't drink the kool aid without question, sadly in group instances our free will is surrendered to some degree and the group think may well impose rulings upon people to think in line with the others. I wouldn't call it a serious cult or dangerous, as most cults, whether religious or political, are not very dangerous, BUT the effect upon quality of life is impressed upon by the great force of blind faith.

If you believe angels, or any super-beings, will do things for you then you give thought to a thing which probably is not in existence, you may offer tribune to the imagination and not deal with that which you may be should, most people use the idea of super-beings to help themselves to achieve goals, sadly idols of worship can prevent people actually reaching out. Angels as an idea are very popular and make big bucks in many faiths, new age religious methods are so obvious in their business technique as to express nothing but the most blatant deceptions.

By Robert W Lester
https://www.youtube.com/user/robertwlester

Lecture 10: Independent Replicability, Meta-analysis and Pseudo-Replicability

The original ganfeld psi experiment (1974). The Hyman-Honorton debate (1985). Storm et al vs Hyman (2010). "Meta-analysis that conceals more than it reveals." Parapsychology, a field without a subject matter, without replicability, but with dogged persistence.

A companion course guide can be downloaded here: http://jref.swmirror.com/20730

Lecture 9: Scientists & Psychics: The Importance of Replicability

Hasted et al on How to Test a Psychic (Uri Geller). Delanoy and the young metal bender. Attempting to do science without a disciplinary matrix and without a safety net.

A companion course guide can be downloaded here: http://jref.swmirror.com/20730

Lecture 8: Personal Validation, Subjective Validation, and the Contribution of the Observer

Crider revisted. Forer. The rules of the game. Why it works.

A companion course guide can be downloaded here: http://jref.swmirror.com/20730