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AR 20:37 - The science of impure thoughts
Apologia Report 20:37 (1,266)
November 4, 2015
In this issue:
SCIENCE - "new sociological study appears to dent zoologist Richard Dawkins' influence as a public intellectual"
SIN - a secular confessional on the erratic discipline of impure thought control
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SCIENCE
"Dawkins, Collins, and the Science-Religion Debate" by Declan Fahy (Lecturer, School of Communications, Dublin City University) -- "a new study appears to dent zoologist Richard Dawkins' influence as a public intellectual, arguing that he does not persuade new readers that science and religion are in conflict. But the researchers concluded that biologist Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health and an evangelical Christian, could persuade audiences that science and faith can be compatible.
"The sociological study, published in Public Understanding of Science <www.goo.gl/PJ96x3>, surveyed 10,000 Americans to assess in part how scientists who write popular books influence public views of religion. ...
"The study, funded by the philanthropic John Templeton Foundation, which promotes dialogue between science and religion, found that more than 21 percent of citizens had heard of Dawkins, while just over 4 percent had heard of Collins. ...
"After learning about Dawkins and his views, citizens reported their opinions had not changed. ... By contrast, citizens who had not heard of Collins ... and were told about his worldview shifted away from conflict and independence [sic] views toward a collaborative view.
"West Virginia University sociologist Christopher Scheitle, the study's lead author ... said in a media release: 'Research has shown that the U.S. public is generally distrustful of atheists and views them more negatively than most other ethnic, religious, and minority groups. On the other hand, religious individuals are often perceived as more trustworthy, especially as viewed by other religious individuals.' ...
"To be fair, the study also notes that citizens surveyed who already knew about Dawkins were more likely to view science and religion as being in conflict." Skeptical Inquirer, Sep/Oct '15, pp5-6. [3]
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SIN
"Wicked Thoughts" by Jena Pincott -- summarized: "Many of us have secretly reveled in a friend's downfall or fantasized about committing a crime. The way you think about such dark impulses determines whether they become a source of temptation or torment."
"If we ever dare to examine them closely, our unvoiced thoughts scare and shame us; we get off on cheap thrills and the misery of others. ...
"It's surprising how little control we seem to have over the timing and content of 'bad' thoughts. In a landmark experiment back in the 1980s, psychologist Eric Klinger of the University of Minnesota [found that] within a 16-hour day ... people have about 500 thoughts that are unintentional and 'intrusive' and that last about 14 seconds on average. While most dealt with the concerns of everyday life, 18 percent were unacceptable, uncomfortable, or just plain bad - politically incorrect or mean thoughts. A remaining 13 percent were ugly, out of character, or downright shocking - say, murderous or perverse ideas.
"The Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung was among the first to grapple deeply with wicked thoughts [observing] that every person has a 'shadow self.' This self, he explains, is the unconscious part of our psyche, a repository of base animal instincts and dark desires. We repress it - but only for so long before 'a possible outburst.' ...
"Klinger's theory is that a 'preconscious' mechanism in the brain is always scanning the environment for underlying concerns and cues that tap into our emotions. When it encounters a trigger, a renegade thought bursts seemingly out of nowhere. The neuroscientist Sam Harris calls these thoughts 'random,' and completely out of our control. In Free Will [1], he writes, 'The idea that we as conscious beings are deeply responsible for the character of our mental lives and subsequent behavior is simply impossible to map onto reality." Pincott gives examples.
"Thirty years ago, University of Delaware psychologist Marvin Zuckerman observed that most of us are interested in disturbing events, but none are more riveted than those with a sensation-seeking personality type. ... While others avoid or dislike the intensity, sensation-seekers crave it. Having a variant of the receptor gene for the neurotransmitter dopamine may play a role in their personality.
"Another draw of the morbid is that it can be cathartic, says Wake Forest psychologist Eric Wilson.... Thinking about human suffering may cause emotional pain, but it also allows us to entertain, or purge, our own dangerous impulses and destructive emotions without harming ourselves or others. It may also give us a sense of awe. ...
"We are hardwired to think about sex, and a mind that torments itself with worst possible scenarios can piggyback on that natural drive. Not every thought should be taken at face value. ...
"In a rape fantasy, women control all the sexual stimuli in the safety of their minds, and - as with most forbidden thoughts - in no way does imagining an attack suggest an actual desire. ...
"You hate that voice in your head that nudges you when you're around people who are different. ... An unwanted voice in your head may question their abilities, motives, hygiene - even their humanness.
"You can blame a primitive self-protective mechanism for such politically incorrect thoughts, asserts Mark Schaller, a psychologist at the University of British Columbia. ...
"In their research on racial bias, social psychologists Jennifer Richeson, at Northwestern, and Nicole Shelton, at Princeton, asked whites to look at black faces and blacks to look at white faces <www.goo.gl/As8myv>. The more prejudiced a person, as rated in a pretest, the worse he or she performed on a subsequent cognitive test. In a separate brain-imaging study, Richeson found that racially biased people had increased activity in brain regions involved in controlling inappropriate thoughts and behavior when looking at faces of outsiders. The upshot is that when most people become conscious of their prejudiced musings, they try to suppress them - an effort that drains cognitive resources. One might use a lot of brainpower to avoid a moment like the one when Joe Biden called Obama 'the first mainstream African American who is articulate and bright and clean.'"
Pincott notes "the results of a study led by Australian psychologist Norman Feather at Flinders University, in which volunteers heard about two students who got caught cheating and were expelled <www.goo.gl/rMSbT5>. People reported feeling much happier when the overachiever was punished than when the average Joe was.
"What these scenarios inspire is *schadenfreude,* German for 'joy-pain,' the primal pleasure in another's misfortune [and] research shows that rejoicing in the failures of others is not inspired by cruelty so much as status. ...
"Schadenfreude may have its roots in the motivation to increase social stature and to punish unfairness. So how can we explain the fact that many of us feel guilty about delighting in the downfall of others, especially if we identify with the victims? 'There's no point flogging ourselves for emotions that are so much a part of everyday experience,'....
"If having murderous thoughts were a crime, nearly all of us - 91 percent of men and 84 percent of women - would be guilty, reports evolutionary psychologist David Buss, author of The Murderer Next Door: Why the Mind is Designed to Kill [2] and a professor at the University of Texas at Austin. ...
"He poses a radical theory: Because our remote ancestors killed to survive and reproduce, they passed along genes that include a predisposition to kill. ...
"A large body of research suggests that if she [avoids vindictive thoughts], they could grow into an obsession. They'd gain power and import. What Jung said of the shadow self may also apply here - that a thought is 'most destructive, insidious, and dangerous when habitually repressed and projected.' ...
"The problem in making a topic off-limits is that your brain is always self-monitoring to make sure you're not thinking of it. ...
"People with obsessive-compulsive disorder - as many as one in 50 Americans - have a few qualities in common, says clinical psychologist Baer. They're likelier to come from a culture, religion, or family that values obedience. They have social anxiety and are sensitive to how others perceive them - their worst possible thoughts are often societal taboos. Those with this disorder also believe it's necessary to maintain perfect self-control and that, if they fail, they'll 'go insane and act on their thoughts.'
"But who has such control over the mind? If the self really is just an illusion to make sense of reality, it didn't create the dark thought, nor can it prevent it. The shadow self has no master. ...
"When unwanted thoughts are mildly intrusive, Baer recommends a technique that's borrowed from Buddhism - a radical acceptance of the thought, no matter how scary or shameful. ...
"Another strategy for letting go of an offending thought is to write it down on paper, then throw it in the trash - subjects who did this in a study at Ohio State University were less influenced by the thought than those who didn't literally discard it. Or experiment with the so-called doorway effect <www.goo.gl/o6VAOt>. University of Notre Dame researchers found that physically entering a new room cues the brain to move on to the next thought, freeing the mind by dropping short-term memories.
"For obsessive, troubling thoughts, consider a more extreme approach: Don't let the thought go. Not yet. Instead, play the whole awful idea out in your mind. As part of this intensive exposure technique, Baer asks sufferers to write - and record themselves reading - a script of what would happen if the dark thought came to pass. ...
"Contemplation helps us realize what's important: We all have shameful or scary thoughts, but what we do with them and the significance we attach to them are key. We can embrace the idea that our dark musings have no real meaning and let them go. Or we can find a way to parlay them into an understanding of ourselves and others. ...
"Jung's outlet for his most troubling thoughts was his journal, later published as The Red Book <www.goo.gl/76hX6I>. In one of many dreamlike scenes, he encounters a red horseman. Its presence is discomfiting, but Jung doesn't ignore or deny it. He and the 'red one' talk, quarrel, dance. Afterward, he experiences an odd sense of joy. The exchange feels like reconciliation.
"'Surely this red one was the devil,' he realizes, 'but my devil.'" Cover story. Psychology Today, Sep/Oct '15, pp52-60, 89. <www.goo.gl/ITBk90>
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SOURCES: Monographs
1 - Free Will, by Sam Harris (Free Press, 2012, paperback, 96 pages) <www.ow.ly/jPGs2>
2 - The Murderer Next Door: Why the Mind Is Designed to Kill, by David M. Buss (Penguin, 2006, paperback, 288 pages) <www.goo.gl/9hfuCr>
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