CelticBear’s Musings

I’m mixing the two subjects, Sylvia Browne (and psychics) with Bible criticism…mainly because I have these open links in my browser I want to close. In a way they’re related topics as both deal with credulous thinking.

First, Browne.
Robert Lancaster who runs the site stopsylviabrowne.com (I think he started this after the boy was found alive and “well” (in the captivity of his accoster, years after his abduction) after Sylvia told the hurting and grieving parents, on national television, that he was dead and buried by a rock somewhere…or maybe it was after she told the grieving grandparents of an abducted girl that she was sold into sex slavery and is alive in Japan…when she was actually dead and dumped 13 miles from her grandparent’s home…) went to a Sylvia Browne reading in Vegas last month while he was attending The Amazing Meeting 6. Here is his wonderful and entertaining account of that evening: (It starts a little slow, but boy does it get interesting)

• I attend Browne’s Las Vegas show, and words are exchanged.

I’ve been reading some of the accounts on the site of the horrid and painful mistakes lies she tells people coming to her for answers about dead or missing loved ones. She is a horrible person, feeding off of pain and suffering for her own fame and fortune. All “psychics” are as they knowingly lie to people who trust them, often causing pain and chaos in their wake (such as the recent case of the psychic instigated investigation of the autistic girl being sexually molested–who wasn’t).

Phil Plait of the BadAstronomer recently recounted his thoughts on a disgustingly credulous Newsweek article about psychics:

• Newsweek embarrasses itself

The Newsweek article is an embarrassment. It actually says this:
“It’s impossible to objectively judge psychic powers.”
Wow. I mean, wow. Of course it’s objectively possible to judge psychic powers. It’s trivially easy to do so. We have a whole field of mathematics called “statistics”, and it can be used to judge quite well if someone is able to do better than random chance in a fair test.

I have a friend who I recently discovered believes in ghosts, specifically “orbs”. Why? Because of an emotional and personal event involving the death of her mother. She knows I’m a vitriolic skeptic, but when she told me this out of respect to her I remain silent. Some would say I’m doing her no favors about not telling her about the statistical certainty that she should have a coincidental feeling matching her mother’s death, or that memory often and easily confuses imagined feelings after an event with coinciding with an event–and you will believe with utmost certainty of the “truth” of this glitch in memory/emotion. But how do you tell that to someone talking about their mother’s death?! You can’t. I won’t. (I’m pretty certain she doesn’t read this blog). Sometimes it’s better to just shut up and let someone have their belief.

But always in the back of my mind is the nagging guilt that by doing so I’m knowingly allowing them to remain suseptible to people like Sylvia Browne who feed like vampires off the willing belief of trusting people. I feel I’m complicit in the scam, the con, the evil by not providing people, especially friends I care about!, the tools to allow them to think critically and not fall prey to evil assholes like “psychics”.

Now, the Bible.
John W. Loftus has an article today:

• Kenneth Copeland, Faith, Fear and Ignorance

I’m familiar with Copeland’s world of merchandise and have seen him on TV a few times, taking the usual cherry-picked positive thinking approach to the Bible. In Loftus’ article he discusses Copeland’s twisted use of “faith” to overcome reasoned thinking and obvious problems with accepting the Bible as a divine relic.

In his article he provides links to some great articles like “The Bible Debunks Itself (Part 1)” (which reminds me of Issac Asimov’s quote: “Properly read, the Bible is the most potent force for atheism ever conceived.” I have to say, my path towards atheism began when I finally, after years of faithful belief, finally read the book that I was professing total faith and belief in.)

“Biblical Scholarship and The Lord’s Prayer,” which focuses on the history of the Bible and its very human and mundane although fascinating creation/compilation. Which reminds me of another Asimov quote: “The bible must be seen in a cultural context. It didn’t just happen. These stories are retreads. But, tell a Christian that — No, No! What makes it doubly sad is that they hardly know the book, much less its origins.” (OK, I admit, I didn’t already know that quote like I did the Asimov/atheism quote. I found it while looking for the exact wording of the former. *grin*)

Anyway, just a couple of the great past articles Loftus links to in his latest blog post. Good reading.