Dr. Andrew Newberg is using brain imaging technology at the U of Pennsylvania to study the relationship between Religion & Science.
Newberg states that;
"the Brain is a believing machine because it has to be...
Beliefs affect every part of our lives,
They make us who we are.
They are the essence of our being.
The mind and the body are the flip side of the same coin".
Apparently prayer and meditation increase levels of Dopamine which is the brain's pleasure hornymone.
I for one am excited about mapping the path to Bliss except that once they find it they will mass produce a synthetic accelerator that will keep us all deleriously excited about paying more taxes.
A Professor at the U of Calgary, 
Michael Keren,
Michael Keren, has written Blogosphere: The New Political Arena.
He maintains that;
"Bloggers are isolated, lonely souls who bare their souls in cyberspace instead of forming real relationships or helping to change the world!
Bloggging is melancholic and as illusionary as Don Quixote tilting at windmills!
Blogging as a form of self expression brings on feelings of loneliness for
Bloggers who aren't lucky enough to reach celebrity status.
Bloggers are people with nicknames who can express enormous support but disappear the next minute."
Well I for one am delighted that my believing machine allows me the opportunity to meet with all of you isolated, melancholic, lonely, people with nicknames.
My believing machine has me convinced that Bloggers are real people...and once Dr Newberg proves that with his brain scans I am going to Calgary to tell Professor Keren that he is totally wrong.
What a depressing and negative worldview that person has. So journalists (people who write in journals for their own benefit as opposed to the MSM), such as Pepys were melancholic and lonely? Seemed a happy sorta fellow to me... Anyway, are some people lonely and isolated behind their screens? Perhaps. But a great many people who blog also get out and about and travel to new places to meet the people they correspond with online.
ReplyDeleteNothing like painting everyone with the same broad brush stroke.
I love generalisations! It's true that the Blogosphere tends to attract attention junkies and manic depressives. But that's a far cry from saying there's nothing else out there!
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of meeting the people we correspond with - HE and WW, if you're ever in Melbourne you've got to come round for dinner one night!
kee-rist! i am fed up to here with pathetic stereotypes about palid, lonely bloggers with no real social skill or human interaction. Who does that self-righteous, judgemental cow think he is???
ReplyDeleteYep! Your comments column is about to be inundated by witty repartee from all the sad sacks in cyberia.(Except Ziggi, because she can't!)
ReplyDeleteClearly, this chap (isolated in far away Calgary!) does not "get" sites like those which we happy folk read and relish regularly.
I must go...it's Prozac time
Ha ha! Great post. I think there's some validity to that statement, sure. I don't find it runs across the board, though. You can quickly tell from reading blogs the writers who are well-adjusted, social individuals (what?) and the ones who are nerds living an all too reclusive lifestyle and will reach for a heady cocktail of drugs, religion and blogging to get that next desperate fix of dopamine! Top post, HE, made me smile x
ReplyDeleteThis is the spirit of Hildegarde floating through the cyberspace with the message that I exist ... but only if you believe in me, LOL.
ReplyDeleteWhat a mook, I had no idea this guy had written that (or maybe I did but I forgot it because I was so lonely, and melancholy).
ReplyDeleteIt's painfully obvious that this guy did not do his homework. Many bloggers have thriving communities and often have single handedly (as a sub genre of journalism) changed the course of events or the shape of a discussion.
In many ways blogging actually brings people together, especially if there is common purpose.
Some bloggers are lonely and melacholy, but so are some scientists.
BTW, I added a link to you over at Modern Humanist.
Wow, I'd sure like to hear all about the social interactions of that so-called "expert".
ReplyDelete**Bloggging is melancholic and as illusionary
ReplyDeletethe bloke who said that has a problem...he's someone who cant blog. LOL!
Keshi.
Blogging is not melancholic - it's spasmodic.
ReplyDelete(Now,you'll have to excuse me, I've run out of kleenex and am wary of weeping all over the keyboard).
Meditation is the key - not so much prayer. Although I guess prayer is also a form of meditation. But you certainly don't need to believe in god(s) to meditate. People just need to meditate more to ensure their brain hornymones are happy. :)
ReplyDeleteSweeping generalizations are a pet peeve of mine.
This Michael Keren sounds like a little bitch who, like so many Calgarians, feel they are better than everyone else. It is shameful.
ReplyDeleteThis man likely couldn't make it into the University of Alberta, so had to take a job at U of C instead (and let's be honest U of A is superior). So I guess he comes up with stupid, irrelevant, shit like this to keep himself employed.
I'll save us some time by allowing you to make some rude comments about Calgary and Calgarians as well. I've done it enough in my day.
Hey I'm a Particle! How come they dont clasify particles as bloggers?
ReplyDelete:p
What a load of crap!
ReplyDeleteThe machine won't be happy until we are fractured and pliable and addicted to American Idol.
They WANT us to not pay attention, and the blogosphere allows us to pay attention to anything WE want, and they just can't stand it!!
you've got me thinking on this one, he. i've been thinking about blog relationships already. i admit i miss the chance for hugs and handshakes. and coffee and eyes. but it;s also getting to know someone from the inside out, and part of me knows that is real and good...
ReplyDeleteBut i AM using my real name.
ReplyDeleteI can't believe that I sold out and wrote kleenex just so other people would know what I was talking about.I should have been true to myself and written :"tissues". Ah,that feels better ;).
ReplyDeleteyeah but, according to Keren... you're not REAL. Neither am I. Darn. I actually believed we both were....
ReplyDeletei know for a fact that you are real.
ReplyDeleteno, REALLY!
today, i am proving that i exist.
hey, why haven't you responded yet?
HE come ova and gimme some erotic advice like WW did, tnxx!
ReplyDeleteKeshi.
Well, gosh darnnit...that couldn't be further from the truth. I can't even leave my house without being being bombarded with dinnerdates, party invites and all that socialization crap. I blog, and maintain a family of four babes and a husband. I don't want celebrity....I blog to get away from all the hassle of real life sometime.
ReplyDeleteIn reference to the brain...we seek to believe because we have to believe. It does not matter that in which we believe as long as we 'humans' can in some way explain our existence.
Lawd save us if we are just 'matter' and when we die, we die...as in cease to exist for all eternity...that would just blow.
DOH.
Hey, it's your life...but are you intentionally keeping your new alter ego/identity a secret?
ReplyDeleteNot even putting it on your own blogroll?
Ok I know what the problem is. You did not invite this poor man over to fiesta so he did not really see us and get the true feelings about us bloggers or those that just read these blogs. As far as meditation goes and getting into the zone as it were i know this to be true because otherwise Bernadette would not lead all these wonderful meditations. As well i would like to point out that popeye says, I yam what i yam i am popeye the sailor man.. Be true to yourself.
ReplyDeleteMy brain is kind of not working. I can't comment on this blog post. Or maybe I should so as to prove I am alonely soul seeking like minded lonelier bloggers!
ReplyDeletesic!
Thank you all for your comments and thoughtful statements of indignation.
ReplyDeleteThe BLOGGERS have spoken ...
let our collective ((Pffft))
be heard around the world..
and especially at the University of Calgary.
*now let's see if Gblooggler will let me publish this reply????
Wait a minute... so if yoga and meditation and exercise and the like make us feel good and therefore "believe" more, then is it my yoga that I have to blame for having believed the bastards who vowed to buy our house??? IS IT???
ReplyDeleteAnd what is this about my being lonely? I AM????
WHAT???
*THUD goes the bohemian as she falls unto the cold, hard floor that is this too-painful-to-bear reality*
What's the big deal? Here, let me just... uh!... see if i can get my alpha trace back up, near the flat line... oof! There! Do you really think that I give a whoot, about these pseudoscientific erroria?
ReplyDelete_Who_ needs to get a grip, here?
Sounds like a few hundred $K of
Mommy and Daddy's dreams, pissed away on tuition. Hint- Turn off the flashlight and save those batteries. I'm sure that "findings"
are impossible to miss, where these
dunces have been crawling around.
Maybe he was checking out his own brain and left some bits out.
ReplyDelete"...once they find it they will mass produce a synthetic accelerator that will keep us all deleriously excited about paying more taxes."
ReplyDeleteIsn't that called beer?