Category: Articles of Interest

Gary infuriated his fiancé Ellen, because even though he was intelligent, thoughtful, and a successful surgeon, Gary was emotionally flat, unresponsive to any and all shows of feeling. While Gary could speak brilliantly of science and art, when it came to his feelings- even for Ellen- he fell silent. He lacked emotional intelligence.

Emotional intelligence can be defined as the ability to monitor one’s own and other people’s emotions, to discriminate between different emotions and responding appropriately by using emotional information to guide thinking and behaviour. Emotions are, in essence, impulses to act, clearly seen in child and animal behaviour, often suppressed in adults, sometimes rightly, often not.

The term became widely known with the publication, twenty years ago, of Daniel Goleman’s Emotional Intelligence: Why it Can Matter More Than IQ (1995). It is to this book’s best-selling status that the term can attribute its popularity. Goleman has followed up with several further popular publications of a similar theme that reinforce use of the term. To date though, tests measuring EI have not replaced IQ tests as a standard metric of intelligence…

Continue reading Emotional Intelligence- Why it matters more than IQ

“The problem with the scientific method is that it is driven far too much by theory, and not enough by fact. By which I mean that science moves forward by the development, and subsequent testing, of hypotheses, when at times formation of hypotheses should be strenuously avoided because they grow into filters which taint otherwise vital and compelling data.” (Michael A Cremo co-author of Forbidden Archeology )

“How could anyone believe that?” is a natural question whenever someone believes what is contrary to the conventional wisdom.

Since the role of unorthodox views in and out of science has been the focus of Henry Bauer’s academic interests for several decades, he thought about that question in a variety of contexts. His conclusion long ago was that this is the wrong question, the very opposite of the right question, which is, “How does anyone ever come to believe differently than others do?”
It’s a widespread illusion that we believe things simply because they’re true. It’s an illusion that we all tend to harbour about ourselves. “Of course I believe what’s true! My beliefs aren’t wrong! It’s the others who are wrong”.
However, we don’t acquire beliefs because they are true; we acquire them because we are taught that they are true…

Continue reading Belief and Disbelief

Sexual abuse, paedophilia and the priesthood

BBC News reports Pope Francis has asked for forgiveness for the “evil” damage to children caused by sexual abusers in the clergy.

Pope Francis and his predecessor

The Pope said the sexual abuse was “moral damage carried out by men of the Church”, and that ‘sanctions’ would be imposed. The statement, made in a meeting with a child rights group, is described as his strongest on the issue so far. The facts show the Church does not see that, evil as paedophilia is, the lack-lustre response to it is so damaging. Last month, Pope Francis strongly defended the Roman Catholic Church’s record on tackling sexual abuse by priests, following UN criticism. The Vatican had refused a request from the UN’s Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) for data on abuse, on the grounds that it only released such information if requested to do so by another country as part of legal proceedings. Surely each member country gives the UN such a mandate?

Continue reading The Church wishes to apologize – Part 2