hope's blog
the brain and religion
Submitted by hope on Fri, 05/15/2009 - 11:43amWhy do people believe that there is a god? Some experts, such as anthropologist Scott Atran, believe that our propensity for religious belief is a byproduct of evolution (Brooks). New scientific evidence is suggesting that the neuronal pathways of our brain both reinforce religious belief and are altered by it.
Book Commentary of Girl, Interupted
Submitted by hope on Fri, 05/15/2009 - 11:41amIn her memoir, Girl Interrupted, Susanna Kaysen describes her two-year experience in a mental health facility for young women in the 60s, where she was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. Interwoven in her narrative of life on a psychiatric ward is a subtle message: being insane isn’t really all that different from being sane.
Zapping the Brain
Submitted by hope on Wed, 04/15/2009 - 9:52am<!--[if gte mso 9]>
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Zen Meditation
Submitted by hope on Wed, 03/18/2009 - 1:28am<!--[if gte mso 9]>
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Society Disables Women
Submitted by hope on Fri, 10/03/2008 - 3:39pmIt
has often been the goal of feminist organizations to protect and defend women.
Recently, the “stop violence against women” movement gained popular
attention. Such a movement is, taken at face value, hard to oppose.
However, while any attempt to reduce violence is to be applauded, does
this campaign not in some ways reinforce the notion that being female is
somehow a disability? Does it not imply that women are weaker and
therefore in need of special protection? Is stopping violence against men
not an equally worthy cause? Rosemarie Garland-Thompson writes that
“Indeed, equating femaleness with disability is common, sometimes to denigrate
women and sometimes to defend them.” Efforts to classify women as
