Atheists Know More About Religion Than Catholics

Why am I not surprised to learn that American Roman Catholics were outperformed by atheist, agnostics, Jews and Mormons in answering questions about major religions?

As a predominantly Catholic country, I know of some people who find it a curiosity when they meet someone who claims to be an agnostic or atheist. I could only assume that this stems from the fact that they think agnostics and atheists are people who were not raised well since they acknowledge no God (or any permutation thereof). However, this survey, albeit it was done in the States, could show that atheist and agnostics are not just God-less people. I actually believe that real agnostics and atheists came to be such through a thorough assessment of their beliefs and values. Often it people who have a certain level of education who are agnostics and atheists hence it is not hard to imagine that they will be well-versed in the world's religion. But more than that, what is disconcerting about this research is the paradox that inasmuch as some people think that they are religious, they could actually be considered as ignorant about religion. And this, I think, is where the dangers for intolerance for other beliefs come in. And we all know what that could lead too.

A cute reminder

It’s funny how despite having at our disposal various mediums of communication - Facebook, YM, Twitter, email, text – these modern communication tools, while great for keeping in touch with family and friends, can also prevent us from truly expressing what we want to say, when we want to say it. The ability to “edit” out what we really want to say often leaves us without saying much of anything at all, just a bunch of nothings, really.

Here’s a cute (and kind of sad) Youtube video reminding us not to succumb to our inhibitions and to basically just spit it out.

Has social media killed our capacity for genuine human interaction? Is this what “communication” has come down to? A series of backspaces and editing and re-editing until the end result is a sad empty one-word message?

Cost of Not Sharing

The German economic historian Eckhard Höffner contends in his work "No Copyright Law: The Real Reason for Germany's Industrial Expansion" that the near absence of copyright law in eighteenth and nineteenth century Germany laid the groundwork for the "Gründerzeit"—the enormous wave of economic growth that Deutschland experienced in the middle and later nineteenth century.

Höffner noted that an "incomparable mass of reading material was being produced in Germany" by the 1830s. 14,000 publications appeared in the region in 1836, widely distributed thanks to the presence of "plagiarizers"—competing publishing houses unafraid of infringement suits. The result was a cheap mass book market catering to a huge reading public. Britain, on the other hand, saw "deplorable progress" at this same time with only about 1,000 new works produced annually, 10 times fewer than in Germany. With stronger copyright guarantees guarding their backs, like the “Statute of Anne" copyright ordinance of 1710, London publishers profited from the release of limited edition books. But the nation as a whole suffered. "It was the chronically weak book market that caused England, the colonial power, to fritter away its head start within the span of a century, while the underdeveloped agrarian state of Germany caught up rapidly, becoming an equally developed industrial nation by 1900."

However according to the economic historian Angus Maddison Germany was not the only country that was outgrowing Britain at that time: “Growth was faster than in the United Kingdom in most of Western and Eastern Europe, in Ireland, in all the Western Offshoots, in Latin America, and Japan.”

In the article written by Matthew Lasar for arstechnica.com where Höffner’s work is discussed, Lasar noted that even if the argument were expanded beyond Germany, it appears that we're really talking about world copyright policy versus London and its immediate environs. True enough, with the Statute of Anne in cement by the 1770s, "the general practice among London booksellers was to publish new books in low volumes and at high prices." On the other hand, just about everywhere else publishing was something of a free-for-all.

Eckhard Höffner proffers some intriguing answers to the question “how does copyright rules extend or discourage the dissemination of knowledge and productivity in any historical period.” If Höffner is proven correct then it would seem that, at least theoretically, piracy or the disregard of copyright may prove a significant factor in accelerating the economic development of developing countries.

Linus Madamba
Post#13

CyberPsychology 101: Cyberchondria

Being a psychology major in College, I realized that I really missed reading articles and theories involving human behavior. As such, the last few entries on my blog would touch on some new concepts on psychology dealing with Internet and the Cyberspace.

CYBERCHONDRIA
Cyberchondria, also known as cyberchondriasis, is the unfounded fear and anxiety that one is suffering the symptoms of an illness or disease after reading articles and literature online. It is said to be a variation of hypochondriasis, a psychological disorder involving an excessive preoccupation about having a serious illness.

The first systematic study of Cyberchondria was in 2008. The study conducted by Microsoft revealed that overall, people report to having a low level of health anxiety, but that Web-based escalation of concerns occurs frequently for around one in five people. Two in five people report that interactions with the Web increases medical anxiety and approximately half of people report that it reduces anxiety. Traits such as a person’s general anxiety level and predispositions to anxiety may contribute to the levels of medical anxiety experienced and to the likelihood of Web-induced medical escalation.

Based on studies, Cyberchondria is a growing concern today among many healthcare practitioners as patients can now research any and all symptoms of a rare disease, illness or condition in the Internet and thereafter manifest a state of medical anxiety. Patients who go against medical advice or refuse to accept a professional diagnosis while quoting questionable web sources have become more common and can be a frustrating obstacle to physicians trying to provide a professional standard of care.

I think most people generally experience cyberchondria in its mildest form. This may be due to the natural predisposition of people in having the so-called ‘confirmation bias’ which is the tendency to favor information that confirms their preconceptions or hypotheses regardless of whether the information is true. As a result, people gather evidence and recall information from memory selectively, and interpret it in a biased way. For instance, when my sister was pregnant, she started reading medical articles online on pregnancy and for awhile, she started getting paranoid that she was suffering symptoms of complicated and dangerous pregnancy. We had to literally unplug the modem on her computer just so she would stop reading those articles which left her worrying unnecessarily.

Although most people will experience mild manifestation of cyberchondria in one way or another in their lifetime, it should not cause any panic or alarm, as such fear and anxiety goes away eventually. In normal circumstances, people forget after awhile and they start to be receptive again of new ideas and information, which would either cause or reduce their anxiety. And the cycle then begins again of eventually forgetting all about them.



Reference: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/25/technology/internet/25symptoms.html?_r=1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberchondria

The Kris Aquino Doctrine?

Mutual psychological incapacity. I did not know such a condition existed until I read that Kris Aquino was using such as one of her defenses to have his marriage with James Yap annulled.

As far as I can remember, I did not come across such a concept when I took my Persons and Family Relations class during my freshmen year. I do not know how the jurisprudence has changed since then but this is the first time I have heard of such a defense being interposed in an annulment case. Of all the commentaries I read when I was taking my Persons class, not one mention of "mutual psychological incapacity" was made by any commentator. And I must say, learning of this new development is making me interested about the Kris Aquino-James Yap love saga. Few months ago, when I initially heard that Kris Aquino was annulling his marriage to James Yap. I dismissed it as one of those run of the mill showbiz gossip. However, with this development I think that the outcome of this annulment case can dramatically affect the grounds that we have for annulment of marriage.

Who knew that Kris Aquino can dramatically affect the legal community...in a profound way. Heck, we may actually be witnessing the Kris Aquino doctrine being formed. So better stay tuned (if not for the academic benefits, at least for the entertainment factor).

Computer Stress Syndrome

When I woke up this morning I was so upset when I saw hair scattered all over my pillow: excessive hair fall again. This often happens during exam period, so I attribute it to stress. But this time I had it a little earlier, perhaps because a few days ago if you would read one of my blog entries, my laptop crashed because of a malware. It certainly brought me excessive stress, which is perhaps why I am shedding hair again. Luckily I have thick hair so I never had bald spots. (The hairdresser during our graduation pictorial even remarked: “Ang kapal ng buhok mo! Pang dalawang tao!” [Your hair is so thick, its like the hair of two persons combined!])

And then I found this article on the internet entitled: “Tech trouble causing Computer Stress Syndrome” by Agence France-Presse (http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/lifestyle/gadgets-tech/04/28/10/tech-trouble-causing-computer-stress-syndrome-study). In that article, it was said that there was a scientific study conducted about the effect of crashing machines, slow boot times, and other technical glitches. The report identified sources of peoples' pain as "frustrating, complex computers and devices, technical failures, viral infections, and long waits to resolve support issues." Findings were based on a survey of more than 1,000 people in North America by a Customer Experience Board created by the Chief Marketing Officer Council to look into how to keep customers happy in the highly competitive communications sector. Ninety-four percent of those surveyed said they depend on computers in their personal lives.

The study found that numerous and persistent problems encountered by computer users create unnecessary anguish and anxiety. Digitally dependent users are getting fed up and frustrated with the current state of computer related stress, and clearly looking for a better way to address and reduce it. Owing to the kindness of virus and malware makers, computer failures have increased and thereby more and more people become affected by the Computer Stress Syndrome.

Our civil code provides in Art. 2217 that :

“Moral damages include physical suffering, mental anguish, fright, serious anxiety, besmirched reputation, wounded feelings, moral shock, social humiliation, and similar injury. Though incapable of pecuniary computation, moral damages may be recovered if they are the proximate result of the defendant's wrongful act for omission.”

If only virus and malware makers could be identified, perhaps a class suit for damages constituted by those affected by the viruses and malwares and have had Computer Stress Syndrome because of those things, should be filed in order to put a stop to those ruthless computer geeks.

---- Gen S. (10)

Cyberwarfare at First Blush

In this post, I would like to say my first impression when I place “Cyberwarfare” side by side with “Philippines”. I truly do not think that this poses as great a threat to the Philippines as in the US. The way I see it, cyberwarfare is akin to the 1997 Asian financial crisis when it comes to its impact in the Philippines, i.e. minimal.

First, our cybersystems are not yet so wired and integrated that an attack on one would detriment the essential functions of the other. Many government websites are either not continuously updated or not linked with other websites. Most of them still have the bulk of their reports in paper-based forms.

Second, I do not see our government as a good target for cyberwarfare because we neither have vital top secret information nor formidable systems to bestow that big a bragging right to the terrorists. Except for domestic enemies, I still think that cyberwarfare in the country is not a near possibility.

Lastly, I do not think the Philippines or the Filipinos are still at that level of self-realization to wage cyberwarfare. Maybe the mastery the rules of the game in cyberspace is the more proximate reality. Cyberwarfare is just too far removed from our present state of affairs.

I know that my comments here are not flattering and may even look down on Filipinos and the Philippines. And I am sorry for such impression. My only point in this post is that the Philippines is neither ready nor capable of engaging in cyberwarfare yet.

~Michelle P. M. Sabitsana