In fact, as I write this, Natalie Emmons, a Ph.D. candidate in my lab, is en route to a small village in rural Ecuador, where she plans to systematically investigate children’s reasoning (or “folk beliefs”) about the mental status of human beings prior to conception. We believe the difference goes beyond simply having more to worry about in the future than in the past.
Developmental psychologists such as Deborah Kelemen of Boston University have found evidence of a “creationist bias” in young children. These findings suggest that our species’ default cognitive tendency is to reason about the origins of animate and inanimate objects in terms of a clear beginning—and furthermore, as having been designed by an intelligent creator such as God. The bottom line is that the jury is still out on this issue of how we tend to conceptualize our subjective existence in that exhaustively long epoch that was life before us.
Listening for Soundness
In “Why Dogs Don’t Enjoy Music” [Head Lines], Sandy Fritz writes, “These results suggest the fine discrimination of sound is not a necessity for survival.” I’ve often thought that the ability to appreciate the quality of sounds is vital in a toolmaking species. In many crafts practiced by early humans—selecting stone for tools, judging whether wood for a boat or clay for a pot is sound or assessing whether a bow is properly strung—the ability to judge the quality of sound is essential. It would be interesting to study the ways in which contemporary Stone Age cultures use sound in toolmaking.
“Bodhi”
adapted from a comment at www.SciAmMind.com
Laugh in Relief
In “Ask the Brains,” William F. Fry suggests that we laugh when we see someone fall down because of the incongruity of the situation. I have a different idea: laughter is an expression of relief. During the brief instant of watching someone fall, our brains gear up for a possible fight-or-flight response: Will the person be injured and create a crisis? When the event concludes positively—no crisis to respond to—our bodies release the tension with a physical, audible expression: a short burst of relieved laughter. You can also see this reflex in action when a golfer is trying to sink a putt or when a basketball player tries to make a three-point shot—spectators will release the momentary tension with a hoot of success or a groan of failure.
“johnwnorton”
adapted from a comment at www.SciAmMind.com
Note: This article was originally printed with the title, "Letters".
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Add CommentAsalamu alikum (peace be upon you),
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWar is a tool of Satan specially when it has no value or no good result or have a regreting result at the end or disappointing to both sides.
War is only for Peace not for other political purposes... For eradicating oppression and torture it's allowed by the Law of God not human beings. and besides there must not be a single harm to innocents, children, women, religious people, animals, plants or environment.
Mostly Islam is considered a religion of terror or Muslims as terrorists but that's not the fact at all. Islam is the most misunderstood religion in the world, according to an article writtin in NYTimes magazine in the span of 150 years? 60,000 books were written against Islam in 18th & 19th century.
www.islamdenouncesterrorism.com/,
Islam it self means peace and submission to the will/desire of God. God says in the Quran that if you kill one human being it's like you killed the whole of human kind and if you save one human it's like you save the whole of human kind. Quran 5:32, www.miraclesofthequran.com, Islam is fully inclined towards peace. a verse says" IF THE ENEMY INCLINED TOWARDS PEACE YOU (MUSLIMS) ALSO INCLINED TOWARDS PEACE" Quran 8:61 please watch peaceTV.org to know about islam completely.
www.irf.net, http://www.islam-guide.com/frm-book-download.htm,
Attack invites resentment or counterattack, even from a terrorist.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAttack can invite defense, even from non terrorists.
The latter is the preferred option for those who fear terrorism, since retaliation and attack escalates the situation, defense does not.