Category Archives: Psychology

Beat me so I’ll be good…

April 21, 2010   caraleisa   No comments

You’re at work, and your boss just found you surfing the net. He (or she) calls you to his office, and orders you to face the wall. He brings out a plank of wood, perhaps 24 inches long, 5 inches wide and half an inch thick, and proceeds to whack you with it, hard – on your back, your arms, your behind, your thighs and your calves. If you resist or complain, you get more.

Then he orders you to address your coworkers and tell them you were not working when you should have been. He might tell you you are forbidden to go eat lunch.

Bizarre, isn’t it? But permitting corporal punishment in school is no different. Twenty states still consider physical punishment by teachers and administrators to be a legal form of discipline.

I remember being paddled a time or two by a nun. It was a mortifying experience. I was spanked because I didn’t admit to speaking when the teacher was out of the room. However, I didn’t admit it because I didn’t do it!! That time, anyhow. I bet many readers will recall being disciplined by paddle, or ruler smacked across your open palms, ears being pulled and twisted; a relative once had his lunch smashed onto his head because he didn’t ‘clean his plate’. In kindergarten.

Studies have shown that in schools which practice physical punishment, students invariably perform worse academically than in schools which prohibit it.

The ACLU and Human Rights Watch have been working together to end the practice everywhere and submitted a joing statement to the House Education and Labor Subcommittee on Healthy Families, which held hearings yesterday that are designed to address the problems which stem from the practice of beating, or ‘paddling’ children in school. This was the first hearing on this topic since 1992. Eighteen years!

From the 4-16-2010 article by Deborah Vagins, legislative counsel for the ACLU:

Hitting any student in school is unacceptable, but our research indicates that corporal punishment is applied at disproportionately high rates to African-American students and students with disabilities. According to the Department of Education, while African-Americans make up 17.1 percent of public school students nationwide, they accounted for 35.6 percent of those who were paddled during the 2006–2007 school year. In addition, although students with disabilities constitute 13.7 percent of all public school students, they make up 18.8 percent of those who are subjected to corporal punishment. In another ACLU/HRW report, Impairing Education, Corporal Punishment of students with disabilities in US public schools, we found that these students may be punished for behavior arising out of their disabilities themselves.

Here is an interactive map showing number of students receiving corporal punishment by state: The map shows both total students and students with disabilities who received physical punishment.

Summary by the ACLU:

The American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights Watch call on the federal government and US states to prohibit corporal punishment. School districts should replace corporal punishment with effective, positive forms of discipline, so that children’s human rights are protected, and so that every student throughout the United States can maximize his or her academic potential.

Numerous studies have shown that when a good, normally rational person is permitted to hold unreasonable powers over others, s/he will inevitably abuse them. The most spectacular experiment showcasing this unfortunate aspect of human nature is the famous Zimbardo prison experiment. So powerful were the findings that it has its own website.

Let’s get together and support the ACLU and HRW… corporal punishment is truly unconscionable – whether administered to adults or children, and so very easy to address.

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Yes, I CAN say I KNOW there is no god. So can you. An open letter to Atheists.

February 18, 2010   caraleisa   No comments

I frequently run into atheists who spout the politically correct dictum that we cannot KNOW there is no god; we see no evidence for one, so we believe that no gods exist — but we remain agnostic to the possiblity because we have integrity and are openminded to true evidence, should it arise.

Well, I think that’s just bullshit coated with a dressing of the fear of being accused of being an absolutist.

But the fact remains, we certainly CAN know, in every commonly used sense of the word ‘know’, that gods do not exist. To presume our own infallibility is another thing entirely. THAT would be irrational and absurd. But there’s no need to extrapolate that to the question of god.

Why?

Do you have any problem saying you know that Superman doesn’t really exist? What about Zeus. Thor. Odin. Isis. Perhaps you’re not too sure about leprechauns, or wood sprites and fairies? Oh, I see, you have no problem stating you know THEY don’t exist. Then why do you not apply the exact same logic to the gods du jour? Why do they get a ‘pass’ on this? They are NO different.

They don’t get a ‘maybe’ from me. I don’t say ‘you can’t prove a negative’ but rather, you have no need, no obligation, to prove a negative. NOR to consider the claim a possiblility simply because it’s untestable.

Now, of course, you might be someone who really isn’t sure. Who can’t quite shed the indoctrination of religion. So you feel maybe there is, maybe not. I am NOT addressing you with this.

And I’m not addressing theists, who in their own peculiar, unfathomable way, ‘know’ gods do exist.

I’m talking to the atheists who say they CANNOT HONESTLY state they KNOW that no gods exist because after all, you can’t prove a negative. Then I say, following that logic, you must also say that those other beings I named above might also exist. If you can, sincerely, claim that perhaps Zeus et all might exist, then I must ask … how do you ever make any decisions? Or better yet, how do you define ‘atheist’?

I will not argue the bible (nor koran or any other ‘holy’ book). To me, that’s like arguing what decor Santa’s home has, or what size outfit he wears. I believe such argument ultimately feeds the believers, because they then feel that it gives a level of credence to the books. Furthermore, I don’t believe absurd books have any relevance to the question of whether gods exist or not. If they do exist – they CAN be irrational. They CAN play games. They can be ‘good’ or ‘bad’. The question is, DO THEY EXIST in the first place?

I am convinced that there is ample evidence that they do not. This evidence lies in the claims. No, thunder isn’t a god. No, existence isn’t only 6000 yrs old. No, god didn’t save you during your accident. Your air bag did. No, god didn’t take away your child with a horrid cancer – the horrid cancer took away your child. God didn’t make your team win the game. Ad nauseum. Just how many god-did-it claims must you refute before you’ve had enough? Before you can say you KNOW they are ALL not true? That the root – the god part – is just pure human fantasy. ANY other claims except those of the deities-du-jour are quite comfortably dismissed after refuting far less claims than those disproven for a god.

So… where’s the beef?

Why, if you claim atheism, do you allow theology to stick a ‘can’t say for sure’ post-it note on your atheism? I’m not suggesting that we turn around and be rude to believers, I am simply suggesting we be honest with ourselves. It’s like when a kid first discovers there’s no Santa Claus. He’ll say so with assurance, but he keeps a little bit of doubt in there ‘just in case’. Eventually, though, he’ll unload that residual doubt and move on.

I think it’s time we atheists move on. Should Odin drop in for lunch one day, I’ll revise my knowledge. But for now, I’m damned sure. Sure enough to say I know it. I know you KNOW so as well. So stand up and say it, and MEAN it. And be content with your knowledge. You do NOT need to be ‘openminded’ on this one.

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