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Apple Causes Religious Reaction In Brains of Fans
satuon writes "In a recently screened BBC documentary called 'Secrets of the Superbrands', UK neuroscientists found that the brains of Apple fans are stimulated by images of Apple products in the same areas as those triggered by religious imagery in a person of faith. According to the scientists, this suggests that the big tech brands have harnessed, or exploit, the brain areas that have evolved to process religion."
meh
Amen.
Not sure if I'm alone, but every time I walk past an Apple Store I'm terrified one of the staff is going to come out and offer me a free personality test.
Old news for anyone who's spent time around Apple users. Just saying. ;)
Agile Artisans
I guess maybe the inquisition could have produced selective pressure to evolve brain areas associated with religion. Right?
Steve Jobs, who art at Apple, awesome be thy name...
Since sodomites have no real religion, they cling onto any little material thing they can find for moral guidance.
Who woulda thunk?
...are the evil baby eaters..?
I think it would be interesting to compare brain scans of different factions of computer programmers. Any number of programmer religious wars: vi vs emacs, Unix vs Windows, GUI vs CLI, indenting with blanks vs tabs, C vs Perl vs Ruby vs .Net vs Python vs JavaScript.
âoeThis suggests that the big tech brands have harnessed, or exploit, the brain areas that have evolved to process religionâ Interesting. Is there a good theory or evidence as to why processing religion is/was a selection pressure?
Hallelujah! All hail Jobs! A likeness of the Apple logo just miraculously appeared in my lunchbox!
Oh, wait - sorry, false alarm - its just an apple.
P.s. in this modern quantum phrenology, how close is the "religious" region to the "sex" region - and can you distinguish between a Slashdotter's reaction to a neat water-cooled quad SLI graphics rig and a picture of Natalie Portman?
In a survey of 100 programmers, 111111 thought that duck-typing was a good idea.
Both religious people and iTards tell you to believe in/like something otherwise they'll flame you to death.
no wonder it's to be decreed this day that the god given chosen ones' holycost must be extendead until at least 2025, because of our fear, & the # of us, which both are big. disarmament is catching on all over the globe. so we'll clearly be at some advantage, & the rest of the world will continue to bow down, suck up, & just re-fear us in general. it worked for us until it didn't, now it's not our fault if a lot more death & destruction is done because THEY won't listen/give us their resources, even though we need them to keep the dream a lie for another day. when self-importants of our guys get nailed, it's ALWAYS 'former' head..., alleged, unproven blah blah blah. innocent until ,,, unless. terrorific example of regimes run amok.
still waiting? more stand-up talknician routines. more threatening now? will the FSF guys be arrested for sex crimes too? julians, adrians, everybody's at risk, of being arrested, or worse. scary? 13 year old tagged by ss.gov at school for unapproved tweeting. so we're safe from him now. the key to the bells & whistles of just one city is way too much trust to put in one human. our/our planet's fate however, is different?
same old; how many 1000 babys going up in smoke again today? how many 1000's of just folks to be killed or displaced again today? hard to put $$ on that. the cost of constant deception, to our spirit? paying to have ourselves constantly spied on & lied to by freaky self chosen neogod depopulationers? the biblically styled fatal distraction holycost is all encompassing, & never ends while we're still alive, unless we cut them/ourselves off at the wmd. good luck with that, as it's not even a topic anywhere we get to see, although in real life it's happening everywhere as our walking dead weapons peddlers are being uncontracted. you can call this weather if it makes you feel any better. no? read the teepeeleaks etchings.
so, once one lie is 'infactated', the rest becomes just more errant fatal history.
disarm. tell the truth. the sky is not ours to toy with after all?
you call this 'weather'? what with real history racing up to correct
itself, while the chosen one's holycostal life0cider mediots continually
attempt to rewrite it, fortunately, there's still only one version of the
truth, & it's usually not a long story, or a confusing multiple choice
fear raising event.
wouldn't this be a great time to investigate the genuine native elders social & political leadership initiative, which includes genuine history as put forth in the teepeeleaks etchings. the natives still have no words in their language to describe the events following their 'discovery' by us, way back when. they do advise that it's happening again.
who has all the weapons? who is doing MOST of the damage? what are the motives? are our intentions & will as the ones who are supposed to be being represented honestly & accurately, being met? we have no reference to there being ANY public approval for the current mayhem & madness pr firm regime style self chosen neogod rulership we've allowed to develop around us, so we wouldn't have to stop having fun, & doing things that have nothing to do with having to defend from the smoke&mirrors domestic frenetics, of the unproven genocides. rockets exploding in syria fired from Libya? yikes?
the zeus weather weapon is still being used indiscriminately against the population, our rulers' minions are fleeing under fire.
the whore of babylon has been rescued by the native elders. she has the papers of challenge authored by the hymenical council, & is cooperating wholeheartedly with the disarmament mandate.
disarm. thank you.
censorship, or convenience?
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So...do I have to pray towards Cupertino instead of Mecca now?
Amen brother! Speak the truth! For the land was filled with bad products, plagued on all sides by viruses and malware, but then Steve Jobs did speak, and he said, let there be an iPad with an intuitive user interface, and it was good!
www.awkwardengineer.com
Hah, they should try that test with us GNU/Linux users on Slashdot.
We probably qualify directly as saints.
42.
...I only stop by Apple stores around Christmas.
So if it works for Macs, we need a similar study done on Emacs users. ;^P
(We apologize in advance for any resulting emacs vs. vi flame war.)
The idea that "Apple causes religious reaction in brains of fans" is absolute nonsense. Those pointy-headed intellectuals have it all wrong(probably because they are trying to do visualizations on an emachine or something).
The truth is, a number of dusty little abrahamic "deities" have hijacked the portions of the brain that evolved to appreciate Apple products in a fair number of unfortunate individuals. Hence the confusion.
If somebody opened a "Linux Store" I guarantee you that it, too, would trigger the same parts of the brain for certain people. :)
I half expect people to now pray to Steve now.
"In the name of the Mac, iPod and Steve Jobs, Amen."
For those who seek perfection there can be no rest on this side of the grave.
Uh.. religion has been around a lot longer than that..
which is totally what she said
Yay, does that mean I have built up a Snow-Crashesque immunity to Apple, Organized Religion, and Politics? That rules! Now how can I infect others with my immunity? (consults The Diamond Age) Underground glitter orgy party it is! Everyone meet me on my minecraft server!
I'm an athiest.
Could it be that . ...this suggests that religions have harnessed, or exploit, the brain areas that have evolved to process big tech brands.
When we were saying the same thing to apple fans here, we were getting bashed, modded down etc.
Im wondering what will they come up with against this article.
Read radical news here
They should be a tax free religious organization now.
and making fun of an apple user is now a hate crime
It will be the same for any "fanboy". The whole "fanboy" bit should give it away. Most humans will be guilty of this type of irrational thinking in some parts of their life. We're not purely logical beings.
which is totally what she said
I think you're trying to force a false dichotomy on the discussion. I know a number of people who believe that if you're not an Apple fanboy, you must be a PC fanboy. I would wager that a good number of posters here would agree that a computer is a tool and that we use the best ones available for the money that we have. I wouldn't even go so far as to say that Apple's hardware is "high quality", or at least of no higher quality than the exact same stuff you can get off the shelf at Fry's or on Newegg.
"Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right" - Salvor Hardin
I think it's simply human nature. An individual who doesn't have religion inevitably creates something to fill that space. So you get celebrity and idol worship and the adulation of lifestyle brands.
Having worked in design for well over a decade I've come across countless Apple fanatics. Although fervor has dampened a bit in recent years, the switch to Intel processors and Apple having becomes largely mainstream playing significant parts in that. Not to discount what Apple has been able to do, but routinely Apple gets all the credit for things others have been doing for years.
The way I've seen some people idolize Steve Jobs is downright embarrassing. I've seen people use his portrait as a desktop background. Every time a new product comes along the rumors start flying about how it works and how it's built. I've heard some outrageous claims over the years.
The thing that I never expected was that this level of fanaticism would infect the mainstream. The big irony is that for many people, particular college kids from what I've seen, continue to see Apple as representative of some kind of counter-culture. I wonder how these people would feel if they say who's on Apple's board of directors. It doesn't get more mainstream than Apple. I'm sure they'd find a way to rationalize it all.
I've always thought Apple has a great marketing machine. But really, their job is made unbelievably easy thanks to all the fanatics.
Nathan's blog
tl;dr
The same results were found with Pepsi in a fMRI study and not unique to one product. A much better twist to the results is that religion is simply really good marketing that stimulates our emotions.
Since when do we have "brain areas that have evolved to process religion"?
Riley contacted the editor of World of Apple, Alex Brooks, an Apple worshipper who claims to think about Apple 24 hours a day, which is possibly 23 hours too many for most regular people. A team of neuroscientists studied Brooks’ brain while undergoing an MRI scan, to see how it reacted to images of Apple products and (heaven forbid) non-Apple products.
Self-professed worshipper has religious tendencies. Film at 11.
...if you scan someone's brain after you ask them their opinion of Emacs vs. Vi?
The reality seems to be that fandom lights up some of the same regions of the brain as religion. Note that they're not claiming this is a common trait of Apple users, but fans. It's not really surprising.
(And sure, they certainly had access to a large sample set.)
What do you think would light up in RMS's brain? Assuming he even let himself get hooked up to a medical scanner that wasn't 100% open software and hardware, that is.
This article sounds like it was written by some heathen.
Alex, I'll take keybindings not used by Emacs for $400....
One of these words does not belong.
Apple can file to become tax exempt!
FRA: STFU GTFO
There have been evolutionary pressures towards religion for a long time. Religion lets you accept things without needing to understand them. For example, a religion can say 'don't eat pork' and the followers will avoid pork without questioning. Since pigs and humans are biologically similar, it's very easy for diseases to jump the species barrier, so a population that avoids eating pig is more likely to survive than one that eats pig (especially with the uneven cooking you get from primitive fire-based cooking). Another religion says 'don't eat green plants', but we don't hear about that one because all of its followers died. Similarly, the religion talks about the divine right of kings, and so the society becomes more cohesive and people are willing to die to protect it - this society is capable of exterminating societies based on self interest, so there is a survival benefit for genes that encourage people to join such a society.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
The question is what kind of religion.
People have made much of the metaphore that Apple is like being a Catholic while using a PC is like being a Protestant.
I personally think being an Apple fan is more like being one of the Old Believers in Russia. It's not so much that you do it their way, it's that doing it another way is 'dire.'
Spoken like a true religious nut! Everyone else is wrong, who cares how they did the study. You for sure know it better. Stupid scientists.
Trying to talk to Apple fanboys about anything bu brings judgement and condemnation upon you. They sure do have a lot in common with the devoutly religious.
the brain areas that have evolved to process religion.
So you're going to go with that rationalization? What a beaut!
Twinstiq, game news
1. That part of the brain is involved with irrational faith?
2. That part of the brain is involved with rationality? or
3 That part of the brain evolved over time to prefer sleek objects?
Hard to tell, IMHO.
Nate
Apple is no different here. This study is describing the feeling someone gets when they see something they like. Why they like it may be because they associate the thing with being socially accepted. A woman buying a $500 fashionable purse, a dude buying his second vette and hanging out at a car show with his car, a person listening to some music that reminds them of a few years earlier when they were partying it up in college without a care in the world except being with friends and being noticed. etc..
Its not the tech, it is not a high from satisfaction of the item, it is the high of relating that thing to being accepted by others and fitting in. What these people all fail to realize is although they are or at least think they are socially accepted because they have the item, all it takes for anyone to get that feeling is to lay down some cash and buy it themselves. Money can't buy you love but your mind sure can make you think it does.
Physiologists have been studying this mental behavior for many decades, it is nothing new.
Well, the simplest explanation I can think of is that religion helped keep societies together for a long time, which helped the members of those societies survive (and thus reproduce). Evolutionary processes can tend toward locally optimal solutions, and I suspect that is what happened with this "religious" section of the brain.
Palm trees and 8
Oh no! Apple is having way too much influence on people. I'm afraid that it won't be long before Apple decides the sew the mouths of some of its users to the assholes of other users, forming the Human CENTiPad.
Unreal that religious reactions are triggered in the brains of fans.... these "fans" might actually think that the (above mentioned) is okay because Apple can do no wrong.
I find it hard to believe that there should be a part of the brain evolved to process religion. Just how would nature select for that? I think it more reasonable to believe that religion hijacks that part of the brain, but that it evolved for some other—more mundane—purpose. Question: What, other than Apple products and religion, stimulates that part of the brain? The answer might give us a clue as to what its evolutionary purpose really is, and why it is stimulated by religion and Apple Products.
Why is it that atheists on the internet spend so much more time talking about god on the internet than people of faith and why do they spend so much time complaining about christians while they are trolling against christians themselves? Why is it that windows fanboys spend more time talking about Apple products and why do they spend so much time trolling Apple users with alleged stories about arrogant mac users?
The answer is simple, both of these anti-groups have members who have some gnawing feeling inside them that they are missing something and they try to cover it up by attacking what they fear is what they secretly want.
I don't know about you but I'm a little sick and tired of all of the anonymous "buttsecks" trolls on here. It seems to me that these PC using trolls seem obsessed with it. Do you see mac users talking incessantly about it? No, because mac users come from all walks of life and most of them are grown up people living on their own instead of little trolls living in their mother's basements obsessed with anal rape and apple users. Grow up already for crying out loud. I'm neither gay or a supporter of rights other than "human" rights for all but we should treat all people with respect regardless of how we feel about their way of life or political views.
Jesus was a compassionate social conservative who called individuals to sin no more.
I think crediting our brains for evolving specifically to process religion is going a bit far. I believe it's more plausible that religion evolved to exploit this area of the brain rather than the other way around, especially since behavior is more plastic than anatomy.
That said, Apple does call their PR people "evangelists," and Objective C is as conflicting, superfluous, and self important as any religious text I've ever read, so it's hard to dispute these findings.
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
When you want to continue believing your chosen investment (be it emotional, monetary, or time) in a brand is superior, even when evidence is mounting to the contrary, you have no choice but to abandon logic and attach to faith. That way you can keep believing your choice is right and present confident arguments to support it.
They all make use of Reality Distortion Fields.
Get off my launchpad!
Neuroscientists have found that religious fervour lights up the same parts of the brain as waiting in line for your devotions at the Apple Store.
The scientists were interviewed by a BBC programme exploring the fantastically lucrative and popular brands springing up around the supernatural. Religions such as "Christianity" parody the story of the semi-mythical Steve Jobs' virgin birth, adoption by a humble Silicon Valley family, founding of Apple, expulsion from the fold, decade in the wilderness and triumphant Second Coming, wherein devotees were led to enlightenment, glory and hipness.
"The scans of 'religion' appear remarkably similar," said one scientist whose name is being withheld for protection from outraged Apple devotees. "The adrenal glands are stimulated and the same areas of the visual regions light up. Somewhat in the shape of an apple. No, really! Shaped like an apple!"
Cupertino's response was frosty. "To have the sacred enlightenment of the products of our saviour Steve maligned by comparison to mere witchdoctor cultist mumbo-jumbo is no less than a calculated insult. One important difference is that our stuff works. ... If you hold it right." The spokesman then compared the neuroscientists' mothers to a PC.
"The comparison is ridiculous," said "religious" leader Joe "Happy Heil" Ratzinger. "We're just out to make an honest buck like anyone. Well, fairly honest."
Photo: His Stevianity ministering to a devoted soul..
http://rocknerd.co.uk
(heheheh)
I don't think religion is an evolved trait. It's more likely to be a byproduct of group socialization. We are wired to form social hierarchies, and many leaders have exploited the human willingness to believe in a "higher purpose" to assert divine right over multiple tribes. As a self-aware animal, it's difficult for humans to understand that perhaps our only purpose on earth is to breed to avoid extinction. So instead we create meaningless social rungs -- serf, scribe, priest, investment banker -- and build pyramids, castles and skyscrapers to assert control over nature. Besides, it seems that many of us seem to be missing whatever gene causes the irrational belief in an omnipotent Santa Claus-like deity floating on a cloud. Perhaps that's also why I don't own a Mac and opt for cheaper generic machines.
Just like any other one, you have to pay to truly 'belong' and you must never, ever take the Jobs name in vain.
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
For example, a religion can say 'don't eat pork' and the followers will avoid pork without questioning
Well, that depends on which religion you are referring to. There has been a lot of debate about the reasons for biblical mandates among Jewish rabbis, and the kosher laws are no exception.
What is interesting about the kosher laws (to me anyway) is that they are mixed in with civil and criminal laws. Just open a bible, and look at what the kosher laws are surrounded by: hygienic laws (read these in the historical context), laws about murderers and rapists, laws about sexual practices, laws concerning military actions, taxes (which we now read as "charity," but involuntary charity is best referred to as a tax), farm maintenance, etc. Mixed in, of course, are laws concerning religious practices: idolatry, animal sacrifices, and other assorted practices.
Palm trees and 8
new from apple the i-meter
Why are comments obviously from non-apple users "+5 Funny" (pointing to first +5 funny comment and the parent comment here), but the ones from apple users (the ones below said +5 funny ones) are "+5 Insightful"... Is this the mod's proving the validity of TFA?
I8-D
It will be the same for any "fanboy". The whole "fanboy" bit should give it away. Most humans will be guilty of this type of irrational thinking in some parts of their life. We're not purely logical beings.
Heretic! :-)
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
Although I would rather leave the room than listen to fanbois, I would imagine this area of the brain is stimulated in the same way for a lot of things, not just Apple. When people get personally and fundamentally attached to a product/idea/belief they will kill for it.
boycott slashdot February 10th - 17th check out: altSlashdot.org
Sports brands, fast-food, clothing, news outlets, comic books, etc all likely use that type of brain activity. It all has to do with brand recognition and groupthink mentality. Basically, anything that has FANS will have a pseudo-religious reaction.
Has anyone else considered that perhaps this is not really a correlation between apple imagery and religion, but perhaps just an indiction that the studies the UK neuroscientists have been working on aren't yielding any significant results.
Who woulda thunk?
Funny, they didn't test Android fans. Or Sony, or Microsoft, or Google....
Bet you read the headline and immediately went to comment, right? I'm curious what your MRI would show.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
4 Evolved to seek out patterns.
Problem is our pattern-matcher, while powerful, is flawed in several important ways. For one, we like to confirm the patterns we already think exist, while dismissing those which cause us to doubt. Secondly, we often make spurious connections between A and B. The tribe does a rain dance and then the next day it rains, so therefore the rain god must have been enticed to send rain. Despite the fact that B following A does not imply that A caused or has any relation to B.
Thirdly, we project our own pattern-finder (the mind) upon the universe. We understand other humans and animals in mental terms. This helps us anticipate whether to flee, fight, hide, mate, etc. So we extend this to nature. The volcano God must be appeased with a sacrifice.
And finally, our pattern matching is highly motivated by our emotions. There is no such thing as the pure, objective light of human reason, divorced from emotions. That is a myth. It also leads to another important myth. That we see the world as it is, while those who disagree with it see it in a flawed manner. But no human sees the world from the "God's-eye POV". We're all biased and flawed.
There are other ways in which our pattern-matcher falters, but those are the important ones.
"... evolved to process religion".
My OCD commands me to correct that statement. Our brains has not evolved to process religion. Religion is more of a misfiring of evolution; like a moth around a flame "thinking" it's the light from the moon. There must have been some selective pressure toward listening to ones parents; "Don't go near that cliff", "Don't eat that mushroom", etc.. So, when parents tell their children that they must believe to avoid hell, they obviously do.
Apple fanboys obviously see Jobs as a father figure and so the implications are clear.
I'm pretty sure this is exactly the goal of the advertisers. They could have told the BBC this connection to religiosity was precisely what they had in mind, and that it was working. Go read some advertising instructional material, then read The Doors of Perception, and the oft-accompanying essay, Heaven and Hell. Trust me, there's a connection.
"...brain areas that have evolved to process religion."
Oh Puulleeezzee. It's religion that has evolved to process brain areas. If anything, religion would be a negative factor in evolution anyway, considering all the humans who have been exterminated in its name.
If I didn't have absolutely NOTHING to do, I wouldn't be here.
1) religiots achive power
2) heretics are killed, expelled to the wilds to die of exposure, etc.
3) believers are, by definition, selected for by /2/
4) the devout and contributory receive better treatment
5) a milder additional form of selection at /4/
6) affinity for religion is selected as a survival trait over multiple generations
Even today, it's not really a great thing to be an atheist in most of the USA. It reduces the potential pool of mates, it causes you to be cast out of most social groupings, it prevents you from succeeding at running for office, and as President Bush put it, "I don't know that atheists should be regarded as citizens, nor should they be regarded as patriotic."
One hopes (well, if one is me) that the continuing closure of the scientific window will continue to squeeze the god of the gaps out of our persistent mythology until the religious belief systems are actually, for all intents and purposes, gone; but frankly, I doubt it. We still have citizens who believe in crystals, therapeutic touch, chiropractic, and a whole host of other mumbo jumbo, though science has weighed in rather heavily in favor of rousing debunkings.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
There's a reason that sports team loyalty is sometimes referred to as a religion. When anybody asks me if I like [team x], I just tell them that I'm an atheist.
"Pointless flamebait causes cynical reaction in brains of /.ers"
There is no brain center that "evolved to process religion". This same brain center lights up anytime anyone has a strong emotional reaction to anything. Studies that make claims like this either (a) dont have a good control condition, or (b) are massively over-interpreting their results. Usually both. These studies are picking up that some people, namely Apple product owners, have strong emotional reactions to the brand. This forum is the last place that should be a surprise. Even without data specific data to prove the point, this way of interpreting this kind of data isn't sound. Religion hasn't been around long enough to be a factor natural selection could use to act on the genome. Specific correlates of religion (like super strong emotional feelings, or suppressing contemplative reactions) may have been. Those are what you are seeing.
Oh please, I have friend who drools like pavlov's dog every time he sees the android robot. He is overlook any flaw, any shortcoming and lack of functionality and simply declare whatever the device is as perfect just like it is....its reached a point of absolute delusion. Many Sony fans are the same way, look at any PS3 fan forum and look at the excuses and apologies their fans make for the whole PSN fiasco. Even here there was at one time a rather overwhelming contingent that seemed to think the only reason Linux didn't rule the desktop was because everyone else was stupid...nothing else mattered. I think people get rabid passion for certain things because they fear "loosing" i.e. picking the wrong or least popular product, or fear of the perception their choice has on their peers. In reality there are far more people that buy things based on what they want to do and the products ability to do it, but the voice of logic and reason is usually low key because they are busy actually using their stuff rather than wasting time defending it.
I'm pretty sure you will find that anytime somone feels the need to defend their choices, their religious centers will get triggered. It could be Apple products, memory foam, latex, or sleep number beds. Emacs versus VI. Gun control. Abortion... Jiffy peanut butter versus Peter Pan. blah, blah, blah. These are all "religious" arguments for some people.
There should be plenty of money if you're right.
Oh, seems like you're not all that certain. Should'a read the small print "Guarantees are backed by bugger all and dn15 reserves the right to say 'I was only kidding' to get out of any penalties".
of something I once read in a Chuck Colson book. He told the story of a girl who lived in the Soviet Union under the communists. All the time at school she heard about how God was a fairy tale and a superstition and all that, finally she began thinking to herself, "Why are they spending so much time talking about a God who isn't real if they don't believe it?" She began to read the works of Russian Christians that the communists hadn't banned, and she ended up becoming a believer.
Apple fanboys are as irrational as religious folks. Who woulda thunk?
No, they are not. At least they believe in something that actually exists unlike the billions of nutjobs who believe in an imaginary deity.
See; Braun t3 pocket radio, circa 1958.
I watched this show and and frequently thought that the presenter was a dope. The programme was certainly low quality "journalism" and had nothing of intelligence to say. As the brain researchers stated to the presenter, they have seen effects like this when they show anything that people like to a subject while getting they are getting a CT scan. His comments on the "cathedral-like" atmosphere at Apple stores is a stretch, to say the least. He states that tables with laptops on them are "altars". I would not go that far, mate. It's a store - selling products. Would you prefer that they be put on the floor?
Whatever stimulates this area of your brain is your god, and it could be anything.
Relates to the Commandments: "You shall have no other gods before me." and "You shall not make for yourself an idol."
Maybe this tells us more about that so-called test for religious experience than it tells us about Apple.
fMRI again - I want to know how dead salmon react to Apple imagery.
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/09/fmrisalmon/
Eloi are stupid, throw morlocks at them!
The story noted “The results suggested that Apple was actually stimulating the same parts of the brain as religious imagery does in people of faith.”
If it was generically said that "iconic products & services stimulate a certain section of the brain which is also stimulated by people of faith" the bias and imagery is gone as it does not imply fanaticism.
Journalists keep slanting things to suit their "fanaticism". How's that for an inditement by using just one word.
For people who say that Windows or Linux users are just as bad, I can give you an example of why this isn't true.
Back when I was single a few years back, I was on several dating sites. I saw MANY profiles of women* who specifically said you "must be a Mac lover" or "must not be a Windows user" to date them. I never saw one that said you must use Windows or Linux, or that you must not use a Mac.
So if you're trying to find a life partner based on the type of OS they use, yeah, you're a religious fanatic about it.
*not sure about the men, I was only looking for women.
I walked into an Apple store while I was texting on my Samsung Captivate android phone a few months ago. :)
Is it the same area of the brain that is triggered when apple (or MS or google or etc) hating trolls see an article about apple (or MS or google or etc), especially one that seems to correlate with their preconceived notions? I've always wondered what area of the brain triggers salivation...
Religion lets you accept things without needing to understand them.
It Just Works?
Steve Jobs is a cult leader.
Okay, so being a fanboy is akin to being religious, regardless of whether you're a Catholic fanboy or a devoted Apple devotee, or whatever.
What I want to know is: Why do we have that instinct in the first place? I understand social instincts, parental instincts, even mob mentality.
But what good is religious fervour? Is it an instinct that's so new that only humans have it? Or is it not an instinct at all, but more of an overdeveloped pack instinct?
Any suggestions, anyone?
The things that can and often are components of people's personalities are varied and many. A person's sex, sexual orientation, age, street/school/district/city/state/country of origin, favorite sports team, political affiliation, religion, and yes "favorite brands and products" are among the many things that contribute to a person's sense of identity.
And why do I focus on identity? Because when an element of a person's identity is called into question, you are literally calling that person's identity into question. If you ever wondered why such violent reactions can occur when a discussion about any of those elements come about, you have to understand that you are essentially attacking that person without actually realizing it.
Many of us, who do not include politics, sports teams, religion or favorite brands and products as part of our own identities see these elements as a "choice" and often hope to change people's minds about a thing. But you aren't changing their minds as much as you are challenging beliefs and their very identities.
In truth and in fact, many of these elements are "choices" but once they become an element of identity, it will be pretty close to impossible for those people to see it that way.
Personally, the way I see it, when a person assumes any of these things as a part of their identity, they have just give up a part of their brain. And I don't care what we are talking about -- Apple fandom, Christianity, Republican/Democrat affiliation, whatever. They have donated a part of their brain to whatever it is and their thinking and their ability to think has been limited and even controlled from that point forward.
If the results are any different, I'll eat my hat. Just substitute your favorite open-source figurehead for Steve Jobs. I mean, how else can you explain people's willingness to slog through 15 years of crappy hardware support, half-implemented or abandoned software, and a community that, to put it mildly, had a bit of an attitude when it came to helping new people?
I'd venture to say linux users are MORE "religious" than Apple users. At least Apple presented working solutions to their customers. I know people that fought with ALSA/Jack and RTlinux desperately hoping that linux would allow them to record their own music on the PC. Their product of choice limited their ability to create. Who gives that kind of power away? Religious people.
If you look around you find that traditional religions are on the decline, particularly with the younger crowd. This doesn't surprise me at all. Much of the mainstay of religion (explaining the mysteries of the universe) has been taken away by modern science and so on. Plus modern media makes it much easier to find out that perhaps the church is NOT the repository of truth they wish to advertize themselves as.
However it does seem to me that most people have what you might call "religious receptors." Many humans seem to have a need for something like religion which would go a long way to explaining its persistence.
Well that seems to lead to them being religious about other things. Apple and Global Warming are two that I see a lot of. Now before people get worked up I don't mean just using Apple or believing Global Warming to be fact, I mean being, well, religious about it. Being completely zealous about it, refusing to listen to any reason, shouting down those who think differently, etc, etc.
It seems to have filled the "religion need" in their brains.
Nothing in the brain has "evolved to process religion"
It was the company that basically invented evangelical marketing after all.
comment first, facts later. http://chem.tufts.edu/AnswersInScience/RelativityofWrong.htm
The devout and the atheists are of the same cloth: knowing they're absolutely right about the definitvely unknowable. I'm an agnostic because organized religion (all of 'em) is the most ruthless killing machine man ever invented. Not to mention the only thing all religions can actually agree upon is misogyny.
Do you believe there are giant purple space bunnies who live in caves on the far side of the moon?
Sure, technically speaking there might be, but there is nothing in our experience of the real world that would give us any reason to give such an absurd proposition a moment's thought.
When most atheists assert a lack of belief in "God", this is what they mean -- that the probability of a "God" existing is infinitesimal, and it's best to go about life not worrying about "God" any more than one would worry about gigantic purple space bunnies.
So why do atheists spend so much time talking about something they don't believe in? Because the influence of religion in our society (particularly Christianity in the U.S.) is so pervasive that it seems normal. In spite of the alleged benefit of religions, they have caused a lot of evil in the world, so why should we accept the massive brainwashing of children to believe in these ancient myths as something "normal"? So atheists must be the ones who appear to make noise, but they're up against the deafening silence of a monolithic status quo which is horribly broken and must be fixed.
Here, listen to a real atheist, and find out what they're actually talking about, instead of just trying to imagine what they must think.
http://www.ted.com/talks/richard_dawkins_on_militant_atheism.html
-- Only unbalanced people can tip the scales.
So Microsoft IS the devil! It all makes sense now.
for the existence of Apple. Believe it or not.
As an atheist, now I know why I dislike religious images AND Apple. Thanks!
A little background:
- I was an alter boy - one day before mass, the Priest said to me, "time to put on the show." Clearly, he understood the higher power at work. Entertainment.
- I was always envious of people who could afford to spend $1000 more on an Apple computer than any others of similar features cost.
- Then Apple became controlling, just like Christian, Jewish and Muslim religions. That's when my HATRED towards Apple began, when they started trying to control everything.
- I dislike being controlled. Fortunately, I don't need any more money.
The fact that most people are "believers" in an imaginary person AND that most people seem to like when Apple tells them what they should and should not like tells me that Atheists will have a hard time converting anyone .... from Apple or worshiping false gods/imaginary entities.
I don't eat McDonalds, don't drink Coke, don't got to movies, don't watch network TV, don't read newspapers, avoid eating anything from a can or box, don't have a normal phone, or a monthly cell phone plan. I use SIP/VoIP and a pay-as-you-go SIM card in a $20 phone.
Some may call me part of the counter-culture. I simply think that most people are stupid to believe in imaginary, unprovable things. Some of my family members who are really smart scientifically, are also stupid due to religions. A few - with lots of money - also buy anything/everything that Apple sells. There house is lousey with Apple crap. Seriously, how many ipads, iphones, ipods does a family need? They have 8 iphones for 4 people. Probably 10 ipods between them; some for jogging, some for long trips, etc... ) there's always a reason for the new version. Last time I checked there was only 1 ipad, but that was 5 months ago. They probably have the new one already. Fortunately, they don't have any Apple computers or networking crap. They would have an AppleTV2 if I hadn't showed them XBMC to connect to their Linux running home NAS.
So, like religion, being an Apple Fanboi gives you a feeling of superiority? Where's the surprise?
Did they also test Thinkpad owners? Next I want to see same group check brains of anti-nuclear protesters for religious response. Then devout liberals can be tested next. Probably some comparison groups should be tested also. Maybe Corolla owners versus Prius owners?
My point being, too many groups probably operate on emotion, make decisions on basis of emotion and actively resist influences of history & logic. Maybe UK neuroscientists can show which groups operate unhampered by knowledge of history or use of logic.
I've listened to Windows users complain for the last twenty years that they wish their systems would "just work". You know, if you could just sit down and use your computer without having to constantly fix bugs, patch problems, reinstall drivers, remove malware, and so on. Well, Apple systems - whether you love 'em or hate 'em - are far closer to this ideal state than Windows PCs. You can switch on your Mac, iPhone, iPod, or iPad and be confident that it will be ready to work for you...not demand you invest an hour or more working for it first! That's very important to some people - that their devices are tools to get things done, not just things to waste time tinkering with.
I've been using Windows and Linux systems since they were available, and had always viewed Apple from the other side of the fence. But the iPhone was an eye opener for me. Apple was changing the game by putting a tool in your hand that could completely replace the computer for a great many users, and at least supplement it while on-the-go for the majority of others. And it works! If it crashes...it takes just a minute to reboot the system. No drivers to install, no viruses bringing down your system...suddenly everyone has a tool they can actually use even if they know next to nothing about how it works! Then they follow that up with the iPad...for those that basically need a larger display. It works too!
Finally I broke down and bought a MacBook Pro. Side-by-side with my Dell laptop, I needed the MacBook to start developing for iOS...for my iPhone. Guess what? The Dell went bye-bye as soon as I discovered how user-friendly and reliable my MacBook was! Seriously...it does it all,,,and it does almost everything BETTER! No longer do I worry about "patch Tuesday" and BSOD. System updates are automatic. It never freezes, the browser doesn't have memory leaks like IE that eventually bring your system to a crawl, the UI is clean and intuitive...and finally I feel as if my computer and my phone are real tools...not some sort of hobby kit or science project that requires constant tinkering to make them work. Does this bring me peace of mind? You bet it does!
What this is showing is that religious imagery triggers the same areas of the brain as tribal-based loyalty between otherwise highly similar versions of the same product, not the other way around. (In the case of religion, the 'brand' is the set of metaphors for the identical features of human nature.)
I would tend to believe that the vi v. emacs debate activates the same portions of the brain...
When are people who are a part of the faithful herd (regardless of the faithful herd) going to accept that not being a member of your religion is not a leap of faith?
(Answer: never)
IMHO you're getting this partly because you're misbranding yourself as an athiest when you appear to actually be a non-militant agnostic.
Non-god-belief comes in (at least) three forms:
- Athiesm: "I KNOW there is no God / are no dieties."
- Militant agnosticism: "I don't know if there is/are and I KNOW that YOU DON'T KNOW EITHER."
- Non-militant agnosticism: "I have no idea. (But non-belief doesn't seem to matter {except in interacting with militant believers} so Occam's razor argues that not assuming one exists is a more easily used working hypothesis)."
The first two are arguably religions.
Yes, some of them will STILL make the claim. Their memes run: ...
1) Blah
2) Blah blah
3) Blah blah blah
100) Anyone who doesn't believe this will rot in hell.
so they're trying to do you a big favor. B-b
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
I hate to break this to you... But the device that "just works" doesn't exist. This is evident by all the sites which exist to support issues with this "just works" device.
Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
Scientists tested the brains reaction to pictures and were surprised when the brain responded the same way when it was exposed to ... more pictures?
Oh, I see - scientists have found the crApple fans actually have brains. Who would'a thunk?!
Coffee-driven development.
There has been a lot of debate about the reasons for biblical mandates among Jewish rabbis, and the kosher laws are no exception.
If you look at the kosher laws and compare them to the rituals practiced by the other religions in Egypt around the time of the exodus, you'll see an interesting relationship: Following the kosher laws means you can't participate in some important ritual of each of the other religions, and nearly all the kosher laws have at least one known religious ritual they block.
Example: One had a ritual feast with a main dish consisting of a young goat cooked in its mother's milk. Not kosher to eat a mix of meat and milk, so can't participate.
= = = =
Regarding pork: In addition to the issue of disease transmission due to similar biochemistry, pigs were also something of an ecological disaster for some of the enfironments in the area. Other religions than Judaism have (unexplained and apparently arbitrary) prohibitions on them.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
Um, Macs are PCs...as PC stands for Personal Computer, as opposed to Mainframe Computers. I have always wondered about the logic of calling it PC vs Mac, when both are PCs...
APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
From the linked article
"the editor of World of Apple, Alex Brooks, an Apple worshipper who claims to think about Apple 24 hours a day"
That one person was their test subject..........
In other news, Apple sues all major religions for infringing on Apple's patented methods of marketing.
The truth is, a number of dusty little abrahamic "deities" have hijacked the portions of the brain that evolved to appreciate Apple products ...
It can be argued that religion and advertising have BOTH hijacked a portion of the brain that evolved to do something else (or possibly just showed up randomly, wasn't detrimental enough to get selected out, and hung around until random gene loss made it pervasive by eliminating the alternatives).
Religions can be quite detrimental to their adherents. So either the region's other hypothetical "proper function(s)" (like that of prion protein) is important or some religions convey enough survival benefits (like sickle cell trait vs. malaria) that the harm is more than offset by the benefit.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
I like how you said:
And ALSO said:
Normally you have to tie a couple of posts together to illustrate hypocrisy.But to challenge your point more directly - I think most "newly minted" atheists behave like you state; they're still shaking the God shit and tend to be a little more angry about it. It tends to fade after a while.
Apple as a religion! Please!
https://img.skitch.com/20091224-fsari6fkwrururpcsinf6r6mnd.jpg
St. Jobs, pray for me! Now and at the time of the Slashdotting!
Guaranteed! This comment 100% Anthrax free!
The future genertion kids would say A for Apple (not the real apple but show the Apple products Iphone, Ipad),
Like we didn't know!
Common sense is old news.
This explains the magic.
The bashing here is pretty much towards anything overrated and/or underdeveloped, I find it pretty evenly-spread.
The only thing that isn't bashed as much, are Linux-type OSs, yet they do inherit a lot of jokes, not from the faults, but the abstract anatomy of their users.
All glory to Arstotzka!
So.. what is the difference between sports fans and their stadium then?
They are very religious in their support too?
The way some of the fans react, it can be positively violent (like soccer in Europe)
The summary says: "According to the scientists, this suggests that the big tech brands have harnessed, or exploit, the brain areas that have evolved to process religion."
Isn't it really that religion evolved to exploit some quirk in brain structure?
And another study shows that Apple haters' brains have a remarkable similarity to those of anti-semites, homophobes, Michael Moore and chimpanzees, in which the portions of the brain normally devoted to respecting others are shriveled, while tumor-like enlargements are found in the parts which control the flinging of poo, jealousy and the overwhelming urge to need someone else to insult before self-esteem can occur.
People who are so overwhelmingly stupid and arrogant as to judge others by the brand of computer or phone they buy do not deserve jobs in tech. About the only place they should have a job is in a dairy where they can use their natural tendency to shovel bullshit to the advantage of others.
Everybody gets what the majority deserves.
I know it's totally out of context, but allow me some creative license:
"primitive fire-based cooking"
Not like the laser based cooking we have now.
Isn't that just called advertising and/or marketing? Is this really anything new?
You know, how some guys might invoke Apple in order to draw more attention to their little documentary.
Love how the thread turned into a squabbling mass of loons about the definition of atheism. You people... honestly...
In Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series of books, the bad guys are the Goliath Corporation ( http://www.goliathcorp.com/index2.html ) a huge mega corp that effectively run the country (UK) behind the scenes. They decide at one stage set out to become a religion .. all makes sense now :)
Love it when fact and fiction line up like this :)
Think it was the 4th book " Something Rotten " if memory serves..
Bullshit Brain-dead Corporation makes great documentaries for intellectually challenged.
Evolution, Or more precisely, the idea that some portion of the human brain would "evolve to process religious imagery" is the exact point where I lost interest. It just does not compute.
Are there any guesses on how fanboyism correlates with atheism?
It would be interesting to learn if atheists were more likely to fill their religious gap with consumer products or if atheists were also less likely to become fanboys.
Disclaimer: I'm an atheist that avoids apple.
Disclaimer: correlation != causation
Religion at its core is designed to help people cope with the complexities of human existence and relationships with the world at large. What better tool is there for making complex tasks simpler than a computer (Apple-flavored of course).
What distinguishes Religion, Apple and popular dictator obsessed with a cult of personality on one side, and the lose fanboy idealists who support Linux, intellectual art-form and the likes on the other side :
is the infrastructure.
- Religious movement have usually an Alpha.
We're social beings. With a hierarchical organisation of society (as opposite to cats who are only optionally social, and when together, aren't much structured, only a herd). So we're more or less programmed to follow a leader, trust our parents, and the like. Religious persons happen to be on the "more" rather on the "less" side. A monotheistic deity is the absolute over-alpha figure.
Most of the religions have a prominent figure to concentrate attention on him/her. There is an iconic personality. A high priest everybody follow.
Be it a Pope or whatever is head of your brand of monothesitic religion, Steve Jobs, the Dictator, etc. There's a personality on whom to concentrate attention. You whach him/her, follow him/her, attend to his/her speaches, wait with anxiety for his announcements, etc. His the point of focus of the ecstatic religious experience.
On the Linux side and FSF, well... hum. Linus Torvalds and RMS are much more quieter personality. Linus doesn't make a show out of himself, he just get his work done. And nobody really listens to RMS. Most people consider him as a rambling lunatic, although history tends to show that the guy indeed has a point. There is no worshipping of strong leaders as per se. Fanboys might defend there idea but they are much more losely based. It has much more to do with a sense of value and ideology and belonging to some kind of lose group (something akin to patriotism if we want to compare with known behaviour). No real alpha.
- Religious movement have rituals.
Religious people tend to group together and to mutually sustain the typical ecstatic state associated with religious experiences. The religious followers meet together in churches, attends specific big masses and religious ceremonies, etc.
Apple follower are excited when entering an Apple Store, they all massively follow Apple's conferences, not only attending them, but listening to webcasts even in the middle of the night if residing on a different timezone. There's much anticipation about what next great thing will be announced by Jobs himself. Etc. (It's not a coincidence if the iPhone is sometime ridiculed as a "Jesus Phone". And fans waiting for the latest iAnnouncement of the latest iProduct are compared to waiting for the second coming).
(And you can keep the comparison with Dictator's public speech, rallies, parades, etc. where the worshiping is stimulated).
Meanwhile, in Linux land, well.... okay maybe a few will be happy when a new version of their own specific favourite distro is release. When something or some project of certain notoriety hit some milestone, there might be a few beer parties thrown here and there, and a few people gathering together, but that would be more like a pretext to do some socializing with like minded people. Nothing like the huge "let's all get excited together" quasi-religious masses of Apple. There's no strong sense of anticipation.
So on one side we see more people banding together in quasi sheep-like following. On the other hand you have a bunch of raving individualists. Both can get equally annoying, but the underlying mechanisms are different, because these people are all different.
That's also why you'll always have Apple followers on one hand and Linux fanboys on the other. None can take over the other, they just function in completely different ways.
In fact I think that its too separate population. Extremist people who have brains tuned for religion will tend to go for Apple, because it fills the need for ecstatic shared experience that their specially wired brain needs. On the other hand extremists of the more individualistic persuation will cather more toward Linux or the like, because they like the ideology etc. (Not specially attracted by RMS, or because they love to attends Dawkins conferences).
And in the middle, you'll find a bunch of pragmatists which use whatever is the most suitable to their needs, without needing to pay much attention to the trolling of the other groups.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
On your first point, you'd have to prove that a god doesn't exist as much as the religious would have to prove a god exists. It's unprovable.
First, you can prove to me that the earth is the center of the universe and that the heavens move in relation to our center.
Second, you can prove to me that spontaneous human creation is possible.
Work on those and then we'll consider moving on to the bigger stuff.
I'll also throw in "the power of prayer". Show me a double blind study proving that prayer has a statistically significant impact on anything beyond a placebo effect.
It just shows that a good marketing team give people a certain response to a product. Over the past few thousand years or so you get religious leaders applying their know-how of the way people work to get people to 'buy' their stories. Apple have just been doing the same thing within the last 10 years.
should be applied to those on either side of the global warming debate. I would love to see those results (preferably in a shiny powerpoint presentation)
The new right fascists are bilingual. They speak English and Bullshit.
They don't. Try spending time with actual Christians, it's about all they discuss. You may not know it but there is a very large community of online nuns and priests that discuss primarily, matters of theology, at least in the Church of England.
As an atheist, I wish them well.
What you have here is bias, bias without fact being used to back up an ill thought out point.
Here we have the part that demonstrates you are well and truely detached from reality.
You attempt to vilify them using a negative connotation (anal intercourse) then you tie them to the object that you feel most threatened by (wintel based PC's).
In extreme irony, you are the very object you deride. You are using an irrational hate to justify your point, this is evident by the fact that you must use insults rather then logic to get your point across. You also use thought terminating cliche's to prevent readers from questioning your point. By doing so, you've helped prove the case against you, a neutral observer must accept that "PC's are bad" which is the exact tactic of certain evangelical preists "Sin is bad"
You need to do this.
So does the person who modded you up.
Believe me as an atheist who knows enough theists to have insights into their community. Oh, we are both also rational enough to respect each others positions on the subject of God.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
They can now claim they've gone beyond being fanboys...they are now Acolytes of the new religion. Of course those with moderate experience are Adepts... At the higher levels, Adepts. And of course, Apple Angels -- they can lay hands on a bricked iphone, purge it of unauthorized software and restore it to life.
It means apple just like other religious scams all use the same marketing scheme.
Duh. Everyone knows Apple is a religion. This is like studying the effect of guys seeing beer or tits, and being surprised that they're stimulated in the way everyone else in the country knows as a given.
-Dave Haynie
Secular humanists are no less religious, so is it not a religion because it has no God? Does Gaea count?
Slashdot "libertarians": Small government for me, big government for those I disagree with. -1, I disagree with you
Heh. I was trying to come up with a non-ambiguous way of putting that, and failed to come up with something. My real point was that a modern oven is a lot better at heating food all the way through, but now I think about it, we do use microwaves for cooking as well as fire these days. Microwave ovens are generally pretty good at destroying bacteria.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
Well, they did bit the apple (like a certain Adam).
I would think it more accurate to say "religion causes Apple-like reaction in brains".
" According to the scientists, this suggests that the big tech brands have harnessed, or exploit, the brain areas that have evolved to process religion."
Uh that would be religion had long ago learned to harness/hijack those parts of the brain that evolved to understand some human created objects, processes and behaviors as having extreme life-preserving and therefore absolute value.
Let's get causality running in the right direction here. There is no survival value to believing that if you pray, something in your material world will be better since it's not true.
The correct term for this phenomenon is "Fanboy". It's not specific to Apple; they can be found in many other common varieties such as Sony, Microsoft, Windows, Linux, Halo, PS3, WoW, and so on.
You can commonly find the North American Fanboy in both Urban and Sub-Urban environments. While they do indeed flock towards Apple outlet stores, you can find them congregating near any name-brand outlet store or stripmall. Comic book shops and video game or small electronics stores seem to have a disproportionately large number of them, although the exact reasons are still unknown to researchers.
Although similar in terms of outward appearance, the Northern Anti-Fanboy is notably more aggressive and hostile. Attempting to use reasonable words and tones of voice will often enrage them further, so experts advise the unprepared against any form of conversation with one. This is in stark contrast to the more relaxed and mild-mannered Fanboy, who will usually simply babble harmlessly and ignore anything you say.
Both species of Fanboyus Maximus are considered as only slightly dangerous, although caution should be used in or around Event Premiers and Product Launches. They both also share the same trait of approaching you without invitation, as if you cared about the depths of their personal Devotion to whatever Cause they pushing on you. Of the two, it is difficult to say which is harder to deal with. On one hand, the Fanboy, or fanbois irritatus, will appear quietly and produce a low hum which follows you around for great distances, which grows more bothersome as time goes on until you begin contemplating murder. But on the other hand, the brashness of the Anti-Fanboy, or fanbois trollissimus, creates a much more charged and potentially violent, or even more likely publicly embarrassing, situation.
Due to the recent proliferation of both Fanboy and Anti-Fanboy species, the U.S. Fish, Wildlife, and Parks Department has officially opened the Season year round. Hunters will be able to purchase tags in sets of 6 Fanboys per person, but there will be no tag required for Anti-Fanboys due to the recent Smartphone-fueled growth of their numbers.
I'd have to take issue with that; most Apple fanbois believe in the technological superiority of Apple products over everything else, which is questionable at best. Many of them also tend to proseletize quite strongly, and ignore the bad things that Apple does, much like catholics gloss over pederasty.
Nathan's blog
Food still gets cooked all the way through over open flame, it's really cook times to do that that have dropped in the modern era.
People who don't get any, focus on the "religion" part.
Fandroids hate facts.
Apple fans.
Brains.
Heh.
Religion has learned to exploit the part of our brain that was meant for the appreciation of Apple products.
Get it right!
This sig is false.
I hate to break this to you... But the device that "just works" doesn't exist.
Huh? Which device? Apple is a company and it exists.
I'd have to take issue with that; most Apple fanbois believe in the technological superiority of Apple products over everything else, which is questionable at best. Many of them also tend to proseletize quite strongly, and ignore the bad things that Apple does, much like catholics gloss over pederasty.
Still: Apple exists. Their products exists.
They might feel different about the products than you do but that doesn't dispute the existence of Apple and the products.
Deities on the other hand do not exist. They are made-up explanations for natural events from pre-science times. Today it is actually known what causes thunder and rain and so on.
Even though the same brain chemistry might be triggered, fully equating passionate product users to religion is simply false. Not only is it false, it makes a point in favor of religion as in: "See, Apple exists and causes the brain chemistry as religion does. Conclusion: God must trigger the brain chemistry for religion or why would anybody have it?"
Naa, that's retarded.
Die hard Apple fans might be wacky but at least they are not completely delusional as religious people who hear voices, have visions, and similar bullshit one would go to the mental hospital if she/he wasn't protected by religious freedom.