and, witch hunt-like hysterias tend to collapse when everyone can be suspected of the crime. So, although these accusations are harmful, perhaps they will ultimately contribute to the decline of child porn accusations that stray from what I presume is the law's intent (i.e., preventing harm to minors). It may be too soon to be optimistic, though; first, the false accusers may need to be (systematically, perhaps automatically) among the accused.
This study found that violent stimuli made some people more aggressive, but only the people who were already predisposed to being mean. Those with friendlier personalities were actually less hostile after seeing violent themes. Furthermore, a follow-up experiment found that the latter group actually had more thoughts about doing good for others after seeing violent themes. The authors suggest that these people develop mental patterns that prevent them from becoming violent after seeing violent themes.
Violent video games are not used directly in the study; instead, it was a word task, with one group getting lots of violent words. Still, it provides evidence that one already has to have violent tendencies for violent themes to have an effect. It is also an experimental study rather than correlational, so causation is easier to infer.
If findings like these are correct, video games are probably fine as long as one as developed a mature mode of thinking with respect to these games.
This could get spun as such...an asteroid would definitely be a weapon of mass destruction if it hit Earth. And what lies just beyond Mars? Asteroids! Not only that, but Mars already has two asteroids circling the planet! Clearly, something suspicious is going on here.
...or are these real-life child abusers still going to be simply reassigned to other locations, while photoshopping a fake depiction of the act would lead to jail time?
it should be capable of knocking out the section of the brain that controls other, critical bodily functions I am Jack's medulla oblongata. Without me, Jack could not regulate his heart rate, blood pressure, or-- *bzzzzzzt*
Einstein did not believe the universe was randomly generated, this means he believed in intelligent design This is a classic case of a false dichotomy. Either the creation of the universe is entirely random or there is an intelligent design(er). No other possibilities can exist.
Athiests believe the universe is a complete accident and that everything in the universe is random. If everything was entirely random (by the common use of the word, as the mathematical definition implies overall regularity and would contradict your argument), there would be no use for models or explanations, as they would not be able to represent or predict anything. Thus, an immediate consequence of believing that everything is random is that we cannot learn or gain anything from science, but atheist arguments frequently and strongly depend on science. For this and many other reasons, the words you place in the straw man atheist's mouth are quite unlikely to actually originate there.
Slashdot Mirror
and, witch hunt-like hysterias tend to collapse when everyone can be suspected of the crime. So, although these accusations are harmful, perhaps they will ultimately contribute to the decline of child porn accusations that stray from what I presume is the law's intent (i.e., preventing harm to minors). It may be too soon to be optimistic, though; first, the false accusers may need to be (systematically, perhaps automatically) among the accused.
Anyone else think that the "Power of Light" video on the NIF home page bears some resemblance to Spiderman 2?
This study found that violent stimuli made some people more aggressive, but only the people who were already predisposed to being mean. Those with friendlier personalities were actually less hostile after seeing violent themes. Furthermore, a follow-up experiment found that the latter group actually had more thoughts about doing good for others after seeing violent themes. The authors suggest that these people develop mental patterns that prevent them from becoming violent after seeing violent themes.
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/118597331/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0
Violent video games are not used directly in the study; instead, it was a word task, with one group getting lots of violent words. Still, it provides evidence that one already has to have violent tendencies for violent themes to have an effect. It is also an experimental study rather than correlational, so causation is easier to infer.
If findings like these are correct, video games are probably fine as long as one as developed a mature mode of thinking with respect to these games.
This could get spun as such...an asteroid would definitely be a weapon of mass destruction if it hit Earth. And what lies just beyond Mars? Asteroids! Not only that, but Mars already has two asteroids circling the planet! Clearly, something suspicious is going on here.
...or are these real-life child abusers still going to be simply reassigned to other locations, while photoshopping a fake depiction of the act would lead to jail time?