Marcus Wells | Body Thermodynamics
August 27, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Dr. Marcus Wells’ book revolutionizes ways on how to energize the body without radically changing your lifestyle. Thermogenix reveals “hidden” cellular potentials that restore, rejuvenate and rebalance your life. In a growing aging society, how we’re to maintain a balanced metabolism will be more important, but also will become more problematic. Dr. Wells’ incredible idea blends both a strong scientific basis towards understanding energy with a natural pursuit of it. This demonstrates so many ways that have been overlooked or misunderstood that we can now achieve what is often call the “super burn” effect of metabolism. This method helps you recapture “latent potentions of energy” necessary to live a more productive happier and healthier life. Dr. Wells was educated and trained in western medicine in the U.S.A. Upon receving his Doctorate of Medicine (MD), he continued his medical education at the world’s premiere bio-medical researchcenter, the National Institute of Health (NIH) where he trained with the nation’s most notable scientist in the areas of heart, lung, blood, and metabolic diseases.
Gayle Greene | Sleep Starved
June 27, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Gayle Greene has published dozens of articles in scholarly journals such as Signs, Contemporary Literature, and Renaissance Drama, many of which have been reprinted in anthologies (e.g., Blackwell¹s Shakespeare: An Anthology of Criticism and Theory, 1945-2000,2004)
Simcha Jacobovici | Lost Tomb of Jesus
June 27, 2008 | Leave a Comment
It was a great honor to feature Simcha Jacobovici on the show today! A journalist with many awards to his name, and great controversy, we get to the bottom of things in this special long interview… Simcha is an award-winning, controversial documentary film director and producer. His numerous awards include a Gold Medal from the International Documentary Festival of Nyon, a certificate of Special Merit from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Los Angeles, a Genie Award, three U.S. Cable Ace Awards, two Gemini Awards, an Alfred I. Dupont-Columbia University Award, a British Broadcast Award, a Royal Television Society Award and the Edward R. Murrow Award. Jacobovici has also won the Emmy for “Outstanding Investigative Journalism” an unprecedented three times (1996, 1997 and 2007). http://www.simc
Richard Guy | Receding Seas
May 16, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Richard Guy is a Structural Engineer with forty years experience in England, The Middle East, The United States and The West Indies. He has been an engineering consultant for thirty years. During his career he has observed subtle behavioral patterns of earth expansion and receding seas. He writes and speaks extensively on these subjects and the development of ancient civilizations in the high mountains of the earth for which he has been recognized by the International Biographical Center in Cambridge England. The author is listed in their Centennial edition 2000 Intellectuals of the Twentieth Century.
Leigh Le Creux | Astro Socks
March 7, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Leigh Le Creux spoke to us about science in schools, and about Creationism as well… Her new book Astro Socks is not just a great book for children and young teens, it is the first book in her series of books that stimulate the creative imaginations of children. More about Leigh Le Creux from her book’s press release:
Astro Socks by Leigh Le Creux is the inspirational book of the year for kids.
If J.K. Rowling and Dave Pilkey combined their efforts, they may have come close to creating a book similar to Astro Socks. It is the educational tool of the year for parents and teachers, and kids love it.“From the beginning of Astro Socks, my students and I were pulling for the main character, Chris. The author has an exceptional ability for using description to help the reader connect on an emotional level with her characters. My students were inspired by this child inventor, and were excited to create imaginative illustrations based on visualizations they had while reading the story. The number of classroom activities that could spiral from this book with my students are endless, thanks to the incredible creativity with which the story was written,”: Trisha Munroe, BEd, MEdThis short fiction novel concentrates on a young boy who turns his dreams of becoming an inventor into a reality. Like all children, he has a vivid imagination. As he uses his imagination and visualizes, his ideas begin to take shape. The more excited he becomes, the faster his ideas begin to take shape. The main character encounters various hurdles along his adventure, but he discovers that anything is possible when you have faith, determination, and the love of your family.The illustrations throughout Astro Socks are an amazing testimonial to the book as they are a result of in-classroom projects. Students also reviewed the fiction.“What I think is great is that a ten year old, a normal ten year old, all of a sudden turns into an inventor…NuPont doesn’t care if he is ten or not! They accept him right away!” “Amanda”, Grade Five StudentEducators must have this book on their reading lists, and in their classrooms. Parents and all book lovers enjoy reading it and learning at the same time.Connecting creativity and the imagination are in every line of this work. “Astro Socks inspires and connects the dots for successful kids, like the movie, The Secret, is known to do for adults”, says Le Creux. “Faith, determination, and imagination are qualities all of us need to cultivate - especially in our children.”Astro Socks (ISBN 0-595-46375-4) retails at $9.95 and is available from Ingram Book Group, Baker and Taylor, and from iUniverse. To order, call 1-800-AUTHORS.
David Gruder Transcript
March 1, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Kent Gustavson: Welcome back to Sound Authors. Its Leap Day, and my next guess is Dr. David Gruder. He’s the author of “The New IQ” and TheNewIQ.com. Welcome to the show.
David Gruder: It’s a pleasure to be here with you, Kent.
Kent Gustavson: Can you give me a little sound clip about your book and your movement?
David Gruder: Integrity is the topic of the book. The subtitle is “How Integrity Intelligence Serves You, your Relationships and your World.” The book is essentially about helping people come to grips with how integrity is a very, very crucial self-serving thing to develop some real intelligence about. Its really not possible to experienece the fulfillment of each peak unless we really have excellent integrity.
Kent Gustavson: So, the IQ is an antiquated forum? Is that part of it?
David Gruder: Well, yes. In some ways its antiquated, traditional IQ is intellectual intelligence. There’s certainly value in intellectual intelligence to an extent. We’ve seen that get kind of updated through the emotional intelligence movement, which has been very, very helpful as well. The new IQ is integrity intelligence, which, I think, is really the solution to the vast majority of the problems we have individually, in our relationships, and as a society today.
Kent Gustavson: Is it something that people have to struggle with, integrity? Or is it something you’re born with?
David Gruder: That’s a really good question that you’re asking. I don’t know that its something that we’re necessarily born with, I think what we’re born with is the roots of integrity. Which are three core drives that all people have, as far as I’ve been able to discern as a psychologist. One is a drive for authenticity, to be who we truly are. The second is a drive for connection with others, and the third is a drive to have positive impact in the world.We can see all three of these core drives in infants and very, very young children. These core drives seem to be innate, if you will, as your asking about. A practical way of understanding integrity, that moves us beyond the philosophical, vague, abstract concepts is to tie integrity to being aligned with all three of our core drives. For authenticity, connection, and impact.
Kent Gustavson: I know that you do something called “energy psychology”. Can you tell me a little bit about that?
David Gruder: Yes; actually, I was the founding president of a nonprofit organization called “The Association for Comprehensive Energy Psychology”. What that field is, is a newly emerging field within psychology that has adapted standard of care approached in other health care disciplines like chiropractic and acupuncture and a number of others; the nursing field as well.To help with a whole range of psychological concerns from removing old blockages and baggage to embedding and embodying desired states and desired beliefs. Through explicitly and deliberately re-balancing a person’s energy field, aspects of their electromagnetic system.
Kent Gustavson: For the doubters, what is it about an energy field that’s scientific?
David Gruder: Well, we can certainly determine that easily enough because the National Institutes of Health has recognized acupuncture as a legitimate and effective healing method. What acupuncture does is that it re-balances an aspect of the human vibrational matrix or energy system called the meridians; the pathways that chi, or energy, flows through the body.A large segment of the energy psychology family of methods do the same thing without needles through acupressure, or the equivalent of acupressure; which is just as effective as needles, it turns out. So we’ve got a strong scientific basis from the acupuncture research literature.
Kent Gustavson: How do we go about finding you and then reading the book and changing the way that we exist, in terms of integrity?
David Gruder: My website is TheNewIQ.com. T-H-E-N-E-W-I-Q all together, .com. On that website you’ll find information about The New IQ book, its accompanying workbook, and the energy psychology methods as well.
Kent Gustavson: This time of year people are sinking into a little bit of a depression. The nation itself is sinking into a little bit of a recession. How does this IQ, the integrity intelligence, how does that effect us in this time?
David Gruder: I think it effects us dramatically. This particular recession that we’re in is as far as I can tell in large part one of the first recessions we’ve gone through that has been directly caused by lack of integrity. Its been caused by lack on integrity in budget planning in the federal government, going into huge amounts of debt. Its been caused by lack on integrity in the mortgage industry, by selling mortgages that are out of integrity, then funding or underwriting those mortgages in ways that are out of integrity.So we’ve got massive societal lack of integrity that has directly, in my opinion, caused today’s recession, and unless we develop some further integrity intelligence as individiuals, in our relationships, and as a society. We are going to continue to have the business problems, the economic problems, the social problems, the ideological strife, the personal misery, and the relationship failures that we see in our society.
Dr. Kent Gustavson: Do you think we’re headed in the right direction?
David: I think we have the passion to. This is the irony. There are more resources available to everyone today for upgrading their own authenticity, their connection with others, and their capacity to have positive impact in the world. There’s no longer an excuse for not developing ourselves as individuals, our relationship abilities, and our capacity to have positive impact. So we are now at a choice point that has to do with our willingness to utilize those resources. It’s not that the resources are not available anymore, they are.
Dr. Kent: So do you work with individuals as well as groups and as well as being an author?
David: Right. I had a flourishing private practice, a waiting list private practice until 2000 and I closed my private practice at that point sadly because my workshop and speaking schedule was starting to take me out of town so much of the time. It was difficult for me to continue to work ongoingly with clients. So I work today with very few individuals, usually in leadership positions in order to help leaders really have more positive impact on all of the people that they are impacting in the first place. Mostly what I do these days is consulting, speaking, workshops, and writing.
Dr. Kent: You talked about a whole bunch of things in your book and people in business, in government, in religion have said that it’s an easy to read manual. Is it practical to have something that’s in common language?
David: Yes, I think that what’s practical–you know, my publisher was really reluctant to publish this book because he said, “Integrity–we all know that we have big integrity problems in our world today but integrity isn’t a particularly sexy topic. The reason that she said, “Yes, I’m publishing this book” is because I said to him, “Look, there are two ways to make integrity sexy. One is to convert it some of the vague abstract philosophical concept into a concrete set of actions that anyone from everyday people to world leaders can sink their teeth into. The second is to show how it’s extremely self-serving to develop impeccable integrity.” Once he read my book, he said, “Oh, my gosh, you succeeded at that. You’ve made integrity sexy. I’m publishing it.”
Dr. Kent: [laughs] The front cover, of course, has a big heart as well as a human face on one side–a sexy one, in fact–and then the other side, there’s a picture of the world. Can you explain the cover?
David: Yes, certainly. Three section of the subtitle. The human face is ourselves, our own authenticity. The heart is our connection with others and the world is our impact in the world. So three section of the subtitle, the “New IQ: How Integrity Intelligence Serves You, Your Relationships, and Our World.”
Dr. Kent: Give me an example, what’s a way for all of us listening to simply make a change in our integrity?
David: An example on a personal level is that we can upgrade our personal integrity by looking at our self-care. A lot of us are self-neglectful because we’re so busy with our careers or perhaps we’re trying to do good in the world that we come last. People go into exhaustion and sleep deprivation and other kinds of not taking care of themselves nutritionally or exercise-wise. They deplete their own life energy to the point where they stop being as effective in their careers and their service work as they would like to be. So that would be upgrading personal integrity.Relationship integrity would be focusing on being much more honest about the commitments that we make so that what we actually do matches what we say we’re going to do. On the collective integrity level, societal integrity level, we can each do a whole range of things as what I call “everyday stewards” in order to express societal integrity. Things as simple as when we go into a parking lot, parking inside the line of the parking space rather than over the line into the next parking space which then makes it hard or impossible for somebody to park next to us.
Dr. Kent: So does this has something to do with karma?
David: Does it have something to do with karma? [laughs] Because I ride brought [sp] up cars? [laughs]
Dr. Kent: There you go, yes.
David: Yes.
Dr. Kent: In society, we always say, “If you’re the guy that parks over the line in the parking spot then someday it’s going to come back to you.”
David: Yes. It’s true that what goes around comes around. We’ve certainly seen that although some people get very impatient with that because sometimes it takes longer for things to come around to a person who we think did something wrong to us. We sometimes don’t get to see the karma we keep [sp] on them. But, whenever we do something that’s out integrity, on some level inside ourselves, we incur a level of guilt unless we’re completely sociopathic and that’s the very best minority of our sociopathic. The rest of us incur some degree of guilt for being out of integrity with ourselves or in our relationships or with society and that guilt does backfire on us. Sooner or later, it gets us.
Dr. Kent: So over this conversation, obviously, I think you hinted that earlier our government right now has really, in some ways, failed a lot of the people in this country and that’s why in both parties, people really want change. When you apply these concepts to say, our President or Vice President or the policies of our government, does it work on that macro scale?
David Gruder: Absolutely it works on that macro scale. I’ve done training of ambassadors to the World Trade Organization in integrity development and collaborative negotiation skills and things like that. It definitely works on that level. It turns out that there are 10 key aspects of politician integrity that voters and the media really need to know more about; and on my website, TheNewIQ.com, I have a free tool for people called the “Politician Integrity Rating Tool” that people can actually use to go through 10 dimensions of politician integrity to rate each of the four current major Presidential candidates.
Kent Gustavson: Now that sounds like a great reason to visit your website. TheNewIQ.com, how do we find that page?
David Gruder: All you do is you’ll see a link on the home page for the, it says “Politician Integrity Rating Tool”, or you can go directly to that page by going to TheNewIQ.com/PIRT, P-I-R-T, which is the abbreviation for Politician Integrity Rating Tool.
Kent Gustavson: That sounds fascinating. As far as the political, the Democratic primary is going, its been a fascinating circus, in a way. It goes from being nice to being vitriolic and back and forth. People that I thought had integrity in a way sort of… well, lets talk a little bit about that.
David Gruder: The vitriol, the kind of attacks on people’s character, the kind of spin-doctoring that go on in campaigns are all reflections on the lack of integrity. The only reason that that kind of rampant lack of integrity continues on all ends of the political spectrum is because the public tolerates that. The public I think in some ways tolerates spin doctoring because the public doesn’t really understand enough about what integrity is or how this lack of integrity is harming them and our society.That’s part of why I wrote the book, is to help people really come to grips with that and start to do whatever fits for them to do to help them turn that around in their personal lives and in their communities. So, this whole spin-doctoring problem, we see it beyond politics. We see rumors being circulated about all kinds of things on the Internet that are actually quite false, but are taken as though they’re fact. The saying I have for this, Kent, is “What you think is fact is probably spin.”
Kent Gustavson: What is spin, exactly? How does that go?
David Gruder: Spin is the process of taking a grain of truth and distorting it, twisting it or turning it to ones own uses no matter how distorted that grain of truth becomes in the process of hijacking it for one’s own agenda.
Kent Gustavson: Wow. Well, on your website it says “Integrity isn’t a burden, it’s a path to joy. Integrity isn’t a sacrifice, it’s a path to fulfillment.” So in a way, integrity is almost seen as a burden to people. Its something that they have to do, its “Oh, that’ll be too hard.” You’re saying, instead, its really a path to being happy, to being fulfilled?
David Gruder: Right. Everyone who reads The New IQ says to me “Oh my gosh, I didn’t realize how personally important, how selfishly important it is to me to live in integrity. I never connected the dots. I always thought that was assured and something I was supposed to do as a citizen for other people, I never realized how being out of integrity harms me dramatically.”
Kent Gustavson: On your website, people can come and check their own integrity?
David Gruder: Pardon me? On my website, what were you saying?
Kent Gustavson: People can come and check their own integrity, as well as the politicians?
David Gruder: Yes. Good question, yes. I have some free quizzes on my website in addition to the Politician Integrity Rating Tool, just click on the word “Quizzes” and you’ll be able to do a quick integrity check-up. One of the quizzes is a quick integrity check-up quiz.
Kent Gustavson: So give me a couple integrity quiz questions. Lets see if I can pass your test.
David Gruder: [laughs] Well I don’t actually have the quiz in front of me, but one question is “Do you tend to put other people’s well-being ahead of your own?”
Kent Gustavson: Its a good question. I think I do.
David Gruder: And so, that would be an example of one of the questions. What that would tell you or tell me; in fact the quiz is automatically scored so people immediately get feedback about their relationship with integrity. Because integrity is tied in with our three core drives, if you were to answer that question and other similar questions in that way, it would probably turn out that you are either a do-gooder or a connector rather than a self-improver.Self-improvers are the people who focus primarily on their authenticity core drive, connectors focus on their connection core drive primarily, and do-gooders focus primarily on their impact core drive. So, you may be in greater integrity with your do-gooder or your impact core drive than you are with your authenticity core drive.
Kent Gustavson: This has been a fascinating conversation. You’ve got me hooked. The website isTheNewIQ.com, been speaking to Dr. David Gruder. The book is called “The New IQ: How Integrity Intelligence Serves you, your Relationships, and our World”. Thank you so much for being on the show.
David Gruder: Thanks so much for having me.
Kent Gustavson: My next guest is the incredible finger-picker and guitarist on “Prairie Home Companion”, wonderful, wonderful musician, Pat Donahue. Come on back.
Vic Stenger Transcript
March 1, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Dr. Kent Gustavson: Welcome to “Sound Authors.” Today is a leap day all across the world and there’s a lot to be said about it. This is the day that makes up for the mistake of saying that every year is made up of 365 days. It’s really made up of 365 and a quarter. Well, just about, I guess, 1600 and 2000 were leap years but 1700, 1800, and 1900, those years weren’t. That’s to make up for the tiny difference between 365 and a quarter days in the actual number. Leap day is also a day or a month in Europe tradition where women could ask men to marry them. Today is also a sad day in music. Buddy Miles, a drummer for Jimi Hendrix and many others, at age 60 passed away.But today is a sunny, gorgeous day out in New York and I’m excited for the guests we have on the show. The first guest will be Vic Stenger and he’s going to talk to us about the existence of God. Dr. David Gruder is the second guest with his movement called “The New IQ.” The third guest, her name is Lisa Genova and she has a kid’s book called “Astro Socks.” The fourth guest is going to be the incredible gifted finger-picking guitarist, Pat Donahue.Now, welcome my first guest, Vic Stenger. His book is about Atheism, it’s about God. He tries to answer the question “Can science explain the existence of God?” Welcome to the show.
Vic Stenger: Thanks for having.
Kent: Your book is called “Has Science Found God: The Latest Results in the Search for Purpose in the Universe.” Give me a little sound clip about your book.
Vic: Actually, that is not the latest book and I wasn’t expecting to talk about that.
Kent: What is your latest book?
Vic: Let me tell you my latest book which is called “God: The Failed Hypothesis.”
Kent: ”God: The Failed Hypothesis.” Tell me a little bit about it.
Vic: Yes, sure. The subtitle is “How Science Shows that God Does Not Exist.” That’s been a very successful book and found the New York Times bestseller list back in March. The other book that you mentioned, it came out a couple of years ago, that’s kind of a prodigy to this book. This is by far more important book and it’s the one that I think you’ll find more interesting to discuss than the original one.
Kent: I apologize for the mix up, but of this book, Christopher Hitchens says, “Extremely tough and impressive; huge addition to the arsenal of argument.” Richard Dawkins who’s the author of “The God Delusions” says also an incredible quote. He says he learned an enormous amount from this splendid book. How did you get to the New York Times’ list? How did you find your audience.
Vic: I think that it helped that the publisher did a good job of exploiting the fact that I did have this prominent people supporting me especially Dawkins. Hitchens, he’s actually going to see the earlier book but he’s writing a foreword for me on the paperback which is going to be coming out very shortly. So it’s, I think, like everything else, you first of all, your publisher has to get the book out there on the front tables of Barnes & Nobles and the big bookstores.Then, of course, people have to like it. That’s the important thing that people read it and start telling others about it. It’s sitting very well with the books that had been bestsellers over the last couple of years including the books by Dawkins and Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens. So there’s a movement out there where people want to learn more about the Godless view of things, let’s say.
Kent: Now, your view of God, is that the creator, is it the Christian view, is it the Muslim view? The “God: The Failed Hypothesis”, does that cover all of these religions?
Vic: It covers, I would say, certainly the Judeo Christian Islamic God, the God that most people worship. There are other visions of God. There’s a Deist God who just sets the world going and then doesn’t play any role in it, a distant God in other words. That’d be very difficult to talk about in any kind of scientific way. But the point I’m making in this book is that the God that most people worship plays such an important role in the universe - created the universe, created life, made a special place for humanity in the universe.So all of these characteristics, it should lead to observable consequences that then you and I with our own two eyes but also science of its instruments can peer out to the universe, could look at the living things and under microscopes and study DNA. From all of these kinds of evidence, you come to the conclusion that the God that most people worship should have been detectable by now and hasn’t been. That’s a strong argument against His existence.
Kent: When you talk about science, I know there’s a brand new enormous supercollider being built in Europe. There’s many around the world to see if we can get down below the quark, to see if they can find the “God particle”. What do you think about that? Is it a misnomer? Are they still searching?
Vic: First of all, “God particle”, that was just a joke. Leon Letterman, who wrote the book “The God Particle”, he had been the director of Fermi Lab, the big lab near Chicago. He’s a Nobel Prize winner. He just thought he could write a book and by putting God in the title he could sell a few more books. Of course, I’ve put God in the title too. Its a good idea. [laughs] Don’t take that seriously. He was not being serious at all about associating that particle with God.Nevertheless, he was talking about something called the Higgs particle. If the Higgs particle is discovered with these new experiments, then that will have a lot to do in confirming the model of physics that we’ve had now for the last 25 years, that seems to agree with all the data. And if its not discovered actually, that’s going to be even more exciting, because it means that model’s going to have to be changed, and we’re going to have to look even deeper into things.None of this really bears much connection with the question of God. Nobody in science expects God to be showing up at that level of things; if he did it would have been obvious by now. Science is going to continue to progress, and of course if there’s any ever reason, any observation ever made that you can’t explain by natural means, then being a good scientist you have to accept the possibility that you may need to look for something else, a supernatural explanation. So far that hasn’t happened. So you keep your eyes open, you keep your mind open; it’s just unlikely to happen.
Kent: Do you feel like God, in a sense, is filling in the gaps for where we don’t understand science?
Vic: That’s a common argument, that any place that we don’t have something we can explain now that it’s room for God. But the history of science has been that those gaps get filled. So it’s not sufficient to just say “Well, here’s a gap.” Let’s talk about the origin of life. Now we know how complexity developed from simpler forms by Darwin’s natural selection, but we don’t know, yet, exactly how life originally came about. Now that’s a gap.You can say “Well, that had to be God”, but you can’t do that unless you can convincingly argue, or show in some irrefutable way, that there’s no way that you’ll ever find a natural explanation for that. Its very unlikely. There’s many proposals out there, we just haven’t found the right one just yet. Maybe none of the current proposals will work, but the chances that we will not be able to find an actual explanation for life someday are negligible. The “God of the gaps” argument only works if you can demonstrate that there’s no way that what you’re observing has a natural origin.
Kent: I’m interested in knowing; for example, C.S. Lewis was an atheist for a long time, very angry at God and believed God couldn’t exist. Then his famous biography was titled “Surprised by Joy”, he started believing when he released all of his doubts and all of that. What is your life’s story, and respond to what C.S. Lewis’ life story is.
Vic: That’s very common, what you talked about. There was a book that was written by the scientist; “On the language of God”, Francis Collins. It did very well, it was on the bestseller list too for a while. He was the scientist that started the genome project, was the head of the genome project; so very, very important scientist. He had read C.S. Lewis and C.S. Lewis convinced him to be a believer. I know any number of scientists who are believers.Let me tell you, in every case, they have not applied their scientific knowledge to religion. In every case they have kind of compartmentalized their thinking and not talked about science at all. They say “I believe because I have this emotional need” and the same thing, of course, was true for C.S. Lewis. These guys kneel down and they view a sunset and they feel that they’ve had a religious experience.They interpret that as something supernatural, and of course that’s a thinking process that they’ve been through that is not a rational one. Its not an analysis of the data in any kind of systematic way, they’ve just developed this feeling. In my case, I’ve never had such a feeling. Maybe if I did, I would change my mind. I had a debate with a good friend of mine. I was in Hawaii not too long ago, and they had a panel discussion which a lot of people attended.I was up there with four other faculty members of the University of Hawaii who were all believers. Three of them were scientists and one, or two of them actually, were astronomers I had known for many years.One guy, he just argued that his love for his wife and family he interpreted in terms of religion and so on. I said, look, I have a wife and family that I love too, and that has nothing to do with God.So, I think you have these spurious explanations where people had these wonderful feelings and think they cannot possibly be just due to electrons whirling around in the brain. But in fact what we know about the brain, it seems very possible that that is what it is.
Kent: In this country during the primary we see the two major parties and then the splinter groups. Of course, John McCain is not conservative enough for the Christian right.It makes you think about what are they asking for. To me it comes to mind, I believe there’s an amusement park or museum down in Arkansas that has dinosaurs alongside Adam and Eve. And they put the age of the Earth at 8,000 years or something like that.
Vic: Yeah, a creationist park. It’s in Kentucky I believe.
Kent: Kentucky, yeah. So what is your opinion? It’s a huge move to have the homeschooling and teaching of creationism.
Vic: Actually, it’s not as huge as you think. It’s relatively small and relatively vocal, and of course they have a lot of money. There are a lot of TV stations and radio stations that are owned by Christian groups, and so there’s a lot of propaganda out there they’re able to make.But if you look at surveys of religion, you’ll find that it’s really falling off in this country. Protestantism has now become a minority. Less than half of Americans are Protestants.If you look at it, 25% of Americans are Catholics, but that’s held steady because of the influx of Latin American immigrants. But 10% of the people who were raised Catholics have left the Church.The number of unaffiliated is growing. It’s about 20% of the American people now. Some of these people still believe there’s something out there. They’re not all atheists. But the atheist movement, I think, is also growing, especially among young people.The percentages are much higher when you look at young people, when you look at educated people, when you look at people with higher incomes.
Kent: Let’s talk about for a second, is religion or is God kind of a replacement or an embodiment of hope? And thinking again about politics right now, where there’s this great movement for Barack Obama and these jokes about him being a messiah and all of this, is it a similar thing?
Vic: Well, I’m a great Barack Obama fan. I hope that’s not what he’s being viewed as. I think that he is religious as is Hillary Clinton. I’m not sure about McCain. Of course, you have Huckleberry, or whatever his name is.I’ve looked at some of the things Obama has said, for example he supports the separation of church and state very strong. That’s a big difference between the Republicans and the Democrats who are all religious.They all have to be religious. The change of anybody ever getting elected to high office, at least in the near future, is still very low because unfortunately atheists are regarded by so many other people as devils, people not to be trusted. They don’t look at the facts, they don’t look at the fact that atheists are probably some of the best citizens we have in the country.I think this is why some of the books on atheism are beginning to do well, because there are a lot of people out there who are closet atheists, who are beginning to come out of the closet just like the gays have come out of the closet. They realize that they just have to go out there and admit it.I don’t know how many people have told me that they have beliefs pretty much like mine, that I hitting a nerve with them, my thinking was just like their thinking. They always kept to themselves for fear of offending their friends and family, and then they finally spoke out.My friends and family have for the most part accepted it, just like you accept your son as gay and if you’re anti-gay are going to turn that son away? You’re not going.So, I think that’s what’s happening now as people are beginning to say, “Look, I’m not a believer and that’s just the way it is.”
Kent: Here’s a Bible for the people that haven’t come out of the closet of atheism. It’s a book called “God, The Failed Hypothesis: How science shows that God does not exist”. It’s been a true pleasure speaking with you on the leap day, Victor J. Stenger.
Vic: Well, thanks so much for having me on. I enjoyed it.
Kent: Me too. The next guest is Dr. David Gruder with “The New IQ”. Come on back.
David Gruder | Integrity IQ
February 29, 2008 | Leave a Comment
David Gruder’s concept of the “new IQ” is fascinating and will change the way folks think about how they interact with the world! We had a long and productive discussion about his theories, and his new book “The New IQ.” More about David Gruder from his website www.thenewiq.com:
Dr. David S. Gruder, Ph.D., D.CEP, is the Executive Director of Integrity Revolution, LLC (and its subsidiary, Willingness Works®) in Del Mar, California, through which he lectures, trains and consults worldwide in Personal, Relationship & Leadership Integrity Development. His doctorate is in clinical psychology with a secondary emphasis in organizational development and conflict resolution. For almost three decades, Dr. Gruder has provided organizational analyses, staff training, team development and executive mentoring, for executives, administrators, leaders, businesses and academic institutions. This has been in addition to having maintained a waiting-list private psychotherapy practice from 1980 until 2000. The Willingness Works® website,www.willingness.com, is a Starburst Best-of-the-Web Top 100 Self-Discovery Website. He also maintains two other websites that are helping to spark and integrity revolution: www.TheNewIQ.com and www.IntegrityPledge.org.Dr. Gruder has authored two major print books, four e-books, over seventy CD sets and well over a dozen training manuals. His first print book, Sensible Self-Help, won two book awards, including Colliers 1997 Mental Health Book of the Year. His second print book, The New IQ, is a road map for addressing the worldwide crisis of lack of personal, relationship and leadership integrity. Its companion volume is the downloadable The New IQ Integrity Makeover Workbook (a print version is also available).
Dr. Gruder has provided training programs for leaders, helping professionals and the general public throughout the United States as well as in Canada, Mexico, England, Switzerland, Hong Kong and Singapore. His topics have been many and varied, but all focus on building the skills required for personal, relationship and leadership integrity. For specific details, consult Dr. Gruder’s full CV (clickHERE).
Within the business and leadership community,Dr. Gruder has provided training programs and consulting for a wide range of business, academic and coaching organizations, such as the Wellcoaches® Corporation, IDS/American Express®, Vistage® (formerly known as The Executive Committee/TEC), the San Diego County Department of Education Management Academy, University of California San Diego Medical School, San
Diego State University, Hocking College (Ohio), and a number of family-owned businesses and entrepreneurs.
Within the international community, Dr. Gruder has provided negotiation skills training to ambassadors and other delegates to the World Trade Organization through a project co-sponsored by South Centre in Geneva, Switzerland and Action Aid in Pakistan.
Within the psychological community, Dr. Gruder is dually licensed as a psychologist and as a marriage & family therapist, and is a California-approved Continuing Education provider for psychologists, marriage & family therapists, social workers, nurses and drug & alcohol counselors. He has given hundreds of lectures and workshops, from hospital Grand Rounds presentations to multiple-day workshops at international conferences to case consultations for psychotherapists to teaching classes for psychology graduate students.
Within the specialty field of Energy Psychology, Dr. Gruder was the Founding President of the international Association for Comprehensive Energy Psychology (ACEP) and remains a member of its Advisory Council. He is currently a primary architect of ACEP’s diplomate program in Comprehensive Energy Psychology as well as its Energy Health Practitioner certification program. In addition to his D.CEP (Diplomate in Comprehensive Energy Psychology), he is an ACEP-Approved Certification Full Trainer, Certification Consultant and Continuing Education provider. Dr. Gruder is also an Advisory Board member to the InnerSource Energy Psychology Interactive project.
Within academia, Dr. Gruder teaches graduate courses in Archetypes, Human Development and Energy Psychology at the California Institute for Human Science in Encinitas, California.
Dr. Gruder is also active in the ManKind Project, an international non-profit organization helping men deal with the blocks interfering with their integrity and leadership so that they can fully embody their personal, relationship, professional and service missions. He is a past Board member for the San Diego community of ManKind Project International and has staffed a number of their programs.
In refreshing contrast to his multi-dimensional professional life, David lives a simple, play-filled life in San Diego, California, with his wife Laurie (a licensed acupuncturist and creator of health-oriented CDs and e-books), their cat Sasha and a delightful community of friends and family. A former accomplished musician, he still loves to sing and dabble in some of his former instruments. He hopes to return to composing and performing in the coming years.
Vic Stenger | God and Atheism
February 29, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Vic Stenger had some powerful and interesting things to say about spirituality and science. We spoke about CS Lewis, atheism, and much more! Check out what this New York Times Bestselling Author has to say about religion.
From Wikipedia:
God: The Failed Hypothesis is a 2007 New York Times bestseller[1] by scientist Victor J. Stenger who argues that there is no evidence for the existence of Deity and that a God’s existence is improbable.
David Ludden of Skeptic (magazine) wrote “Stenger lays out the evidence from cosmology, particle physics and quantum mechanics showing that the universe appears exactly as it should if there is no creator.”[2] Ludden concluded “All freethinkers should have both volumes [