Shorter Deepak Chopra: “I don’t know how DNA works, so there must be an omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient God-field who does.”
Wow, but that guy is one long-winded, boring gomer. It sounds like he might be planning to fart out just one more of these stinkers, but I’d thought he’d run out of gas somewhere around part 0.
Sweet Zombie Hitler, there’s more?
It’s nice to see there are no shortage of rationalists showing up in the Huff Post comments to give Dope-ak a good beating every time he posts this bilge. We’ll see if his responses to them, which he promises are forthcoming, are any more cogent, or just another collection of new age buzzwords and appeals to ignorance.
I particularly enjoyed his second-law argument. Even the smarter creationists don’t use that one.
On the other hand, it seems to me Chopra’s capacity to generate apparently infinite quantities of complete b.s. defies any possible naturalistic explanation. Argumentum ad fecesbovorum, if you like.
It’s real boring. Once you “get” the universal consciousness “the hills are alive” point of view, all he’s doing is adding odd bits of science-y stuff and running them through his mental food-processor. Any field becomes a field of “mind,” any force conveys universal intention, and so forth and so on. It’s not hard to do — spend ten minutes skimming a popular science book, close your eyes and imagine “what would a universal mind do?”, heat, and serve. There is simply no way to attack the resulting effusion of bad science because the premise always lies elsewhere. And that premise is untestable. The only way to defeat it is to walk away.
At least this is the first column in the series that didn’t come off sounding like it was written by the deranged computer programmer from Lain.
The new and improved Raving Atheists sent Dr Chopra a letter:
Deepquack Oprah
The Chopra Center
2013 Costa del Mar Rd.
Carlsbad, CA 92009
Dear Doctor Cobra,
We write today to congratulate you on winning our organization’s highest honor. As Shitlord of the Week, you join an eminent line of spiritual advisers, scientists, a US senator, and Francis in the ongoing jihad against logic and reason.
There is no one way to become a Shitlord. Some, like Barack Obama, are honored for their work in bringing God into the public square, whether the public square wants Him there or not. Others — Dr Francis Collins comes to mind — are proof positive that even a TLE sufferer (who may have bumped his head) can achieve greatness in science, even as he clings to a worldview developed by the deep-thinkers of the Iron Age.
In your case, Dr. Cupcheck, we note with special pleasure your recent “take-down” of anti-spiritualist Richard Dawkins on the Huffington Post website. To date, you’ve penned no less than six (!) essays critiquing Mr Dawkins’ The God Delusion, and we must say, we are impressed. It’s one thing to review a book you have not read, as we assume was the case with TGD, but the masterly way you’ve “fashioned” Dawkins arguments beyond recognition is a work of art. What better way to convince scientists they are wrong than to fabricate their points of view out of whole cloth, then burn them down with spiritual fire? Bravo!
We note with approval that you describe God Almighty as “an infinite field of energy or consciousness,” and that you wisely avoid endowing this “deity” with other characteristics that might be subject to further scrutiny, scientific testing, and eventual derision.
And, in the unlikely event that many millions of skeptics won’t be swayed by your say-so on the subject, you hit them square between the eyes with the time-tested Argument From Awesomeness*:
“The fact that the world appears to be so perfectly knit, so stunningly precise down to the millionths of a degree, so beautiful, and in the end so meaningful to anyone who can appreciate these qualities, is a problem for materialists.”
Yes, the world is purdy. And precise, just as you say. The precision with which the Sun travels around the Earth, you could practically set a clock by it!
We’ve had our eye on you for some time, Dr. Cooper, and we’re very pleased to have you swirling around our Porcelain Pantheon at last. Your work in the spiritual realm has been an inspiration to people everywhere, especially those people divorced of reason who can’t be arsed to understand the most basic principles of science. Rather than rebuke or ignore or — God forbid — try to educate the ignorant masses, you’ve become their most outspoken leader. You may be Shitlord of the Week, but you’ll always be full of crap in our hearts.
Good work and congratulations!
Yours in Outer Space,
Philboid Studge
Raving Atheists
Chopra reminds me of the psychopath in Greg Egan’s novel Quarantine. Born in 2032 or thereabouts, he celebrates his twenty-first birthday by introducing toxic bacteria into the town water supply; by the time he is captured, his followers (the “Children of the Abyss”) have blossomed into a worldwide terrorist organization. During his trial, he keeps talking about “the symmetry between good and evil . . . broken in the early universe and now restored” — unifying the jargon, if not the ideas, of all kinds of mystical pseudoscience.
It’s a pity that so little of Chopra’s readership is likely to read this…SH
I still like my all-purpose response to all seven parts of Chopra’s misbegotten “response” to Dawkins.
I’m very much looking forward to his next installment, though. He claims he’s going to address some of the criticisms that have been leveled at him. That’ll be a hoot, for sure!
THE GURU DELUSION, Canto 7, Except His God
A poem
Like his ancestors
and brethren rishis
who lived 3000 years
ago when Earth was
flat and there were
fire-gods, air-gods
Ocean-gods, mountain-gods
planets-gods, stars-gods
the guru worships gods
and God of gods as he’s
as ignorant as were his
ancestors and brethren rishis
He cusses science
he cusses scientists
he calls them idiots
and bigots and still
enjoys everything
that scientists
discovered for him
Without invoking his
gods or God of his gods.
How idiotic, how stupid
a man could be babbling
nonsense daily knowing
nothing about the world
he lives in. Except his God.
~white wings
http://whitewings.sulekha.com/blog/post/2006/12/the-guru-delusion-canto-7-except-his-god.htm
7 STEPS ARE HOLY STEPS
A poem
I could not ask for a better
muse than our new age guru
to write poems about fools
so cool
like 7 steps to know your god
7 steps to be with your god
7 steps to success and wealth
7 steps to guru’s delusion are
now complete
like he said more to come
let me say more to come
everybody in love will come
bidding fools good adieu
please wait stay tuned.
~white wings
http://whitewings.sulekha.com/blog/post/2006/12/7-steps-are-holy-steps.htm
Does anyone want to put money on the statement that Chopra will use the phrase “arrogant skeptics” or “fundamentalist atheists” in his reply to the criticisms brought against him? How about this: if you’re willing to go on the record saying that he won’t use either phrase I picked just now, I’ll buy you a burrito the next time you’re in Boston.
I mean, it’s a given that his “reply” will be vague, incoherent, woo-laden tripe. We can at least get a little entertainment figuring out what he’s gonna say before he says it.
Well waddayaknow. I was just grilling up a cheese sandwhich when suddenly I noticed a pattern that I’m absolutely positively sure is of the great and mighty Collapsed Quantum Wave – all praise the singular point of spiritual middleness. Yes, really. I’m gonna freeze it until I figure out what to do with it.
DeepPack Crapra
Why can you remember your birthday and the face of someone you love? Because DNA can remember how to produce generations of human beings. Why does DNA remember? There’s the mystery.
DNA “remembers how” to produce human beings the same way pure water “remembers how” to freeze at 32 degrees at 1 atmosphere pressure.
This guy is a freaking idiot. By flashing his nasty brain at us he is begging for a public buggering. Can all the science blogs join together and agree to a 24 hour Crapra Bash-A-Thon so we can make some serious headway towards retiring this ass-brained pile of deity-fellating shite?
I tried to be open-minded and find something of value in Chopra’s emissions. Unfortunately I couldn’t really manage it. Damn. The universal consciousness field has failed me again.
I was beginning to wonder if Chopra was a glutton for punishment – Every time he emits more hot air on HP he gets shredded. Then it occurred to me – he never read Dawkins – why would he ever bother to read comments? So as to his final bash when he “answers his critics” he wont – he wont have even read them – it will be more straw men. That is my prediction.
Orac,
I love your all-purpose response. And since you said “Feel free to use it as you see fit:” Here it goes:
Woo woo woo woo woo Dawkins woo woo. Woo woo woo woo woo materialists don’t understand woo woo. Woo woo woo woo Materialists say evolution is random woo woo woo. Woo woo woo anthropic principle. Woo woo woo consciousness woo woo can’t be explained by DNA woo woo. Woo woo consciousness all around woo woo. Woo woo universe is conscious. Woo woo woo quantum theory woo woo. Woo woo woo evolution information theory. Woo woo. Woo woo universal consciousness intelligent design. Woo woo woo. Woo woo woo God woo woo field of consciousness woo woo pervades universe woo woo. Woo woo arrogant skeptics woo woo versus dogmatic fundamentalists woo woo. Woo woo Chopra find middle ground in woo. Woo universe experienced through consciousness woo woo consciousness is God woo woo woo.
Can all the science blogs join together and agree to a 24 hour Crapra Bash-A-Thon so we can make some serious headway towards retiring this ass-brained pile of deity-fellating shite?
I’d be willing to participate in that, for sure.
“Can all the science blogs join together and agree to a 24 hour Crapra Bash-A-Thon so we can make some serious headway towards retiring this ass-brained pile of deity-fellating shite?”
I’m game!
Orac’s all-purpose response, for short: 76(woo):18(BS)
I have taken the liberty of quoting from this post and expanding upon it in my latest rebuttal of Chopra’s nonsense at Liberal Values.
Previously we “learned” from Chopra that we can prove the existence of God from the existence of yellow flowers and that “we are in god as a fish is in water.” In this installment we learn that “if the universe didn’t have imagination, neither would we.”
There is one bit of good news. Chopra announces there will only be one more installment of this series. Once he finishes, perhaps he can move on to actually read Dawkins’ book.
“Can all the science blogs join together and agree to a 24 hour Crapra Bash-A-Thon so we can make some serious headway towards retiring this ass-brained pile of deity-fellating shite?”
Hey, why only the science blogs? I’ve been attacking Chopra’s crap pretty regularly at Liberal Values. If you science bloggers have a Chopra Bash-A-Thon you’ve got to keep it open to others!
I’m a rhetorician, not a scientist (or even a ScienceBlogger), and I’m game for the Chopra-bashing too. The way he uses words is frightfully vague.
Check whitewing’s blog, you will find hundreds of poems criticizing chopra’s posts in the past one year.
V
My own personal favorite was his question:
–Why is the universe so amazingly hospitable to human life?
I’d be more than happy to help Mr. Chopra test this assertion by placing him at a random location in the universe and having him report on how wonderfully hospitable it is.
If he’s lucky he’ll just freeze to death in a megaparsec-scale void between superclusters, rather than being vaporized inside a star, burned to death by ionizing radiation near an accretion disk, or torn apart by tidal forces near a black hole.
Holy Mother . . . This guy is like, dangerous crazy. I personally think Dawkins is an idiot, but this guy . . . wow . . .
By the way, hi, im John. Im a chemist, and, i gotta tell ya, i do believe in God (i just dont know that he has a beard, or body for that matter).
Since poetic responses are evident in the comments at HuffPo and here, and that they seem so appropriate, (given the artistic or theatrical nature of Chopra’s, er, constructions) here is my humble attempt to respond lyrically to his tortured prose:
Metaphors and similes,
Yea, therefores and homilies
Like sermons spoken longingly
Remind me of that silly me
‘Ere Science first spake, “Now, you see?”
Quoth I then, “Yes, thanks,” breathlessly,
“But not yet with full certainty.”
I think the last line can be interpreted variously.
Also sprach Interrobang:
I think in order to make the bash-a-thon a success (relatively speaking–we’ll never actually shut Deepockets up)one blogger should act as a host (carnival style), and all contributors should be armed with that link and use it whenever they write “Deepak Chopra” so that it scores high on any Google search.
I would be WAY game for shredding Douchepak Chumpra in a carnival-style whipping. I suggest the first one to be posted in January on the Indian holiday of Idu’z Zuha/Bakrid or Feast of the Sacrifice. Fitting, I think. Hell, I’d even host the thing.
Chopra:
Of course!
Here’s an idea: I could hold a special bonus meeting of the Skeptics’ Circle devoted to this very worthy endeavor! I’m sure many would volunteer to host it.
Not sure how the process works, but perhaps some people here might like to have a crack at revising Chopra’s wikipedia entry
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deepak_Chopra
You know, to provide updates regarding his latest woo-fest. After all, a lot of people are now using wikipedia as their starting point for finding out about stuff. Perhaps you might create the salutory effect of inoculating a number of otherwise unpoiled young minds against Chopra-woo.
PZ, you get a mention in here, so clearly Copra and his people odn’t have complete control of what gets in there.
Just a thought.
Deepockets — making all those bored white suburban housewives get all wet — and how envious the nerdy white male set become! haha.
Yeah Deepockets needs to learn from Stanford professor emeritus William Tiller, former chair of Stanford’s engineering department for many years (another obvious idiot who has successfully proven consciousness alters biology).
Then there’s that wacko, professor emeritus Rustum Roy, a leading chemist in the U.S. and — alas — a proponent of consciousness-based quantum biology.
When will these idiots get it right!
Hopefully Deepockets will look to them for direction and realize that indeed Deepockets is a lost soul.
A collection of 7 poems on Deepak Chopra’s latest post.
(The first two poems are already posted in this thread)
7 STEPS ARE HOLY STEPS
THE GURU DELUSION, Canto 7, Except His God
THE GURU DELUSION, Canto 7, My God and I
THE GURU DELUSION, Canto 7, The ‘Why’ of God
“Why is the universe so amazingly hospitable to human life?”
THE GURU DELUSION, Canto 7, The Hospitable Universe
‘What part does the observer play in creating reality?”
THE GURU DELUSION, Canto 7, The First Woman
“What separates life from inert matter?”
THE GURU DELUSION, Canto 7, Life and Dead Matter
.
.
Reproducing one poem here:
THE GURU DELUSION, Canto 7, The Hospitable Universe
“Why is the universe so amazingly hospitable to human life?”
~Deepak Chopra
***
My universe is my five
Million dollar home
My jaguar car
My family, my dimwit followers
My books, my publishers and
My money, my money, my money
Everything so hospitable
Like a tadpole in a toad-pond
I live in my hospitable world
Not in a black black-hole
Not in the cold galactic space
Not up in the hot hot sun
Though I am a moon bat
I still don’t live on the moon
Nor do I live in Darfur, Africa
Nor in Iraq or Afghanistan
Nor in India near Pakistan
I live rich in a mansion
Surrounded by statues
Of Ganesha and Shiva
the ancient holy books —
Upanishads and Vedas
and for my ill disposition
ancient books on Ayurveda —
So hospitable, so hospitable.
boojieboy: It is true that (unfortunately) a lot of people turn to Wikipedia for information. It is more unfortunate that I fear that a critical article will not be accepted by the community. But don’t let that stop folks from trying …
In my experience, it’s rare that an engineering professor and a chemist prove anything in biology. Most of the time, the problems raised by people outside of a particular field have already been addressed by people inside the field.
But I don’t expect you to understand that, since you’ve done nothing but work outside your field over the course of these posts.
I’m trashing the feedbag now. Sorry, folks.
Shocking! Deepak hosted a show shown on our local Public Broadcasting Station. It was part of fund raising and he was interviewed by a lady from the OPB station. The snipet of his material that I caught was total drivel. Something about how everything is linked via vibrations. He hit a gong and make other noises for some point.
Anyway, bad as that was, the lady interviewing said: “… this should be taught in our schools.” WOW, Whoa, Stop …
Lain was a very “odd” series.. lol That’s about all I can say on anything in this thread, since anything else would just repeat what has already been said about Chopra… Now, if they guy wants to make an Anime from his screwball nonsense, more power too him. It wouldn’t be any wierder than Boogie Pop Phantom or that pseudo-Christian gibberish I can’t remember the name of, where all the “enemy” mechs are called “satans” and their pilots where Nazi style uniforms.
No, never mind, I am *sure* anything based on his stuff would be crazier than if you created a world based on Lain + Blue Seed + the Final Fantasy Spirits Within movie + … Akira maybe? Damn, its hard to think of enough *totally* screwball ideas, even in Anime, that you would need to mix together to top him. lol
Biology only achieved “hard science” status once DNA was deemed to be replicable. If there’s no reductionist technology created then the science peters out into “cultural studies.” Hence philosophy’s reliance on mathematical logic for computer science.
Biophysics is the main field focusing on quantum consciousness. If you need some direction check out the “vital clay” dude — professor Cairns-Smith of Scotland. His book “Evolving the Mind” should help you out — especially the Frolich Effect — superconducting protons through asymmetrical resonance.
Nanobiomotors is the cutting edge of science based on quantum chaos. You won’t find any of that on PZ’s blog since he’s stuck in the hinterlands of the Empire. Also PZ is afraid to attack the military-industrial complex control of biology, as I stated. Honeywell ad’s? c’mon!
Drew is such a paranoid pompous putz. PZ attacks it and the war and the administration all the time.
Have some tea with honey and give it a rest.
More myopic Americans blatantly ignoring A WHOLE DISCIPLINE of science! Just read MOLECULAR GENETICS PROFESSOR JOHNJOE MCFADDEN’S BOOK “QUANTUM EVOLUTION” (2002) or read
Dr. Fritz-Albert Popp’s work in biophysics. As I stated Germany is doing tons of work on consciousness and quantum biology.
It’s easy to ignore peer-reviewed research based on evidence — IF YOU WANT — especially since science in the U.S. is driven by “market confidence” —
Gee I hope you “trust” this information — if not perhaps another “mall of science” blog will suit you better. I hope I can “sell” you more science at a later date.
This message is brought to you by Honeywell.
Why don’t you all visit intentblog.com (or choprablog.com) and make your comments, objections, refutations, cynicism etc? Criticism and skepticism is welcome in his site. The Admin doesn’t screen the comments unless they are outright abusive or vulgar. You will hear from the regular visitors of the blog. You will learn something from them too.
Deepak Chopra cares about Intentblog(with contributions from him, his family and friends) than anything else. He often responds there. He doesn’t care about Huffingtonpost. If you have anything to say visit Intentblog and make your voice heard. If you arrange a skeptics circle or let someone host a festival inanely bashing Chopra, you will have fun, but you won’t get the kick. Here’s the challenge…hit him where it hurts like men…and you will be hit back for all your woo….
——————————–
ABOUT INTENTBLOG:
“IntentBlog was started in 2005 by Mallika Chopra, Gotham Chopra, Deepak Chopra and Shekhar Kapur. We seek to reach critical mass with a message of personal, social, environmental and spiritual wellness.
IntentBlog serves the global community by providing a platform for dialogue, debate and action around topics such as the environment, economy, conflict resolution, human rights, business and technology, spirituality, health and healing.
We use media (blogs, articles, video, audio clips, etc.) contributed by international influencers across different fields to engage a community that is respectful, active and committed to implementing change on a personal and social level. Our voices are diverse, intelligent, provocative, fresh, and timely.
MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD:
COMMENTS: IntentBlog is only as dynamic as the comments contributed by the community.
OPEN THREAD: Every Wednesday, a new Thread begins. Your perspective guides the direction and shape of each thread.
WEEKLY INTENT: Every Sunday, IntentBlog features a post by one of our commenters. If you are interested in blogging, please email us at intentblog (at) gmail.com.
NOTE: We do not tolerate comments that are disrespectful, slanderous, or generally unrelated to fulfilling a mission of collective empowerment. If community members are found to consistently violate this mission, they are banned from contributing. ”
Choprafan: Why don’t you wander to your local public library and start reading about real science? The answers to the questions that have been found by using real thinking and real science are so much more useful and imaginative than the lazy “God did it!”.
You can start with this book (it should tell you that neither oxygen nor hydrogen are “inert”):
http://us.penguingroup.com/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9781592575145,00.html
HCN: You can start with this book (it should tell you that neither oxygen nor hydrogen
“P.S.
Some responders have problems with a sentence from this post: “When hydrogen and oxygen combined, the result wasn’t another inert gas. ” I meant, of course, another inert gas like radon or neon. If I thought that oxygen and hydrogen were inert gases, I wouldn’t have stated that they combine, since by definition inert gases can’t combine. They have no free electron(s) in their outer orbits with which to combine.
This discussion will be more productive if we all grant each other the respect we would like to receive.
Love, Deepak”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/deepak-chopra/the-god-delusion-part-7_b_35513.html
Choprafan: Why should anyone give you any respect? You spout off lots of silly things… and you still post your spam in blog comments that have nothing to do with Chopra (hint: http://wootreater.blogspot.com/ is literally a joke, not to be taken seriously).
You are nothing but a clueless spammer, and therefore get the respect you diserve: none.
Oh… Good… Lord… (Lord–>FSM).
More bad news.
Deepsquawk has just laid another egg at the HuffPo, titled “Survival of the Wisest.”
It looks like he is creating a newly named series to attack Dawkins, evolution, and similar “materialists” that are not currently living in his fantasy world.
Not sure why to start a new named series since he has already proven he can go on and on with the same name.
Perhaps a HuffPo editor suggested that if you are going to use a book title in your post title, then perhaps you might have to have looked at more than the title page? …or perhaps be required to show some limited understanding of just one detail from the book? Since as any science-aware reader of his articles can tell, there is nothing he does that shows he understands what Dawkins believes, at any level (the only other alternative explanation seems to be intellectual dishonesty in deliberate misrepresentation).
The link is here
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/deepak-chopra/survival-of-the-wisest_b_36081.html
To ensure that readers of this blog have to wash your eyes like I had, in this post we “learn” “pseudo-facts” like….
Richard Dawkins “miss[es] the whole point of human evolution” because we have “broken out of the prison of physicality.”
We “evolve through the metabolism of experience.” Dumb me, I thought the science I heard about suggested it was more like mutation, selection and drift.
Ugh. Why, oh why, does Huffington Post think it is amything other than a strong negative for them to include such nonsensical ramblings from this guy who cloaks his crapulent magical thinking in this kind of pseudoscientific mumbojumbo?
Ugh. Why, oh why, does Huffington Post think it is amything other than a strong negative for them to include such nonsensical ramblings from this guy who cloaks his crapulent magical thinking in this kind of pseudoscientific mumbojumbo?
Surely, but you already know the answer to your question, yes?
hint:
$