I reviewed the books The Denial of Death, and Escape From Evil, both by Ernest Becker. I think, taken together, Denial of Death & Escape From Evil are the most important books I have read in the last 10 years.

https://oblivionwithbells.com/2024/09/30/book-review-the-denial-of-death-escape-from-evil/

#Bookreview #Psychology #ErnestBecker #Death #fearofdeath #anthropology #mortality #TMT #terrormanagementtheory #mortalitysaliency #mortalityawareness #mementomori #Literature #nonfiction #book #books #deathanxiety #existentialism

Book review: The Denial of Death, Escape From Evil

(above) The Denial of Death and Escape From Evil, both by Ernest Becker My background for wanting to read these books is deconverting from my Fundamentalist Christian beliefs in 2017. I knew I wasn…

Oblivion With Bells

In the 'Expertise of Death' episode of the The Black Goat podcast (https://www.theblackgoatpodcast.com/posts/the-expertise-of-death/) the hosts declare Terror Management Theory "dead in the water" because the results of a foundational TMT study could not be reproduced (Many Labs 4 https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/vef2c). Would this be considered the general consensus around TMT at this time?

#Psychology #science #academia #deathanxiety #terrormanagementtheory #existentialism #ErnestBecker #mortalitysaliency #mementomori #anthropology

The Expertise of Death

How important is expertise in conducting replications? Many Labs 4 was a large, multi-lab effort that brought together 21 labs, running 2,220 subjects, to study that question. The goal was to compa…

The Black Goat

"Bird flu pandemic risk high as cow cases appear and officials warn of humans’ role"

https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jun/19/bird-flu-pandemic-risk-cattle-human-cases

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Poultry operations have reported cases likely linked to dairy farms, indicating the virus may be spilling back from cows into birds.
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The meat industry is a carnival of death.

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Although officials believe this outbreak was originally sparked by a single introduction from migratory birds into cows – for instance, via feed contaminated by bird feces – late last year, genomic analyses now suggest it is being spread between animals and farms by human activity
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Taking turns being vectors.

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Among employees at dairies with outbreaks, one in five employees work at other dairies and 7% work on poultry operations as well. That’s in addition to the veterinarians, nutritionists and haulers who regularly visit multiple farms. Three in five Michigan dairies with outbreaks use shared vehicles to transport cows, but only 12% clean the vehicles first. All but one of the affected dairies belong to the same milk co-ops.
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Remember how we had "security theater" or "hygiene theater" in the first years of COVID-19? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hygiene_theater

Well, professional clowns have been doing biosecurity theater for a long time. That's why the "One Health" initiative make me laugh. The lax biosecurity is a key part of the business, one more free externaltiy in service of The Economy and delusions of being a magical non-animal beings.

Everyone who ignores this threat (by not calling for the immediate end of animal farming, hunting, and pet ownership) is at the level of the Herman Cain Award winners who die in an ICU while screaming that the virus isn't real.

The role these "the economy / jobs tho" people are playing is the same one so plain portrayed in Don't Look Up!

#avianInfluenza #HPAI #mooFlu #birdFlu #zoonosis #epizootic #panzootic #dontLookUp #cows #meatIndustry #cattle #dairy #OneHealth #biosecurity #OneFlu #TerrorManagementTheory #goVegan

Bird flu pandemic risk high as cow cases appear and officials warn of humans’ role

USDA report finds transmission likely happening when workers, cows, vehicles and equipment go to multiple farms

The Guardian

Does thinking about death have different effects on Christians and Atheists?

A 2023 master’s thesis reports that “Christians primed with [mortality salience] reported lower [need for cognition] than those primed with pain, while the opposite effect emerged for atheists”, F(1, 244) = 12.70, p < .001.

https://etd.ohiolink.edu/acprod/odb_etd/etd/r/1501/10?clear=10&p10_accession_num=csu1706816143515095

#cogSci #Religion #Psychology #dualProcessTheory #TerrorManagementTheory

OhioLINK ETD: Seeling, Ashley Diane

Terror Management Theory

Nearly everyone fears death. How that fear influences human thinking and behavior is the focus of terror management theory (TMT) research. According to TMT, death anxiety drives people to adopt worldviews that protect their self-esteem, worthiness, and sustainability and allow them to believe that they play an important role in a meaningful world.

Psychology Today

#trauma #TerrorManagementTheory #polarization #EffectiveCommunication
Psychology Today:
Nine tips for creating effective communication and addressing polarization.

"Nine tips for creating effective communication and addressing polarization."
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/psychological-trauma-coping-and-resilience/202402/what-to-say-when-there-are-no-words

What to Say When There Are No Words

Nine tips for creating effective communication and addressing polarization.

Psychology Today

21/🧵

#meatcoin - the original crypto coin, "mined" by burning sentient flesh

a tangential story from the Terror Management Theory book "The Worm at the Core: On the Role of Death in Life" by Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg, Tom Pyszczynski.

#capital #cattle #capitalism #religion #carnism #commodification #animals #bloodSacrifice #surplus #obeloi #TerrorManagementTheory #TMT

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Thousands of years ago, money originated in religious rituals as consecrated tokens with immortal connotations. The sacred value of the ex change was its primary purpose. In ancient Greece, families held communal feasts in honor of their heroic ancestors. The families believed that ancestors had the character and power of immortal gods and could thus provide protection, advice, and direction for their living progeny. So the living relatives sacrificed bulls (the word "capital" comes from "cattle") and roasted them on spits. Then they distributed the pieces of meat to everyone in attendance, withholding only the "surplus," a piece left on the spit to be "consumed" by the fire as an offering to the heroic ancestors.
The "surplus" meat on the spit was called the obelos, or "coin" (related to the word "obligation"). Obeloi were also made from pieces of metal, bearing images of individual ancestors. Outsiders could use these coins to join the feasts. People would eagerly trade goods in order to obtain these highly valued coins. Because they attributed magical qualities people began to worship them. Carried as amulets, the coins derived their power from "basking in reflected glory" of the heroic ancestors depicted to the coins, on them. In this way, the coins used in the communal feast kept the ancestors' sacred power circulating. Sacrificing the bulls and giving the surplus to the dead ancestors showed reverence for the past. Sharing one's food with ancestors imbued the living with supernatural attributes to ensure prosperity in the future.
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Part two of my 'Ex-Christian' series is now online. This time I'm wrestling with the fact I'm going to die one day, and that I will no longer be going to heaven after I die.

I look into whether there is anything to this idea of unconscious fear of death, and if Terror Management Theory can help me:

#TerrorManagementTheory #DeathAnxiety #ExChristian #Exvangelical
https://oblivionwithbells.com/2022/12/14/tmt-me-my-attempt-to-understand-whether-terror-management-theory-is-pseudoscience-or-not/

TMT &amp; Me: My attempt to understand whether Terror Management Theory is pseudoscience or&nbsp;not

Oblivion With Bells