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The Oddness Poll

fishbait said:
The numbers are the reason I put it at #1.

The music, however, is exquisite. Well, 18 century and prior. They even managed to screw that up.

Christian praise and worship song I heard the other day performed by a group of well-scrubbed young people:

"Deu deu-deu / deu-Deu-teronomy
Deu-deu-deu / deu-Deu-teronomy"

A real toe-tapper, to be sure!
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J.S. must be whirling dervishly in his grave.
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Well-scrubbed young people notwithstanding, not all modern sacred music is awful. Poulenc, for example.

Despite the wackiness of just about any religion you can name, I would reserve the top oddness prizes for outfits like breatharians and Christian Scientists, whose religion manages not just to numb their minds but to shorten their lives as well.
 
The oddest stuff that really struck me was psychoanalysis. It wasn't some weird thing that you were taught from the very beginning, like Episcopalianism, but something you were taught in college, or possibly high school.And all these seemingly otherwise intelligent people bought it. And it masqueraded as a science.
Armchair speculation based on biased observations, combined with confirmation bias produced a scam that bamboozled psychiatry and clinical psychology for up to half a century, resulting in who knows how many victims of malpractice.
Not to mention the extreme nutters in the ranks.
Well, I'll mention two - Jung, UFOs and the collective unconscious and W. Reich and orgone energy.
I wonder where Woody Allen came up with the orgasmatron in Sleeper?
 
Jeff Corey said:
Not to mention the extreme nutters in the ranks.
Well, I'll mention two - Jung, UFOs and the collective unconscious and W. Reich and orgone energy.
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I told you before, we still have 2 people here teaching bioenergetics! Take Reich, add a generation of inbreeding, and you get Lowen. Anything Freud might have meant metaphorically is seen as literal and physical, and therapy involves stomping your feet and shouting "no!"

And yet, people buy it...
 
GzuzKryzt said:
Sounds interesting. Keep 'em coming.
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Like I said, Christianity alone is no fun. Gotta dress it up in multiple forms of crazy. For example:

Christianity + New Age + brief media whoredom = Raelians (amusing)

Christianity + pseudoarcheology + New Age = that time Kilik thought Jesus used Kung Fu to skip town (even more amusing)

Christianity + a bucket of generic crazy + cartoons = Jack T. Chick (an inadvertent riot)

Christianity - God + rambling + racism + pseudogeometry + the word "singularity" = Nature's Harmonic Timecube! (And if you don't think Gene Ray is worth your four-dimensional cubic time, then you've been educated stupid...)

Christianity^Christianity + (Revelations / non-apocryphal texts) + paranoia = Rapture Ready (So oddball the other doomsday cults can't stand 'em)

Christianity + deliberate ignorance + too many episodes of The Flintstones = Creationist claims that humans and dinosaurs lived together

(Christianity + deliberate ignorance) - Christianity + politics = Intelligent Design

Christianity + video game characters + schizophrenia + New Age + bad martial arts = This!
 
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c4ts said:
Christianity - God + rambling + racism + pseudogeometry + the word "singularity" = Nature's Harmonic Timecube! (And if you don't think Gene Ray is worth your four-dimensional cubic time, then you've been educated stupid...)
This!
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"You've been educated stupid
and are too dumb to know it,
or maybe just too evil to care.
Ignorance of the Time Cube
is a "curse" upon humanity."
(from www.timecube.com)

Wow, (speechless), wow.

(Still speechless.)

Should we found a consolation prize giveaway for disgraced "scientists" or unsuccessful (i.e. unaccepted) "thinkers"?

Something like the Razzies, or Darwin Awards, only with a human touch?

(Cuddling, hugging) "Awww, you poor thing. Did the scientific community ignore you again? Did you have trouble with logic again?. Awww." (more hugging) "Awwwww." (Cuddle²)


Perhaps this timecube blahblah represents a parody? A joke? Satire?
 
c4ts said:
Wow. Not only will you starve to death, but you can burn out your retinas in the process, and you are still expected to buy the book. This has got to be a prank.
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The disclaimer at the foot of the page is an interesting read:

DISCLAIMER - Be aware that much of the material on the this site represents opinions and interpretations. This information should NOT be regarded as necessarily being true and scientific. With what you learn here, do your own research and discuss your options with health care professionals involved in your care. Please note: The information on this website is not a recommendation for treatment. Anyone reading it should consult his/her physician before considering treatment. The author and publisher can't be held responsible for anything. Use on your own risk.
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Bearing in mind the specific directions given in the text above it, I would say that that is very weak legal protection for the authors of that website, prank or otherwise.
 
It isn't the oddest I've heard, but the plaintive e-mail seeking time travellers always struck me as one of the saddest. (It was the sympthy for the Time Cube that made me think of this.) Alas, I no longer have my spammed copy, but for awhile, some poor guy a few boards short of a bookcase was sending spam requesting that any time travellers recieving the e-mail contact him, as he wanted to regress his life to age five. There was a lot of fragments of other conspiracies wrapped up in--reptiloids and pink crystals and god knows what all--but the overall tone was so pitiful, that you just wanted to pat the guy on the back, tell him it'd all be okay, and guide him gently to the institution.

For sheer ODD, there's just so damn many, but the weird little snake handler groups that let rattlesnakes bite them, and drink strychnine cocktails, because of some obscure passage in the Bible that says God will protect them...yow. 'Course, my father used to keep snakes, and I grew up with a healthy respect for our slithery friends, so watching these nutcases fling jumbles of these poor baffled rattlers around really bothers me on a gut level. It's the hand on the bandsaw, loaded gun pointed at the head, violation of deeply ingrained safety rules kind of response, I think.

They lack the multilayered insanity of many other weird beliefs, mind you. I dunno if it's ODD or just a straightforward sort of crazy.

Plus, when they have to subtitle your interview because you've been bitten so many times that your speech is an incomprehensible slur, I am not all that impressed at how God has been lookin' out for you.
 
GzuzKryzt said:
"You've been educated stupid
and are too dumb to know it,
or maybe just too evil to care.
Ignorance of the Time Cube
is a "curse" upon humanity."
(from www.timecube.com)

Wow, (speechless), wow.

(Still speechless.)

Should we found a consolation prize giveaway for disgraced "scientists" or unsuccessful (i.e. unaccepted) "thinkers"?

Something like the Razzies, or Darwin Awards, only with a human touch?

(Cuddling, hugging) "Awww, you poor thing. Did the scientific community ignore you again? Did you have trouble with logic again?. Awww." (more hugging) "Awwwww." (Cuddle²)


Perhaps this timecube blahblah represents a parody? A joke? Satire?
Click to expand...


The author is quite serious. He's appeared at MIT and other prestigious universities. He also frequents talk shows, such as this:
http://www.freetalklive.com/files/FTL100705A.mp3
 
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