Fdip319: What Does the Fox Say?

09/27/14 • 62 min

On the Fox News website a few weeks ago, Dr. Jennifer Landa, wrote an article “How Endurance Running Can Damage Your Health”. Dr. Landa is an excellent physician. She’s the Chief Medical Officer of BodyLogicMD, a franchise of doctors specializing in bioidentical hormone therapy. In this episode of Phedippidations, I’m going to refute Dr. Landa’s arguments by applying a healthy dose of skepticism to her craftily...and well worded arguments. But unlike my usual vitriolic attacks pointing out the blatant logical fallacies presented an article...and I must tell you, Dr. Landa has made many weak transgressions here...I’m going to try and be “fair and balanced”. I say try...I’m not on par with Dr. Landa’s intelligence: but I think I’m pretty good at refutations...so, I’ll give it a shot. It’s good to warn readers about the dangers of any activity...but you absolutely MUST comment on the validity of the proof. That wasn’t done here, and that’s both egregious and misleading. It’s important, to me at least, that I make the declaration that “I don’t know everything”. I’ll defer to Dr. Landa on all of the subjects of which she is an expert...but if you’re making an argument with poor reasoning, then the burden of proof is with you....and that’s the truth no matter what FOX says. Links: Direct link to old episodes of Intervals: Melodious advice by Neil on Twitter @neilbearse Both opening and closing themes songs were by Jim Fidler at . The song - “Skeptic” was by the musician and fellow podcaster George Hrab, off the album “Vitriol”. You can hear more from George over at FitBit at . Intervals between episodes can be found at In Vino Veritas with at ONLY IF YOU LIKE IT: (But really, PLEASE, only if you can afford it!) Phedippidations is supported monthly through the kind and sincerely generous financial support of 68 friends and fellow runners: William, Vera, Katie, Ryan, Chaise, Gordon, Scott, Mike, Jeff, Colin, Jason, Diane, Cheryl, Ron, Mark, Martha, Greg, Jim, Tim, Bill, David, Doug, Vance, Marcelo, Roberto, Zaki, Margaret, James, Norm, Simon, Janice, Andrew, Pam, Rob, Glenn, Trey, Steve, Angie, Al, Toni, Martin, Lynn, Nancy, Eric, Jim, Joe, Martin, Rich, Tom, David, Pierre, Maria, Hisham, Andrea, Brad, Dave, Desiree, Jens (@ScenicRunner), Claudia, John, Jill, Elizabeth, Pat, Marc, Evelyn, Chris, Dino and Michael. THANK YOU! {} Follow me on: Blog: Stream: Apple App: Android App: Support:

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Fdip318: Intervals From The Past

I have this “other podcast”, that I call Intervals...and unlike the portmanteau title of Phedippidations...the title “Intervals” is a bit of a double entendre. Whereas Phedippidations usually has a theme to each episode...Intervals is themeless. I “make it up as I go along”, and it has been a sort of “stream of consciousness” podcast that I put out there...because, why not? Today we’ll go back to the year of our (Time) Lord 2010. It was a good year; as years go. Since then, so much has changed in my life...as it has with yours. Back then I was still running road races and marathons, back then my weight was below 190 and my injuries were minor. Now, I’m not telling you this as someone who laments the good old days...or to garner sympathy for the darks times we’ve experienced since...I’m simply putting this out there to remind you that the period of four years both seems like a long time ago, and yet it’s demonstrably not. So what should we learn from this? I think it’s best that we live in the present. Assume that tomorrow will be a better day, but don’t dwell on it...don’t focus on what’s to come because: that’s for later; be here: now. I am notoriously bad at living for the moment...the very exercise of producing this episode has forced me to relive my past...and that took me away from where I was as I listened to over 40 hours of podcasts, taking notes on bits to include here. What a colossal waste of time...I only hope that I didn’t waste yours...and maybe, just maybe, my effort here will have forced us both to consider living in the present. The Buddah said “Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.” We can only truly experience the universe and our own lives, right now...in the present. The past and future are nothing more than concepts...our brains retain the memories of what happened and create thoughts about what will be...but it’s the present that matters. Right now, where ever you are, listening to my voice...which, interestingly was recorded in your past...this present moment is the thing we should concentrate on. The problem with dwelling on the past and future is that you can easily get stuck there...and that’s not good because if you’re there and not here, you’re missing out on having a profound experience every day...you’re missing out on what’s happening all around you...you’re missing out on life. The person who recorded these Intervals is gone forever...in his place, right now...is this new guy...facing not the future or lamenting the past: but trying as best he can...(and not going all that great of a job of it, may I point out) of living his life in the present. It’s not easy...it seems like it should be, but it’s not. You want to experience something more profound than the “Ice Bucket Challenge”? I challenge you to sit quietly, somewhere...anywhere, and concentrate on just being there. It takes practice, and it’s very, very hard to do...but if you can run a road race: a 5K, 10K or marathon, you already have an indomitable spirit to try anything. I feel like I should make it clear, again, that I am not very good at living in the present. I don’t believe in ghosts...but I’ve certainly been haunted by the events of the past four years. It’s time for all of us to move on...to where we are now. The Buddhist monk “Thich Nhat Hanh” once wrote that: “Fear keeps us focused on the past or worried about the future. If we can acknowledge our fear, we can realize that right now we are okay. Right now, today, we are still alive, and our bodies are working marvelously. Our eyes can still see the beautiful sky. Our ears can still hear the voices of our loved ones.” I wish I had lived more in the moment, through my past...but that doesn’t mean I can’t do so in my future...and maybe the best way for me to do that is to not worry about it. Just be. Links: Direct link to old episodes of Intervals: Melodious advice by Neil on Twitter @neilbearse Both opening and closing themes songs were by Jim Fidler at . The song - “Part of Me” was another track off the new album “A Raven Has My Heart” by Black Lab at . FitBit at . Intervals between episodes can be found at In Vino Veritas with at ONLY IF YOU LIKE IT: (But really, PLEASE, only if you can afford it!) Phedippidations is supported monthly through the kind and sincerely generous financial support of 70 friends and fellow runners: William, Vera, Katie, Ryan, Chaise, Gordon, Scott, Mike, Jeff, Colin, Jason, Diane, Cheryl, Ron, Mark, Martha, Greg, Jim, Tim, Bill, David, Doug, Vance, Marcelo, Roberto, Zaki, Margaret, James, Norm, Simon, Janice, Andrew, Pam, Rob, Glenn, Trey, Steve, John, Angie, Al, Toni, Martin, Lynn, Nancy, Eric, Jim, Joe, Martin, Rich, Tom, David, Pierre, Maria, Hisham, Andrea, Brad, Dave, Desiree, Jens (@ScenicRunner), Claudia, William, John, Jill, Elizabeth, Kevin, Pat, Marc, Evelyn, Chris, and Dino. THANK YOU! {} Follow me on: Blog: Stream: Apple App: Android App: Support:

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Fdip320: Teleological Wishes and Anthropic Misses

Something to contemplate on your long, slow run today: The Teleological argument in support of the existence of God says “that the universe is ordered towards some end or purpose, that it was created by an intelligent being in order to accomplish some purpose.” FACT: We live in a 13.7 Billion year old universe that will end in a “Heat Death” 100 Trillion years from now. The Scottish philosopher David Hume didn’t think much of the “Teleological Wish”...he wrote that: “A very small part of this great system, during a very short time, is very imperfectly discovered to us, and do we thence pronounce decisively concerning the origin of the whole?” The Anthropic argument for or against God, misses and the Teleological argument is just something that we wish for. There are, generally speaking 5 arguments used to prove the existence of God: The Teleological, Cosmological, Ontologocal, Moral, Miracles and Religious Experience. Today, we will focus on the Teleological, which leads to a discussion of the Anthropic. The teleological argument does not prove the existence of God, no matter what the apologist William Craig has to say...but to his credit, the argument doesn’t disprove Gods existence either....but whatever you do, I implore you NOT to take my word for it. I want to make it clear that in this episode I have not stated my position on the existence of God. I’m not here to state an opinion...you have to decide for yourself. Maybe you’ll decide not to think about it, and remain as spiritual or atheistic as you’ve ever been: that’s your decision. But I want to think about it, I want to know...and it’s my opinion that you should as well...because the universe is an enormous, amazing, curious, exploding, inhospitable mess of a thing, and it’s likely just one of an infinite number of universes that exists through an infinite regression of universes. As truly insignificant as we are, we should be in awe of the consciousness that allows us to contemplate the origin and purpose...if there is one...of all that has ever or will ever be. Links: Melodious advice by Neil on Twitter @neilbearse Both opening and closing themes songs were by Jim Fidler at . The song - “If there is a God” was by the Smashing Pumpkins off the album “Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music”. Hear more at The song “Think for Yourself” was by George Hrab from http://www.geologicpodcast.com FitBit at . Intervals between episodes can be found at In Vino Veritas with at ONLY IF YOU LIKE IT: (But only if you can afford it!) Phedippidations is supported monthly through the kind and sincerely generous financial support of 68 friends and fellow runners: William, Vera, Katie, Ryan, Chaise, Gordon, Scott, Mike, Jeff, Colin, Jason, Diane, Cheryl, Ron, Mark, Martha, Greg, Jim, Tim, Bill, David, Doug, Vance, Marcelo, Roberto, Zaki, Margaret, James, Norm, Simon, Janice, Andrew, Pam, Rob, Glenn, Trey, Steve, Angie, Al, Toni, Martin, Lynn, Nancy, Eric, Jim, Joe, Martin, Rich, Tom, David, Pierre, Maria, Hisham, Andrea, Brad, Dave, Desiree, Jens (@ScenicRunner), Claudia, John, Jill, Elizabeth, Pat, Marc, Evelyn, Chris, Dino and Michael. THANK YOU! {} Follow me on: Blog: Stream: Apple App: Android App: Support: