February 19, 2004

Gravity Causes God

...so says Mr. George Hammond, who has expounded his discovery of the connection between the Flynn Effect, factor analysis, general relativity and God in a classically-psychoceramic series of webpages, and an "Open Letter to Thirteen Jewish Physicists". This latter he's spamming to other physicists; I'm a bit hurt not to be prominent enough to have gotten a copy, but a friend kindly shared it with me. Amusingly enough, the first "Jewish" physicist on the list is Steven Weinberg, a notorious atheist who once challenged God to strike him down with a flaming sword during a debate with John Polkinghorne. The second name on the list is Murray Gell-Mann, who has a diabolically clever scheme for dealing with cranks: he puts them in touch with each other. (Update, 28 March 2004: Reworded so that it doesn't sound like Weinberg asked God to smite Polkinghorne.)

Update, 24 September 2004: Looking up something else in Donna Kossy's invaluable Kooks, I find that Hammond has been around for quite a while; and here I thought the name looked familiar because it resembled that of a sys-admin I had as an undergraduate. (See pp. 247--252 of the second edition for the details on Hammond's neuropsychological theory of the cross, and much more besides.)

Psychoceramica

Posted at February 19, 2004 17:56 | permanent link

Three-Toed Sloth