The curious case of Sarah Salviander.

[Anomalocaris]

There is a lunatic fringe in any group classified by education, theoretical intelligence, and upbringing. Being outliers their actions can be animated by a wide range of considerations, psychologies, and private motivations. The suffices to say that whatever caused them to say what they would, the bulk of the field hewing closer to the professional standards of the field regard them with pity mixed with appropriate disdain.   The fact that evangelicals need to harp on the existence of a lunatic fringe in the community of those with PhDs in astrophysics, as if it were some new revelation, tells just how crudely opportunistic and contemptuous of the full perspective on facts these movements are, and how utterly brain dead and gullible their followers had always been.

[Lek]

It's very simple.  She, like many other intelligent and successful people, experienced God and believed.  That's how it works.

[AceBoogie]

I think even highly intelligent people are susceptible to believing in certain things if they allow themselves to be convinced to think of certain things in a certain way. Even the most hard nosed skeptic, if following a false line of evidence or false line of thinking that they believe to be true, can end up believing in a complete falsehood.

Especially if someone allows another person to convince them to think of something the way they think of it... If it's like one person in your life constantly trying to get you to see something a certain way and you kind of want to see their point it can be easy to be deceived.

It is very interesting but I think the explanation is simpler than some might assume.

[Catholic_Lady]

Why is it a curious case for an attractive, intelligent, successful person to be a theist? I know plenty of them.

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I don't see why it's so hard to fathom that someone else may believe differently than yourself without being dumb and ugly lol.

[Jehanne]

I think even highly intelligent people are susceptible to believing in certain things if they allow themselves to be convinced to think of certain things in a certain way. Even the most hard nosed skeptic, if following a false line of evidence or false line of thinking that they believe to be true, can end up believing in a complete falsehood.

Especially if someone allows another person to convince them to think of something the way they think of it... If it's like one person in your life constantly trying to get you to see something a certain way and you kind of want to see their point it can be easy to be deceived.

It is very interesting but I think the explanation is simpler than some might assume.

If you read her website some more, she says that she was heavily influenced by Dr. Gerald Schroeder, a PhD graduate in physics from MIT (whom Professor Antony Flew was also heavily influenced by).  In one of his books (The Science of God...), Dr. Schroeder says that kinetic energy is proportional to an object's velocity and also equivocates mass with weight:

https://pandasthumb.org/archives/2005/11...-with.html

For any individual with any degree in physics (even an AS) to make the above claim that kinetic energy is proportional to an object's velocity is beyond absurd.

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Why is it a curious case for an attractive, intelligent, successful person to be a theist? I know plenty of them.

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I don't see why it's so hard to fathom that someone else may believe differently than yourself without being dumb and ugly lol.

She's not ugly, far from it.  There's nothing wrong with her physical appearance.  As far as her clothing goes, she was wearing a long feminine blouse with a long feminine skirt, completely in line with her conservative religious views.  Also, considering the fact that she lives in Texas (a conservative state, both politically and religiously), her appearance would be typical of many women in that state, the majority of whom do not wear pants to work, church, etc.

[Anomalocaris]

It's very simple.  She, like many other intelligent and successful people, experienced God and believed.  That's how it works.

Yeah, when that happened, she simply wasn't really intelligent enough, or was not emotionally balanced enough to prevent her wishes from ruling her thinking.

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Why is it a curious case for an attractive, intelligent, successful person to be a theist? I know plenty of them.

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I don't see why it's so hard to fathom that someone else may believe differently than yourself without being dumb and ugly lol.

Yeah, but real education leading to PhD in astrophysics normally weeds out people who are merely ordinarily intelligent in the still-susceptible-to-theism sense.

[robvalue]

Right, she could have have had some really weird experience, and then interpreted it as being part of the mythology that surrounded her since birth. We're all soaked in it, even those of us not raised religiously.

This seems to be a fairly common scenario. I've had plenty of weird experiences, which I could have interpreted many ways, but which I've written off as most likely my brain playing tricks on me.

[chimp3]

When she makes claims about reality she will have to provide evidence not just WLC style word games. I briefly looked through some of her writings at Six Day Science. The site name says it all.

[RoadRunner79]

[Catholic_Lady]