Leadbetter screwing up another young golfer's swing!

http://tvnz.co.nz/golf-news/lydia-ko-blows-british-open-6026686

Why do they let this charlatan near these promising young golfers? 80 FFS!

After a certain point, why do these professional golfers, be they male or female, need "swing coaches"? I mean after you get a swing in the groove that works for you, its just a matter of keeping the lines, the posture, the grip and the tempo. More like just having someone knowledgeable watch you and point out things than an entire rebuilding process. On the other hand, I've always liked Ledbetter's accent.

Why is there religion?  Because humans are typically followers.  They've been selected that way.  Look at what is actually known about god, christ, etc.  Yet my saying this probably strikes a blasphemous chord in you.  The real blasphemy is thinking for oneself.

When I was 11 I debated my Sunday school teacher for the dual purpose of figuring out if there was any real logic to what everyone around there was doing and to get expelled so I would no longer miss sports practices.  The only attempted persuasion I got from her was everyone before me did it.  I said "then you didn't think through any of this yourself you just followed along?  Because of a myth of a talking, spontaneiously combusting bush 5,000 years ago?"  

She sent me to the principal's office where the same debate earned me my release from what I saw as nothing more than communal stupidity.  I had no respect for them...what could they possibly teach me?  My parents were pissed and made me get tutoring the year before I was to be Bar Mitzvahed because they were prideful and hell bent on throwing a big party.

For most humans, it's easier to be a disciple than to think for oneself.  If you consider human politics, superstition, fear and laziness religion can be easily explained. A supreme being cannot.  Yes there was somehow creation but humans are far from equipped to explain it.

I accept however the cultural and inner comfort advantage religion can provide.  That's the selective aspect contained in our cranial blueprint and provides the only real logic.  Security and belonging matter.

Anyways...that's why Leadbetter exists...

I became fascinated with the reported spontaneous combustion of humans when I was very young. When I was a teenager i developed a taste for Mexican food at the local Taco Bell in La Habra where we ate sometimes when our family visited from Pennsylvania. This was in the early 1960's and Taco Bell had not yet ventured too far from the L.A. metro area. Anyway, I loved the hot sauce and refried beans. My older cousin who lived in La Habra told me about the practice of lighting farts. The first time I tried to light a fart was not too long after consuming some tacos and refritos at the Taco Bell. I overcame my fear of spontaneous combustion, fired up the Zippo, and caugtht a decent dry fart that burned a brilliant orange for about two seconds. I was hooked from that moment on and needed no further instruction or prodding. In a way, my older cousin was my Ledbetter.

Lorenzzo wrote:Why is there religion?  Because humans are typically followers.  They've been selected that way.  Look at what is actually known about god, christ, etc.  Yet my saying this probably strikes a blasphemous chord in you.  The real blasphemy is thinking for oneself.

When I was 11 I debated my Sunday school teacher for the dual purpose of figuring out if there was any real logic to what everyone around there was doing and to get expelled so I would no longer miss sports practices. The only attempted persuasion I got from her was everyone before me did it. I said "then you didn't think through any of this yourself you just followed along? Because of a myth of a talking, spontaneiously combusting bush 5,000 years ago?"

She sent me to the principal's office where the same debate earned me my release from what I saw as nothing more than communal stupidity. I had no respect for them...what could they possibly teach me? My parents were pissed and made me get tutoring the year before I was to be Bar Mitzvahed because they were prideful and hell bent on throwing a big party.
For most humans, it's easier to be a disciple than to think for oneself.  If you consider human politics, superstition, fear and laziness religion can be easily explained. A supreme being cannot.  Yes there was somehow creation but humans are far from equipped to explain it.

I accept however the cultural and inner comfort advantage religion can provide.  That's the selective aspect contained in our cranial blueprint and provides the only real logic.  Security and belonging matter.

Anyways...that's why Leadbetter exists...

Holy Shit!! I had exactly the same thing happen to me when I was 12. In my case it was more about getting more time to chase the girls, but as it turned out, they were still in hebrew school and I had to stay in the house.

Same experience Zo and jmtbkr. Catholic household, public grade school, Sunday school and CCD. I did the first communion when I was really young but refused to go through with the Confirmation.

I've had several friends leave the church as teenagers and young adults, only to return after they've had children. I think it's lazy parenting for the most part. They use promises of eternal punishment to get their kids to behave.

My daughter is starting to ask some questions since the church is a part of many of her friends' lives. Still not sure how to answer them. I can't have her be disrespectful, but I certainly don't want to instill any herd mentality.

It sounds similar to my experience, except Southern Baptist. Sports, drugs, girls, were more appealing. I never understood the judgmental side of any religion. I started reading anything from Buddhism, to mythology and everything in between that wasn't christianity.

This is a Portion of one of my favorite speeches by J. Krishnamurti, Head of the Order of the New Star, On August 3, 1929. His first speech he dissolves the organization that made him the head of the order.
"Truth is a pathless land"

"... You may remember the story of how the devil and a friend of his were walking down the street, when they saw ahead of them a man stoop down and pick up something from the ground, look at it, and put it away in his pocket. The friend said to the devil, 'What did that man pick up?' 'He picked up a piece of Truth,' said the devil. 'That is a very bad business for you, then,' said his friend. 'Oh, not at all,' the devil replied, 'I am going to let him organize it.'

I maintain that Truth is a pathless land, and you cannot approach it by any path whatsoever, by any religion, by any sect. That is my point of view, and I adhere to that absolutely and unconditionally. Truth, being limitless, unconditioned, unapproachable by any path whatsoever, cannot be organized; nor should any organization be formed to lead or to coerce people along any particular path. If you first understand that, then you will see how impossible it is to organize a belief. A belief is purely an individual matter, and you cannot and must not organize it. If you do, it becomes dead, crystallized; it becomes a creed, a sect, a religion, to be imposed on others. This is what everyone throughout the world is attempting to do. Truth is narrowed down and made a plaything for those who are weak, for those who are only momentarily discontented. Truth cannot be brought down, rather the individual must make the effort to ascend to it. You cannot bring the mountain-top to the valley. If you would attain to the mountain-top you must pass through the valley, climb the steeps, unafraid of the dangerous precipices..."


HB - I know you daughter is young, but if you haven't, check out Ismael -> Linky https://www.google.com/shopping/product/9974640251763972910?espv=2&output=search&sclient=psy-ab&q=ishmael+book&oq=&pbx=1&ion=1&bav=on.2,or.r_cp.r_qf.&bvm=bv.71126742,d.cGE,pv.xjs.s.en_US.JBeEmV5xQY4.O&biw=1920&bih=1019&tch=1&ech=1&psi=uonFU6X5HMrAigL-0IG4Bg.1405454778587.3&sa=X&ei=wInFU6D8L8jNiwLAsoDYDQ&ved=0CJgBELok

I would guess a young teenager could handle it pretty easily. No advice otherwise. I think exposure to all religions might be a good approach. My father in law did that with his children. None of them are overly religious. One of them "found god" but the other two don't really believe but have a good respect for all religion. My wife is an anthropologist. She believes they are all myths.

I read that book. It was about a gorilla if I remember correctly.

Here in Sh!thole, KY, there is database admin who is a literal Bible guy who believes the Earth is 5K years old. He's technically competent and logical in his approach as a DBA too. There are many New Earth proponents in this neck of the woods. The psychology of it is interesting to me. I don't argue or try to convince these people. It's just not possible.

BTW, tremendous thread jack by Zo.

Horseballs wrote:Same experience Zo and jmtbkr.  Catholic household, public grade school, Sunday school and CCD.  I did the first communion when I was really young but refused to go through with the Confirmation.  

I've had several friends leave the church as teenagers and young adults, only to return after they've had children.  I think it's lazy parenting for the most part.  They use promises of eternal punishment to get their kids to behave.  

My daughter is starting to ask some questions since the church is a part of many of her friends' lives.  Still not sure how to answer them.  I can't have her be disrespectful, but I certainly don't want to instill any herd mentality.    

It's a really complicated question isn't it?  You want your kids to be happy but also fit to survive. There's personality, birth order and the example you and your wife set.  The first two considerations change with respect to your second child.

Survival fitness depends on one's ability to think for oneself, doesn't it?  But wait, it also requires inclusion. Then there's the reality that wherever you try to send your children they will most likely imprint on you.

My decision was to not foster but allow my son myth during his early childhood but then answer his questions, which would inevitably arise, honestly as he got older. I didn't know how else to balance social inclusion with intellectual integrity and absorption of reality.

It helped that he was a lot like me and that I was a happy person who believed my life is better because I'm able to distill reality from this cauldron of bullshit in which we live. It's helped me find my path, succeed in business and adapt, survive and flourish in different environments.

Had I had more children with different birth orders and personalities it might have been a greater challenge but I think I would've handled it the same way. It's too early to gauge whether I've succeeded but so far so good.

I'd like my son to have good relationships with family members and both followers and critical thinkers in the outside world. I'm able to rely on the example I set in this regard. Although that said, respecting others has a lot to do with one's self-respect which is of course a different discussion.

Best advice to children regarding whatever religion they are being raised in: whenever in the company of your pastor, priest, rabbi, imman, shaman, guru, whover, protect your genitals at all costs and if touched or attempted to touch, tell mommy and daddy or the nearest uniformed policeman.

If the child is a bit older, carrying and knowing how to use swiftly a small folding knife with quick release and serrated blade can provide protection against potential abusers.

When kids are young they believe in Santa, the tooth fairy and the Easter Bunny. As they grow older they realise these things are just make believe. That would be my approach with religion and god too. Don't deny the existence of religion/god when they are too young to fully grasp it but don't shove it down their throat either. Let them believe what they want until they are old enough to have a sensible, adult conversation about it. Then let them make their own decision.

When I was young I had friends who were staunch Catholics and they told me all about the wrath of God, the Holy Ghost etc. I went home to Mum & Dad sh#t scared that I was going to rot in eternal damnation if I didn't go to church. Dad just smiled and said that if I lived a good life and was a good boy I had nothing to fear from God. He didn't tell me it was all BS because then I would have gone back and told my friends that. He just comforted me and assured me I wasn't going to hell if I was good and left it at that. As I grew up I was able to make my own mind up. I only ever went to church for weddings and funerals. Mum & Dad were not religious at all.

Add me as another who grew up in a religious family but somehow wound up atheist. We were United Church of Canada, Baptist I guess. I did the Sunday school thing for a couple years, then this one day, we all had to go out in front of the congregation and tell a story about how God had touched our lives in some way. I was 6 or 7 maybe. I listened to all the stories the other kids told, and every single one sounded like complete BS to me, so I somehow got the idea that telling the most outlandish (and completely embellished BS) tale would be appropriate, so I made up a story that made the story of the Great Flood seem plausible. My mother was asked to keep me home from Sunday school after that incident. I thought we were supposed to make up lies, because from everything I could tell at that age, that's what everyone was doing.

I still believed in God, or was open to the idea of the existence of a God, until I was 18. That was when God tried to take my father from me, then my mother, so God got the middle finger and a "Fuck you very much" from me after that. The fact that I was also pursuing a degree in geology also put a few nails in religion's coffin. There's nothing quite like geology to get you questioning your beliefs. Follow that up with a huge passion for astronomy and cosmology (in other words, I'm a history buff), and you find yourself with little use for faith of any kind, in anything. All those questions that we supposedly can't answer? Oh hell yeah, we're answering those, and questions nobody ever thought to ask before as well. There's always something new to learn. I spend every day trying to find something new to learn, and I am nowhere closer to knowing everything than the day I started on my quest for knowledge. But I always know a little more than I did the day before. Improvement is never a bad thing.

I actually still enjoy the communal feeling of going to a church service, especially around the holidays. The Christmas services on Christmas eve with all the candles burning, and the carols and hymns still makes me remember feeling warm and comforted. The atmosphere of such a ceremony is intoxicating, as it is intended to be. I have to admit to not feeling the reverence I once did for the holiday season since I no longer celebrate those holidays, but what I've chosen to sacrifice in pure emotional comfort has been replaced with a much more reassuring understanding of the universe which provides the medium for my existence.

When I look up at a night sky, I feel true wonder. When I catch the smell of fresh cut grass on the wind, I am soothed. When I hear the waves lapping on the shore of the river out my back door, I feel privileged. The feeling of the sun on my skin provides me with warmth and comfort. The feeling of the wind in my hair connects me to something I can't even see. In other words, it will be a long time before I run out of earthly enchantments to the point where I need faith to feel engaged, complete, fulfilled, etc...

I am content not having all the answers to all my questions. I can accept that there are things that we have not yet discovered, and things which we do not yet know. I am not so zealous for answers that I need to fudge one in for the time being, until a later date when we can actually answer that question. I am zealous for answers though, but I can wait for valid answers; ones with evidence to support them, I need not rely on superstitious or supernatural phenomenon to explain the universe around me. I don't feel compelled to believe "something" just because there's a gap in my knowledge, I can confidently say "I don't know" and be at peace with that. I think that's where the reasoning of religious people and my reasoning diverge. I can admit to and accept being a fallible human being. I accept that there are things I do not yet know and/or do not yet understand. The difference is I'm leaving the book open.