Is it a good idea to have regular health checks?

I read the following article:  Why men are so unhealthy - and what can be done.

It says:

"NHS health checks, which are offered every five years to those aged 40 to 74, are considered a crucial intervention when it comes to many of the diseases which are claiming the lives of men early. But fewer than four in 10 men take up the offer".

Is there any evidence these regular health checks extend life? It seems not. For example, a paper:

General health checks in adults for reducing morbidity and mortality from disease: Cochrane systematic review and meta-analysis

reports in its conclusion:

General health checks did not reduce morbidity or mortality, neither overall nor for cardiovascular or cancer causes, although they increased the number of new diagnoses.

On the other hand, regular health checks do worry people as each health check appointment approaches. Or on getting slightly askew test results, say in a blood test, but which never leads to any adverse consequences.

Also, it's interesting that there's evidence for an increase in diagnosis. Yet the mortality rates did not reduce to a statistically significant extent for those having such regular health checks. Over-diagnoses leading to unnecessary treatments, therefore?

Claims in physics are always provisional?

Someone said on twitter/X 

I might be fringe here or ignorant... but I not think that ALL scientific "stuff" is provisional.

The speed of light is an absolute. The four fundamental forces are absolutes. The strength of gravity on earth (9.8m/s^2) is an absolute. For example.

Actually, this is an important point since I'm sure a lot of people are bemused when people say that claims in physics are always provisional. That they can and most probably will be upended in the future.

But the idea is that all scientific theories are provisional, not that facts about the world are provisional. Facts about the world obviously can't be provisional. I expect objects to fall when released. I expect a thrown stone to smash a window. I expect a light to go on when I flick a switch (maybe I don't expect it when saying "light on" to Alexa though 😂). And these facts appear to be eternal. Physical laws seemingly never change, although the theories explaining such laws do.

Belief in reincarnation

So far as I'm aware my parents have never believed in an afterlife.  I remember asking my dad when I was very young what happened when we die, and he said there's nothing.  And I was utterly shocked and dismayed.

So I was surprised when a few years ago talking to them in a pub they seemed very open to the idea of reincarnation. This might be just about the only time in my life I'd broached the subject of an afterlife with them. They had never really seem interested in talking about that sort of thing, or anything philosophical at all really. And they weren't interested in religion, although my mam said she believed in God (even if not an afterlife). When they'd previously rejected an afterlife, I don't think it was due to any strong feeling, just a kind of underlying supposition.

So where did my belief in an afterlife come from if not from my parents?  When I was a child, it was just a deep feeling. I don't think I ever truly believed my dad when he said there's nothing. It was just a very deep feeling that there's an ultimate purpose to all things including our lives. I used to have a fair few experiences of psi too as a child, almost never have them now.

The Climate Crisis

I just read this:

The global far right are weaponising net zero – and we’ll all suffer

I don't really care much about economic growth, I care about the planet. I wouldn't feel differently if I were ultra wealthy. But most people, regardless of their wealth, don't appear to care about the climate crisis.

Each government, at least in the UK, is obsessed by economic growth. We have enough wealth already, it's just that the preponderance of the wealth is concentrated in the hands of a few.

The world isn't physically closed

It is said that all change in the world is purely due to physical forces playing out. These forces can ultimately be boiled down to the four fundamental forces; the electromagnetic force, the gravitational force, the weak force and the strong force.

But, if that's the case, why do I have to make an effort to get out of bed in the morning?  And I do cos it's frigidly cold in my bedroom!

I should find my body moving of its own accord, getting out of bed, typing everything on here, thinking my thoughts for me. Isn't this all obvious transparent nonsense?

Induction and the laws of nature

We don't know, nor strictly speaking can we even say it's probable that the laws of nature will continue to operate. But we have to assume nature is uniform, otherwise we couldn't act in the world at all (if, indeed, the world didn't just disappear).

So, if I release a ball, why does it fall downwards? Why not just stay there? Or accelerate upwards? Or suddenly disappear? Or turn into a beautiful woman?

When I first studied philosophy, I couldn't grasp this. I thought, why doesn't past experience render it at least likely that the laws of nature will continue? It was a revelation when I finally got it. One of the few occasions in my life when I suddenly grasp something, and I thought, "oh wow" and "this means that everything we know is ultimately a type of faith". It added to the mysteriousness of this reality we find ourselves in, and the fact we ultimately know nothing in a strict sense.

Materialism is Crazy

I think materialism is absolutely crazy. Yet, even more crazy is that people actually believe it. It is mind numbing; How can they believe it? How can they believe that we are biological robots with no free will, even no enduring self? How can they believe that their existence came about by some vastly improbable fortuitous miracle? And an absurd existence at that which is devoid of all purpose. Where we just find ourselves cast adrift into a meaningless world, a meaningless universe, living out our meaningless lives waiting until eternal darkness abruptly ends it all.

Materialism is an aberration of our modern world. What has happened to persuade people to believe in such an absurdity? I do know why, but I still find it astonishing that one's culture can so effectively brainwash people into subscribing to such patently obvious falsehoods.

Should we shun social media?

 Someone said in a comment under a Guardian article:

My solution to this problem is somewhat simplistic. I don't do social  media. As in not at all. None. Nadda. Never been on Facebook. Never  will. Everything I have read about it causes me to view it as quite  sinister. I don't do Twitter, Linkedin or any other form of social  media.

I'm not sure why people think it's so virtuous and positive to shun social media.  And many appear to think people simply exclusively use it to send strangers pictures of their kids, or of their latest meal, or to boast about their lives, or to announce they're going to the shop, or that covid isn't for real, or that vaccinations are dangerous etc.

A lot of people do, but one can post about other issues too. People can post something thoughtful or thought-provoking on a whole range of topics. Or they can post something interesting, amusing, or even something profound e.g. see all my posts on Facebook or indeed this blog. 😉

Or, to put it another way. If people just post dreary stuff, trite stuff, nonsensical stuff, nothing that you ever find engaging, interesting, or amusing, then how much are you going to be able to connect with them in real life anyway?

The trouble with real life conversations is that people typically just talk about dreary boring stuff. On social media, I can say what I think which I could never do in real life since everything gravitates to small talk.

Spelling Tests I had at School

Back around then when I was around 8 years old at Holy Trinity School in Stockton-on-Tees, we used to have a spelling test every Monday where we were tested on 10 words. If I remember correctly, I used to get 0,1,2 out of 10 all the time.

That is, until one Monday when each word the teacher spoke I already knew how to spell! I cannot begin to stress how unusual this was. It's a bit like seeing a lottery draw with each number drawn matching your selection.

So that time I got about 8, 9, 10? out of 10!  I can't remember now though, but the teacher when on about it in front of the class, and he seemed to believe I had hitherto deliberately got low scores!  I wanted to say no, it was just complete coincidence this week. Next week I'll go back down to a score of 0-3.

But I never got such low scores ever again. From then on I always got pretty decent scores (although not as high as that one week). I was completely baffled. And I still am. What on earth happened here? Just one of the many anomalous experiences I had when I was very young.

The myths and traditions of death

 An interesting Guardian article:

It is worth reminding ourselves that the vast majority of our ancestors saw the world in a very different way than we do today. They understood their universe to be ensouled or inspirited, with invisible deities intricately entwined with all aspects of life and death. For most of human history, the questions and answers of life and death were sought not in the causal relationships of a historical worldview or the scientific method, but rather through mythology and religion.

Yes, but that knowledge, that wisdom, has now been vanquished by the cold, sterile, bleak picture created by our modern western Weltanschauung. Creating existential angst, despair, and an all pervasive ennui. We distract ourselves with the trivialities of existence -- money, prestige, travel, celebrities -- anything to distract us the from the inner anxiety and dread that threatens to rear its head in moments of reflection.

[I]n the Maya world, disease was understood as a result of physical and spiritual imbalance, with illness resulting from the transgression of the laws of nature and society or the captivity of the soul by supernatural beings.

That's good. Means I shouldn't get cancer and stuff. 😂