Re: Darwinian selection of religions

Following up on my question of why world religions are so malleable in their interpretations (see my post 'Darwinian selection of religions'), I asked a Muslim why the Qur'an has not been written more clearly and explicitly. She said that the ambiguity in the Qur'an is a test for followers. The way you interpret the text--with love or hate, with a spirit of openness or of exclusion--is a mirror of your soul. The first word of the Qur'an, 'iqra', can be interpreted as 'read!' (with meanings such as 'follow closely [the prescriptions]), or 'instruct yourself!' (which could mean to learn, gather knowledge), or 'search!' (which could mean to search in yourself, or in the scriptures, to understand).

Seek - and you will find... yourself?

Comedy Relief

I wonder how the world would change if everyone watched or listened to a 5-min hilarious comedy show or transmission three times a day.

The American Dream #7: total freedom to rest

On Friday at 2 pm, you notice  that you have utterly, completely and satisfactorily finished all your things on all your to-do lists.

The American Dream #6:

total security

Religious racism - Relicism?

A good friend has slowly drifted into a ultra-conservative interpretation of Islam. As the second wife of an ulema, a Muslim scholar, completely covered in public, and reading only the Qur'an at home, she says she was never happier. Is this a good thing as long as she does not harm anyone? Can educating her children in the same fundamentalist way be considered 'harm' or 'doing the best for her children to the best of her knowledge'?

Would my reaction have been different if she had joined a fundamentalist current of Buddhism instead, an interpretation which does not allow music, encourages daily studying of the holy texts, provides a strict daily schedule and obliges her to wear a particular garment in a particular colour?

How much of my 'common sense' reactions are due to 'relicism' - some sort of religious racism?

Darwinian selection of religions

Every human group appears to have forged their spiritual experiences into some sort of religious framework. Why do we nonetheless only have a handful of world religions, rather than a patchwork of local beliefs, as diverse as human ethnic groups and their geographic situations? Why have almost all of these world religions been used as a pretext to commit the most horrible acts of violence, although all preach non-violent behaviour as a core value? And why are all these religions based on holy texts that are so ambiguous that followers fight over right and wrong interpretations, and use the same text to justify one thing and its opposite? Is it simply the result of the features a religion needs to have to survive and dominate others?  

Imagine for example a religion that is based on a half page of text that states simply and clearly that as a follower, you have to (for example) pray/meditate with good intentions, not harm anyone in any way, treat everybody like you want to be treated and help those in need. Full-stop. Either you do this, or you’re out. Would this religion have millions of followers and thrive for centuries? Or imagine a religion that is founded by a wise old woman who lives alone on a remote island and has no intentions to travel. Would this religion stand any chance of survival against a religion that is malleable, permissive, adaptive, and aggressively promoted worldwide by a powerful people? Even the most ingenious virus that infected only the Dodo has died out. Or, on the other hand, how peaceful can a religion be that is spread through violence?

Are our current dominating religions simply the result of a Darwinian (and hence human) struggle for survival? 

Your own, personal Jesus - part II: Copyright on Jesus - DENIED

In my previous post I wrote how I prepared a short personal version of Jesus' teachings based on selecting and rewriting passages from the Complete Gospels.
Since I thought that this particular selection I made highlighted unusual aspects of Jesus' teachings, I thought I may just self-online publish the text in case anyone is interested.
I therefore contacted the editor of the Complete Gospels just to make sure there is no problem with it.
Here is the short answer I received:

Polebridge Press, the copyright holder,  denies you the right to use any part, or a substantial similarity, of The Complete Gospels edited by Robert J. Miller, in all media now known or later developed. This matter is now closed and not open to any further negotiation.

I was quite puzzled by this reply. One the one hand, of course, the Complete Gospels were written based on new translations of all available texts, which took a tremendous amount of time, effort and expertise. From this point of view the text deserves the copyright. On the other hand, it seems wired that one can be forbidden to publish a text of 'substantial similarity' to the Complete Gospels... after 2000 years during which substantially similar versions of Jesus' gospels were taught all over the world.

Of course, it is extremely unlikely that reading my little text would have stopped anyone from buying the Complete Gospels (which I strongly recommend reading!).

Your own, personal Jesus - part I: Meeting Yeshua bar Yosef

I always found it frustrating that Jesus, unlike Mohammed, appears to have done nothing to assure a verbatim transmission of his teachings. As a result, Jesus’ words and deeds have only been written down decades or even centuries after his death, in a different language, by persons who most probably have never met him. Because of the socio-political context at the time of writing, selection and rephrasing of the gospels was strongly biased.

The obvious question is therefore on how much has this error-generating transmission affected the message of the historical Jesus?

To find out, I did the following: I bought the Complete Gospels (which contain also fresh translations of non-canonical texts, such as the Gospels of Thomas or Mary, or the Q and Signs Gospels) and selected sentences that I found particularly touching. I then rephrased these sentences to some extend, and put them in a different order, so to obtain something like a suggestive little story line.

The result of my little experiment (which took me two years, and resulted in a short manuscript) were twofold: 1) there is a particular message and spirit of the Gospels that is reassuringly robust to manipulation. 2) By chewing on the texts for long to produce a distilled and personal version, I felt I understood Jesus' message - and maybe Jesus himself - much better. In a way, it almost felt like I got to know this Yeshua personally, at least a little bit. Bottom line: If you want to understand Jesus, you have to rewrite the Gospels; you have to wrestle with the available texts, take them apart and write your own, personal Jesus. 

A little later I read that Buddha advised followers to question and chew on his teachings...

It's good to be the King

It is a scientifically proven fact that improving education, especially for lower-income parts of the society, has far-reaching benefits for a country. Benefits are not limited to simply stimulating and sustaining innovation, but also include reduction in crime rates (including domestic violence against women), and improvement of public health.
Hence, improving education improves a country's economy in two ways: by enhancing the technological competitiveness and by reducing expenses (e.g. for prisons or health care).
The down-side of investments in education is that it pays off only in 10-20 years. Since most democratic leaders of countries are elected for one or maximum two 4-5 year terms, such investment would not be beneficial. And it is preferred to invest in economic projects that pay off in the short-term, ideally before the next elections.
In this regard, it's good to be the King. For example Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah has put in place a 15 year program to pay studies abroad for Saudi students - currently 130,000 (26,000 women) in 46 countries. Fellowship recipients receive full university tuition coverage, as well as full medical and dental insurance, a monthly stipend, materials allowances, and annual airfare vouchers for the student and his or her family to Saudi Arabia and back to the host country. Recipients’ families receive the same insurance coverage, and joint scholarships are given to students with spouses.
As a welcome side-effect, these students will showcase their own culture abroad and, in turn, obtain deep insights in foreign cultures.
It certainly helps to have a bit of spare oil money to spend - however the cost of this program is probably only a small fraction of the yearly US military budget.

Brain gained, paradise lost?

Our brain, which creates our particular intelligence, consciousness, language and theory of mind; we think all this is advancement, progress toward a supreme being. But could these features simply be a specialisation? A specialisation necessary to protect us from what has become our greatest threat: our own race, our own complex society. Could it be a specialisation necessary to understand ourselves, to thrive or survive in our society. To escape and to dominate our own species. And if so, what have we lost in exchange for this specialisation that focusses so much energy on ourselves? Maybe a connection to all other live? Or maybe the understanding that all live on earth is one? Is that the paradise we've lost?

Seeing is believing, is ...?

The East German people's movement that resulted in the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989 was significantly motivated by many East Germans being able to capture West German TV.
Saudis are the nr 1 per capita users of youtube in the world. How will this influence a society which does not allow night clubs, bars, mixed dancing, revealing cloths?

Aspects of Democracy: US vs Iran

For the presidential elections 2013 in Iran, voters had the choice between 8 candidates. For many aspects, the elected president's decisions need to be in agreement with political and social views of the Supreme Leader. The Supreme Leader is elected by the Assembly of Experts. Members of this Assembly are elected by direct public vote for a 6-years term.

For the US elections in 2012, voters had the choice between 2 candidates. Since candidates cannot win an election in the US without massive funds contributed by big companies and corporations, the elected president's decisions need to be in agreement with the political and economic interests of those individuals that own/direct these businesses. 

Crowd sourcing peace?

If you pray several times a day, consistently, for your whole life - what do you expect?
happiness? peace? understanding? rest? health? wealth? auspiciousness? love?
And if all people of a whole country pray every day, several times - what would be the effects? And how much would the effects depend on the intentions of the prayers?

And if in a country almost nobody prays - what would be the effects?

Can peace be crowd-sourced?

link between chicken and urinary tract infection - or between low cost meat and high-cost health care

According to several reports, the use of antibiotics to produce low-cost chicken meat leads to the evolution of 'superbugs' - multi-drug resistant bacteria, which can cause a number of human diseases, including urinary tract infections. Such infections account for a 1-2 billion USD health care cost. It's a great deal: First large-scale poultry factories maximise their gains by selling sick chicken, and then pharmaceutical industry and health care providers get huge revenues from the sick humans. It's a win-win, except for those who don't have the money to buy organic produce or who don't have the guts to go vegetarian.

What's the colour of love?

What is the colour, the age, the style of 'romantic relationship' in the 21st century? Let's ask google.

According to google.com (Images), romance in the 21st century is overwhelmingly visualized and thus defined as the close tête-à-tête between a young white male with short straight hair, and a young white woman. Google is global, and, therefore, this image is seen worldwide, even in the most remote places. Interestingly enough, even searches in the more country-specific sites such as google.co.uk, or google.co.za or google.co.jp, display more or less the same set of images. There are overwhelmingly those of a happy young Caucasian couple in Western summer clothes embodying the epitome of romantic relationship. Why not a happy Mayan couple? Or a loving elderly Caucasian couple?

Just like the image of Santa Claus - an old white man in Coca Cola red all over the world - and just as we listen to pretty much the same tunes in bars in Bogotá, Bali or Boston, romantic relationships are, indeed, getting more and more globally normative. And they are rarely black or Asian, never Inuit.

How does it feel for all those whose images, and consequently existences, are not evidenced by Google? Shouldn't the representation of love reflect all facets, and shades, of the human race?

(copied from this webpage. See that link for more thoughts on this topic)

Do men drive better than women? Let's test it!

Men often complain that women are bad drivers, and that it's the women who get all the bumps and scratches on the cars. Now, that's easy to test! Let's got to Saudi Arabia, where women are not allowed to drive cars, and check it out.
That's what I have done - I went to Jeddah. There are only men driving - yet there is not a single car without bumps and scratches, and it is the worst traffic and driving I have seen so far. And I have been to France, Italy, China, Malaysia, Caribbean Islands, Africa....
Is there any country where only women are allowed to drive?
Or would a mixed driving population perform best?

Imams United

Although Islam is at its heart a religion that spreads peace and happiness, a few people use it to justify acts of extreme violence against innocent people. In so doing, these criminals not only achieve the exact opposite of whatever their political or moral motivations, but also produce a heinous and violent image of Islam. This image affects the vast majority of followers who are peaceful, and creates conflict between people and cultures.
I think the most effective and productive way to stop these acts of violence would be if the imams of the major currents of Islam united to excommunicate all those who commit these crimes. This would be a clear statement that such acts of violence and terror do not represent Islam, and would stop groups of violent people to use religion as a backing for crimes.

little feet

Your little feet. on steel. The world, an end, or a wet dream. Never shiver. A sliver in a friend's eye. Slowly. walk slowly. until. why never again. open my eyes. your little feet on cold. steel melting like ice in water. yesterday still burns, tomorrow's bombs on the belly of someone. someone little. on steel. still walk. a little.

Easy recipe to cut cancer risk in half.

In case you're worried about cancer:
We have cancerous cells in us permanently. However our body is actually very good in eliminating them, before they can create cancer. So what we need to do is to minimise the amount of cancer created and maximise our body's own defence. For this:
- Eat healthily (a diet low on salt, fat, sugar, milk, gluten, meat--especially red meat, alcohol, but high on greens, fruits etc).
- Avoid unnecessary exposure to cancerogenic substances (smoking)
- Some exercise (a bit of cardio, take stairs, cycle, etc..)
- Avoid chronic stress (yoga, vacation, breathing exercise, meditation, sport, regular sleep, etc -- however a concise and time-limited short-term stress is actually a good thing).
- Cultivate social support (family, friends, colleagues...)
The important part here is the synergy between these points. It's better to do a bit of all of the above, rather than, say, eating perfectly healthily but do no exercise at all.

Of course, this is all not surprising. What I find surprising, however, is that by following this easy recipe 50% of human cancers can be prevented--and this is much more efficacious than any drug on the market. Indeed, many drugs only allow a short life span extension, and come with a huge cost and side effects. Of course, in doing the above, you'll also substantially cut the risk of heart diseases, and even allergies.

The logic of cancer treatment

A Chinese friend of my Chinese friend has come from China to our hospital here in the US to obtain treatment for her cancer. Unfortunately, due to the particular mutations, normal treatments fail. She would need a platelet donor. My Chinese friend is willing to donate her platelets, however she is not allowed as a donor, because she's from China (and Chinese, just as many Europeans, are not allowed to donate blood)...