God, Our Brains have Shunk!

According to paleoanthropologist John Hawks at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, the human brain has shrunk roughly 10 percent over years of evolution, as a result of the changes in the human genome. LiveScience reports:

Surprisingly, based on skull measurements, the human brain appears to have been shrinking over the last 5,000 or so years... "As to why is it shrinking, perhaps in big societies, as opposed to hunter-gatherer lifestyles, we can rely on other people for more things, can specialize our behavior to a greater extent, and maybe not need our brains as much", he added. [emphasis mine]

Perhaps, but I have a different take on the root cause of our shrinking brains. It's written in the Book of Genesis, actually. When did man create god... oops, sorry... god create man? About 5000 years ago, give or take a few centuries. Surely, it cannot be a mere coincidence that the human brain started to shrink ever since, can it?

Who would need brains after there was religion?

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Unholy Water

Faith is supposed to heal the faithful of their diseases. So we have been told by — who else, the faithful, of course (and the Congress of the United States of America)! Then again, it appears that the high priests of the faithful are not sure about this, not anymore than me.

In these days of bird flu, human flu, and swine flu panicdemics, the churches don't want to take any risk with their already dwindling parishioners by relying soul-ly on the power of their god. Who knows, it may be too late, if and when he decides to perform a miracle for tackling even this lowly flu, leave alone Leukemia or Parkinson's Disease. From Canada to Italy, from churches through mosques to synagogues, the merchants of god are running scared, therefore, worried more about the swine decimating their sheep, than about Richard Dawkins polluting their washed brains.

To fight the flu, the Globe and Mail reports, several religious organizations across Canada are adapting their millenia old faith healing traditions, to the 21st century practices of the godless medical-scientific community. Here are the top ten, and what I think they really mean to the flock:

10 Those distributing communion are asked to wash their hands before mass.

Lest they should infect the holy water and make it unholy.

9 Serve the communion bread on toothpicks.

Don't throw away the toothpick, please. It's been made holy, too, by communion with the holy bread!

8 Don't kiss or touch the Torah scroll.

You may blow a kiss or wave your hand at it, instead!

7 Provide hand-cleaning stations near church entrances.

Please don't bring those evil, micron sized organisms into the church. Our all-powerful god is helpless against them.

6 Refrain from shaking hands during the sign of the peace. A nod, bow or other appropriate gesture should be encouraged.

We acknowledge that those Japanese Buddhists have always been far ahead of us in these matters.

5 An alcohol-based sanitizer should be provided so that all ministers can sanitize their hands before and after distributing communion.

Kegs of beer will also be provided alongside to cleanse the body and soul.

4 Temporarily suspend communion from the chalice.

Check out our brand new infra-red communion dispenser, instead.

3 Don't forget to add bleach to the holy water!

So we can bill the insurance companies for treating diarrhea, besides other sins of the stool... er... soul.

2 Temporarily suspend communion on the tongue.

We have made arrangements to give it intravenously!

1 Remind parishioners that if they're feeling ill, it is best to stay home.

If you are sick, please don't come to your neighborhood faith healing clinic!

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Did Nidal Hasan Act Alone?

Of course not.

Major Nidal Malik Hasan had his parents alongside him. His parents who had compelled him to follow their faith, Islam, and who had opposed his joining the U.S. Army. He had been indoctrinated by them never to question the words of his god, Allah, as relayed by his messenger Muhammad, who too had accompanied Nidal. Above all, their message, Islam, had been with him, always encouraging him and leading him, through every step of his murderous rampage at Fort Hood. However much the apologists for Islam and the politically correct may try to to spin this away from Nidal's religion, the role that Islam has played in the loss of 13 precious lives cannot be ignored.

Facts first. His efforts to be relieved of military duties turning futile, Major Nidal faced imminent deployment to a war that he had vehemently opposed. He did not choose to go AWOL, and escape to Canada or Gaza. Nor did he become a depressed drug addict, and commit suicide in the privacy of his apartment. Instead, he meticulously cleaned out his apartment the day before the shooting, and said good bye to his neighbors, while handing them a copy of the Koran. On the morning of the killing, he was spotted in a local convenience store, wearing his traditional religious attire. He was described by the store owner as calm and collected, nothing out of the ordinary from his other routine visits to the store. Within a few hours, Nidal would take his semi-automatic and mow down scores of his comrades in uniform.

NPR's Daniel Zwerdling reported:

Earlier today, I spoke to a psychiatrist who worked very closely with Nidal and knows him very well. And he said... They have grand rounds, right? They, you know, dozens of medical staff come into an auditorium, and somebody stands at the podium at the front and gives a lecture about some academic issue, you know, what drugs to prescribe for what condition. But instead of that, he - Hasan apparently gave a long lecture on the Koran and talked about how if you don't believe, you are condemned to hell. Your head is cut off. You're set on fire. Burning oil is burned down your throat."

In a statement to Fox News, retired army officer, Col. Terry Lee, who knew Nidal and had worked with him, attested to the latter's opposition to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq:

"He said maybe Muslims should stand up and fight against the aggressor... At first we thought he meant help the armed forces, but apparently that wasn't the case. Other times he would make comments we shouldn't be in the war in the first place."

Hasan had been optimistic that President Obama would start pulling troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan, Lee said, but when that didn't happen as quickly as he hoped, Hasan became angry.

Note that Nidal did not say, "the people of Afghanistan and the people of Iraq should stand up and fight the aggressor". He said instead that Muslims had the right to rise up and attack Americans. On one side were the people of his nationality sworn to defend its constitution, and on the other side were the men and women sworn to defend his religion of Islam. There cannot be much doubt about on which side Nidal's loyalties had always been.

Nidal seems to have had only praise for those who caused death and mayhem, and in the process, committed suicide, all for the sake of their religion:

Its more appropriate to say [the suicide bomber] is a brave hero that sacrificed his life for a more noble cause. Scholars have paralleled this to suicide bombers whose intention, by sacrificing their lives, is to help save Muslims by killing enemy soldiers. If one suicide bomber can kill 100 enemy soldiers because they were caught off guard that would be considered a strategic victory.

If Nidal believed that his religion permitted him to murder those who deserved death for being the enemies of Islam, he had formidable company. In Iran, for example,

Article 226 of the Islamic Penal Law and Note 2 of Paragraph E of Section B of Article 295 of the same law, which allows for a person to unilaterally decide that another human being has forfeited the right to life and kill them in the name of performing one's religious duty to rid society of vice.

The Pakistan Penal Code prescribes death penalty for anyone found guilty of blaspheming Muhammad:

295-C. Use of derogatory remarks, etc. in respect of the Holy Prophet. Whoever by words, either spoken or written, or by visible representation, or by any imputation, innuendo, or insinuation, directly or indirectly, defiles the sacred name of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) shall be punished with death, or imprisonment for life, and shall also be liable to fine.

Much of what has been said in the Koran and the Hadiths is the law in Islamic countries. It is, therefore, disingenuous at best to claim that the religion of Islam has been hijacked by a few who misinterpreted its tenets. There is no misinterpretation of Muhmmad's teachings here. Only a misunderstanding. Rather, a delusion that what Muhammad said or wrote eons ago was the word of god. A delusion that Muhammad was beyond error, and that his teachings had universal and eternal validity. Nidal shared in this delusion.

What emerges from all this is not the picture of a demented mind, but a man with a mission. Nidal was not a peacenik or a 60's flower child. He was not a conscientious objector to all wars, but only those that he perceived to be against Muslims. He did not shout "Stop the war junkies" or "Down with American Imperialism", but only "Allahu Akbar [Allah is great]", as he fired his weapon. Nidal did not share John Lennon's dream of peace, love, and universal brotherhood, but he was a devout follower of his own faith, Islam. Until the day of the attack, he was proselytizing his religion without a shred of doubt in his mind about its superiority over all others.

In the aftermath of Fort Hood, several Islamic organizations were quick to disown and condemn Nidal' action. President Obama emphasized the diversity of the military, pointing out to the "Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus and nonbelievers" who served our country honorably. In a liberal democracy such as ours, it would indeed be bigoted to think of every Muslim soldier as a wannabe Nidal, and therefore, suspect. By the same token, though, it's naive to trust every soldier to put their constitutional obligations above those of their religion. President Anwar Sadat's assassin, Lt. Khalid Islambouli, and the bodyguards of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, Satwant Singh and Beant Singh, were testimonies to this. Major Nidal Malik Hasan is another.

As a citizen, Nidal was sworn to protect the Constitution of the United States of America. As a soldier in the army that he had voluntarily enlisted in, he was bound to obey the orders of his superiors, who had been enjoined to conduct the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, as authorized by the Congress and the President. He had no recourse in this regard, except one — his religion.

As a Muslim, Nidal had been taught to put one law, that of his god, Allah, above all other laws. And, in his mind he was quite clear what that law said. The enemies of Muslims were the enemies of his god and his religion. They could be and should be slain to defend Islam. Killing a hundred of them, thirteen, even one, would be a "strategic victory", because it would have saved the lives of countless men, women, and and children in Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, and Pakistan, who were law abiding citizens of the Dar-ul-Islam, Allah's land.

Make no mistake about this: I expect Nidal to be court-martialled, proven guilty of mass murder, and sentenced to death. Only under the U.S. law, though. Through the eyes of Allah and his law, however, I expect Nidal to see himself not as a murderer, but only as a martyr. Sounds familiar?

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Faithcare Bill?

After having been relentlessly bombarded by the politicians and the media with facts and fiction about the bane of pre-existent conditions, it would take a lot of faith for anyone to spend their hard-earned dollars on health insurance. If faith is the engine driving the demand for health insurance, then the economist in me says it's only fair that the insurance companies reimbursed faith!

That's precisely what the Affordable Health Choices Act, S. 1679, Sec. 3103(a)(1)(D) does. To the best of my knowledge, it has not attracted the attention of John Stewart or Glenn Beck. Not as visible as the public option or the individual mandate, it has been introduced into the health care bill insidiously, but with bipartisan support:

The provision was inserted by Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) with the support of Democratic Sens. John F. Kerry and the late Edward M. Kennedy, both of Massachusetts, home to the headquarters of the Church of Christ, Scientist.

The measure would put Christian Science prayer treatments -- which substitute for or supplement medical treatments -- on the same footing as clinical medicine. While not mentioning the church by name, it would prohibit discrimination against "religious and spiritual healthcare."

S. 1679, Sec. 3103(a)(1)(D) reads:

The essential benefits described in new Section 3103(a)(1)(A) of the Public Health Service Act shall include a requirement that there be no discrimination with respect to an individual who is eligible for medical or surgical care under a qualified health plan offered through a Health Benefit Gateway, thereby prohibiting Administrator of the Gateway, or a qualified health plan offered through the Gateway, from denying an individual benefits for religious or spiritual health care, except that such religious or spiritual health care shall be an expense eligible for deduction as a medical care expense as determined by Internal Revenue Service Rulings (interpreting Section 213(d) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 as of January 1, 2009). [emphasis mine]

It appears that this is specifically targeted at payoffs to Christian Science — the only institution whose form of faith healing enjoys tax deductibility. I suppose, however, that when it passes into law, this provision will elevate, Peter Popoff, Jack Coe, and James Arthur Ray, to the same pedestal as that of Christiaan Barnard, Louis Pasteur, and Jonas Salk. As it legitimizes Voodoo healing alongside vaccination, will the provision also cover the treatment plan that Thomas Muthee had ordered for Sarah Palin to drive the evil spirits away from her, so she could lead the real America?

Just last week, a French court had ruled against the Church of Scientology for defrauding its members thousands of dollars, by selling its brand of spiritual healthcare:

The case was brought by two former members who said they were pushed into paying large sums of money in the 1990s, pressed to sign up for expensive “purification courses” and harassed to buy a variety of vitamins and other forms of pharmaceuticals, plus electronic tests to measure spiritual progress. One woman said she had been pressed into spending more than $30,000.

In this country, there have been several recent cases of religious parents being prosecuted for criminal negligence, when they declined medical care for their children, favoring prayer and faith healing instead, resulting in tragic loss of lives. 11-year old Kara Newman of Weston, Wisconsin, died of untreated diabetes, when her parents chose prayer instead of insulin. Kent Schaible, 2, died when his parents trusted the reciting the words of their god alone to cure him of bacterial pneumonia. Terrance Cottrell, 8, died last year in the hands of worshipers and a priest at the Faith Temple Church of the Apostolic Faith in Milwaukee, while they were ostensibly exorcising the evil spirits from the soul of this unfortunate autistic boy.

There have been many more. In a 1998 study published in the Journal of Pediatrics, Rita Swan, president of CHILD [Children's Healthcare Is a Legal Duty], and Seth Asser, a Rhode Island pediatrician, reported:

...172 children died with no medical care because of religious reasons in the two decades after states began exempting faith healing. Of those, 140 children had a greater than 90% chance of survival if they had been treated medically, the researchers found.

The faithcare provision is, of course, a bonanza for the insurance companies. Why pay the medical health providers thousands of dollars, when they can make do with a few hundreds of dollars to the witch doctors? And, what better way to deal with the mandated coverage of pre-existent conditions, than leaving it to god? The billion dollar question, however, remains: if the insurance companies were to cover faith healing costs, could they be charged as co-conspirators in the wrongful deaths of children? How about the Congress, and the President, if he signed this provision into law?

I suppose somebody should rescue religion, when its very existence is threatened. I hear, loud and clear, that the bailout epidemic has not ended in Washington!

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Prophet Mismatched Marriage

Following on my previous post on melanin-mismatched marriage, I stumbled upon this story from the Middle East about prophet-mismatched marriage:

... In the Middle East, civil marriage doesn't exist and no religious authority will perform an interfaith wedding. Lebanon and Israel are different in that they recognize civil marriages as long as they're performed abroad, and the closest venue abroad is Cyprus, 150 miles from Lebanon and 230 miles from Israel.

So this little island, which claims to be the birthplace of Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love, has made mixed marriages something of an industry. Its municipalities charge around $415 for express processing and $190 for others, while travel agencies in both Lebanon and Israel offer packages including travel, luxury hotel, marriage fees and flowers for the bride.

Last year, by Cyprus government count, 523 couples from Lebanon and 1,533 from Israel were married here...

Civil marriage doesn't exist in Israel and Lebanon? I thought these two nations were the harbingers of liberal democracy in the Middle East, where theocracy holds the sway otherwise. Sadly, I was mistaken. Chalk one down for Israel and Lebanon.

I was right on the money in this, though: dig deeper into every incidence of bigotry, and you'll discover the ugly faces of gods, their sons, and their messengers!

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