Edwin K.P. Chong, indirectly recruited by my “pastor’ bro (who fancies Chong delivered an atheist “spanking” to me) has delusions that he exposed a past internet article of mine as rife with logical violations, and other defects. What I propose to show here is how amiss the good professor is, and how every point I originally made in the piece (‘Memes and Mind Viruses’) stands - especially given the fact the column was not published as a treatise, or full essay. (See, e.g. comments in Part II and attached image)
First, let’s be clear Chong uses 1,926 words to try to assail my original article which was strictly confined to a pre-set 550 –word limit (since all Freethinker articles are first published in a local newspaper as Freethought ads, which set a 550-word limit). Anyone see anything amiss here? For one thing, a 550-word limit means no extended "support" arguments can be given, nor any validations, expatiations or elaborations. Thus, while such articles are partly expository they can't possibly be completely so - it isn't feasible. So they are more balanced between partial exposition and op-ed, probably heavier on the last.
Thus, Chong’s verbal takedown with over three times as many words as the original, amounts to a Kung fu master attacking a man with both arms tied behind his back. Not quite fair. I'd be vastly more impressed by Chong's logical acumen if he did a takedown of my piece in no more than 600 words. But he didn't, likely because he couldn't. He needed all those extra "supporting arguments" to make his case that my 550-limit deprived me of ab initio.
But this sort of thing doesn’t seem to matter to religious extremists and their ilk – like my brother- who believe that they and they alone are the ones to parse reality, and they make their own rules to suit.
But let’s now take Chong’s piece apart, though I will focus on his primary complaints and often use one set of (similar) criticisms to put other in their place.
1) Chong begins with an attack on my statement:
“Amongst the most powerful and insidious memes are those dedicated to the spread of religious beliefs or faith”
claiming my comment constitutes “propagandist tactics”, and “planting negative thoughts by using the derogative word 'insidious' before any supporting arguments are advanced”
Now, as I already stated above, I was limited to 550 words, hence there was no latitude for any “supporting arguments” – since the piece (for a newspaper) was intended as more an op-ed for Freethinkers than an ironclad academic tract or peer-reviewed paper.
But let me refer Chong to the Essential Oxford Dictionary of Difficult Words and the definition of “insidious”:
“Proceeding in a gradual, subtle way but with harmful effects”
Let me now validate the use of the term by reference to Scott Bidtrup’s recent analysis (in his book The Mind Virus) of how Christian scriptures, e.g. in the New Testament, sow pathological mind viruses. As Bidstrup observes:
“While the authors of the New Testament were somewhat prescient in their understanding of the problems of human nature, their prescription was not intended to become a didactically correct model of how human behavior should be ordered. Rather, as can be seen, their prescriptions have, over the centuries, become to be designed with careful specificity to control the behavior and thinking of their believers, with no concern as to the effect on the believer.
These prescriptions became the basis of Christian doctrine. They form a framework around which the rest of the meme complex is built. In our virus analogy, these interpretations on the insights described above are analogous to the DNA, the genes, that prescribe how the doctrines are to be controlled, so as to become and remain maximally virulent. “
The mechanics of the infectious delivery of the doctrines – as Bidstrup notes- are embedded in certain “mind games” played by their practitioners, of which I here cite two:
1- Spontaneous generated fantasies that accompany indoctrination.
He notes:
“These fantasies are the result of presenting a bright, attractive persona of the Bible and of the experience of Christianity and the experience of conversion to it. This is absolutely crucial to recruitment, but by itself it is shallow and meaningless. Similar to the hallucinations of dreaming”
This tactic is actually similar to the strategies for indoctrination used by Rev. Jim Jones in Guyana. Though in Jones’ case the mechanism used was more defensive – to protect his coterie of believers against the threat of the ‘government taking over”. Thus, he offered “Jonestown” as a safe refuge wherein a more complete conversion to Christianity would be possible without the possible interference of outside forces. Interestingly, in the book about Jonestown, The Suicide Cult, many members (before they left or escaped) reported being in a “dream state”. Part of the technique for implanting this state was constant repetition of selected sayings or verses.
Bidstrup goes on to point out:
“The reality of the experience, is, however, a purely physical phenomenon that is the result of stimulation of the temporal lobes of the brain, which can be duplicated at will in the laboratory”
Indeed, as I have already noted, Michael Persinger actually performed such experiments and showed how religious manifestations could be confected in the temporal lobes via electric stimulation. In the same way, the physical phenomenon behind indoctrination incorporates temporal lobe cooperation –whether done via a Fundy bible puncher, or by a Rev. Jim Jones in a secluded enclave in Guyana.
2- Verbicide
Bidstrup again:
“This is, quite literally, distorting, even destroying the meaning of words so that they have a different meaning to the believer than the non-believer. By giving the believer an understanding of the meaning of words that the authors intend, rather than the generally understood meanings, the general impression of a religious experience (the first mind game) is reinforced”
And we know fundies like Pastor Mike (who invokes Chong) does this all the time, as when he deliberately calls fetuses “children”, and abortion, “infanticide”. Thus are words deformed, followed by believers’ thoughts, since thoughts are fashioned from words,. Destroy the word and render their meanings anything you want, and you destroy the minds of those you’re seeking to affect. (Or infect)
Now, to show this mind virus dynamic isn’t peculiar to Christianity let’s now look at Islam, and specifically using Howard Bloom’s insight in his The Lucifer Principle, on how memes operate within religious edifices and constructs. As he points out (p. 228):
“Today’s Islam is the perfect example of a meme grown rapacious”
And he follows this comment with a number of examples, from the former Pakistani Gen. Zia – marking out territory to be Muslim-dominated in a wall map, to quoting an Islamic cleric in Lebanon who emphasizes:
“Don’t believe that we want an Islamic Republic in Lebanon, we want the whole WORLD to be an Islamic Republic!”
To quoting an academic (Dr. Abd El Sabor Shahin) in Cairo who proclaims that Western civilization makes a big mistake when it:
“thinks it will endlessly remain dominant”
Bloom goes on to cite even secularist Islamic academics in the U.S. (p. 229) who aver the expansionist zeal of Islam to be an “unstoppable force” and that the Qu’uran is merely cited in those parts that allay western fears. In other words, the message (mind virus) is hidden or concealed until the prospective believer is a captive, then it’s too late to abandon the demands of the meme.
One could go on and on citing numerous other religious domains that implant memes insidiously, but I believe the point has been made.
Next: Chong’s delusion that “infectious” is a “derogatory word”
Monday, February 8, 2010
Sunday, February 7, 2010
There’s NO place for Ghoulish Financial Speculation
It's bad enough that another immense and unstable asset bubble is building – thanks to inordinately cheap money (owing to the Federal Reserve’s near 0% interest rates) and stimulus money which continues to artificially jack up stocks as new credit defaults appear which bet against various nations’ bond worthiness. Many have warned the next burst bubble’s havoc may be difficult to contain, given the Fed has little room to maneuver and the bond -betting CDS (credit defaul swaps) are spreading.
Now, to add to that toxic speculative brew we see another even more sordid instrument emerging, called “life settlements”. These consist of buyers (“investors”) who purchase “bets” on life insurance policies. As a buyer, one claims the life insurance benefits when the original owner-seller of the policy dies. In this way, these instruments are reincarnations of an earlier form – viaticals – that appeared in the late 1990s.
The dynamic is described in the article ‘Grim Rewards for Reaping Death’s Benefits’ in The Wall Street Journal (Feb. 6-7, page B-10)
“Say you purchase a $1 million policy held by an 82-year old woman. Actuarial tables say she has five years to live. If you do the deal via Life Partners’ Holdings, Inc. – a major life-settlements firm, you must pony up $540,000. The woman gets $200,000 of that, the remainder goes toward future premiums and transactions fees.”
The article goes on to note that if the subject “dies on time” the investor earns a 13% annual return. But if she lives for another ten years the same investor will end up shelling out much more in premiums and the return sinks to 3%.
As the article puts it:
“Every year she soldiers on, your take shrinks”
Is it just me, or is there anyone else who sees something inherently wrong with this – including the potential for unintended consequences, say, like an unscrupulous investor “speeding up the game” a bit to maximize her or his returns?
Are these investors inhuman ghouls? Actually not. What they are is died in the wool capitalists in a run amuck market, looking for a buck any way they can make it! The capitalist-market system itself, not “Satan” or “Hell”, spawned these- folks – like it's spawned a whole constellation of consumption manifestations now blamed with wearing or tearing our civilization down: from rape- emulation video games, to Barbi dolls, to new war toys and weapons.
In the end it's the capitalist's true god- the free market- which is responsible for lowered standards across the board and increasingly less mental and physical health in the country. This market, fully amoral - is capable of tolerating 25 million malnourished kids who go to bed hungry each night, as well as 46 million people with no health insurance. Its only incentive is profit, making money. No religious or other moral standard applies.
As author Charles Reich poignantly notes in his book, Opposing the System, Crown Books, 1995, p. 22:
"A free market produces results that favor the health of society as a whole, because an essential balance is maintained. But in a coercive market, the balance is destroyed, the earning power of work and the standard of living of workers declines, and society as a whole is devastated while those with economic power gain an ever more unbalanced share of the nation's economic wealth."
This is exactly what we're experiencing now: a perversion in which the earning power of work and the standard of living of workers declines. This subversion of labor by capital is magnified in the speculative financial markets- which have now usurped the true wealth and production power of the country....a sign that it's an empire in decline - much like the earlier Dutch and British Empires - which surrendered making things to financial speculation. (For more on this, see the first chapter of Arrogant Capital, by Kevin Phillips).
What this shows is that while many self-proclaimed religious folks blame atheists and nonbelief for much of what is wrong with society, they’d do better to closely examine the capitalist-market economic system that underpins it. This system is both amoral (note – I didn’t say ‘immoral”!) and dominant. The reason is that any profit earned is blind to uses and intents, and it will just as effectively use the available processes and resources to produce a new form of raunchy X-box game as a new vaccine.
Similarly, in the circle of investments, it can give rise to such devices as viaticals and life settlements. Fortunately government has provided some controls to slow their growth and ensure they aren’t used indiscriminately. For example, longer assigned life expectancies – thanks to underwriters and their actuarial tables, means more risk in purchasing one of these things. That explains why the business volume has remained relatively low, compared to other securities – including credit default swaps.
In addition, the IRS has helped by ruling that death benefits received by investors be treated as ordinary income rather than merely as lower cost.capital gains. This means a wealthy person who puchases a life settlement will soon be shelling out 39.6% of his takings (once the Bush tax cuts expire in 2011) as opposed to 15% or 20%.
At least the government, then, is exerting some indirect control on these amoral entities.
Now, to add to that toxic speculative brew we see another even more sordid instrument emerging, called “life settlements”. These consist of buyers (“investors”) who purchase “bets” on life insurance policies. As a buyer, one claims the life insurance benefits when the original owner-seller of the policy dies. In this way, these instruments are reincarnations of an earlier form – viaticals – that appeared in the late 1990s.
The dynamic is described in the article ‘Grim Rewards for Reaping Death’s Benefits’ in The Wall Street Journal (Feb. 6-7, page B-10)
“Say you purchase a $1 million policy held by an 82-year old woman. Actuarial tables say she has five years to live. If you do the deal via Life Partners’ Holdings, Inc. – a major life-settlements firm, you must pony up $540,000. The woman gets $200,000 of that, the remainder goes toward future premiums and transactions fees.”
The article goes on to note that if the subject “dies on time” the investor earns a 13% annual return. But if she lives for another ten years the same investor will end up shelling out much more in premiums and the return sinks to 3%.
As the article puts it:
“Every year she soldiers on, your take shrinks”
Is it just me, or is there anyone else who sees something inherently wrong with this – including the potential for unintended consequences, say, like an unscrupulous investor “speeding up the game” a bit to maximize her or his returns?
Are these investors inhuman ghouls? Actually not. What they are is died in the wool capitalists in a run amuck market, looking for a buck any way they can make it! The capitalist-market system itself, not “Satan” or “Hell”, spawned these- folks – like it's spawned a whole constellation of consumption manifestations now blamed with wearing or tearing our civilization down: from rape- emulation video games, to Barbi dolls, to new war toys and weapons.
In the end it's the capitalist's true god- the free market- which is responsible for lowered standards across the board and increasingly less mental and physical health in the country. This market, fully amoral - is capable of tolerating 25 million malnourished kids who go to bed hungry each night, as well as 46 million people with no health insurance. Its only incentive is profit, making money. No religious or other moral standard applies.
As author Charles Reich poignantly notes in his book, Opposing the System, Crown Books, 1995, p. 22:
"A free market produces results that favor the health of society as a whole, because an essential balance is maintained. But in a coercive market, the balance is destroyed, the earning power of work and the standard of living of workers declines, and society as a whole is devastated while those with economic power gain an ever more unbalanced share of the nation's economic wealth."
This is exactly what we're experiencing now: a perversion in which the earning power of work and the standard of living of workers declines. This subversion of labor by capital is magnified in the speculative financial markets- which have now usurped the true wealth and production power of the country....a sign that it's an empire in decline - much like the earlier Dutch and British Empires - which surrendered making things to financial speculation. (For more on this, see the first chapter of Arrogant Capital, by Kevin Phillips).
What this shows is that while many self-proclaimed religious folks blame atheists and nonbelief for much of what is wrong with society, they’d do better to closely examine the capitalist-market economic system that underpins it. This system is both amoral (note – I didn’t say ‘immoral”!) and dominant. The reason is that any profit earned is blind to uses and intents, and it will just as effectively use the available processes and resources to produce a new form of raunchy X-box game as a new vaccine.
Similarly, in the circle of investments, it can give rise to such devices as viaticals and life settlements. Fortunately government has provided some controls to slow their growth and ensure they aren’t used indiscriminately. For example, longer assigned life expectancies – thanks to underwriters and their actuarial tables, means more risk in purchasing one of these things. That explains why the business volume has remained relatively low, compared to other securities – including credit default swaps.
In addition, the IRS has helped by ruling that death benefits received by investors be treated as ordinary income rather than merely as lower cost.capital gains. This means a wealthy person who puchases a life settlement will soon be shelling out 39.6% of his takings (once the Bush tax cuts expire in 2011) as opposed to 15% or 20%.
At least the government, then, is exerting some indirect control on these amoral entities.
Concepts of Order & Disorder III: Spontaneous Order
Figure 1(below): A large sunspot group shows spontaneous organization from a background of chaotic plasma.
We left off in the 2nd instalment of this series looking at the basis for how a separatrix - analogous to an equilibrium position or barrier between the two contrasting magnetic fields- can spontaneously form on the Sun if conditions are right. At the position where the competing fields are precisely neutralized lies the ‘neutral point’.[1] The actual matching sunspot region might appear as in Figure 1.
In fact, I took the above photograph using a Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope on Nov. 4, 1980. What it clearly shows is that self-organized and magnetically complex plasma systems can arise out of a background of chaos. Plasma itself is chaotic with ions, currents interacting in many random variations. But magnetic fields can order these.
An example closer to Earth is the aurora, such as I observed near Chena Hot Springs, Alaska in March of 2005. This particular aurora displayed two perfectly symmetrical parallel green “tubes”, arcing from north to south horizon. Did an "intelligent designer" craft two natural fluorescent tubes in the sky? Not at all. The inimitable procession to order (observed over two hours) was dictated by the (pre-existing) presence of the auroral oval around the pole and the polar electro-jet, after impinging electrons from the solar wind began to decelerate into the oval and form currents in sheets. These were then shaped by the ambient magnetic field of Earth into the two parallel tubes visible near Chena. Order out of chaos!
A much more elaborate bifurcation diagram is shown in Fig. 2 . One might correctly refer to it as depicting multiple bifurcations but each characterized by different periods. Thus, the sort of doubling in the first (left) portion of the diagram is similar to that shown in Fig. 2 of Part II. Beyond that, however, we now see at least two more additional doublings of stable solutions – each displaying bifurcation from the one preceding it. Beyond the obvious bifurcations lies a chaotic region, mostly grey. However, a few successive bands of ‘order’ emerge within it against the chaotic background bifurcation, associated with many complex physical processes, from polymer growth and collapse, to origin of solar flare conditions in solar coronal loops-arches. In Figure 2, the diagram is plotted with control parameter lambda along the horizontal axis, and some state variable zeta along the vertical.
More intriguing, if one magnifies portions of this chaotic domain, small regions displaying self-similarity appear. For example, exhibiting the sort of periodic splitting visible in the larger map. One may rightly conjecture that whatever systems reside within these bands, say persistent solar flare regions[2], or a replicating proto-cell, it emerged from chaos to exhibit self-organization.
Many other examples abound: a normally functioning cell suddenly becomes malignant; the molecules/particles of a liquid, initially with random arrangements, suddenly assume an orderly, lattice-type of structure when the liquid freezes (e.g. when water turns to ice); elementary atomic ‘magnets’ originally distributed randomly, suddenly oriented in the same basic direction - creating magnetism in a ferrous material. In each instance, the system has undergone a transition from a more disordered state, to a more ordered one. Bifurcation has occurred, setting the evolution of the system on a fundamentally different path from what it was earlier.
In the evolutionary sphere, specific combinations of amino acids probably contributed to system state change leading to a pre-biotic cell or protenoid.[3] One could view the transition from non-reproductive- non-growth to replicating-growing states as a ‘symmetry breaking’ in the organic molecules that yield a very primitive living cell.[4] Once formed, the cell possesses all the attributes of life including reproduction. At this stage, replication and further evolution can occur. In one particular simulation, using macromolecules with specified monomers of a given initial size, I obtained the results as shown in Fig. 3.
The tendency observed was for smaller length units to evolve to greater length polymers, as if the longer length had been preordained by selection. In the (Juliabrot fractal) model I used, entropy was expressed as a function of length and some partition function z. Longer lengths prevailed because the difference in free energy was heavily weighted in that direction with entropy taken into account.
Aside: In the model depicted in Fig. 3, an iterative mapping was set up with z’ (new value) = z^2 + k, where z = x + iy, and k = a +bi, with i= sqrt(-1). A conformal mapping was then performed where w = f(x + iy). The entropy S/k = l ln (zeta),for smaller lengths l << k. Also for S/k = (L+ l) ln (zeta) for larger.
The point is that this order emerges entirely within a fabric of random processes that are embedded within the physical laws of the cosmos. Supernatural and externally postulated agents are rendered totally redundant. We no longer require them in terms of necessary or sufficient explanations of anything, including the origin of the universe. We can leave them behind much as we've left behind the use of wasps to sting disease "humours" out of existence, having now replaced those wasps with vaccines.
[1] In actual sunspot regions one is much more likely to trace the path of the ‘neutral line’, obtained from solar magnetograms.
[2] Indeed, one of the best examples is the dynamic spectrum of a large solar flare in which differing radiofrequency bursts- called Type I, II, III, IV appear. Amidst the background of the spectrum, the burst regions define what can be regarded as domains of ‘order’.
[3] Protein-like polymers formed spontaneously by heating dry mixtures of amino acids at temperatures over 150° C. The products, also called thermal proteins, range in molecular weight from 4,000 to 10,000 daltons.
[4] This is considered in terms of using what are called spin glass models. See e.g. Bar-Yam, Yaneer: 1997, Dynamics of Complex Systems, Addison-Wesley, pp. 466-68. The point is, a critical polymerization threshold is crossed to weight the outcome in terms of more self organized systems. Hence, there is a definite bias underlying the way amino acids polymerize to form peptides and protenoids. The emergence of this bias is what I mean by ‘symmetry breaking’, i.e. displaced from the background of an equalized distribution or diffusion of products with wide ranging heterogeneity.
We left off in the 2nd instalment of this series looking at the basis for how a separatrix - analogous to an equilibrium position or barrier between the two contrasting magnetic fields- can spontaneously form on the Sun if conditions are right. At the position where the competing fields are precisely neutralized lies the ‘neutral point’.[1] The actual matching sunspot region might appear as in Figure 1.
In fact, I took the above photograph using a Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope on Nov. 4, 1980. What it clearly shows is that self-organized and magnetically complex plasma systems can arise out of a background of chaos. Plasma itself is chaotic with ions, currents interacting in many random variations. But magnetic fields can order these.
An example closer to Earth is the aurora, such as I observed near Chena Hot Springs, Alaska in March of 2005. This particular aurora displayed two perfectly symmetrical parallel green “tubes”, arcing from north to south horizon. Did an "intelligent designer" craft two natural fluorescent tubes in the sky? Not at all. The inimitable procession to order (observed over two hours) was dictated by the (pre-existing) presence of the auroral oval around the pole and the polar electro-jet, after impinging electrons from the solar wind began to decelerate into the oval and form currents in sheets. These were then shaped by the ambient magnetic field of Earth into the two parallel tubes visible near Chena. Order out of chaos!
A much more elaborate bifurcation diagram is shown in Fig. 2 . One might correctly refer to it as depicting multiple bifurcations but each characterized by different periods. Thus, the sort of doubling in the first (left) portion of the diagram is similar to that shown in Fig. 2 of Part II. Beyond that, however, we now see at least two more additional doublings of stable solutions – each displaying bifurcation from the one preceding it. Beyond the obvious bifurcations lies a chaotic region, mostly grey. However, a few successive bands of ‘order’ emerge within it against the chaotic background bifurcation, associated with many complex physical processes, from polymer growth and collapse, to origin of solar flare conditions in solar coronal loops-arches. In Figure 2, the diagram is plotted with control parameter lambda along the horizontal axis, and some state variable zeta along the vertical.
More intriguing, if one magnifies portions of this chaotic domain, small regions displaying self-similarity appear. For example, exhibiting the sort of periodic splitting visible in the larger map. One may rightly conjecture that whatever systems reside within these bands, say persistent solar flare regions[2], or a replicating proto-cell, it emerged from chaos to exhibit self-organization.
Many other examples abound: a normally functioning cell suddenly becomes malignant; the molecules/particles of a liquid, initially with random arrangements, suddenly assume an orderly, lattice-type of structure when the liquid freezes (e.g. when water turns to ice); elementary atomic ‘magnets’ originally distributed randomly, suddenly oriented in the same basic direction - creating magnetism in a ferrous material. In each instance, the system has undergone a transition from a more disordered state, to a more ordered one. Bifurcation has occurred, setting the evolution of the system on a fundamentally different path from what it was earlier.
In the evolutionary sphere, specific combinations of amino acids probably contributed to system state change leading to a pre-biotic cell or protenoid.[3] One could view the transition from non-reproductive- non-growth to replicating-growing states as a ‘symmetry breaking’ in the organic molecules that yield a very primitive living cell.[4] Once formed, the cell possesses all the attributes of life including reproduction. At this stage, replication and further evolution can occur. In one particular simulation, using macromolecules with specified monomers of a given initial size, I obtained the results as shown in Fig. 3.
The tendency observed was for smaller length units to evolve to greater length polymers, as if the longer length had been preordained by selection. In the (Juliabrot fractal) model I used, entropy was expressed as a function of length and some partition function z. Longer lengths prevailed because the difference in free energy was heavily weighted in that direction with entropy taken into account.
Aside: In the model depicted in Fig. 3, an iterative mapping was set up with z’ (new value) = z^2 + k, where z = x + iy, and k = a +bi, with i= sqrt(-1). A conformal mapping was then performed where w = f(x + iy). The entropy S/k = l ln (zeta),for smaller lengths l << k. Also for S/k = (L+ l) ln (zeta) for larger.
The point is that this order emerges entirely within a fabric of random processes that are embedded within the physical laws of the cosmos. Supernatural and externally postulated agents are rendered totally redundant. We no longer require them in terms of necessary or sufficient explanations of anything, including the origin of the universe. We can leave them behind much as we've left behind the use of wasps to sting disease "humours" out of existence, having now replaced those wasps with vaccines.
[1] In actual sunspot regions one is much more likely to trace the path of the ‘neutral line’, obtained from solar magnetograms.
[2] Indeed, one of the best examples is the dynamic spectrum of a large solar flare in which differing radiofrequency bursts- called Type I, II, III, IV appear. Amidst the background of the spectrum, the burst regions define what can be regarded as domains of ‘order’.
[3] Protein-like polymers formed spontaneously by heating dry mixtures of amino acids at temperatures over 150° C. The products, also called thermal proteins, range in molecular weight from 4,000 to 10,000 daltons.
[4] This is considered in terms of using what are called spin glass models. See e.g. Bar-Yam, Yaneer: 1997, Dynamics of Complex Systems, Addison-Wesley, pp. 466-68. The point is, a critical polymerization threshold is crossed to weight the outcome in terms of more self organized systems. Hence, there is a definite bias underlying the way amino acids polymerize to form peptides and protenoids. The emergence of this bias is what I mean by ‘symmetry breaking’, i.e. displaced from the background of an equalized distribution or diffusion of products with wide ranging heterogeneity.
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Countering Codswallop
An ongoing difficulty with certain mindsets is their propensity to extrapolate well defined arguments to extremes. In terms of logical fallacies, they commit the “slippery slope” argument – stating that because a relatively confined action is taken (say abortion or the removal of a fetus) then all manner of human extermination will result….including of the disabled, of the mentally deficient, the elderly and so forth. Most often, slippery slope fallacies are employed by hard core evangelicals – as in the abortion debate- in an attempt to impugn pro-choice advocates as latter day Nazis, or Hitler enablers.
Some religious extremists even attempt to paint all atheists this way, despite that not all atheists are pro-choice. Some recent surveys show that up to 1 in 4 atheists are actually opposed to abortion. But to the indiscriminate fundamentalist all atheists are put into the same bin.
But let’s clear up some issues and facts here, because conflation itself plays hand in hand with a whole range of phony anti-abortion arguments. In this, I focus on the atheists-materialists who are pro-choice and the fundies who attack them. Does our being pro -choice mean we are planning to eradicate ALL humans that don’t meet certain “standards” of acceptability? Of course not! This again is the old slippery slope routine – which is a disreputable tactic at best, and (combined with graphic fake photos of monkey embryos destroyed in experimentation) despicable.
Those who invoke slippery slope arguments want to convince you that cultivating atheism, or having an unbelief mindset, will launch the most stupendous catastrophes in the history of humanity or the cosmos. Biblical plagues of locusts, diseases, famines…not to mention terrorist attacks, will rain down on one and all. Families will be torn asunder. Homosexuality will reach new heights, since ethics or morals will be “neutralized.” Abortions will be performed on a whim, since parents will feel (under an amoral atheist value system) that it’s okay to off the fetus if the odds appear to show s/he won’t be a future Pamela Anderson or Einstein.
But this is nonsense! First, no pro-choice person I know wants to destroy ALL fetuses (no, we don’t call them “infants” – since an infant is defined as already having been BORN!) What we say is that the ultimate choice to have a child ought to reside with the mother. Thus, we DO respect life even in nascent form – but it can’t be an absolute! For example, a woman who is raped and gets pregnant must have the choice to abort, because logically the impregnation and growth of a parasite unplanned inside her is an extension of the rape. Ditto with incest.
Now, as difficult as differential calculus may be for some religious fundies to process, we seek no removal of any “elderly, disabled vets, or retarded people ….like Hitler” or “Nazis”. It is this very sort of hyperbolic language that is destroying our political foundation via the “tea party” movement and its histrionic references to Obama as a “socialist Ideologue”. If only! Obama is about as far from being a “socialist”- as I am from being the Pope. A true “socialist ideologue” wouldn’t have just lent the banks money and bailed them out – he’d have nationalized all of them, kicked their CEOs and top honchos out, and replaced them with government officials. So, let’s get that straight off the bat.
Deforming language, however, is a tried and true tactic of the political and Religious Right. Thus, have they changed estate taxes into “death taxes”, two military occupations into “wars” (which alas the left has also blindly accepted) and Medicare Budget Commission panels into “death panels” even as they changed the meek public option proposed for health reform into “government takeover of health care”. But because people no longer read, or evidently use dictionaries, they get swallowed up in these language traps and their thoughts become deformed.
With that aside out of the way, we pro-choice atheists grant that all the above-named (disabled, retarded etc), are full human persons with full human rights allocated. Hence, the right to choose for themselves their destiny, extension of life….OR the decision to terminate it prematurely. (In the case of the unborn, as I noted, it is the one carrying it who has that authority).
For example, as noted in today’s Wall Street Journal (page A1) in the example of the Alzheimer-afflicted pair of 80+ years olds in Switzerland, we grant THEM the right to terminate their own lives if they so wish. As the article notes, the couple (under Swiss laws) sought out a Zurich-based organization called “Dignitas” which helps people to terminate their own lives. In this case, the couple was led to a comfortable room and administered a lethal cocktail of drugs including pentobarbital (ibid.)
Now, before some half cracked “pastors” lose their remaining mental moorings and assert we want ALL elderly people to off themselves – let’s get it straight that this was the couple’s own decision. As they beheld the quality of their lives ebbing away with their mental ability – they no longer wanted to be a burden to each other or the society, or impose enormous financial hardships on their children and grandchildren. Ultimately, it was THEIR choice – not an obtuse pastor’s, evangelical organization’s, religion’s or mythical God’s.
It is also curious that some evangelicals assert that the “KKK” and “neo-Nazis” also advocate abortions– but a careful reading of sequential issues of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Digest shows this is nonsense. Nearly all these extreme right groups are affiliated with extreme Christian outlier groups (e.g. Christian Identity) that actually demand all their women NOT have abortions- because they want to “overtake the inferior races in population and preserve an all-white, all-Aryan, nation”. Obviously, if they were to allow abortions, then they’d lose the race to out-populate those races they consider “inferior”. But clearly some dense pastors in their hysterical reactions, don’t seem to get that. Or maybe they choose to ignore it because it makes it easier to invoke the false analogy of atheists to Nazis, and KKK'ers.
Again, a disreputable tactic and certainly unworthy of anyone who claims to be a religious mentor or shepherd for a flock (if only an imaginary one online).
In the end, what we (atheists- Materialists) call respect for life must include also respect for life quality. Since this will be a subjective assessment it must be left to the individuals concerned to make it – whether a woman who’s been viciously impregnated by a rapist, or an elderly man suffering from Alzheimer’s – which has robbed him of all his capacities and memories.
One final critical aspect missed (or more likely ignored) by the religious extremists and whackos is that pro-choice people do NOT exist in merely one category, e.g. of atheists – since many religious believers are ALSO pro-choice. They number nearly 1 in 3 of orthodox Christians and are invested in the protection of human life, but leave the decision for proto-human or nascent human life to the mother.
Sadly, history shows, time and time again, that appeals to slippery slope reasoning often do much more harm to innocent people than they do to advance a case for some agenda, far less win any rigorous arguments with atheists.
Some religious extremists even attempt to paint all atheists this way, despite that not all atheists are pro-choice. Some recent surveys show that up to 1 in 4 atheists are actually opposed to abortion. But to the indiscriminate fundamentalist all atheists are put into the same bin.
But let’s clear up some issues and facts here, because conflation itself plays hand in hand with a whole range of phony anti-abortion arguments. In this, I focus on the atheists-materialists who are pro-choice and the fundies who attack them. Does our being pro -choice mean we are planning to eradicate ALL humans that don’t meet certain “standards” of acceptability? Of course not! This again is the old slippery slope routine – which is a disreputable tactic at best, and (combined with graphic fake photos of monkey embryos destroyed in experimentation) despicable.
Those who invoke slippery slope arguments want to convince you that cultivating atheism, or having an unbelief mindset, will launch the most stupendous catastrophes in the history of humanity or the cosmos. Biblical plagues of locusts, diseases, famines…not to mention terrorist attacks, will rain down on one and all. Families will be torn asunder. Homosexuality will reach new heights, since ethics or morals will be “neutralized.” Abortions will be performed on a whim, since parents will feel (under an amoral atheist value system) that it’s okay to off the fetus if the odds appear to show s/he won’t be a future Pamela Anderson or Einstein.
But this is nonsense! First, no pro-choice person I know wants to destroy ALL fetuses (no, we don’t call them “infants” – since an infant is defined as already having been BORN!) What we say is that the ultimate choice to have a child ought to reside with the mother. Thus, we DO respect life even in nascent form – but it can’t be an absolute! For example, a woman who is raped and gets pregnant must have the choice to abort, because logically the impregnation and growth of a parasite unplanned inside her is an extension of the rape. Ditto with incest.
Now, as difficult as differential calculus may be for some religious fundies to process, we seek no removal of any “elderly, disabled vets, or retarded people ….like Hitler” or “Nazis”. It is this very sort of hyperbolic language that is destroying our political foundation via the “tea party” movement and its histrionic references to Obama as a “socialist Ideologue”. If only! Obama is about as far from being a “socialist”- as I am from being the Pope. A true “socialist ideologue” wouldn’t have just lent the banks money and bailed them out – he’d have nationalized all of them, kicked their CEOs and top honchos out, and replaced them with government officials. So, let’s get that straight off the bat.
Deforming language, however, is a tried and true tactic of the political and Religious Right. Thus, have they changed estate taxes into “death taxes”, two military occupations into “wars” (which alas the left has also blindly accepted) and Medicare Budget Commission panels into “death panels” even as they changed the meek public option proposed for health reform into “government takeover of health care”. But because people no longer read, or evidently use dictionaries, they get swallowed up in these language traps and their thoughts become deformed.
With that aside out of the way, we pro-choice atheists grant that all the above-named (disabled, retarded etc), are full human persons with full human rights allocated. Hence, the right to choose for themselves their destiny, extension of life….OR the decision to terminate it prematurely. (In the case of the unborn, as I noted, it is the one carrying it who has that authority).
For example, as noted in today’s Wall Street Journal (page A1) in the example of the Alzheimer-afflicted pair of 80+ years olds in Switzerland, we grant THEM the right to terminate their own lives if they so wish. As the article notes, the couple (under Swiss laws) sought out a Zurich-based organization called “Dignitas” which helps people to terminate their own lives. In this case, the couple was led to a comfortable room and administered a lethal cocktail of drugs including pentobarbital (ibid.)
Now, before some half cracked “pastors” lose their remaining mental moorings and assert we want ALL elderly people to off themselves – let’s get it straight that this was the couple’s own decision. As they beheld the quality of their lives ebbing away with their mental ability – they no longer wanted to be a burden to each other or the society, or impose enormous financial hardships on their children and grandchildren. Ultimately, it was THEIR choice – not an obtuse pastor’s, evangelical organization’s, religion’s or mythical God’s.
It is also curious that some evangelicals assert that the “KKK” and “neo-Nazis” also advocate abortions– but a careful reading of sequential issues of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Digest shows this is nonsense. Nearly all these extreme right groups are affiliated with extreme Christian outlier groups (e.g. Christian Identity) that actually demand all their women NOT have abortions- because they want to “overtake the inferior races in population and preserve an all-white, all-Aryan, nation”. Obviously, if they were to allow abortions, then they’d lose the race to out-populate those races they consider “inferior”. But clearly some dense pastors in their hysterical reactions, don’t seem to get that. Or maybe they choose to ignore it because it makes it easier to invoke the false analogy of atheists to Nazis, and KKK'ers.
Again, a disreputable tactic and certainly unworthy of anyone who claims to be a religious mentor or shepherd for a flock (if only an imaginary one online).
In the end, what we (atheists- Materialists) call respect for life must include also respect for life quality. Since this will be a subjective assessment it must be left to the individuals concerned to make it – whether a woman who’s been viciously impregnated by a rapist, or an elderly man suffering from Alzheimer’s – which has robbed him of all his capacities and memories.
One final critical aspect missed (or more likely ignored) by the religious extremists and whackos is that pro-choice people do NOT exist in merely one category, e.g. of atheists – since many religious believers are ALSO pro-choice. They number nearly 1 in 3 of orthodox Christians and are invested in the protection of human life, but leave the decision for proto-human or nascent human life to the mother.
Sadly, history shows, time and time again, that appeals to slippery slope reasoning often do much more harm to innocent people than they do to advance a case for some agenda, far less win any rigorous arguments with atheists.
Concepts of Order & Disorder II: Order out of Chaos
In the preceding blog I showed examples of simple concepts of order and disorder, and how these can be assessed using a simple system of 8 "spin magnets"- or electrons with differing spins. In this blog, I look at how we can see relative order emerging from chaos, often spontaneously.
The key attribute that distinguishes relatively ordered systems from others is that they tend to occur far from equilibrium- where we defined equilibrium as states at maximum entropy. For example the spin magnet system with 4 spins up and 4 down is at equilibrium. To assist in exposing such systems, one uses what we call "bifurcation diagrams" which shows how the far from equilibrium states diverge in a given system.
A typical form or template for such a diagram is depicted in Fig. 1, where F is some state function, and "lambda" is called the control parameter. Note that the equilibrium solution associated with the above is alpha, valid up to lambda = lambda_c or some critical value of the control parameter. Beyond this value there are multiple solutions, viz. the two separated or bifurcated ones.
An actual example from fluid dynamics is the famous ‘pitchfork bifurcation’, which has nothing to do with demons! It arises by considering the complex interactions of a controlled water channel whose flow continuously recycles. At some point, beyond a critical value of the Reynolds number (R_c), the single flow relinquishes its symmetry and two stable flows result. This is depicted in Fig. 2.
The critical value turns out to be 40.5. As before(earlier blog - Part I), with the Ising model, we see that hidden complexities manifest in a kind of order or self-organization for each of the bifurcation paths. Indeed, each one of these paths can be thought of as mirror images of the same Markov process, tending to some new ‘equilibrium’ displaced from the original one.
An interesting, slightly more complex example from plasma physics is the ‘two stream instability’. In this case the plasma dispersion function F(omega) leads to two bifurcation ‘paths’, including a split symmetrical one and a symmetrical one similar to that shown (Fig. 3)- but in a different direction relative to coordinate axes.
Some investigations- say using computer simulations, disclose interesting properties associated with what we term ‘strange attractors’. For example, two merging regions of plasma that can interact over a large distance to form one single magnetic configuration. Leaving out all the details of the computational plasma physics, a strange attractor for such a budding, complex sunspot field might appear as depicted in Fig. 4(a), with the line axes representing spatial (x, y, z) coordinates.
A sketch of the merging fields, as they might appear confined to two dimensions, including field lines and directions as well as the separatrix, is shown in 4(b). The point is that orderly magnetic fields arise from originally chaotic plasma fields.
The separatrix is analogous to an equilibrium position or barrier between the two contrasting fields. The region with counterclockwise oriented field lines on the left might be called ‘basin of attraction 1’ and the counterpart on the right ‘basin of attraction 2’. At the position where the competing fields are precisely neutralized lies the ‘neutral point’.
These proto-ordered fields are the first signs we note (associated with so-called plages or plage regions) that sunspots may be in the process of forming.
Next: More examples of spontaneous order
The key attribute that distinguishes relatively ordered systems from others is that they tend to occur far from equilibrium- where we defined equilibrium as states at maximum entropy. For example the spin magnet system with 4 spins up and 4 down is at equilibrium. To assist in exposing such systems, one uses what we call "bifurcation diagrams" which shows how the far from equilibrium states diverge in a given system.
A typical form or template for such a diagram is depicted in Fig. 1, where F is some state function, and "lambda" is called the control parameter. Note that the equilibrium solution associated with the above is alpha, valid up to lambda = lambda_c or some critical value of the control parameter. Beyond this value there are multiple solutions, viz. the two separated or bifurcated ones.
An actual example from fluid dynamics is the famous ‘pitchfork bifurcation’, which has nothing to do with demons! It arises by considering the complex interactions of a controlled water channel whose flow continuously recycles. At some point, beyond a critical value of the Reynolds number (R_c), the single flow relinquishes its symmetry and two stable flows result. This is depicted in Fig. 2.
The critical value turns out to be 40.5. As before(earlier blog - Part I), with the Ising model, we see that hidden complexities manifest in a kind of order or self-organization for each of the bifurcation paths. Indeed, each one of these paths can be thought of as mirror images of the same Markov process, tending to some new ‘equilibrium’ displaced from the original one.
An interesting, slightly more complex example from plasma physics is the ‘two stream instability’. In this case the plasma dispersion function F(omega) leads to two bifurcation ‘paths’, including a split symmetrical one and a symmetrical one similar to that shown (Fig. 3)- but in a different direction relative to coordinate axes.
Some investigations- say using computer simulations, disclose interesting properties associated with what we term ‘strange attractors’. For example, two merging regions of plasma that can interact over a large distance to form one single magnetic configuration. Leaving out all the details of the computational plasma physics, a strange attractor for such a budding, complex sunspot field might appear as depicted in Fig. 4(a), with the line axes representing spatial (x, y, z) coordinates.
A sketch of the merging fields, as they might appear confined to two dimensions, including field lines and directions as well as the separatrix, is shown in 4(b). The point is that orderly magnetic fields arise from originally chaotic plasma fields.
The separatrix is analogous to an equilibrium position or barrier between the two contrasting fields. The region with counterclockwise oriented field lines on the left might be called ‘basin of attraction 1’ and the counterpart on the right ‘basin of attraction 2’. At the position where the competing fields are precisely neutralized lies the ‘neutral point’.
These proto-ordered fields are the first signs we note (associated with so-called plages or plage regions) that sunspots may be in the process of forming.
Next: More examples of spontaneous order
Friday, February 5, 2010
Whipping Oneself for "Sainthood"?
In a curious recent book, entitled 'Why He's A Saint', by a Monsignor Slavomir Oder, it is revealed that the late Pope John Paul II (now being considered for "sainthood") whipped himself with a belt regularly, even while on vacation. He also slept on the floor "as an act of penance". In the book, Mgsr. Oder defends the pontiff's self-mortification - which he argued helped remind him of Christ's suffering on the cross.
But might there be a darker reason afoot? Especially when many of the faithful have since asked how this could be countenanced given the Catholic teaching that the human body is a "gift from God"? If a gift, why the need to whip it?
Well, to quote St. Augustine (Adam & Eve and the Serpent, by Elaine Pagels, p. 110-111 ), the "flesh or body is as a lower servant to the mind"..which "wars against the law of mind and includes the whole of one's natural being". It is this "rebellion in the flesh, a spontaneous uprising..." which must be brought back into submission to the mind in the same way a wild horse must be brought into submission to its master.
Where did this horse manure come from?
Consider first the fact that many of the early Church Fathers, including Augustine, Origen, Tertullian et al, were Manichaeans. The ancient philosophy of Manicheanism divided the world into realms of light and darkness, flesh and spirit. The flesh was renounced as the medium employed by Satan and his legions to corrupt humans, and defy the laws of a would-be deity.
Indeed, as Pagels notes (p. 109), Augustine argued:
"That the semen itself is 'already shackled by the bond of death' and transmits the damage incurred by sin. Hence, Augustine concludes, every human being ever conceived through semen already is born contaminated with sin"
Of course, this nonsensical, unscientific twaddle (which is as derelict as some pastors I know) could have been taken straight out of the pamphlets of Mani, the founder of Manicheanism. It also reinforces the self-mortification meme that arose from the time of the early Fathers - to bring their bodies back in submission (via regular flagellation) to the "light" and mind.
Of course, since human sexual intercourse is a biological-physical act- requiring flesh for completion- it followed that it had to fall under the Manichaeans’ blacklisted behavior. Females figured into this, and came to be regarded as 'vessels of the Devil' - since it was within their wombs that the devilish flesh sprouted.
Well into the Middle Ages this view persisted, manifesting in the belief (often echoed by Fathers such as Aquinas) that sins such as adultery required much more severe punishment of the female than of the male. The female was believed closer by far in her carnality, to the demonic hordes. Indeed, the demise of male virtue as well as mental power, could be traced to becoming ensnared in female wiles. For this reason, Aquinas often admonished females that they be lashed to try to cure their fleshly demands, lest they wreak havoc on their husbands' minds.
St. Augustine, originally a Manichean, retained much of this mindset even after converting to Christianity in 387 CE. Not surprisingly, the inevitable flesh/pleasure = demonic connotations were interjected into his various teachings including his 'letters'. (For more on this, see the excellent monograph: Eunuchs For the Kingdom of Heaven by Ute Ranke-Heinemann, Doubleday, 1990).
Augustine's Manichean teachings (after his conversion to Christianity) held that any sexual pleasure whatsoever was diabolical in origin. However, it could be countenanced IF a baby was the end product. Otherwise, the offending parties were trafficking with demons. (He cites at one point, for "proof", the demon Asmodeus, who slew seven men in 7 beds with seven women, but not when they were sitting at a table.)
Augustine's harsh and sterile dogmas also probably spurred the Church Father Origen (of Adamantius) to cut off his own sexual organs - because he was unable to control them. Since each 'stimulus' enabled a particular demon to gain a foothold, it was better to get rid of them entirely.
Now, IF Pope Paul II harbored such Manichean tendencies (and as a former Catholic I've known few that didn't - because of the way human sexuality is disdained by Catholic teachings, even implicitly) then it follows that his practice of flogging himself merely imitates all the centuries old habits of earlier Church members who used flagellation to bring the "flesh" under control.
If there is any basis for "sainthood" at all, it certainly doesn't inhere with John Paul II - whose anti-birth control practices and teachings (e.g. in Veritatis Splendor- and which included outlawing condoms to help control AIDS) paved the way for immensely more human degradation and suffering - from over-population and HIV-infections, especially in sub-Sahara Africa. Much more the honor deserves going to Albino Luciani - who served as Pope Paul I for about 33 days before being assassinated with tea toploaded with digitalis (see David Yallop's book, In God's Name).
Most likely, as with JFK, his proposed actions and policies veered too close to those ensconced in the seats of power - and they wouldn't tolerate interference. This included more close scrutiny of the operations of the Vatican Bank, and Paul Marcinkus ("God's Banker"), as well as connections to Licio Gelli and others such as Roberto Calvi (P2 member and 'executioner', found hanging under Blackfriar's Bridge, London, June 17, 1982. )
Pope Paul I had also intended to be the first pope to rescind the Vatican's backward policy and teaching against artficial birth control. He understood how it was splintering the Church and causing endless recrimination and strife. (Many otherwise decent Catholics left the Church rather than to have to live in permanent states of "mortal sin" and endless confession cycles)
Canonize a saint? Sure! Just do it for the right former pontiff - who intended to finally get the Church square with its true responsibilities and mission.
But might there be a darker reason afoot? Especially when many of the faithful have since asked how this could be countenanced given the Catholic teaching that the human body is a "gift from God"? If a gift, why the need to whip it?
Well, to quote St. Augustine (Adam & Eve and the Serpent, by Elaine Pagels, p. 110-111 ), the "flesh or body is as a lower servant to the mind"..which "wars against the law of mind and includes the whole of one's natural being". It is this "rebellion in the flesh, a spontaneous uprising..." which must be brought back into submission to the mind in the same way a wild horse must be brought into submission to its master.
Where did this horse manure come from?
Consider first the fact that many of the early Church Fathers, including Augustine, Origen, Tertullian et al, were Manichaeans. The ancient philosophy of Manicheanism divided the world into realms of light and darkness, flesh and spirit. The flesh was renounced as the medium employed by Satan and his legions to corrupt humans, and defy the laws of a would-be deity.
Indeed, as Pagels notes (p. 109), Augustine argued:
"That the semen itself is 'already shackled by the bond of death' and transmits the damage incurred by sin. Hence, Augustine concludes, every human being ever conceived through semen already is born contaminated with sin"
Of course, this nonsensical, unscientific twaddle (which is as derelict as some pastors I know) could have been taken straight out of the pamphlets of Mani, the founder of Manicheanism. It also reinforces the self-mortification meme that arose from the time of the early Fathers - to bring their bodies back in submission (via regular flagellation) to the "light" and mind.
Of course, since human sexual intercourse is a biological-physical act- requiring flesh for completion- it followed that it had to fall under the Manichaeans’ blacklisted behavior. Females figured into this, and came to be regarded as 'vessels of the Devil' - since it was within their wombs that the devilish flesh sprouted.
Well into the Middle Ages this view persisted, manifesting in the belief (often echoed by Fathers such as Aquinas) that sins such as adultery required much more severe punishment of the female than of the male. The female was believed closer by far in her carnality, to the demonic hordes. Indeed, the demise of male virtue as well as mental power, could be traced to becoming ensnared in female wiles. For this reason, Aquinas often admonished females that they be lashed to try to cure their fleshly demands, lest they wreak havoc on their husbands' minds.
St. Augustine, originally a Manichean, retained much of this mindset even after converting to Christianity in 387 CE. Not surprisingly, the inevitable flesh/pleasure = demonic connotations were interjected into his various teachings including his 'letters'. (For more on this, see the excellent monograph: Eunuchs For the Kingdom of Heaven by Ute Ranke-Heinemann, Doubleday, 1990).
Augustine's Manichean teachings (after his conversion to Christianity) held that any sexual pleasure whatsoever was diabolical in origin. However, it could be countenanced IF a baby was the end product. Otherwise, the offending parties were trafficking with demons. (He cites at one point, for "proof", the demon Asmodeus, who slew seven men in 7 beds with seven women, but not when they were sitting at a table.)
Augustine's harsh and sterile dogmas also probably spurred the Church Father Origen (of Adamantius) to cut off his own sexual organs - because he was unable to control them. Since each 'stimulus' enabled a particular demon to gain a foothold, it was better to get rid of them entirely.
Now, IF Pope Paul II harbored such Manichean tendencies (and as a former Catholic I've known few that didn't - because of the way human sexuality is disdained by Catholic teachings, even implicitly) then it follows that his practice of flogging himself merely imitates all the centuries old habits of earlier Church members who used flagellation to bring the "flesh" under control.
If there is any basis for "sainthood" at all, it certainly doesn't inhere with John Paul II - whose anti-birth control practices and teachings (e.g. in Veritatis Splendor- and which included outlawing condoms to help control AIDS) paved the way for immensely more human degradation and suffering - from over-population and HIV-infections, especially in sub-Sahara Africa. Much more the honor deserves going to Albino Luciani - who served as Pope Paul I for about 33 days before being assassinated with tea toploaded with digitalis (see David Yallop's book, In God's Name).
Most likely, as with JFK, his proposed actions and policies veered too close to those ensconced in the seats of power - and they wouldn't tolerate interference. This included more close scrutiny of the operations of the Vatican Bank, and Paul Marcinkus ("God's Banker"), as well as connections to Licio Gelli and others such as Roberto Calvi (P2 member and 'executioner', found hanging under Blackfriar's Bridge, London, June 17, 1982. )
Pope Paul I had also intended to be the first pope to rescind the Vatican's backward policy and teaching against artficial birth control. He understood how it was splintering the Church and causing endless recrimination and strife. (Many otherwise decent Catholics left the Church rather than to have to live in permanent states of "mortal sin" and endless confession cycles)
Canonize a saint? Sure! Just do it for the right former pontiff - who intended to finally get the Church square with its true responsibilities and mission.
Christian Terrorist Gets book tossed at him
Scott Roeder, claimed "savior of children" (actually semi-viable protosplasm-unable to live independently- with no brain signals) finally got the book thrown at him as the Judge in the court convened inWichita, KS didn't accept his nonsense excuse for butchering Dr. George Tiller at the very church he attended. (The original plea by Roeder's defense was to have been manslaughter- instead he got Life in prison for murder)
Of course, the Fundie maniacs will continue on their faux warpath despite this, and not process the irony in killing a full human to save proto- humans. They will also continue to claim that abortion is tantamount to "murder" - despite the fact that no nation has awarded a fetus at any stage human rights., and only 1 or 2 states feature laws that make the killing of a pregnant woman equal to two homicides.
Consider for a moment that those who insist a fetus is a full human person are guilty of committing the genetic fallacy. As Antony Flew notes in ‘Thinking About Thinking’, p. 101:
“The genetic fallacy consists in arguing that the antecedents of something must be the same as their fulfillment. Or, that a fetus, even from the moment of conception- must really be, because it is going to become – a person. In the same way they might argue that an acorn....because it will become an oak tree....is actually an oak tree".
When one thinks about this seriously, it doesn’t square with the facts at hand. It puts an essential biological parasite (inasmuch as it can’t sustain independent existence) on the same level as say….a fully formed nineteen-year old fighting in Afghanistan. It thereby also puts the death of the latter person – who has formed hundreds of mature relationships, performed thousands of duties, and created numerous creative works- on the same level as eliminating an agglomeration of cells with a rudimentary human shape but no personality, no conscious awareness that rises to the level of say, a three-month old chimp.
Now, anti-abortionists will insist that from the instant of conception the zygote is a human person. This is not correct, because while it may have some semblance of rudimentary humanness it is no person. There is no authentic consciousness, nor is there any ability to communicate in even the most crude fashion.
In the April 22, 1990 issue of PARADE, one of the most audacious articles on abortion appeared, co-written by Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan. The authors, using sound science, attempted to steer a midway path between the contentious extremes of the abortion minefield. What they sought to determine is whether there was some point after which NO abortion should ever be performed.
They used as a threshold criterion the onset of recognizable human thinking. As they noted (ibid., p. 7):
“In fact, this is a very conservative definition. Regular brain waves are rarely found in fetuses. To make the criterion still more stringent, to allow for precocious fetal development, we might draw the line at six months. This amounts to prohibition in the last trimester, except in cases of grave medical necessity. It strikes a fair balance between the conflicting claims of freedom and life”
Ramping up their case, the authors accurately note that the greatest “abortionist” of all is not Man, but Nature. She aborts with a frequency that boggles the mind, compared to human intervention and artifice. Thus, totally purist pro-lifers are left to defend their position against the vicious vagaries of Mother Nature, while they attempt to erect absolutist sanctions against poor women, or those lacking access to proper birth control.
Finally, in what can only be described as a coup-de-grace, Sagan and Druyan note that the Catholic Church itself held that abortion was allowable up to about the first three months of pregnancy – “according to the Catholic Church’s first and long standing collection of Canon Law” – citing John Connery, S.J. a leading historian of the Church’s teaching on abortion.
The authors noted: “it was not until 1869 that abortion for any reason became grounds for excommunication”
Interestingly, the “papal infallibility” doctrine was first proclaimed in 1870. Clearly, the fact the Church already changed its doctrine on abortion shows it can do so again. Hence, one must question whether either of its positions (before and after 1869) embodies any kind of "absolute moral" position.
Obviously, if you can alter a position, it is hardly "absolute". In his marvelous book, Infallible?, Catholic Theologian Hans Kung observes the following (p. 143):
“..no one, neither Vatican I, nor Vatican II, nor the textbook theologians, has shown that the Church - its leadership or its theology - is able to put forward propositions which inherently cannot be erroneous."
Which brings up the question: When will the fundie evangelicals and their lot also recognize that they can't make statements or claims which "inherently can't be erroneous"?
These fundies will also wish to ask themselves if such a right to life really exists, is there not also a natural right to life for the already born?
They might consider that the next time they and their conservative cohort vote down health care bills that would provide for the 25 million uninsured children in this country, or prohibit new legislation that would enable free child care provisions such as exist in Barbados and many other nations.
In other words, until they get serious about the needs of the already born, their wallowing and whining about the lives of the "unborn" will not be met with tons of sympathy or reinforcement. They may also want to get hold of the book Freakonomics, which makes the serious claim (and case) that all the abortions in the U.S. since Roe v. Wade in 1973 have actually controlled the recorded number of rapes, homicides, vicious manslaughters....by virtue of the fact that those criminals never got born. Had Roe v. Wade not been in place, millions of deficient mal-formed humans(think millions of Jeffrey Dahmers), born into poor homes or from lousy incompetent parents - would have grown to become criminal adults: murderers, rapists, gang bangers and robbers. Their remaining unborn not only saved hundreds of thousands of lives, but also billions in the cost to imprison them.
Of course, the Fundie maniacs will continue on their faux warpath despite this, and not process the irony in killing a full human to save proto- humans. They will also continue to claim that abortion is tantamount to "murder" - despite the fact that no nation has awarded a fetus at any stage human rights., and only 1 or 2 states feature laws that make the killing of a pregnant woman equal to two homicides.
Consider for a moment that those who insist a fetus is a full human person are guilty of committing the genetic fallacy. As Antony Flew notes in ‘Thinking About Thinking’, p. 101:
“The genetic fallacy consists in arguing that the antecedents of something must be the same as their fulfillment. Or, that a fetus, even from the moment of conception- must really be, because it is going to become – a person. In the same way they might argue that an acorn....because it will become an oak tree....is actually an oak tree".
When one thinks about this seriously, it doesn’t square with the facts at hand. It puts an essential biological parasite (inasmuch as it can’t sustain independent existence) on the same level as say….a fully formed nineteen-year old fighting in Afghanistan. It thereby also puts the death of the latter person – who has formed hundreds of mature relationships, performed thousands of duties, and created numerous creative works- on the same level as eliminating an agglomeration of cells with a rudimentary human shape but no personality, no conscious awareness that rises to the level of say, a three-month old chimp.
Now, anti-abortionists will insist that from the instant of conception the zygote is a human person. This is not correct, because while it may have some semblance of rudimentary humanness it is no person. There is no authentic consciousness, nor is there any ability to communicate in even the most crude fashion.
In the April 22, 1990 issue of PARADE, one of the most audacious articles on abortion appeared, co-written by Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan. The authors, using sound science, attempted to steer a midway path between the contentious extremes of the abortion minefield. What they sought to determine is whether there was some point after which NO abortion should ever be performed.
They used as a threshold criterion the onset of recognizable human thinking. As they noted (ibid., p. 7):
“In fact, this is a very conservative definition. Regular brain waves are rarely found in fetuses. To make the criterion still more stringent, to allow for precocious fetal development, we might draw the line at six months. This amounts to prohibition in the last trimester, except in cases of grave medical necessity. It strikes a fair balance between the conflicting claims of freedom and life”
Ramping up their case, the authors accurately note that the greatest “abortionist” of all is not Man, but Nature. She aborts with a frequency that boggles the mind, compared to human intervention and artifice. Thus, totally purist pro-lifers are left to defend their position against the vicious vagaries of Mother Nature, while they attempt to erect absolutist sanctions against poor women, or those lacking access to proper birth control.
Finally, in what can only be described as a coup-de-grace, Sagan and Druyan note that the Catholic Church itself held that abortion was allowable up to about the first three months of pregnancy – “according to the Catholic Church’s first and long standing collection of Canon Law” – citing John Connery, S.J. a leading historian of the Church’s teaching on abortion.
The authors noted: “it was not until 1869 that abortion for any reason became grounds for excommunication”
Interestingly, the “papal infallibility” doctrine was first proclaimed in 1870. Clearly, the fact the Church already changed its doctrine on abortion shows it can do so again. Hence, one must question whether either of its positions (before and after 1869) embodies any kind of "absolute moral" position.
Obviously, if you can alter a position, it is hardly "absolute". In his marvelous book, Infallible?, Catholic Theologian Hans Kung observes the following (p. 143):
“..no one, neither Vatican I, nor Vatican II, nor the textbook theologians, has shown that the Church - its leadership or its theology - is able to put forward propositions which inherently cannot be erroneous."
Which brings up the question: When will the fundie evangelicals and their lot also recognize that they can't make statements or claims which "inherently can't be erroneous"?
These fundies will also wish to ask themselves if such a right to life really exists, is there not also a natural right to life for the already born?
They might consider that the next time they and their conservative cohort vote down health care bills that would provide for the 25 million uninsured children in this country, or prohibit new legislation that would enable free child care provisions such as exist in Barbados and many other nations.
In other words, until they get serious about the needs of the already born, their wallowing and whining about the lives of the "unborn" will not be met with tons of sympathy or reinforcement. They may also want to get hold of the book Freakonomics, which makes the serious claim (and case) that all the abortions in the U.S. since Roe v. Wade in 1973 have actually controlled the recorded number of rapes, homicides, vicious manslaughters....by virtue of the fact that those criminals never got born. Had Roe v. Wade not been in place, millions of deficient mal-formed humans(think millions of Jeffrey Dahmers), born into poor homes or from lousy incompetent parents - would have grown to become criminal adults: murderers, rapists, gang bangers and robbers. Their remaining unborn not only saved hundreds of thousands of lives, but also billions in the cost to imprison them.
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