Easter, the In-group, and the Out-group

Sometimes Easter does not evoke foil-wrapped chocolate bunnies, pastel candy eggs, and marshmallow peeps...

It being the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox it's the weekend of Christian Easter, and (by a related calculation) it's precursor, the Jewish Passover.  For many folks attending services Saturday or Sunday this will be one of those half dozen visits to their house of worship this year.  A blog post and subsequent comments at Homeland Security Watch, of all places, provoked me today.  It's worth a read, especially because it drew out a variety of responses and possible directions.  Here's the orbit it knocked me into.

There is certainly human wisdom to be found in many religions, but they are also repositories of human weakness. At their worst, religions represent the institutionalization of In-group Out-group distinctions. Fear of the Other is an instinct older than humankind, but we have outlived any selective advantage it once conferred. We must remember that for much of their histories the major monotheistic religions enforced their calls to universality and transcendence with the sword and with fire.

These past ten years our country's Global War on Terror has drawn its strength, funding, and authority from Fear of the Other. We have killed the innocent and betrayed our commitment to justice to defend the interests of those in authority. While doing so, these authorities cloaked killing, torture, and lies in the rhetoric of Fear of the Other. In our pride and conceit, with moral certitude that our cause is just and preeminent, we have made sharing a ride, or a meal, or a roof with a high value target a death sentence for many women and children, whose numbers go uncounted because they are Other.

Our taxicabs are driven, our meals are prepared, and our roofs are repaired by brown-skinned poor people who don't speak English very well.  Some Americans know their own and would rather these Other people not be here.  Alone among Western countries, in the USA the quality of our health care is determined by whether we have a job and by our ability to purchase benefits and pay deductibles.  There are Americans who think that is the way it should be, because they have theirs and the Others could have their own if only they worked hard enough.

When you celebrate the story of the angel of death passing over your home to instead kill other children is your faith community celebrating its In-Group status?  When you rejoice in your savior's victory over death (which should have been a forgone conclusion if the rest of the story is true) as proof that the only path to eternal salvation is to worship your particular god in your particular way have you drawn a line between Us and Them?


Image from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_National_Cathedral

Goodreads

It's like Facebook for people who read books...

Actually, GoodReads combines some of the friendlier features of the movie rating system used at NetFlix with Reading List by Amazon as found at LinkedIn.  Of course there's an app for that.  Anyway, you'll find my read, reading, and to read lists there.  Come join me.

Adjustments, Tweaks, Revisions, and Recissions

Change is the only constant...

After 425 posts I have again resorted the labels I use to describe my posts.  The list now comprises: civics, critical thinking, education, ethics, firearms, friends, history, humor, hunting, law, leadership, movies, outdoors, politics, religion, risk, science, security, service, and skepticism.  I could probably reduce the list further by merging more synonyms. 

Is civics as well described under ethics or leadership?

Is critical thinking the same as skepticism?

Is ethics a subset of leadership?

Must law have its own category?

Your ideas - for more words or fewer - are welcome.



Image found at http://tanyagrove.wordpress.com/2011/02/

Wonderwerk Indeed

Our hominin ancestors used fire as much as 1 million years ago...

Microscopic examination of the floor of the Wonderwerk Cave in South Africa has disclosed evidence that our hominin ancestors - Homo Erectus - deliberately used fire as much as 1 million years ago.  By some measures this is as much as 300,000 years earlier than previously thought.

The intentional use of fire marks a very important steps in our evolution.  In addition to deterring predators and aggressors, cooking over a fire created more nutritious food.  Better nutrition may have made possible bigger and better brains which enabled - or responded to pressures for - new skills, new dexterity, new tools, and new social structures.  Cooperation and planning required speech and social skills.  The protection of accumulated food may have been rewarded by sexual exclusivity.  Time spent tending the fire may have provided opportunities to demonstrate the making of tools, story telling, the creation of music and art, and the invention of ritual dance, features found in every human society since.

From Excellence to Excresence

From the Midwest Science of Origins Conference to Rebuilding the Foundation: Demolishing the Pillars of Evolution...

PZ Myers was disheartened to hear that while we were enjoying the MSOC, the unsuspecting people of Bemidgi, Minnesota, were mistreated to seven hours of intelligent design/young earth creationist (?!!) lectures.  I wrote as follows to the apparently credulous writer of an article on the meeting which appeared in the Bemidgi Pioneer.

"Dear Ms. Wesley,

Patrick Moynihan once said “Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but they are not entitled to their own facts.” Creationists hold strong opinions based on fanciful (and by no means universal) interpretations of origin stories found in Hebrew, Christian and Muslim holy books; proponents of biological evolution present facts – in the form of provisional knowledge – derived from over four centuries of accumulated scientific progress.

"Penni Cairns...said students raised on Creationism concepts can be confused and frustrated with evolution theory teachings because their beliefs are shot down by teachers following educational guidelines."

Science teachers are not responsible for their students' confusion, their parents and pastors are. Creationism is a religious concept not a scientific one. It does nothing to prepare our children for the demanding disciplines of science, biology, physics, and math they need to make their way in the world.

"The inclusion of Intelligent Design in schools’ studies of life origins is overdue, said the superintendent of Bagley schools."

Superintendent Cairns should know that intelligent design was repudiated as a poorly concealed religious dogma in the Tammy Kitzmiller, et al. v. Dover Area School District, et al. (400 F. Supp. 2d 707, Docket no. 4cv2688). It is illegal to teach intelligent design in the public school classroom.

Most surprisingly Drs. Morris and Jeanson seem to be arguing in favor of both intelligent design and young earth creationism. These are conflicting concepts among the myriad sects of evangelical and fundamentalist Christianity. I wouldn’t expect you to know this without advance study, but the presenters at “Rebuilding the Foundation: Demolishing the Pillars of Evolution” certainly should.

This weekend my kids and I attended the excellent Midwest Science of Origins Conference at the U of M – Morris.  Among the many fine talks we heard was a lecture by Dr. Neil Shubin, the paleontologist whose team discovered the important transitional fossil, Tiktaalik Roseae, in the Canadian Arctic, precisely where the science suggested it would be found. The story is also told in his book, Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body.  I commend it to you if you are interested in learning more about the marvels of human evolution as illuminated by modern science.

Be well."

We shall see if Ms. Wesley has anything to say in response.

UPDATE: Never heard from her...quelle surprise