playing in the religious ecosystem

Now this is a game show I would watch! (hat tip to Boingboing)

Jewish, Christian, Muslim, and Buddhist holy men compete to covert the most atheists. Of course, the concept is kind of a sacrilicious train wreck, but we are drawn to horrifying spectacle, aren't we?

The comments, both at the news site and boingboing, illustrate the atmosphere of contempt (veiled as skepticism) for religion that seems to proliferate in the tech-savvy, enlightened crowd that makes up much of the part of the blogosphere I frequent. One commenter on boingboing says:

Maybe this is a good thing. When several unique religions are are seen in close proximity to each other, the thought that follows is 'Well, obviously they can't ALL be correct'. The thought that follows that is 'Maybe NONE of them are real'. (Carl Sagan said this years ago)

OK, sure, thought systems that are mutually exclusive do tend to lead people to this conclusion. But the factions of these religions that advance a "monopoly on truth" tend to be dogmatic, fundamentalist, and yes Mr. Sagan, ultimately absurd. But why not focus on what the religions share? Each certainly contains some wisdom, and the thought that follows is "maybe ALL of them are real" or at least contain a certain truth or truths.

We need to look for the good in other people's thought-systems. Don't throw out the baby with the bathwater. Unless you don't like babies.

new Rushkoff

go read this.

why not squat?

Just saw an MPTV show on the laudable Take Back The Land organization. I've often wondered how we can let some many homes sit vacant, while homeless people live in the same neighborhoods. It makes sense for them to squat, and now I find out there is an organization dedicated to helping them do so! These people help restore my faith in humanity. Take that, banks!

the dark side of stats

Statistics are a tool which can be used for good or ill. Here is how statistics should not be used: Let's say your government purposefully uses racial profiling to hunt for terrorists. Now, your pesky social scientists use statistics to track the race of the individuals your police force investigates, arrests, and prosecutes. So now, to cover your prejudicial tracks, you must harrass a bunch of other people too, for no other reason than to make it look like you're not profiling. This wastes a heck of a lot of resources in order to unnecessarily hassle people you don't even think are guilty of anything, just to get the chance to hassle other people who your faulty reasoning makes you suspicious of.

not dead

I'm still alive... I keep changing jobs and am getting ready to move... more at some point in the future...

Coo-Coo For Catholics!

The Journal-Sentinel went coo-coo for Catholics today, with at least 3 articles on us. Plus, I just received a copy of Mother Angelica's book, "Private and Pithy Lessons From The Scriptures," so yeah, that's gonna be a riot.

This article, on the silly dismissal of reiki by Church authorities. Apparently, the Committee on Doctrine of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops spent their time drafting an objection to reiki, which is a new-agey touch-based energy therapy, based the proposition that reiki therapists are claiming to "manipulate divine energy to bring about healing," when, clearly, God cannot be manipulated by mere mortals. They complain that reiki "lacks scientific credibility and falls outside the two types of healing recognized by the Church: through divine grace and through the powers of nature, including medicine."

The bishops' argument presupposes that some energies are profane and some are divine. This is a common theme in almost all religions. But isn't the Church's position that everything that happens must be God's Will? Therefore, all energy would be ultimately divine, whether directly supernatural or flowing from science and medicine. In any event, the dynamics of reiki may very well be completely non-supernatural (perhaps some combination of physical and social-psychological). As far as the Church is concerned, if reiki works, or at least seems to work (and this should be irrelvant to reiki recipients as well as to Church doctrine), then that should be enough evidence that God's invisible guiding hand is at work. So instead of acting indignant that some exotic cultural practice is stepping on its monopolistic toes of authority as the One True Mediator between God and mankind, perhaps the bishops should grow up and just be happy that people are being helped by a gentle form of interaction with other people, who are, after all, made in God's image.

Craving Anarchy

Anybody going to Burning Man this year? I'm dying to go back if I can swing it with work and finances and such.