People wore purple in honor of homosexuals who are driven to suicide by an intolerant society. Upon hearing of the movement, Purple jumped off a bridge; his parents, Red and Blue, said they didn’t even know he was gay.
WikiLeaks documents show that the US looked the other way while detainees were tortured and murdered. To be fair, it was hard to watch and there was some really good stuff on TV (have you seen “Modern Family?”).
The Chilean miners are finally out. While they are wildly popular, hipsters insist they were much better when they were underground.
Glenn Beck claimed that evolution is a myth because he has never seen “a half-monkey, half-person yet.” In related news, Glenn Beck does not believe in mirrors, because he has never seen one.
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Saturday Reflection #9
There are no people who are “ahead of their time,” only observant individuals who are part of societies trapped in the past by tradition.
Friday, October 22, 2010
Cover-Up > Crime
Catholics take the whole priest abuse thing very personally. There’s no mystery why they’re so offended when people mention it, but… just because they act offended doesn’t mean what is happening is any less atrocious. In case you are Catholic and you don’t see what the problem is, let me try to explain how the whole situation looks to someone who isn’t affected by cognitive dissonance.
It’s not about what percentage of priests are abusing people, or even that it happens at all. To be honest, I expect some people in every profession to do bad things from time to time. I expect some bankers and investors to rip people off from time to time. I expect some restaurants will have hairs, condoms and fingers turn up in their food occasionally. I expect teachers to sleep with students, police to beat minorities, pilots to fall asleep at the controls… not often, but I know for a fact it will happen at some frequency.
I don’t like that any abuse happens, and I believe that the most important thing is to catch a criminal and make them face justice, even though I also support leniency in punishment. Letting someone get away with it encourages repeat offenses and copy-cat crimes.
When I hear in the news that a priest molested a child, I don’t think, “Oh, those Catholic priests and their busy hands.” I don’t even think about it. What shocks and irritates me is that the Catholic church systematically hides abuse, shuffles priests around geographically, and hires lawyers to intimidate and discredit victims.
The game they’re playing isn’t, “Let’s traumatize people,” its, “We can’t let people find out we had priests who abused children.” The problem is, the cat’s out of the bag, prayer doesn’t cure pedophilia, and the empirical result of these tactics is the creation of additional victims.
But you know what? Intent means very little to me or most people. Intentions can’t unrape children. You know what could have prevented some of those abuses? Turning your pedophilic priests in to the authorities.
Honestly, I find the cover-ups to be worse than the crimes, and I’m not alone. It doesn’t matter what the scenario is, either. Companies have a faulty products, but they don’t warn people because it would hurt sales and it’s cheaper to handle the lawsuits when they happen. The government has shielded from justice police and armed forces who abuse their power and hurt innocent people.
Look, shit happens. When you run a huge operation, mistakes occur, and occasionally an individual employee does something batshit crazy. I don’t blame the organization for the crazy person, but I condemn anyone who would shelter a criminal, regardless of the inevitable and irrational backlash that will ensue.
A little school in Colorado named Columbine didn’t do anything to deserve being forever associated with a tragedy that occurred there, but can you imagine the outrage if it had all been swept under the rug? It’s almost impossible to imagine, but events more deadly than Columbine occur in Iraq and Afghanistan on nearly a daily basis. I can’t wait for the WikiLeaks documents to come out…
But I digress. I’m completely divorced from any previous prejudice I might have had for religion. I don’t look upon religion with disgust or anger; I just don’t want to be harassed. Most of the time I forget it’s there, and it’s only a problem a few times per year, kind of like herpes. And like herpes, religion isn’t going anywhere.
If we stop mindfucking each other, the sickness of religion might stop spreading… ugh, I’m such a philosophical prude. Okay, go out and commit cognitive coitus, but at least don’t psychologically screw your kids… that’s just wrong.
It’s not about what percentage of priests are abusing people, or even that it happens at all. To be honest, I expect some people in every profession to do bad things from time to time. I expect some bankers and investors to rip people off from time to time. I expect some restaurants will have hairs, condoms and fingers turn up in their food occasionally. I expect teachers to sleep with students, police to beat minorities, pilots to fall asleep at the controls… not often, but I know for a fact it will happen at some frequency.
I don’t like that any abuse happens, and I believe that the most important thing is to catch a criminal and make them face justice, even though I also support leniency in punishment. Letting someone get away with it encourages repeat offenses and copy-cat crimes.
When I hear in the news that a priest molested a child, I don’t think, “Oh, those Catholic priests and their busy hands.” I don’t even think about it. What shocks and irritates me is that the Catholic church systematically hides abuse, shuffles priests around geographically, and hires lawyers to intimidate and discredit victims.
The game they’re playing isn’t, “Let’s traumatize people,” its, “We can’t let people find out we had priests who abused children.” The problem is, the cat’s out of the bag, prayer doesn’t cure pedophilia, and the empirical result of these tactics is the creation of additional victims.
But you know what? Intent means very little to me or most people. Intentions can’t unrape children. You know what could have prevented some of those abuses? Turning your pedophilic priests in to the authorities.
Honestly, I find the cover-ups to be worse than the crimes, and I’m not alone. It doesn’t matter what the scenario is, either. Companies have a faulty products, but they don’t warn people because it would hurt sales and it’s cheaper to handle the lawsuits when they happen. The government has shielded from justice police and armed forces who abuse their power and hurt innocent people.
Look, shit happens. When you run a huge operation, mistakes occur, and occasionally an individual employee does something batshit crazy. I don’t blame the organization for the crazy person, but I condemn anyone who would shelter a criminal, regardless of the inevitable and irrational backlash that will ensue.
A little school in Colorado named Columbine didn’t do anything to deserve being forever associated with a tragedy that occurred there, but can you imagine the outrage if it had all been swept under the rug? It’s almost impossible to imagine, but events more deadly than Columbine occur in Iraq and Afghanistan on nearly a daily basis. I can’t wait for the WikiLeaks documents to come out…
But I digress. I’m completely divorced from any previous prejudice I might have had for religion. I don’t look upon religion with disgust or anger; I just don’t want to be harassed. Most of the time I forget it’s there, and it’s only a problem a few times per year, kind of like herpes. And like herpes, religion isn’t going anywhere.
If we stop mindfucking each other, the sickness of religion might stop spreading… ugh, I’m such a philosophical prude. Okay, go out and commit cognitive coitus, but at least don’t psychologically screw your kids… that’s just wrong.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Are You Done With That?
I apologize ahead of time that this isn’t going to be a funny post. I will give it a shot when I find an opening, but this is one of the least funny subjects I can possibly imagine.
You spend a very finite amount of time on this Earth. Very finite. Our human lifespans are short by any comparison to geological, astronomical, or recorded human history. Each of our lives would not even constitute the thickness of an eyelash on a timeline of existence that stretched around the Earth’s circumference.
What’s the point? Even though we’re here such a short time, every moment seems to count for quite a lot. Maybe not so much in the middle of our lives, but each second really becomes important towards the end.
One thing that has always silently bugged me about religion is that it gets people to do irrational things. I don’t talk about it much, but it’s true. Even saying “Bless you” after you sneeze is completely stark-raving ludicrous. I haven’t done it in years, and I still rarely ever get sick (I chalk it up to limiting my interaction with other people, and a raging case of germaphobia).
But really, it’s harmless when someone says, “Bless you” to me when I sneeze in public. I know their intentions are good, but more importantly: it doesn’t hurt me or anyone else. If the custom was to punch you in the sternum when you sneeze, maybe I’d be on a crusade. As it stands, it’s no skin off my back.
There are irrational things that religion causes people to do that aren’t so harmless, however. Now, I know religion is only a disseminator of ideas, ideas which can be accepted or rejected on an individual basis. For example, I know that plenty of religious Christians don’t oppose gay marriage, just as I know atheists who oppose gay marriage (for fascist “survival of the fittest/it ain’t natural” reasons).
The point being: you can’t get rid of religion and expect ignorance to follow on its coat tails. The very act of forcing people to abandon their religion is, in my honest opinion, a religious act. Iconoclasm and forced [de]conversion are two of the tell-tale ritual practices of a militant religion. Atheists who support or adopt these tactics are part of the problem, not part of the solution.
So, keeping in mind that I oppose forcing anyone to do something they don’t want to do, I have a question: why doesn’t everyone donate their organs after they die? It’s a rhetorical question, because I know the two main reasons. Both these reasons are just empty arguments that hinge on an underlying (and unfounded) paranoia.
The first and obvious reason is the religious one. Many religious beliefs hold the dead body as sacred and needing to remain intact. Many Jews believe to this day that your body will be resurrected with the coming of the Messiah. This is why Jews are buried so quickly: they are not embalmed, so they have to go in the ground quickly. Some people who lose a body part (finger, toe, limb, etc.) will hold onto it so they can be buried with it after they die.
Look, I can’t pretend to tell someone they are not allowed to believe that kind of nonsense. I’m not the thought police. But let me ask a question to my Jewish readers (and I know I have some who wander over from my wife’s blog): what of those lost in the Holocaust? Is your God so cruel that the charred and mutilated remains of Jewish Holocaust victims have been prevented from experiencing the kingdom to come?
I’m just asking. It seems pretty ridiculous to me, but what about religion isn’t?
I can’t do a damn thing about religion’s part in this. I can try to reason with an individual who is thinking of not being a donor, but I can’t change a faith I have nothing to do with. But there is another argument: the organ thief paranoia.
I have actually heard an atheist use this as his reason why he willfully would not be an organ donor, and it sickened me as someone who, at the time, was planning to work in the healthcare profession. I still find it completely ridiculous, but I’ll dutifully present and refute it anyway.
Some people think that if you are a donor, that EMTs, doctors, nurses, or really any healthcare provider would purposely kill you or let you die so that they could harvest your organs. Now, I’m not saying this would never happen, but I would also like to point out that there is nothing preventing them from doing so as it is, even if you are “not a donor.”
Basically, if someone wants to kill you and use your organs while you are in a vulnerable situation (like going into surgery or while unconscious), it’s going to happen and you’re properly fucked. Get over it people. The odds are so remote that this will happen to you, however, that I dare say you might be better off worrying about meteorites falling from the sky and hitting you in the temple.
No one has ever explained to me how selecting “not a donor” on your driver’s license would ever prevent someone from stealing your organs, and unless doing so activates some sort of forcefield around your abdomen, I think it’s going to remain a useless decision.
I would love it if every state made everyone a donor by default, but that you could opt out. As it is, you have to often ask specifically to be a donor when you get your driver’s license. Many states don’t even ask, “Do you want to be a donor,” you have to know that you must volunteer. If anything, they should make you look at pictures of people on the waiting list for a kidney before letting you opt out.
I’m really sick of living in a “volunteer” society, where things only get done by those who volunteer to do it. We end up short changed, impoverished, and callous. I don’t understand why anyone would be so selfish that they would demand to hold onto something they don’t even need at a time they aren’t even around anymore.
They say “You can’t take it with you.” The truth is, you can, but what you’re taking is someone’s precious last years, months, days and hours on Earth, and you’re taking them not for yourself, but for the bugs that will gorge on you in the grave. What’s more important than saving the lives of other people? Apparently feeding worms.
You spend a very finite amount of time on this Earth. Very finite. Our human lifespans are short by any comparison to geological, astronomical, or recorded human history. Each of our lives would not even constitute the thickness of an eyelash on a timeline of existence that stretched around the Earth’s circumference.
What’s the point? Even though we’re here such a short time, every moment seems to count for quite a lot. Maybe not so much in the middle of our lives, but each second really becomes important towards the end.
One thing that has always silently bugged me about religion is that it gets people to do irrational things. I don’t talk about it much, but it’s true. Even saying “Bless you” after you sneeze is completely stark-raving ludicrous. I haven’t done it in years, and I still rarely ever get sick (I chalk it up to limiting my interaction with other people, and a raging case of germaphobia).
But really, it’s harmless when someone says, “Bless you” to me when I sneeze in public. I know their intentions are good, but more importantly: it doesn’t hurt me or anyone else. If the custom was to punch you in the sternum when you sneeze, maybe I’d be on a crusade. As it stands, it’s no skin off my back.
There are irrational things that religion causes people to do that aren’t so harmless, however. Now, I know religion is only a disseminator of ideas, ideas which can be accepted or rejected on an individual basis. For example, I know that plenty of religious Christians don’t oppose gay marriage, just as I know atheists who oppose gay marriage (for fascist “survival of the fittest/it ain’t natural” reasons).
The point being: you can’t get rid of religion and expect ignorance to follow on its coat tails. The very act of forcing people to abandon their religion is, in my honest opinion, a religious act. Iconoclasm and forced [de]conversion are two of the tell-tale ritual practices of a militant religion. Atheists who support or adopt these tactics are part of the problem, not part of the solution.
So, keeping in mind that I oppose forcing anyone to do something they don’t want to do, I have a question: why doesn’t everyone donate their organs after they die? It’s a rhetorical question, because I know the two main reasons. Both these reasons are just empty arguments that hinge on an underlying (and unfounded) paranoia.
The first and obvious reason is the religious one. Many religious beliefs hold the dead body as sacred and needing to remain intact. Many Jews believe to this day that your body will be resurrected with the coming of the Messiah. This is why Jews are buried so quickly: they are not embalmed, so they have to go in the ground quickly. Some people who lose a body part (finger, toe, limb, etc.) will hold onto it so they can be buried with it after they die.
Look, I can’t pretend to tell someone they are not allowed to believe that kind of nonsense. I’m not the thought police. But let me ask a question to my Jewish readers (and I know I have some who wander over from my wife’s blog): what of those lost in the Holocaust? Is your God so cruel that the charred and mutilated remains of Jewish Holocaust victims have been prevented from experiencing the kingdom to come?
I’m just asking. It seems pretty ridiculous to me, but what about religion isn’t?
I can’t do a damn thing about religion’s part in this. I can try to reason with an individual who is thinking of not being a donor, but I can’t change a faith I have nothing to do with. But there is another argument: the organ thief paranoia.
I have actually heard an atheist use this as his reason why he willfully would not be an organ donor, and it sickened me as someone who, at the time, was planning to work in the healthcare profession. I still find it completely ridiculous, but I’ll dutifully present and refute it anyway.
Some people think that if you are a donor, that EMTs, doctors, nurses, or really any healthcare provider would purposely kill you or let you die so that they could harvest your organs. Now, I’m not saying this would never happen, but I would also like to point out that there is nothing preventing them from doing so as it is, even if you are “not a donor.”
Basically, if someone wants to kill you and use your organs while you are in a vulnerable situation (like going into surgery or while unconscious), it’s going to happen and you’re properly fucked. Get over it people. The odds are so remote that this will happen to you, however, that I dare say you might be better off worrying about meteorites falling from the sky and hitting you in the temple.
No one has ever explained to me how selecting “not a donor” on your driver’s license would ever prevent someone from stealing your organs, and unless doing so activates some sort of forcefield around your abdomen, I think it’s going to remain a useless decision.
I would love it if every state made everyone a donor by default, but that you could opt out. As it is, you have to often ask specifically to be a donor when you get your driver’s license. Many states don’t even ask, “Do you want to be a donor,” you have to know that you must volunteer. If anything, they should make you look at pictures of people on the waiting list for a kidney before letting you opt out.
I’m really sick of living in a “volunteer” society, where things only get done by those who volunteer to do it. We end up short changed, impoverished, and callous. I don’t understand why anyone would be so selfish that they would demand to hold onto something they don’t even need at a time they aren’t even around anymore.
They say “You can’t take it with you.” The truth is, you can, but what you’re taking is someone’s precious last years, months, days and hours on Earth, and you’re taking them not for yourself, but for the bugs that will gorge on you in the grave. What’s more important than saving the lives of other people? Apparently feeding worms.
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Wednesday Word: Psychadelick
Psychadelick: a large block of LSD infused salt kept in the barns of Hippies
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Saturday Reflection #8
Do they have internet in heaven? If not, is it really heaven? If so, why don’t dead people update their FaceBook pages?
Friday, October 15, 2010
Mythical Interview: Faith
GINX: Today’s interview is a less conventional deity. Everyone has heard of her, but most people don’t think of her as a being unto herself. She’s here today to set the record straight. Please welcome my guest, Faith.
FAITH: Hello, Ginx.
GINX: I have to know, what is with the dog.
FAITH: Well… I’m blind.
GINX: That answers my next question about the sunglasses at night… I thought maybe you were a Corey Hart fan.
FAITH: You’re funnier when you aren’t trying so hard.
GINX: Little hostile…
FAITH: How do you think I should feel about you? I thought you were going to introduce me as “ye of little- ”
GINX: Hey, I never said Faith doesn’t exist, I just don’t call on you personally.
FAITH: Oh, I noticed.
GINX: Hell hath no fury…
FAITH: Don’t bring my cousin Hel into this, she’s never even heard of you.
GINX: Okay, let’s go with that, Gods love genealogy. What’s your family like?
FAITH: Well, I have two sisters. All three of us are blind. My younger sister, Justice, is actually someone you have evoked.
GINX: I’m a huge fan of her work.
FAITH: We’ll see if you appreciate her verdicts after your body falls lifeless.
GINX: Um, what about your other sister?
FAITH: My oldest sister is Love.
GINX: Let me guess, she’s blind?
FAITH: Legally, but that lucky bitch can still see shapes and shadows, so she gets around a lot easier.
GINX: So Love is the favorite, I take it.
FAITH: She gets all the attention. All the gods adore her, and most of the goddesses for that matter, and she even has Hollywood wrapped around her finger…
GINX: Yeah, Love is pretty popular.
FAITH: Everything has just been handed to her.
GINX: Ain’t that always the way?
FAITH: I wouldn’t know, but I’ll ask Justice the next time I see her.
GINX: When do you think that will be?
FAITH: Probably at the next Catholic priest court case, so not long from now.
GINX: Now who’s trying?
FAITH: Why am I even talking to you? You don’t respect me, you claim to have nothing to do with me.
GINX: I do consider myself to be faithless.
FAITH: And yet you trust others.
GINX: That’s different.
FAITH: Right. Do you know what my dog’s name is?
GINX: No clue.
FAITH: Trust.
GINX: Is that a coincidence?
FAITH: Hardly. Trust isn’t even independent of me enough to warrant being one of my children. Trust heels to me.
GINX: Well, you’re blind, so it seems like you’re following Trust.
TRUST: (opens mouth and pants)
FAITH: Oh, please.
GINX: I’m just trying to point out that the two of you rely on each other, and I can like your dog without liking you.
FAITH: Well, then I’ll tell you what, I’ll go, and you can finish the interview with the dog.
GINX: Um…
FAITH: Where’s the exit?
GINX: It’s behind you to your left…
TRUST: (sits)
GINX: Well, looks like I’m gonna have to carry the conversation, huh, pal?
TRUST: (scratches behind ear with his hind leg)
GINX: Come here, boy. (Ginx scratches behind Trust’s ear) I have two dogs, myself. I never really gave much thought to whether there were divine pets, let alone seeing-eye dogs for blind gods. I suppose that makes sense, as much sense as anything about the gods makes, anyway.
I wonder if it’s better to be a dog to a god than to be a human… what am I saying, it’s better being a person’s dog than being a person, I mean, unless you’re Michael Vick’s dog. Is Faith a good master, boy? Does she scratch you behind the ears? And under the chin?
FAITH: Yes, she does.
GINX: Get lost leaving my humble abode?
FAITH: I realized I couldn’t go far. And honestly, how long can you talk to a dog?
GINX: You’d be surprised.
FAITH: By what, someone who lacks faith only confiding in those who can’t speak?
GINX: You know what? I’m faithful to my wife, does that count?
FAITH: Marital fidelity… I suppose I should count it, considering how rare that is these days.
GINX: Why do you suppose that is?
FAITH: I imagine because it’s easier to have faith in something you cannot see than in someone you have to see daily.
GINX: And why is that?
FAITH: Maybe it’s easy to take someone for granted who is always around.
GINX: That’s a depressing thought.
FAITH: And everyone wants to get some strange.
GINX: Hmm…
FAITH: Come on, you never think about other women?
GINX: I told you, I’m faithfully married.
FAITH: Other men?
GINX: Really?
FAITH: I just don’t believe you never think about other people.
GINX: Well, I watch porn, but my wife knows and certainly doesn’t care.
FAITH: Oh, she cares, she’s just not telling you.
GINX: If you say so. Clearly you know more about the woman I married than I do.
FAITH: This interview is over. Come on Trust.
GINX: I apologize to my readers, that couldn’t have been very fulfilling. I wasn’t anticipating that Faith would be so stand-offish and aggressive. Maybe I should have guessed as much. I’ll try to screen my guests a little better.
FAITH: Hello, Ginx.
GINX: I have to know, what is with the dog.
FAITH: Well… I’m blind.
GINX: That answers my next question about the sunglasses at night… I thought maybe you were a Corey Hart fan.
FAITH: You’re funnier when you aren’t trying so hard.
GINX: Little hostile…
FAITH: How do you think I should feel about you? I thought you were going to introduce me as “ye of little- ”
GINX: Hey, I never said Faith doesn’t exist, I just don’t call on you personally.
FAITH: Oh, I noticed.
GINX: Hell hath no fury…
FAITH: Don’t bring my cousin Hel into this, she’s never even heard of you.
GINX: Okay, let’s go with that, Gods love genealogy. What’s your family like?
FAITH: Well, I have two sisters. All three of us are blind. My younger sister, Justice, is actually someone you have evoked.
GINX: I’m a huge fan of her work.
FAITH: We’ll see if you appreciate her verdicts after your body falls lifeless.
GINX: Um, what about your other sister?
FAITH: My oldest sister is Love.
GINX: Let me guess, she’s blind?
FAITH: Legally, but that lucky bitch can still see shapes and shadows, so she gets around a lot easier.
GINX: So Love is the favorite, I take it.
FAITH: She gets all the attention. All the gods adore her, and most of the goddesses for that matter, and she even has Hollywood wrapped around her finger…
GINX: Yeah, Love is pretty popular.
FAITH: Everything has just been handed to her.
GINX: Ain’t that always the way?
FAITH: I wouldn’t know, but I’ll ask Justice the next time I see her.
GINX: When do you think that will be?
FAITH: Probably at the next Catholic priest court case, so not long from now.
GINX: Now who’s trying?
FAITH: Why am I even talking to you? You don’t respect me, you claim to have nothing to do with me.
GINX: I do consider myself to be faithless.
FAITH: And yet you trust others.
GINX: That’s different.
FAITH: Right. Do you know what my dog’s name is?
GINX: No clue.
FAITH: Trust.
GINX: Is that a coincidence?
FAITH: Hardly. Trust isn’t even independent of me enough to warrant being one of my children. Trust heels to me.
GINX: Well, you’re blind, so it seems like you’re following Trust.
TRUST: (opens mouth and pants)
FAITH: Oh, please.
GINX: I’m just trying to point out that the two of you rely on each other, and I can like your dog without liking you.
FAITH: Well, then I’ll tell you what, I’ll go, and you can finish the interview with the dog.
GINX: Um…
FAITH: Where’s the exit?
GINX: It’s behind you to your left…
TRUST: (sits)
GINX: Well, looks like I’m gonna have to carry the conversation, huh, pal?
TRUST: (scratches behind ear with his hind leg)
GINX: Come here, boy. (Ginx scratches behind Trust’s ear) I have two dogs, myself. I never really gave much thought to whether there were divine pets, let alone seeing-eye dogs for blind gods. I suppose that makes sense, as much sense as anything about the gods makes, anyway.
I wonder if it’s better to be a dog to a god than to be a human… what am I saying, it’s better being a person’s dog than being a person, I mean, unless you’re Michael Vick’s dog. Is Faith a good master, boy? Does she scratch you behind the ears? And under the chin?
FAITH: Yes, she does.
GINX: Get lost leaving my humble abode?
FAITH: I realized I couldn’t go far. And honestly, how long can you talk to a dog?
GINX: You’d be surprised.
FAITH: By what, someone who lacks faith only confiding in those who can’t speak?
GINX: You know what? I’m faithful to my wife, does that count?
FAITH: Marital fidelity… I suppose I should count it, considering how rare that is these days.
GINX: Why do you suppose that is?
FAITH: I imagine because it’s easier to have faith in something you cannot see than in someone you have to see daily.
GINX: And why is that?
FAITH: Maybe it’s easy to take someone for granted who is always around.
GINX: That’s a depressing thought.
FAITH: And everyone wants to get some strange.
GINX: Hmm…
FAITH: Come on, you never think about other women?
GINX: I told you, I’m faithfully married.
FAITH: Other men?
GINX: Really?
FAITH: I just don’t believe you never think about other people.
GINX: Well, I watch porn, but my wife knows and certainly doesn’t care.
FAITH: Oh, she cares, she’s just not telling you.
GINX: If you say so. Clearly you know more about the woman I married than I do.
FAITH: This interview is over. Come on Trust.
GINX: I apologize to my readers, that couldn’t have been very fulfilling. I wasn’t anticipating that Faith would be so stand-offish and aggressive. Maybe I should have guessed as much. I’ll try to screen my guests a little better.
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Sit, Kneel, Pray, Good Boy!
According to the wild speculation of some scientists, animals are physiologically capable of experiencing spirituality. It’s not too wild, I’ll run you through the logic:
Brain research has indicated which regions of the brain are active during spiritual experiences. As it turns out, they aren’t the complex portions unique to human beings, they’re in the rather primitive areas shared by most mammals.
Perhaps what I found most interesting was an observation I had never heard before. Researchers have seen:
But, we’ll probably never know whether there’s a chimpanzee religion, or perhaps some form of feline philosophy, or even a canine moral imperative. While we share the same region of the brain that process religious experience, our furry friends lack the brain regions capable of communicating such things.
Which is just as well, because humans have enough mysticism as it is.
Brain research has indicated which regions of the brain are active during spiritual experiences. As it turns out, they aren’t the complex portions unique to human beings, they’re in the rather primitive areas shared by most mammals.
Perhaps what I found most interesting was an observation I had never heard before. Researchers have seen:
chimpanzees dancing with total abandon at waterfalls that emerge after heavy rains. Some of the chimps even appear to dance themselves into a trance-like state, as some humans do during religious and cultural rituals.I dunno, this has me looking at my pets differently. I hope they don’t see me as a god, because that is way too much pressure. Plus, they’ve seen me naked… awkward…
[Jane] Goodall wondered, “Is it not possible that these [chimpanzee] performances are stimulated by feelings akin to wonder and awe? After a waterfall display the performer may sit on a rock, his eyes following the falling water.”
But, we’ll probably never know whether there’s a chimpanzee religion, or perhaps some form of feline philosophy, or even a canine moral imperative. While we share the same region of the brain that process religious experience, our furry friends lack the brain regions capable of communicating such things.
Which is just as well, because humans have enough mysticism as it is.
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