Religion

Here: Food for thought. (More here.) END

David Berlinski, who lives down the street from Notre Dame, writes, “The pompiers were in their glory last night, and, when I was allowed to return home as dawn was breaking, they were still there, red-eyed, exhausted, grim. The police, too. The great cloud of smoke had drifted to the west and south. Later that day, I saw the front of the cathedral. Its towers were still standing, but its great bells, which I had heard every day, were silent.” From Mark Steyn: “Twenty-four hours after Notre Dame de Paris began to burn, there is better news than we might have expected: More of the cathedral than appeared likely to has, in fact, survived intact – including the famous rose Read More ›

Sometimes an argument from Naturalism Inc. becomes too complex to follow. Here’s just such an argument: The appearance of moralizing gods in religion occurred after—and not before—the emergence of large, complex societies, according to new research. This finding upturns conventional thinking on the matter, in which moralizing gods are typically cited as a prerequisite for social complexity. Gods who punish people for their anti-social indiscretions appeared in religions after the emergence and expansion of large, complex societies, according to new research published today in Nature. The finding suggests religions with moralizing gods, or prosocial religions, were not a necessary requirement for the evolution of social complexity. It was only until the emergence of diverse, multi-ethnic empires with populations exceeding a Read More ›

Declining population is only one factor. Ancient cultural beliefs are another. I (O’Leary for News) wrote about this at Mind Matters: Ito sees our problems as originating in the idea that humans are special and urges that we “develop a respect for, and emotional and spiritual dialogue with, all things.” Illustrating this approach to life, in 2018, a 450-year-old Buddhist temple in Isumi held a funeral ceremony for 114 first-generation Aibo robotic dogs (“with priests in traditional robes chanting sutras and offering prayers for the departed plastic puppies.”), prior to recycling them. Production of the model had stopped in 2006 and the repair service was discontinued in 2014. “The little robots often arrive at the temple with notes or letters Read More ›