History

The Evolutionary Function of Religion

by

[Here’s a little light (1,900 words) reading for the weekend. I banged it out rather quickly so I apologize for any typos,  misspellings  or poor grammar. I’ll monitor this thread over the weekend so I don’t end up posting a hot-button topic and then ignoring it like I did last time.]

Robert Wright has a new book out “The Evolution of God“. [h/t Instapundit]  The Amazon description says:

In this sweeping narrative that takes us from the Stone Age to the Information Age, Robert Wright unveils an astonishing discovery: there is a hidden pattern that the great monotheistic faiths have followed as they have evolved. Through the prisms of archaeology, theology, and evolutionary psychology, Wright’s findings overturn basic assumptions about Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and are sure to cause controversy. He explains why spirituality has a role today, and why science, contrary to conventional wisdom, affirms the validity of the religious quest. And this previously unrecognized evolutionary logic points not toward continued religious extremism, but future harmony.

I haven’t read the book yet, but based on his previous works I can guess where he is going with this. I’ve been thinking about this subject as well for some time, and I ‘ve been writing up my thoughts on the matter in detail, but since Wright may have beaten me to the punch I thought I would try to get my tiny bit of priority in. (Besides, I owe him for that bar fight in  Tucson.)

I believe that religions and all other facets of human culture are subject to and created by natural selection.  Even though I am a  philosophical  agnostic and a functional atheist, I have come to a science-based understanding that religions serve an evolutionary purpose, and that they provide a vital mechanism for enhancing and maintaining cooperation that no secular mechanism can duplicate.  

Traditionally  atheists  have argued that religions cannot have any functional foundations because there are many different religions with so many different stories about how the universe works. They commonly point out that since most religions  contradict  each other, the vast majority of religions have to be wrong even if we were to assume that one is right. Science produces just one best  explanation  for each phenomenon. We don’t have hundreds of different, equally valid models of the solar system. How could religion be any different? Therefore, the existence of many different religions proves that religions are arbitrary, fictional, fabrications like novels. It follows that religion has little to teach us about life and cannot serve as any kind of rational guide for humanity.  

This seems like a plausible argument. I used to believe it myself but in the last 15 years my ongoing study of evolutionary theory convinced me that atheists have missed one crucial piece of evidence:    We don’t have a vast  variety  of  contradictory  religions, we have  a vast  variety  religions that all teach the same thing.  

In one critical functional area, all religions are identical.

Read more

Book Review – Chua, Day of Empire

by

Book Review Chua, Day of Empire

Chua, Amy, Day of Empire: How Hyperpowers Rise to Global Power and Why They Fall (2007 Hrdbk, 2008 ppbk. 396 pp.)

A paperback of this title was kindly provided by the publisher for review.

Warning: 9,000+ words ahead!

While drafting a 2006 chicagoboyz review of Yale Law Professor Amy Chua’s World on Fire: How Exporting Free Market Democracy Breeds Ethnic Hatred and Global Instability (2003), I was very impressed with the value of the concepts she introduced and her superior writing style. I had heard of her more recent book but the pace of the past few years had largely halted my book reviewing.

So I’m late to the game with Day of Empire (DOE). The publication of the paperback version of the book triggered one of Amazon.com’s oft-fatal “As someone who has purchased or rated X, you might like to know that Y has just been published …” notices in my In-Box. Based on World on Fire and Amazon’s summary blurb of the more recent book, it seemed well worth reading. I’ve purposely avoided reading any reviews of the book by other writers.

Read more

Dresden, “Dresden,” and Obama’s Visit

by

Dresden, once known as “Florence on the Elbe” because of its beauty and culture, is now best known for its destruction by British and American bombers in February of 1945. “Dresden” is the name of a haunting movie, originally made for German television, about a love affair in the doomed city.

Dresden is of course also the German city that Barack Obama intends to visit–for reasons best known to himself–during his current trip to Europe. It seems like this would be an appropriate time to review the film (which I watched a couple of months ago via Netflix) and to use it as a springboard for discussion of the Dresden bombing and of the WWII strategic bombing campaign in general.

Here’s a brief synopsis of the film. I’ve tried to minimize the spoilers, but some are inevitable.

Read more

Further to the previous posting

by

As Lex, probably wisely, decided not to have any comments on his posting about No. 230873 Second Subaltern Elizabeth Windsor I thought I would put up a link to my own posting on the subject.

May I just add that there is no need to worry about Her Majesty: she will survive this snub and continue serenely on her way. The last politician who thought he could supplant her in people’s hearts and minds was Tony Blair. Ha! That’s all I can say, to quote Bertie Wooster. Ha!

Elizabeth Windsor, Subaltern, Women’s Auxiliary Territorial Service

by

“As Elizabeth Windsor, service number 230873, she volunteered as a subaltern in the Women’s Auxiliary Territorial Service, training as a driver and a mechanic. Eventually, she drove military trucks in support roles in England.”

Queen Elizabeth II is the last living head of state who served in uniform in World War II.

Obama, Sarkozy and Brown do not want her in Normandy on June 6, 2009. It is unlikely she will be alive or fit to travel in 2014.

They are correctly afraid that they would shown up as the petty, trivial men they are if they had to stand next to her.

These three detestable men just became even more loathsome in my eyes.

The three of them are not worthy to change the bedpans of our World War II veterans.

Princess Elizabeth WW2

Jonathan adds: When I heard about the decision to uninvite the Queen, my first thought was, Who wouldn’t be thrilled to be in her presence and ask her about her life experiences and views on various historical figures and controversies? My second thought was that Sarkozy, whom the press reported as the instigator of the exclusion, is a jerk. But of course I was naive and Lex is correct. The President of France would never do such a thing on his own, nor is it clear what he would gain by doing it. He is merely the designated fall guy. This had to be a conspiracy, and a fairly transparent one at that, which makes the participants appear even worse — Brown in particular, but he couldn’t have done it without Obama’s cooperation. Midgets, the lot of them. Here’s hoping she lives to be 100 like her mother and outlasts them.