Polytheism vs Monotheism

After reading this great Guardian article by Suzanne Moore about trust it occurred to me how the virtues of trust and loyalty are compromised in multi-cultural societies.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jan/14/charlie-hebdo-add-faithophobia-to-my-crimes

In terms of loyalty one should remember that all religions in their development had to be disloyal to the one they believed in previously. So the virtue of loyalty has been sacrificed.

Living in a multi-cultural society with differing monotheistic faiths must certainly puts the virtue of trust in harm's way as well.

Believing in something without evidence is problematic but to be pragmatic about it it would seem that to believe in many Gods like the Romans and Greeks did would be preferable for a society that claims to believe in just one God and tolerates the rest.

Consider for example whether polytheism or monotheism is better. Doing so it reminds me just how silly all religions really are but it makes for a good thought experiment. Believing in many Gods is as useless as believing in only one God. That's given. However, believing in one God in today's multi-cultural society is probably much worst than believing in many Gods. This is because of what cognitive dissonance brings to the equation.

When we think that faith is a virtue and believe in one God it creates a situation where one may tolerate another's religious faith but one won't trust that believer. There is a cognitive dissonance created where trust in the other person is lacking because the other person doesn't have the same faith as you do, as much as one might claim there is trust. People confuse tolerance for trust. In a diverse society with multi-monotheist faiths trust must be at a deficit. Consider Islamic adherence in Europe and North America. They're in a minority in a society that claims they tolerate them.  Indeed they may tolerate them but they won't trust them. They must constantly feel threatened.

 Faith is not a virtue but that's not obvious to most. Believing in nonsense must sacrifice the virtues of trust and loyalty. No wonder our society today is under threat.  If we must have religion bring back polytheism.

The Hidden hand

There is continual reference to a "hidden hand" at work by economists to explain the apparent inexplicable concept of how pricing works. Adam Smith’s originally used the concept of the "hidden hand" to explain of the marketplace.

It has developed into an almost religious jargon for economist. But when you consider it in basic terms it implies that there is a unknown self-regulating power, a God-like force that is controlling the economic system. As an atheist I find this inference repugnant.

Most people do not adopt an Occam's Razor stance to explain things. They are awed by the unknown, and instead of adopting a wait and see or an experimental method to determine cause and effect, it is easier to attribute fanciful imaginings rather than apply real evidence-based explanations.

A cruise control on a car, like any self-regulating system, is run by a simple algorithm or set of instructions of comparing a set point and an actual desired parameter and then sending feedback to an actuator to resolve the difference. Not knowing how this works one might easily say a hidden hand is at work to account for this self-regulation. But a mystery interpretation usually doesn't develop for this because one appreciates that this self-adjusting mechanism was designed by an engineer. 

So why, for evolution, is the algorithm of “survival of the fittest" too difficult for many to appreciate. Why do magical non-evidence explanations persist to explain nature or our own origins. I suppose for some if you're not actually around to see the development of such an algorithm then a "hidden hand" simplification works. A God is created. It's understandable how magical concepts might arise in the past. It's just not easily understood how they persist in a modern world where we can actual see how hidden hands work. Obviously for many, especially those in power, transparency is threat. The Wizard of Oz didn't appreciate his curtain being removed.

What’s with the Jews?

Any Jews reading this will likely think, or rationalize it, as an anti-Jewish rant and that the author is racist against Jews. Not so. I raised my children to be critical thinkers and always question people’s behaviour not the person themselves. Try to understand why people do what they do and judge them. Yes judge. If what you see doesn’t make sense, you might like to avoid them.

To the point, why are Jews making terrorists on their border. Why are they making a whole new generation of Palestinian children from Gaza into potential and future terrorists? Is it perhaps a Stockholm affect whereby they somehow admire the oppressive tactics of their nemesis, the Nazis. I just don’t get it. Are they collectively that dumb? Witness their over-the-top reaction to the Palestinians in Gaza. Showing little restraint by killing so many civilians, especially children here makes no sense. There is no justification for killing children, who most of us are taught to protect. I was under the impression that Jews were an intelligent group of people, perhaps more so than most. Many have excelled individually in their contributions to society. But collectively, they seem to be not all there. Give them a State and look what happens!

It’s hard for me to understand how putting this religious state into an arab area after the 2nd world war was a good idea. Israel does not separate the state from the church like most civilized and developed countries do today. Most Arab countries here do not either, Turkey being the exception. So, what’s with that?  Is this why, as a country, they’re so messed up.  They appear to be acting somewhat like the southern States, that will not teach evolution but rather Intelligent Design. Also, why are their more Jews in the United States than in Israel, if this homeland is such a great idea?  What was the world thinking?  Guilt?  Is that why the US is still feeding militarily this failed state.

My first experience with a jewish person was when I was boarding in a house in my first year at university in Waterloo, Ontario. He was studying engineering at the University and I was in science. As Waterloo has many Germans the house we boarded at was owned by an old German lady. This student and his landlord just could not get along. The mutual hatred was palpable. Coming from Northern Ontario it was the first time I’d been exposed to this irrational racist behaviour. 

He and I did engage in many lively debates. One centred on his English Mini that he drove. I made the mistake of telling him I thought that the Volkswagen was probably a better made car and I was surprised, that as an engineering student, he could not see that.  Of course his reasoning, or lack of it, was totally emotional against anything German. He was still fighting the battle of his parents. "Never Forget", was so ingrained in his upbringing, I could see it was useless to engage further with him.

For many, emotion and conditioning, override any sense of reasoning.  So it seems has occurred in the middle east.

The Negative Collective

I'm a great believer in the collective. However,  I don't  necessarily believe that the whole is greater than it's sum. In fact at this time in history, in 2014 Canada is demonstrating that we are collectively less than the sum of our parts. Collectively, without positive leadership, we are a poor example for the rest of the world.

My wife and I just returned from a trip to Bentonville Arkansas. Here we toured the Walton's Museum, a tribute to the founder of WalMart. Walton along with their Republican/Conservative government leaders,  Reagan and Bush in spite of their folksy persona, have acted to destroy the American middle class and destabilize a once powerful economy. It shows you how poor leadership, focused on Capitalism and free enterprise, can decimate an economy, a country.  But the Walton heiress, Alice Walton, has erected an art museum in Bentonville. The art museum has free admission. Capitalism's altruism at its best.

When we returned to Canada the news headline was that McDonald's Canada had suspended its Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) hiring practise here. It appears that McDonald's Canada, after exposés about it abusing Canadian workers by paying them less and not hiring Canadians in preference to foreign workers, realized it was hurting their brand. They were falling out of favour by the collective here. McDonald's at least shows more leadership and insight than the government that allowed the policy to hurt its own citizens. This TFW policy clearly undermines the labour force in Canada. But it is is just one example of a Conservative government working here in Canada to undermine the middle class by favouring special interests.

Canadians deserve the dysfunctional government they have now. We collectively suffer from the individuals that voted for these Harper Conservatives, or the ones that apathetically sat back and allowed it to happen. By allowing this collective conservative mindset to dominate our government, the roots of their mental dysfunction finds expression. As an example of this form of mental dysfunction, I work with an admitted Conservative who, although has worked all his life in government and is about to retire on a government pension, does not believe in taxes! He's a rugged individual, a leader of his church, who is a professed Christian. He doesn't realize that Christ was a socialist who believed in caring for the collective. This type of individual mental processing helps explain our present collective state whereby our national sport is the only team sport that allows fighting.

Oh well, we can only mature and get better.  In the meanwhile, pardon me while I tranquilize myself with trivia and return to watching the Blue Jays lose.

A Humanist Credo

I'm a humanist. I believe in my fellow man. This is sometimes more difficult in practice than in principle. But I like a challenge. First and foremost though I recognize that I'm a member of homo sapiens. I have evolved.  

I believe that religious and political identifications split us as opposed to unite us. Once we've seen the planet from space we should realize that we're all in the same lifeboat and either we all row together or we row apart, inevitably onto the rocks. In unfettered capitalism with its emphasis on competition and the rugged individual we certainly row apart.

In cleavages caused by religion or income inequality we row apart. Growing up we're taught to suppress our egos in order to better function in society - to be civilized. 
Yet many of our cherished institutions emphasize splitting the human race into competitive factions. Time for a rethink.

If evil exists it resides in the individual or individual worship, a psychopathic leaning. Hero worshiping emphasizes the individual. Nothing wrong with being inspired by leaders that emphasize the humanity in us but God help us if we admire those that emphasize only the individual.

In a Capitalistic society for example, where all boats rise with the rising tide of individual wealth, the problem is that some boats are yachts that swamp the rowboats. It doesn't recognize we're all ultimately in the same boat together.

Humanist don't generally leave it to God to solve our problems. For many, God is an individual, and like the Devil, acts as one. Most joy and productivity, like in sex, occurs with the merging of more than one. Homo sapiens are social animals and to become human we must unite and take joy in our success as a united group.

When you primarily identify yourself as a particular race or group, First Nations, Christian, Jew, Islamic, WASP, Conservative, Liberal, Democrat etc. you divide yourself away from the collective (humans that we are) and make yourself more of an individual. That may have been desirable, even necessary in the past, but a recipe for disaster in the present.

Good is God

Just a thought for this December.  Here is a corny video but cute.

You may also have seen this article about a New York policeman.

This policeman's actions was great but it's inspirational underpinnings is given here by Mychal Judge.

"With all the commotion over this photo of simple, perfect kindness came an affirmation of a theological precept once proposed by the late Father Mychal Judge, himself widely known as the FDNY chaplain who perished at the World Trade Center. Judge was also an unofficial chaplain to Manhattan’s homeless, able to call many of them by name as he strolled the city in sandaled feet and a friar’s brown habit. “Hello, William!… Hello, Ralph! … Hello, Peter!” he would say.

His smile was always joined by a few buoying words and a dollar, folded lengthwise because he thought that made it seem less of a handout. He one day summarized his particular theology by inverting the old Irish mantra that God is good.

“Good is God,” Judge said.

What he meant was that just as the devil is to be found in evil, God is to be found in goodness. He further believed that in recognizing the good in others, you strengthen that good and therefore God. He also felt that embracing your own goodness is the way to grace."

Judge died as a first responder in the World Trade Centre doing good.

Christopher Hitchens in his 2007 book "God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything" effectively argued the case against organized religion.

Interestingly you can say the same thing about profit for business too. Good practice leads to profits. Profit by itself is greed. It's similar to the idea of looking at stars being best done indirectly with your peripheral vision.  Whenever you seek something directly it becomes counterproductive. The best things are accomplished it seems by just doing the right things, as this New York policeman demonstrated.

News Today is Not Real

News today is not real.  It's like wrestling was in the 70's. You know there's a hint of truth about it.  But it's all entertainment.  Even Colbert in The Colbert Report uses a term "truthiness" that implies there is no real truth just a semblance of it.

With the Colbert Report, Jon Stewart, The Onion and This is That satire, for example, the line between the news and entertainment has never been so indistinct. For those who have watched the recent US election coverage you'll know where this has taken us. Journalist are now politically aligned pundints. You throw in a few anecdotes and you then draw your conclusions. It may be highly entertaining but not informative.  And as we see in the Mitt Romney's campaign in the US, if you tell a big enough lie long enough, people believe it. It's all marketing.

Blame it on the toxic bipartisan polarization that exists now but I think you can also blame it on Halloween in 1938 and the radio drama "War of the Worlds" by Orsen Welles.  Orsen Wells used a news-bulletin format. If you came into this program, after the notice at the beginning that it was fiction, you were scared to death that Martians were invading. This marketing gimmick worked. The entertainment industry took notice. This is when people started purposely confusing news for entertainment by not giving any notice about the distinction. Now we confuse entertainment for news.