Good Dog

The LMM went out to the mailbox, and found this:

Hi my name is Haley. I was going to leave a very important tract about our website at your door but your dogs were guarding the property. Here it is have a nice day.

And the "tract" was was a flyer from the "Jehovah's Witnesses."  Thanks, Skippy, you saved everyone some time!

I said, "more cowbell" NOT "more tambourine"

Don't Tase me, Rev!

In Edmund OK last summer, a parishioner was tased for playing the tambourine like Will Ferrell played the cowbell on SNL.

As usual, I am not making this up.

We take our religion very seriously here, so fair warning: conform or be tased.

According to the Oklahoma County Sheriff's department, the tase-ee "was not filled with the Holy Spirit".

Again I must stress that I'm not making this up.

Apparently in Edmund, being low on the Holy Spirit is a pepper-spray and tasing offense!

hat tip to RKG.

Mine's Bigger!

A "sensitivity for bigness," seriously?

An exploration of the functions of religious monumental architecture from a Darwinian perspective 

Yannick Joye & Jan Verpooten 

Review of General Psychology, March 2013, Pages 53-68 

Abstract: In recent years, the cognitive science of religion has displayed a keen interest in religions' social function, bolstering research on religious prosociality and cooperativeness. The main objective of this article is to explore, from a Darwinian perspective, the biological and psychological mechanisms through which religious monumental architecture (RMA) might support that specific function. A frequently held view is that monumental architecture is a costly signal that served vertical social stratification in complex large-scale societies. In this paper we extend that view. We hypothesize that the function(s) of RMA cannot be fully appreciated from a costly signaling perspective alone, and invoke a complementary mechanism, namely sensory exploitation. We propose that, in addition to being a costly signal, RMA also often taps into an adaptive “sensitivity for bigness.” The central hypothesis of this paper is that when cases of RMA strongly stimulate that sensitivity, and when commoners become aware of the costly investments that are necessary to build RMA, then this may give rise to a particular emotional response, namely awe. We will try to demonstrate that, by exploiting awe, RMA promotes and regulates prosocial behavior among religious followers and creates in them an openness to adopt supernatural beliefs. 

Nod to Kevin Lewis

Fastest Way Through Border Checkpoint....

Is "Tolerance" Condescending?

Tolerance is by definition accepting something you don't like or disagree with.  If you don't care, it's not tolerance, it's indifference or apathy.

Penn Gillette points out that tolerance is condescending.  Dutch Boy has been telling me this for years:  the "tolerance" of the Netherlanders toward Islam (for example) is really just accepting of primitive superstition, not a genuine mutual respect.


(UPDATE: Fixed link)

Nod to Angry Alex, who never tolerates anybody.  At least not quietly.

Westboro Baptist Meet Rainbow House!

Timur Kuran on Sharia Law

My friend and Duke colleague Timur Kuran on Sharia law.  Interesting, and clear.

The link.

Would Tarzan Believe in God?

Would Tarzan believe in God? Conditions for the emergence of religious belief

Konika Banerjee & Paul Bloom, Trends in Cognitive Sciences, forthcoming

Abstract:  Would someone raised without exposure to religious views nonetheless come to believe in the existence of God, an afterlife, and the intentional creation of humans and other animals? Many scholars would answer yes, proposing that universal cognitive biases generate religious ideas anew within each individual mind. Drawing on evidence from developmental psychology, we argue here that the answer is no: children lack spontaneous theistic views and the emergence of religion is crucially dependent on culture.

So, would God believe in Tarzan?  I think not.  That whole story of being raised in the jungle is pretty implausible.  I think God prefers nonfiction--biographies and sweeping histories--to those kinds of fantasy novels.

Nod to Kevin Lewis, who believes in Tarzan, I believe

Sam Bacile

So I was thinking of writing something about contemptible Sam Bacile, the "persona" who may (or may not) have made a movie, the trailer of which appears to have driven a whole bunch of people to become very angry at a person who doesn't exist because he made a movie that doesn't exist.

But, no need.  Ken took care of it, over at Popehat.  What he said.

Beliefs and Actions

Divergent Effects of Beliefs in Heaven and Hell on National Crime Rates

Azim Shariff & Mijke Rhemtulla
PLoS ONE, June 2012

Abstract:
Though religion has been shown to have generally positive effects on normative ‘prosocial’ behavior, recent laboratory research suggests that these effects may be driven primarily by supernatural punishment. Supernatural benevolence, on the other hand, may actually be associated with less prosocial behavior. Here, we investigate these effects at the societal level, showing that the proportion of people who believe in hell negatively predicts national crime rates whereas belief in heaven predicts higher crime rates. These effects remain after accounting for a host of covariates, and ultimately prove stronger predictors of national crime rates than economic variables such as GDP and income inequality. Expanding on laboratory research on religious prosociality, this is the first study to tie religious beliefs to large-scale cross-national trends in pro- and anti-social behavior.

----------------------

Support for Redistribution in Western Europe: Assessing the role of religion

Daniel Stegmueller et al.
European Sociological Review, August 2012, Pages 482-497

Abstract:
Previous sociological studies have paid little attention to religion as a central determinant of individual preferences for redistribution. In this article we argue that religious individuals, living in increasingly secular societies, differ in political preferences from their secular counterparts. Based on the theory of religious cleavages, we expect that religious individuals will oppose income redistribution by the state. Furthermore, in contexts where the polarization between religious and secular individuals is large, preferences for redistribution will be lower. In the empirical analysis we test our predictions in a multilevel framework, using data from the European Social Survey 2002–2006 for 16 Western European countries. After controlling for a wide range of individual socio-economic factors and for welfare-state policies, religion plays and important explanatory role. We find that both Catholics and Protestants strongly oppose income redistribution by the state. The cleavage between religious and secular individuals is far more important than the difference between denominations. Using a refined measure of religious polarization, we also find that in more polarized context the overall level of support for redistribution is lower.

************************

Nod to Kevin Lewis for the references

Markets in Everything: Relative Prices of Worship Edition

In Cambodia, people are converting to Christianity.  Because the relative price of worship is much less.  In fact, if you are Catholic, they actually GIVE you a sip of bad wine and a stale cracker to munch on.  You don't have to sacrifice your buffalo.

Phone call for Bob Tollison...

Rick Martinez on Amendment One in the N&O

I am sorry to have to write this post.

Let me start with some disclaimers.  First, Rick Martinez is my friend.  I don't mean the "I've met him, we've had coffee" sort of friend.  An actual friend, the sort of friend who honestly prayed that my eyesight would recover, and who is one of the most sincere, and brightest, people I know.

But Rick wrote a column yesterday, for the News and Observer here in Raleigh.  Here is the column.  I feel obliged to respond.

Santiago Recycling

I have expressed my views on recycling in the past, here for written, here for a podcast.

Nonetheless, we are avid recyclers chez Maison de Mungowitz, I was interested in how (if?) Chileans do it. The reason that question is interesting has to do with basic economics: if recycling saves money and resources, then the first people to recycle would be relatively poor. Poor people can't afford to throw valuable stuff away, right? Whereas rich folks can afford to be profligate. So if recycling saves money, you would expect poor countries to recycle first, and most, yes?

I could not immediately find a source on this, but here is what I did find. First, here are the "top 7 countries" according to the BBC:

On the other hand, Korea apparently recycles 50%, and Japan 40%, with more than 80% of glass being recycled in those countries. Not sure why they didn't make the list, unless they didn't fill out the proper forms to get apparatchiks at BBC to let them into the club.

Lowest recycling rates: Yemen. Pakistan. Basically all of Africa, outside of South Africa, which has a rate of 18%, and climbing.

Now, my mental regression line calculator is flawed, but I'm pretty sure that these rates do NOT indicate that poor countries recycle first, and more. To the contrary, rich countries recycle first. That means, friends, that recycling emphatically does NOT save money. Instead, recycling lets rich people feel good about themselves, and perhaps does some good for the environment, as a public good reducing pollution and use of landfill space. BUT. IT. DOES. NOT. SAVE. MONEY. (Hey, kids, it might be fun to collect the data and do an actual analysis of the relation between recycling rates and wealth! You could even do it just for US states, or cities!) (UPDATE: A commenter notes I naively reversed the causal arrow. Recycling CAUSES economic development. +1, commenter!)

Anyway, Chile (recycling rate 2%, with a goal of 10%) has a program (here is rather sad web site) for recycling. I'm not making this up. You have to drive (!) to the sites, and wait in line, with your car motor running (see line of cars, at least 200 meters long, out into street, at top left):

Here is a woman, with a baby. I watched. She waited in line, more than five minutes, car motor running, for a spot. She got out, put baby in pack. Went to trunk, got out TWO CARDBOARD BOXES, and put them into containter:

And then when one of the vats is full they pull it out:

And then they put all this valuable material on a truck:

So...why? If recycling does not save money, or resources, and in fact is a big net waste of resources....why?

It is worship, of the secular god Gaia, the Earth Mother. Like any sacrifice, it should be costly. It MUST be costly, in fact, to count as a sacrifice. That's not a recycling facility, it's a church. Once you understand that, it all makes sense.

I just someone would explain it to ME.

Hit me with your memory stick

In a meeting with parents in a Catholic school in Northern Ireland held to prep them on what happens with their kids during their first communion, Father Martin McVeigh stuck his memory stick into the school's computer and out popped 16 "indecent images" of men.

The Father yanked his memory stick out of the computer and fled the room, only to return 20 minutes later and ask that the children consider giving some of their first communion loot to the Church.

The parents were unhappy and complained, but McVeigh's Bishop said everything was fine because the police told him "no crime had been committed".

Indeed, I would think that was a fairly accurate briefing on what kids can expect in their interactions with the Church!

Tied to the whippin' post

This is a pretty amazing table:

Let's break it down:

1. I guess Mustafa Kemal really did have some influence.

2. Pakistan and Egypt are seriously messed up places.

3. Those numbers do not conform to the pleasant image of Jordan that I have in my head.

Hat tip to Roving Bandit.

Zombie Mohammad Attack Sanctioned by Law?

Zombie Mohammad attack okay? Fighting words, perhaps? I would doubt it's real, but Jonathan Turley is legit.

Zombie Pope in same parade raises no issues.

Penn Jillette, Atheist

Atheist Hymnal

(nod to the LMM)

A Strategy for the Left?

Is this going to be the strategy for Team Obama for 2012?

I am no fan of the talking points of either side. And there is some merit to the charge that some Republicans depend on the religious right for support.

But, "the economy sucks so let's talk about scary religious zealots!" is pretty darned cynical.

(Nod to the Blonde)

Lost Interest

Institutions, the Rise of Commerce and the Persistence of Laws: Interest Restrictions in Islam and Christianity

Jared Rubin
Economic Journal, forthcoming

Abstract: Why was economic development retarded in the Middle East relative to Western Europe, despite the Middle East being far ahead for centuries? A theoretical model inspired and substantiated by the history of interest restrictions suggests that this outcome emanates in part from the greater degree to which early Islamic political authorities derived legitimacy from religious authorities. This entailed a feedback mechanism in Europe in which the rise of commerce led to the relaxation of interest restrictions while also diminishing the Church’s ability to legitimise political authorities. These interactions did not occur in the Islamic world despite equally amenable economic conditions.

(Nod to Kevin Lewis, who never loses interest)