*Religious Outrage

 

Farrell, in the linked article below, balances what many of us know: religion has been manipulated within politics. What once was outrage at insensitivities he describes is now a style of political confrontation and misrepresentation. The media has an essential role in propagating the perceptions of bias, prejudice, and discrimination. I'm reminded of one of Haidt's moral foundations: loyalty/in-group, which creates preferences and the tragic dynamics of "you're either with us or against us" celebrations of inclusion and exclusion. In a way religious outrage can be seen as social capital, for or against a politics of some thing. Farrell discusses "Innocence of Muslims." Islam is not a unified front, what one Muslim politician says is not the same across the board. What one says another may denounce. Only a fraction of all Muslims came out to protest in outrage.

An interesting piece on the use of religious outrage:
 http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/swim-in-denial/201209/the-uses-religious-outrage

1 yr anniversary of OWS

retired Episcopal Bishop George Packard and more are arrested for trespassing on Trinity Episcopal Church (May 1, 2012)

Quote from: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_peoples_bishop_20120507/

‘‘Arrests are not arrests anymore,” Packard said as we talked Friday in a restaurant overlooking Zuccotti Park in New York. ‘‘They are badges of honor. They are, as you are taken away with your comrades, exhilarating. The spirit is calling us now into the streets, calling us to reject the old institutional orders. There is no going back. You can’t sit anymore in churches listening to stogy liturgies. They put you to sleep. Most of these churches are museums with floorshows. They are a caricature of what Jesus intended. Jesus would be turning over the money-changing tables in their vestibules. Those in the church may be good-hearted and even well-meaning, but they are ignoring the urgent, beckoning call to engage with the world. It is only outside the church that you will find the spirit of God and Christ. And with the rise of the Occupy movement it has become clear that the institutional church has failed. It mouths hollow statements. It publishes pale Lenten study tracts. It observes from a distance without getting its hands dirty. It makes itself feel good by doing marginal charitable works, like making cocoa for Occupy protesters or providing bathrooms from 9 to 5 at Trinity Church’s Charlotte’s Place. We don’t need these little acts of charity. We need the church to have a real presence on the Jericho Road. We need people in the church to leave their comfort zones, to turn away from the hierarchy, and this is still terrifying to a lot of people in the church and especially the church leadership.

‘‘Occupy,” he went on, ‘‘is a political movement. Let’s not be naive. But it also has a moral core. We are in the midst of a reawakening of a spiritual anthropology. All of the groups that have risen up, across the globe, have this reawakening. Those who took to the streets in the Middle East were not simply unsettled. They were called together because they had a connection with each other. Many, many people have reached a point where the only option left is to place their bodies, their beings, in a location where they can finally have some say and some control over their own lives. As Carne Ross points out in his book ‘The Leaderless Revolution,’ people have lost their agency; they have lost control of their lives. The only control many have left is the control of their physical being. They place themselves in locations where they can demonstrate that they no longer support current systems of power. If you don’t have any money in our political system you not only have no say, you don’t have any dignity. And the only way left to reclaim our dignity is to occupy, to reinhabit the environments that have been taken away from us.”

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_peoples_bishop_20120507/
 

In the spirit of recent political up and comings

"The orator persuades by means of his hearers, when they are roused to emotion by his speech; for the judgments we deliver are not the same when we are influenced by joy or sorrow, love or hate" -Aristotle (Rhetorica I, II.5)

"Masks are arrested expressions and admirable echoes of feeling, at once faithful, discreet, and superlative. Living things in contact with the air must acquire a cuticle, and it is not urged against cuticles that they are not hearts; yet some philosophers seem to be angry with images for not being things, and with words for not being feelings. Words and images are like shells, no less integral parts of nature than are the substances they cover, but better addressed to the eye and more open to observation. I would not say that substance exists for the sake of appearance, or faces for the sake of masks, or the passions for the sake of poetry and virtue. Nothing arises in nature for the sake of anything else; all these phases and products are involved equally in the round of existence..."
- George Santayana, Soliloquies in England and Later Soliloquies

*Dan Dennett: response to Rick Warren

Dan Dennett responds to Rick Warren on religion.



In the beginning of this talk, Dennet makes a proposal. I'm not necessarily against Dennett's public policy proposal: to educate students about the "facts" of world religions. The facts about their history, myths, creed, music, rituals, etc. etc.

My concern is if this is actually feasible. I think this is problematic not in the spirit of informing persons for the sake of religious freedom, religious understanding, and the promotion of democracy. I agree with this sentiment. But what I find problematic is with the term "facts" and the problems associated with teaching certain religions as they are or as they have been proscribed to be. This presents methodological issues and the extent to which one teaches a "religion." Christianity is not just one religion. Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, are not singular forms of religion. Each one of these terms have variations, sects, and cultural variations/adaptations/syncretisms of each. Catholicism in the U.S. is not the same as Catholicism in Brazil. We may even see the blurring of "religions" where one is more "cultural" and the other, for lack of a better word, "imported." One can take a semester long class on just one of these religions, an entire semester on Tibetan Buddhism alone. Not Buddhism in general, but one strand of Buddhism. So my question is: how would informing students from grade school and onwards actually execute itself? Is it feasible?

*Michael Shermer: The pattern behind self-deception

The following is a TED talk by Michael Shermer.




He discusses pattern recognition but in doing so focuses on the effect of priming and flaws in perception - similar to the duck/rabbit picture, as well as some neurochemistry - the rise in dopamine production for pattern-recognition (which is somewhat problematic as the brain does not simply produce one neurochemical at a time, others are involved in the mix). There is correlation, no doubt, but causation is far from established. He also discusses a cognitive mechanism called agency-detection, something that is predominantly mentioned in the evolutionary psychology literature. He uses these two to make a sweeping generalization about religion, superstition, and other supernatural agents. It seems that he's trying to cram the literature, which commonly takes the "religion explained" evolutionary psychology approach, into a few minutes with two types of reason-action errors, the fallibility of perception, pattern-recognition (rise and fall of dopamine), and agency. The literature he cites is there and what he talks about resonates. However, the explanation lacks a broader holistic picture of religion, supernatural agents, and beliefs. One of the major criticisms of evolutionary psychology is that it is a "just-so" story. While I tend to give the discipline more credit than simply a just-so story, and an advocate of empiricism, there is a lot more that needs to go in the mix.

One thing that can be said is that agency-detection is not equivalent to agency-ascription. Detecting agency does not entail ascribing agency and character to things i.e. anthropomorphism. He mentions the evolved capabilities and the fallibility of perception but this does not explain the creation and perpetuation of religion. Here the influence of language, the environment, emotions, and social performances e.g. rituals are excluded. Self-deception occurs but occurrence does not entail permanence or belief. Superstition, for Shermer, are behavioral patterns when uncertainty is high. However, individual behavioral patterns do not give rise to communally held beliefs. There must be some kind of consensus and formation of conventional ethos. This is also a problem of transition between accepting propositions and believing propositions as truth.    

Yoido Full Gospel Church

interesting...

*Prototype?

In the middle of reading about Collins' interaction ritual theory (2004), which promotes a concept called 'Emotional Energy,' as it is applied to religion and ritual. The particular paper I was reading applied the theory to megachurches in America. I began to wonder, just for fun, if the concert-like aspect of these rituals, or 'services', in contemporary megachurches could have picked up a cue from 1992:





And from Sister Act 2 (1993):



Albeit these clips are limited to the choir, contemporary church performances also make good use of pop references, entwined with religious phrasing, and create an atmosphere of positive "emotional energy" as these performances from Sister Act (1992) has sought to do. Now, there is well deserved commentary from African-American based Gospel or Baptist churches, which have done similar things to enhance mood and "emotional energy," and how their history of praxis might have influenced the development of popular church services today. Further commentary comes from the post just before this one about oxytocin; how the production of this neurochemical creates moods of trust. 'Feel good' stories of heroism or triumph over struggle become prominent themes that can produce neurochemical cocktails with oxytocin at its base. An additional component comes from a sense of community and others appearing to be experiencing similar emotions.

The idea of taking a "traditional" form of worship - for the two films it was Catholic - and pumping it with red bull or some other "high octane" energy drink, which came in the form of Sister Mary Clarence aka Whoopi Goldberg, is a "modern" way of increasing church attendance and creating religious fervor or "emotional energy." There is much more that needs to be discussed here regarding what goes into ritual and what the parameters of "ritual" itself is insofar as definitions go. And the discourse is much more dynamic and richer than what I have simply, and perhaps naively, stated here.

Nor can I really make a case that the movies from '92 and '93 have made an impact on the changes of contemporary religious worship or what the historical progression actually look like. It was really a simple thought marked by associations from a long gone childhood and how the incorporation of pop references have assisted in the endeavor of creating "positive vibrations" within a religious atmosphere.

There is a parody of modern evangelical church services floating around the internet that I thought I would put up here (I have never been to an evangelical megachurch service so I don't know the extent of its accuracy regarding the form of such services but the parody seemed to note the structure of using popular songs as vehicles for songs of worship): 



And we have the endearing Westboro Baptist Church with their own renditions:





(*apparently the girl in the video was disowned by her family: http://youtu.be/50r0CnKq7_k)

Trust, Morality, and Oxytocin

Jesus, the Easter Bunny, and Other Delusions

Jesus, the Easter Bunny, and Other Delusions: Just Say No! from Philosophy News on Vimeo.

this guy...

*It's the end of the world...

There have been widespread talks about the "end of the world" or "Armageddon" and, this time, the Mayan calendar as it's source of credibility.

It has been called the '2012 phenomenon' online. On December 21, 2012 the Mayan Calendar will end marking the passing of 5,125 years pursuant to the ancient Mayans. On this day, it has been assumed that Bolon Yokte, a Mayan god of war and creation will descend upon the earth and...some shit will happen.

Many experts have denounced this interpretation about the world coming to an end and how the myth has been a beast growing on its own riding the tides of human imagination. According to the National Institute of Anthropological History in Mexico: "The West's messianic thinking has distorted the world view of ancient civilizations like the Mayans"Apparently NASA has been getting harassed about the "end of the world" as well; fanatical people demanding an explanation with full-fledged attitudes of entitlement.

But despite many experts, there are many who capitalize on the hysteria and fear, engaging in hypotheticals, building bunkers for people or charging others for a spot: if it does happen, which side of the wall do you want to be on? Making an investment in life, they say. Others have flocked to a small french village, Bugarach, with a population of 189 where extraterrestrials are supposed to come down in December of 2012 - apparently it's an "alien garage" and one of the few places that will survive the event. The mayor of the small village didn't seem too happy.

What I find interesting is the parallels between all these "end of the world" prophecies. If you have ever taken a PSY 101 class, you've probably come across the theory of Cognitive Dissonance first proposed by Leon Festinger. His book, 'When Prophecy Fails,' talks about just this kind of thing and the awkward looks exchanged when the time comes and goes. Festinger and his associates talk about a similar phenomena with Marian Keech. Her authority was not based on the Mayan calendar but on these "automatic writings." Messages from another planet, which were transmitted through to her and she wrote "automatically" without any will of her own. But she, or the extraterrestrials, stated that the world would end on December 21, 1955. I don't know what it is about December 21 but it seems to be a popular date. Although last year Harold Camping, an American radio preacher, predicted that the rapture and the second coming of Christ would happen on May 21 of 2011.

Festinger's proposal was pretty simple, what will happen when the world doesn't end? How will the followers react? Many assume that the group will just dissipate and the movement will go away. Well, they were able to gain access to the Marian Keech's group. Many left their jobs, gave away their homes, their savings, and waited for the spaceship. When the aliens didn't come, they were told that the world had been spared because of the faith of their group. This motivated the movement and their proselytizing efforts grew. Those who were not so committed eventually left. But those were very much committed to the truth of the prophecy would rationalize further and seek other means of justification and validation of their movement. Their efforts to convert others would grow - i.e. more missionaries. It was not until several failed predictions did Keech's group dissipate. And this will probably happen with the 2012 phenomena group. Those who were not so committed will probably give a shrug of the shoulder and go on with their lives, others will scream bloody murder about how they were scammed, there might even be a case of mass suicide - as it has happened before with other cult followings, and those who are convinced of its truth and committed to the movement will find some rationalization or justification for their actions, hell, the movement might even grow bigger as predicted by the theory.

The theory itself is about what happens when a person holds two conflicting beliefs, or is aware of two conflicting beliefs that they have. For example, to put it bluntly, if you believe you are smart but did something stupid. Or if you believe you are a good person but then went on to hurt somebody. The ensuing justification is that that person deserved it - not that you're not as good as you think, but that the other person deserved what was coming to them. If you scammed somebody, you might try and make up for it by giving them something and justify the actions.

One of the experiments that Festinger did in his lab was to bring students into the lab and make them do a very boring task - turn 100 blocks to the left. After the task, the student was asked whether they would tell the next few participants that the task was really fun. Some students received 20 dollars to do the task while others were only given 1 dollar to do the task. After the students promoted that the task was fun to the other participants they were asked about their experience. Those who received 20 dollars could justify lying to the other participants that the task was fun. When they were asked later what they thought about the task, they said that it was boring. There was no dissonance, with 20 dollars, they justified the advertisement to other students. Those who received 1 dollar, on the other hand, convinced themselves that the task was indeed fun. They could not justify telling other participants that the task was fun with only a dollar. So they told themselves that it really was a fun task, and when they were asked if they would do the task again, they said that they would.

So for those who think the end of the world is coming, and those who become committed to the event will eventually justify their actions in the event that the world does not see some global catastrophe or when they do not see aliens come down to earth.

In another vein, this is the power of emotions being attached to propositions of truth and beliefs about one's self.

for more on cognitive dissonance:

*Woodland Burials

Last night, upon invitation, I attended the opening of a Woodland Burial site in Durham. The opening was led by the Arbory Trust and Prof. Douglas Davies (Anthropology and Theology) from the Religion and Theology department, Prof. Tim Burt (Geography) from the Geography department, both from Durham University, and Dr. Hannah Rumble (Research Officer in Social and Policy Sciences) from the University of Bath and Ken West who is a pioneer in the UK for "Natural Burial Sites." I thought I would share a few preliminary thoughts on what I understood about Woodland Burial Sites and some related reflections.

The concept of a 'Woodland Burial' is tied heavily to an eco-friendly funeral and grave. Furthermore, it provides an alternative to those who do not wish to buried in a formal cemetery or churchyard nor do they wish to be cremated (as cremation also emits plenty of gases and in effect is not very eco-friendly). The woodland burial option is a "return to nature" type deal where the deceased can be buried in the fashion of her choosing. This liberty extends from the type of bio-degradable coffin to the direction one wishes to be laid to rest to the options of trees or flowers or other plants to be placed on top of the burial. The director of the Durham Woodland Burial site made it quite clear that they wish to accommodate the personal choices and liberty of those who wish to be buried there. In the documentary they showed the relatives of the deceased created their own significant narrative and meaning behind the burial. The wife of one talked very much about her husband's return to nature and being part of the environment. How the place became a significant and in a way tranquil place for her. She was able to come and enjoy the grounds and at times meet others who have also buried their dead at this site. Another spoke of how her father (I think it was her father) could look over a certain space and watch the birds, which tied into a larger narrative about her father's interests. Another lady spoke about customizing her coffin with bird feathers shed from the birds she had rescued. She created a narrative about returning to a place where she could be with the birds. Another mentioned how she returned one day and found that her husband's site was covered in daisies. She said that her husband would have loved the thought of literally pushing up daisies.

In a way, each of these narratives were extensions of identity. That they were able to customize and individualize how he/she would pass on. They are able to individualize their death and at the same time contribute to the environment. The burial sites were not affiliated with any one religion, although there are sites that are consecrated by the Church of England, the sites wanted to remain religion-neutral and secular so that anybody would be able to be buried there. By allowing funerary customs outside of any particular religion and at liberty for their own creative ways of honoring the dead this practice becomes, in a sense, a redefinition of the term 'sacred' space. If we can typically associate the term 'sacred' with what is affiliated with the religious then this becomes a way for a sacred in the secular or profane sense. An individualized sacred. In a way, this is a liberation of customs and conventional sacred narratives of death towards a personalization and individualization of the narrative.  

The Woodland Burials project wants to be as "natural" as possible. By natural I understood biodegradable, which is also to speak of impermanence. This meant that coffins would be bio-degradable. And that the deceased would also be providing nutrients to the soil as they themselves decomposed.It felt a bit odd that something like this could be called 'natural' with so many things involved are actually man-made (if we can take 'man-made' to be in contrast to that which we can call 'natural'). But I suppose it is "more natural" than a funeral which involves more 'man-made' products and preparations.

For more on natural burials:

 Prof. Davies and Hannah Rumble published a book entitled: 'Natural Burial; Traditional-Secular Spiritualities and Funeral Innovation'

















When I was listening about Woodland burials, my thoughts turned to Korea.

In Korea, it is conventional to bury those who passed away in the mountains. Although I am unsure about how they are buried, whether it is done in "bio-degradable" fashion, the resemblance of the traditional Korean grave is analogous to the Woodland Burials in the sense of being buried in a natural setting. Some examples of Korean graves:

These are typical graves, shaped in a lump. The poor usually have no marker - headstone or otherwise.

The family or an elder of the family usually knows where to go for which grave.

Grave with a headstone - written in Chinese characters, which indicates an older grave

As you can see, the more money a family has the better the grave - not only in terms of a place but also in terms of altars, headstones, and other stone placements such as the one shown right above.

This is a picture of a extravagant (judging by the food on the table) ancestral ritual.

Here are some pictures of Woodland Burials:

Graves marked by trees and a wooden or stone tablet

 Grave marked by flowers

 Research has shown that these woodland burials is a rising trend in Britain:
http://www.bath.ac.uk/news/2012/08/30/woodland-burial/
https://www.dur.ac.uk/news/newsitem/?itemno=15203&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed

What is ironic, is the trend in the UK, and perhaps the west in general, is moving towards the mountains while Korea is opting towards the concentration of graves in rows:

The reason for this, while we can speculate trends in westernization and the need for an alternative spirituality, is primarily economical. With the spaces on mountains becoming limited, it is becoming more and more expensive to bury the deceased in traditional locations. I would anticipate something like this happening in England if natural burials become popular and this becomes the preferred method of burial. Although this probably will not happen for a long time, in the event it does, there will be some logistical matters that will arise. One of the potential issues was brought up by an audience member and answered by Prof. Davies. Which was the re-use of graves and how this would be managed. Bones are not entirely degradable or if they do eventually they would take a lot longer than the rest of the body. A culture's attitude towards graves and the bones of their ancestors can be a very sensitive issue. Native Americans have demanded the bones of their ancestors returned to them when researchers uncovered them. Davies was quick to note that there are cultures, notably from the Greek Orthodox Church, that dig up the bones of the deceased after 2 - 3 years, wash them with wine, perfumed, and placed inside an ossuary. Theologically this presents a conundrum when the body has not decomposed - saint or sinner? The site director also noted that much of the decisions made for the site and how to about it will be to allow the members of the site to vote on the logistics and decisions. In a way, the Durham natural burial site will be democratically mediated and gives people a share in its decision making processes. I would presume that this would be space whether they allow the extent of permanent things like headstones and so on into the space of impermanent or natural things.

While I like the idea and the philosophy of being "eco-friendly" issues of sanctity, respect, and notions of the sacred in addition to the extension of identities in space will come up. I also imagine legal issues will arise as well. Another thing that I found quite interesting in the opening was the contention of traditional funeral directors and those who are in the "death industry" (coffin makers and sellers). Some of them were contentious about the knock on some of their coffins and practices as not eco-friendly or that the funerary business was profit-driven. Market share and the division of the market on death became apparent as well. I'm sure at the same time this creates a bigger range of services and products available for the customer, client, or what have you.

All in all I found the opening quite entertaining and thought provoking in terms of individuality/liberty and sacred spaces.

Here are some other "alternative burials":
http://www.livescience.com/16021-8-modern-burial-alternatives.html