Einstein, Spam & Religion.

A deeply troubled, evangelical friend recently forwarded me a chain email purportedly quoting a confrontation between an un-named atheist professor and a deeply religious student by the name of Albert Einstein. In this confrontation Einstein was reported to have dumbfounded his professor with his logic and essentially proven the existence of god.
The story was untrue. Einstein never engaged in such a conversation. Indeed, Einstein is reported to have become deeply disillusioned with both the teachings of his Jewish background and the Catholic schools he attended before he reached his teens.
Throughout most of his life he was very circumspect about his views, not wanting to antagonize either the believing or non believing camps. However in 1954, a year before his death, he wrote a couple of letters that make his beliefs plain:
In an open letter to those who claimed he worshipped a Judeo/Christian God he wrote:"It was, of course, a lie what you read about my religious convictions, a lie which is being systematically repeated. I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it."

The following abridgement of the letter to Eric Gutkind from Princeton in January 1954, (translated from German by Joan Stambaugh) is particularly telling. It was sold at Bloomsbury auctions in May 2008 for $404,000, a record sum for a single Einstein letter. Professor Richard Dawkins was one of the bidders who failed to purchase it:

"... I read a great deal in the last days of your book, and thank you very much for sending it to me. What especially struck me about it was this. With regard to the factual attitude to life and to the human community we have a great deal in common.

... The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honourable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this. These subtilised interpretations are highly manifold according to their nature and have almost nothing to do with the original text. For me the Jewish religion like all other religions is an incarnation of the most childish superstitions. And the Jewish people to whom I gladly belong and with whose mentality I have a deep affinity have no different quality for me than all other people. As far as my experience goes, they are also no better than other human groups, although they are protected from the worst cancers by a lack of power. Otherwise I cannot see anything 'chosen' about them.

In general I find it painful that you claim a privileged position and try to defend it by two walls of pride, an external one as a man and an internal one as a Jew. As a man you claim, so to speak, a dispensation from causality otherwise accepted, as a Jew the priviliege of monotheism. But a limited causality is no longer a causality at all, as our wonderful Spinoza recognized with all incision, probably as the first one. And the animistic interpretations of the religions of nature are in principle not annulled by monopolisation. With such walls we can only attain a certain self-deception, but our moral efforts are not furthered by them. On the contrary.

Now that I have quite openly stated our differences in intellectual convictions it is still clear to me that we are quite close to each other in essential things, ie in our evalutations of human behaviour. What separates us are only intellectual 'props' and 'rationalisation' in Freud's language. Therefore I think that we would understand each other quite well if we talked about concrete things. With friendly thanks and best wishes

Yours, A. Einstein"

Learn Without Fear

I felt this should be blogged, as well as forwarded:

I have children, know children of friends and have friends who themselves have suffered abuse, bullying and corporal punishment at school despite such being illegal throughout much of the modern world. This needs to stop.

No child should be afraid to attend school because of the threat of sexual abuse, corporal punishment, or bullying. But every year 350 million children face violence in schools – and with devastating effects. Please help us achieve violence-free schools by signing our petition urging the United Nations to encourage every country to take immediate action so that every child has the right to Learn Without Fear.

The wording of the petition to the United Nations is as follows:

I believe that every child has the right to attend school without the fear of violence. But right now children around the world face sexual abuse, corporal punishment, and bullying in their schools each day. We must put a stop to this cycle of violence against children and make schools safe places where they can learn without fear.

I urge the United Nations to help end all forms of violence in schools by encouraging every country to:

• Work with non-governmental organizations and governments to establish data-collection systems so we can better understand the severity of violence in schools;
  
• Work with teachers and education authorities to develop and implement plans of action for achieving violence-free schools; and
  
• Establish a procedure for children to report violent incidents.
  
  

Please declare that the United Nations supports the right of every child to attend school without the fear of violence.

Please go here to view the a short video, "Learn Without Fear," and sign the petition.

http://www.planusa.org/learnwithoutfear/takeaction.php?tp=VE1HUj0xLHRpZD0xMDA3MDQ1LA%3D%3D

Thank you

What can parents use in the battle against religious indoctrination?

"Daddy, why did Jesus invent butterflies if they die after two weeks?"

I just about hit the panic button when my six-year-old son Theo put this question to me not long ago. His mother, who is a Christian, had taught him that Jesus was God. When Jesus's visage appears in a painting or on television, Theo sometimes exclaims, "That's God!" In his butterfly question he seemed to reason, syllogistically, that if Jesus was God, and God created the world and its life forms (butterflies being one of them), Jesus "invented" the winged creatures. Either that or God and Jesus are simply interchangeable in his mind.

"First, Theo, your question presumes that Jesus was God," I responded. "Many people, like mommy, believe he was, but many others don't. It also presumes that there is a God - we don't know for sure that there is." "I think there is," he retorted. "There may very well be a God, Theo. But not everyone agrees on that - there are many people who doubt there is a God. We might never know for sure if there is or not," I told him. "When we die we'll know," he came back. "Maybe," I said. "But maybe not."

The literalism packed into Theo's question alarmed me, but this was by no means my first encounter with the influence of religion on my progeny. My ten-year-old son Elijah enjoys going to church with his mother - not every Sunday, but not infrequently. I've never discouraged it. One Monday morning a few months ago, though, I saw him reading the Bible, a children's Bible he'd been given at his mother's church. In no way did I discourage him from reading it. But I confess (as it were) that I went to work that day a bit preoccupied.

To be sure, I'd always been comfortable with our familial arrangement: our boys have parents with very different views on religion - their mother a Catholic, their father an agnostic humanist. This is only one of the several ways in which our family is "mixed": Nilsa is from Puerto Rico, I from the Midwestern US; she grew up in a working-class family in the countryside, I in a middle-class one in the suburbs; she speaks to the children in Spanish, I in English. Our differences regarding religion must therefore seem, to the kids, par for the course, no?

I've also sensed (hoped?) that having one religious parent and one secular one could be healthy for the boys ("hmm, if mom believes x but dad doesn't, I guess there are multiple perspectives to consider, and who knows which one is right? Maybe none has a monopoly on truth...").

Nonetheless, the sight of Elijah reading the Bible that morning did leave me with an uneasy feeling. Of course it was wonderful to see him reading. And the Bible is in any case a seminal world-historical text: familiarity with it is an essential form of cultural knowledge. Churches, however, don't typically dispense Bibles merely as cultural texts but rather as the Word of God. It was in this register that I worried a bit about Elijah's engagement with the book. And it made me ask myself what exactly I was doing to share, or impart, my secular worldview to Elijah, as a counterbalance to the Catholicism he was imbibing from his mother. She takes him to services. What do I take him to? She has him reading the Bible. What do I have him reading?

I have read all sorts of books with Elijah that I think of as humanistic, broadly speaking: lots of poetry (particularly Pablo Neruda, whose Book of Questions is ideal for children); books like David A White's Philosophy for Kids, and its sequel, The Examined Life: Advanced Philosophy for Kids. I recall feeling especially proud one evening after doing a chapter of Philosophy for Kids, which is designed for discussion between parent and child - I think it was a chapter on the meaning of friendship - followed by some verses of Neruda. I put Elijah to sleep that night thinking to myself, a diet of Aristotle and Neruda for my eight-year old - how cool is that?

Cool though it may be, does it actually counterbalance the influence of the churchgoing and Bible-reading? Or does it operate on a parallel track from it altogether? Does Elijah juxtapose whatever he may be taking away from the philosophy and poetry with the stuff he hears at church? Does he consider one in relation to the other at all? Seeing his head buried in that Bible that morning really made me wonder if I was perhaps approaching the matter too sideways. Maybe I needed to tackle the situation head-on.

But how? Are there any children's books, I wondered, that directly address religious questions from a humanistic point of view? Not necessarily an anti-Bible, but a strong alternative or counterpart in a secular key.

I called a friend of mine, who works for a humanist charity and is a parent too, feeling sure he would have some sage advice. His response surprised me. Not only did he not know of any good humanist children's books, he said, he didn't like the idea of such a thing. Rather than attempt to counter-indoctrinate kids with explicitly anti-religious messages, he argued, far better simply to expose them to the widest range of reading as possible - weren't Roald Dahl and Dr Seuss essentially humanistic? - and expose them to the manifold religions and philosophies in the world in order to nourish their imaginations and sense of wonder about the Universe, and help them view religion in a comparative context. The antidote I was seeking, he suggested, was to be found in books of evolution and science fiction, not didactic manifestos.

Sounded wise, though I didn't expect to hear it from a full-time, professional humanist. And I was disappointed that he didn't have a ready-made list of books of the sort I had in mind.

The dilemma remained: what if all the science and fantasy and comparative metaphysics fail to do the trick, and Christian literalism, despite my efforts, works its magic on my children's minds? Call me intolerant, but I'll admit it: I don't want to tell my children what to believe or not to believe, but I would be displeased and disappointed if they were to embrace conventional religious views. I just would be. Isn't there a more direct way, I thought, to militate against that outcome?

I turned to Amazon and found that there are several books in this register. Many of them are published by Prometheus Books, an American press with a long history. Within minutes I had found books such as Humanism, What's That? A Book for Curious Kids by Helen Bennett and Dan Barker's Maybe Yes, Maybe No: A Guide for Young Skeptics. I particularly liked the title of this one. Could I have found what I was looking for?

I had liked the idea about exposing the kids to the array of religious traditions. Wouldn't this naturally tend to weaken the notion that any one religion holds the key to Truth? Another friend of mine had challenged this idea - wouldn't this, he asked, merely sanction or naturalise the religious frame of understanding the world? Isn't the message, in effect, "Look at these various religious beliefs and practices - you are free to pick among them"? "What about the millions of people who live without religion?" he asked. "Why not present secular modes of thought alongside the religious traditions?"

He had a point, but since I was already getting some explicitly secular books I added The Kids Book of World Religions to my shopping cart.

Well, we've read the books, but I'm afraid there's nothing terribly interesting to report either about the texts as such or about my children's reactions to them, which have been rather quiet, if not altogether bored - tough to tell, and I'm strongly disinclined to go fishing for their thoughts. I've been tempted, but better, I think, to let them process it all in their own way (assuming the books made an impression at all). The books themselves are a mixed bag: at turns poignant and clunky, clever and awkward. I might re-read them with the boys at some point. Or maybe they'll pick them up themselves and read them on their own. We'll see.

And I might look for other humanist books that engage my children more than this first batch did. Raising my children as a secular father in a society saturated with religion, and in a home that is itself mixed (up?) on the religious question, creates anxiety. But maybe I should just relax. "Kids mostly just want to play with their friends, and religion isn't that big a deal - though it is, unfortunately, to parents," writes Emily Rosa, one of the contributors to the book Parenting Beyond Belief: On Raising Ethical, Caring Kids Without Religion, in an essay evocatively titled "Growing Up Godless: How I Survived Amateur Secular Parenting".

Danny Postel ansd his sonsAll parents must confront the prospect that if we raise our children to be free, self-confident individuals, they may make choices that we don't like. Tough. The companion volume to Parenting Beyond Belief bears the title Raising Freethinkers. Sounds appealing - I'd like to raise freethinkers. But what if raising my kids to be truly free in their thinking results in their becoming religious? What if my efforts to instill scepticism in them lead them to become sceptical of my humanism? So be it.

"Teaching" your children (about) humanism can be a fool's errand, plagued by some the same pitfalls involved in raising children "in" a particular faith tradition. Richard Dawkins has provocatively argued that indoctrinating children with religion is a form of child abuse. But couldn't secularism, as Jeremy Stangroom recently wondered, constitute its own form of indoctrination? Might the attempt to impart one worldview or another to one's children - whether religious or secular - itself be ill-conceived?

And yet one doesn't want to be passive, especially in the American context, in which religion in one form or another constitutes a kind of default position. One can certainly understand the impulse behind the humanism-for-kids books, whatever their faults and limitations, and the desire of secular parents to get their hands on them. They arise from and speak to a very real hunger, whether they satisfy it or not.

__________________________________________________

Parent & Child Reading list:

(With thanks to papers at: 74.125.155.132)

Julia Sweeney - Navigating Around the Dinner Table

In an essay at turns hilarious and touching, comedian Julia Sweeney recounts her own experience of growing up happily Catholic, gradually giving up her belief, then struggling to raise her adopted daughter without the convenient answers and simple religious comforts she had as a child.

Norm R. Allen, Jr. - Thinking My Way to Adulthood

Norm Allen, Executive Director of African American Humanists, tells of growing up in a Baptist home with one unusual feature: an open invitation to question anything, even the existence of God, and an assurance that he would be loved and accepted no more or less based on his answers.

Richard Dawkins, FRS - Good and Bad Reasons for Believing

On the tenth birthday of his daughter Juliet, Oxford biologist and ethologist Richard Dawkins gave her a letter describing something of singular importance to him: the value of evidence and honesty as the basis for our beliefs.

Emily Rosa - Growing Up Godless: How I Survived Amateur Secular Parenting

Emily Rosa (now a college student at CU Boulder) describes her own upbringing as a child in a secular family, including an usually public introduction to skepticism and the scientific method.

Bertrand Russell - from The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell

Philosopher Bertrand Russell lost his parents as a very young child. The courts ignored the instructions of his freethinking father to have him raised without religion—despite which, he became one of the foremost freethinkers of the 20th century.

Anne Nicol Gaylor - I’d Rather Play Outside

Freedom From Religion Foundation founder Anne Nicol Gaylor remembers her upbringing in a freethought home and her interactions with religious neighbors and friends.

Dan Barker - My Father’s House

Dan Barker’s “de-conversion” from fundamentalist minister to freethought activist provides a fascinating backdrop for his reflections on parenting. Dan first raised children in a Christian home and now raises a daughter in a freethought home.

Pete Wernick, PhD - Parenting in a Secular/Religious Marriage

Marriages between partners of different beliefs present special challenges. For parents, the challenges are further increased. Pete, a humanist, and Joan, a Catholic, are both seriously engaged in their belief systems, yet by conscious planning and hard work, they’ve made a solid and lasting marriage and parenting team.

Roberta Nelson, DD - On Being Religiously Literate

Rev. Nelson suggests that knowledge of religion is an important part of cultural literacy and provides a number of ways to achieve that literacy without indoctrination.

Stu Tanquist - Choosing Your Battles

When Stu Tanquist married his wife, he was an apathetic agnostic and she was a devout Catholic. Over the years he became more skeptical of religious claims, which introduced friction into their relationship—especially related to their daughter. Eventually the dissonance became too great, the marriage ended, and Tanquist was raising his daughter with limited support, confronting many issues including religion in the public schools.

Margaret Downey - Teaching Children to Stand on Principle—Even When the Going Gets Tough

Margaret Downey’s son had no problem identifying as a nonbeliever in his New Jersey Boy Scout troop—but when the family moved to Illinois, the new troop leader confronted the family and expelled Margaret’s son. Margaret’s essay describes her family’s experience, placing it in the context of her own upbringing in a mixed-race family.

Ed Buckner, PhD - Secular Schooling

Why should secular parents support public schools (or oppose “vouchers”)? Is moral education possible in secular public schools? Why should parents of all perspectives support the separation of church and state within public schools? Ed Buckner proposes answers to these questions and more, describing what separation is (and is not), and notes that secular schools are not the same as “atheistic” schools.

Jane Wynne Willson - Humanist Ceremonies

Though religious expressions have come to dominate rites of passage and the marking of other important life events in much of the world, there are meaningful and emotionally satisfying ceremonies available to serve these intrinsically human needs without supernatural overtones.

Dale McGowan, PhD - Losing the “Holy” and Keeping the “Day”

The calendar of holidays need not be diminished in the least when a family moves beyond belief. Most formerly religious holidays have a fully secular parallel expression today, with meaning intact. Add to that an array of new secular holidays to select from, and the possibilities are endless.

Tom Flynn: - Put the Claus Away

Dale McGowan: - The Ultimate Dry Run

Noell Hyman: - To Easter Bunny or Not to Easter Bunny?

It isn’t the most urgent issue in the secular family, but the question of intentional childhood myths taps many of our central concerns, including honesty, fact and fiction, reward and punishment, and trust. Tom Flynn suggests we do away with the mythologies of childhood, while Dale McGowan and Noell Hyman find reasons to keep and even cherish them.

Gareth Matthews, PhD - Morality and Evil

Secular parents may think they can avoid discussions of the problem of evil, but Gareth Matthews suggests otherwise. Making sense of the problem of evil, and the fact that evil often comes from good, is one of the central intellectual struggles of childhood.

Jean Mercer, PhD - Behaving Yourself: Moral Development in the Secular Family

Jean Mercer describes Kohlberg’s six stages of moral development and the interplay of emotion and moral reasoning.

David Koepsell, JD, PhD - On Being Good for Good Reasons: Commandments vs. Principles

David Koepsell distinguishes between “commandments” and “principles” as the underpinnings of moral behavior. Rather than choosing between them, Koepsell suggests that morality tends to be grounded in a combination of the two.

Shannon and Matt Cherry - Double Vision: Teaching our Twins Pride and Respect

This essay, along with “Seven Secular Virtues” (McGowan), draws a distinction between pride and arrogance. Pride, properly understood as self-esteem, has long been recognized as an important human virtue. Shannon and Matt Cherry go on to a nuanced description of respect, noting a difference between respect for a person and respect for that person’s ideas—an understanding they hope to instill in their twin daughters.

Dale McGowan - Seven Secular Virtues

Dale McGowan offers a list of seven “secular virtues,” not as a comprehensive list of human virtues, nor as a list that applies only to secularists. Like the traditional virtues, they are qualities to which we aspire – often with great difficulty.

Donald B. Ardell, PhD - Supporting Your Children in Their Quest for the Meaning of Life!

Life without meaning and purpose would be unbearable. But there is no universal, inherent meaning that applies for everyone. What is called for, says Dr. Don Ardell, is a conscious quest for meaning.

Annie Laurie Gaylor What Your Kids Won’t Learn in School

Freethought scholar Annie Laurie Gaylor presents a flying overview of some famous religious doubters, including many probable surprises. Such a list can serve as a counterpoint to the common assumption that the great figures of the past and present are believers.

James Herrick - Parenting and the Arts

“If you are looking for comfort, if you are looking for consolation, if you want the meaning of life handed to you on a plate – don’t go to the arts. Whether it is for parents or children, or their interaction, the arts can disturb and should not avoid the difficult areas of life. But art is not to be feared, for it can also stretch the imagination – art is wonderfully elastic, and it can stir creativity. Art is a wonderful stirrer, and a stirrer of wonder.”

Noell Hyman - The End, As We Know It

Noell Hyman reflects on the difference between the conception of death she held as a Mormon and the naturalistic conception that now frames her discussions with her own children, whom she is raising without religion.

Kendyl Gibbons, DD - Dealing with Death in the Secular Family

In a wide-ranging essay, Rev. Kendyl Gibbons gives practical advice on how to help children understand and cope with death without recourse to supernatural illusions.

Mark Twain - Little Bessie Would Assist Providence

Many of Mark Twain’s late writings were explorations of his own disbelief and of the influence of religion. Little Bessie was a satire in several chapters that went unpublished during Twain’s lifetime. It tells of the impertinent religious questioning of a wildly precocious little girl and her devout mother’s appalled attempts to answer.

Robert E. Kay, MD - Thoughts on Raising a Creative, Curious, Freethinking Child

Child psychiatrist Dr. Robert Kay offers fifteen thoughts on raising children without religion.

Amy Hilden, PhD - The Family Road Trip and the Self Behind My Eyes

Wondering is a formative experience for the growing human mind, says philosopher Amy Hilden—and the more unstructured and self-directed, the better. She describes her own wonderings as a child staring out of the car window on family road trips as her first sojourn into the philosophy of mind.

Margaret Knight - Excerpt from Morals Without Religion

“In January 1955 psychologist, broadcaster and humanist Margaret Knight stunned post-war Britain by suggesting in two talks on the BBC’s Home Service…that moral education should be uncoupled from religious education.”1 This brief excerpt from that talk is intended primarily to recommend a closer look at Knight’s elegant and thoughtful writings.

Stephen Law - Does God Exist? from The Philosophy Files

The arguments for and against belief in God are many centuries old. Stephen Law presents all of the major arguments in the form of an accessible dialogue among friends.

Dale McGowan - Teaching Kids to Yawn at Counterfeit Wonder

“A lot of people believe that you can’t experience wonder without religious faith,” says Dale McGowan. “If that were the case, this book would have to sound the alarm. Childhood, after all, is our first and best chance to revel in wonder. If parenting without religion meant parenting without wonder, I might just say to heck with reality.” But the wonder inherent in a scientific worldview can positively eclipse religious wonder—if we consider implications along with facts.

Amanda Chesworth - Natural Wonders

Amanda Chesworth continues the contrast between fictional and scientific wonder, suggesting that one of the primary privileges of a parent is the opportunity to provide children with “brain food.”

Kristan Lawson - The Idea that Changed the World from Darwin and Evolution for Kids

Kristan Lawson presents the theory of evolution in a nutshell, along with several activities designed to illustrate the principles of natural selection.

Pete Wernick - Building the Secular Community–However Slowly

Pete Wernick describes his own attempts to build humanist community by creating a sort of “church without God”—and shares some honest critiques of the current humanist infrastructure.

Amanda Metskas and August Brunsman IV - Summer Camps Beyond Belief

More than ten years have passed since Camp Quest, a summer camp for the children of freethinking families, first opened its gates in Kentucky.

Penn Jillette - Passing Down the Joy of Not Collecting Stamps

Penn Jillette has been a nonbeliever for a long time but only recently became a father. He reflects on raising his kids without religion, noting that you don’t have to “teach Atheism.” An absence of religious indoctrination, he says, is enough to give kids room to think for themselves

America today

Dear Bill - I really like what you say here, but why concentrate only on black ghetto society. Isn't much of America in the same situation.

What about the white evangelical trailer trash who count their children in the teens 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 children to the same mother, all paid for by the state - and she wants as many more as "Jesus" and fertility drugs can provide.

What about the ultra right wing gun nut with enough war weapons to start a war. What private person needs an M60 machine gun? or five? The First Amendment Right is not an excuse. Amendments that are just plain wrong can and should be amended to take account of the modern age.

What about separation of church and state. In God you may trust but where is the personal responsibility in that statement? Less of the "Jesus will provide" and more of the "get off your backside and do it" please. Jesus or God will only help those who help themselves.

What about . . . I give up! This is word for word what Bill Cosby said to a gathering of students who asked about the bailout in America ......

'They're standing on the corner and they can't speak English.'

I can't even talk the way these people talk:

Why you ain't,?

Where you is,?

What he drive,?

Where he stay,?

Where he work,?

Who you be...?

And I blamed the kid until I heard the mother talk.

And then I heard the father talk.

Everybody knows it's important to speak English except these knuckleheads. You can't be a doctor with that kind of crap coming out of your mouth

In fact you will never get any kind of job making a decent living.

People marched and were hit in the face with rocks to get an Education, and now we've got these knuckleheads walking around.

The lower economic people are not holding up their end in this deal.

These people are not parenting. They are buying things for kids.

$500 sneakers for what??

And they won't spend $200 for Hooked on Phonics.

I am talking about these people who cry when their son is standing there in an orange suit.

Where were you when he was 2

Where were you when he was 12?

Where were you when he was 18 and how come you didn't know that he had a pistol?

And where is the father? Or who is his father?

People putting their clothes on backward:?

Isn't that a sign of something gone wrong?

People with their hats on backward, pants down around the crack, isn't that a sign of something???

Isn't it a sign of something when she has her dress all the way up and got all type of needles [piercing] going through her body?

What part of Africa did this come from?

We are not Africans. Those people are not Africans; they don't know a thing about Africa .

I say this all of the time. It would be like white people saying they are European-American. That is totally stupid.

I was born here, and so were my parents and grand parents and, very likely my great grandparents. I don't have any connection to Africa, no more than white Americans have to Germany, Scotland, England, Ireland, or the Netherlands?. The same applies to 99 percent of all the black Americans as regards to Africa .

So stop, already! ! !

With names like Shaniqua, Taliqua and Mohammed and all of that crap ....... and all of them are in jail.

Brown or black versus the Board of Education is no longer the white person's problem.

We have got to take the neighborhood back.

People used to be ashamed. Today a woman has eight children with eight different 'husbands' -- or men or whatever you call them now.

We have millionaire football players who cannot read.

We have million-dollar basketball players who can't write two paragraphs. We, as black folks have to do a better job.

Someone working at Wal-Mart with seven kids, you are hurting us.

We have to start holding each other to a higher standard.

We cannot blame the white people any longer.'

Dr. William Henry 'Bill' Cosby, Jr., Ed.D.

Doctors indeed

(From our own correspondent.)

I lived several hundred miles away from my mother and stayed in touch with her by occasional mails and phone calls. At that time I was a certified Advanced Cardiac Life Support instructor and certified as an EMT II.

During these years my mother would keep me informed in regards to her health. At one time she extolled the new health care she had signed into, HMO. In every subsequent communication she would bring me up to date on her getting regular health check ups and the occasional glimpses she would get of her wonderful doctor.

During a four year period following her getting on HMO she had bouts of incoherence. As my brother described, ‘She is getting fuzzy’ which was attributed to her turning 80. At times she became almost incoherent and on one occasion while I was speaking to her on the phone she sounded like she wasn’t all there.

By chance I visited my mother and together we went to a hospital to visit a friend of hers. As we were getting out of the car I noticed a general frailty about her and upon looking more carefully I noted she was slightly cyanotic. Instead of going up into the main hospital I steered her to the emergency room.

I identified myself as a paramedic to the ER staff and that the woman with me appeared to be having a heart problem. I asked that she be put on the 12 lead but the ER staff opted for a 3 lead to initially check things out.

As I stared at the trace on the scope a doctor appeared at my side. We both instantly locked on the P wave being weak or missing and consequently the QRS complex not firing correctly about three quarters of the time. Our mutual diagnosis took all of a few seconds. The doc immediately turned to a nurse to order the 12 lead. He then told me he wanted her to be checked into the hospital over night.

My mother protested as she always did, citing that her doctor had told her ‘Your veins are like garden hoses’. I switched from son to professional mode, informing her that regardless of what she had been told she had a serious condition and we were going to find out what was going on.

The 12 lead instantly confirmed the initial suspicions. The P wave was missing or mostly ineffective and she was getting about 1 out of 4 functional QRS complexes to do the job. As I looked at the read out her regular doctor and a cardiologist came into the room. I confronted the doctor, placing myself between him and my mother to be sure I got his attention.

I held up the print out. “Excuse me, Dr. …, my mother has apparently needed a demand pacemaker for the past four years and during this time she has been under your care and you have failed to diagnose the condition. The less than 10 minutes per year her insurance pays you has apparently taken precedence over the Hippocratic oath.”

The doctor turned on his heel and left the room. The cardiologist ignore the exchange, looked at the 12 lead print out, and asked both my mother and myself if he could schedule her for surgery the following day to implant a pacemaker. I enforced this to my mother informing her she will have the surgery. The cardiologist checked her into the ICU for the night.

24 hours after the surgery my mother was sitting up in bed. Almost her first words to me were ‘I feel like I had been asleep the past four years and just woke up.”

Well, she had. Her brain was receiving just barely enough oxygen to keep from being damaged. However, her condition was classic and any EMT I could have spotted it. The combination of overworked uncaring nurses with too many things to do and an even more uncaring doctor who ran patients through like they were on an assembly line left an obvious life threatening condition that was easily reversible go undiagnosed year after year.

Now, to be fair to the nurses who had seen my mother during that time, her cardiac condition is easy to overlook. Even if the P wave fails and the QRS doesn’t fully trigger, a pulse of sorts will still be felt. If the patient is borderline as my mother was, a quick BP check might only reveal low but acceptable blood pressure. It is entirely up to the doctor to do an assessment of the patient, taking a few moments of time to listen to complaints as well as doing a little detective work and possible preventive intervention. This is not as complex as it sounds. His patient is over 80 and occasionally feels dizzy and light headed. A quick ECG during each regularly scheduled visit is certainly in order, even if overlooking the complaint might be acceptable.

It is easy to blame the HMO, or any other medical insurer for the oversight and lapse, but the doctors are not blameless. They could forego a few thousand dollars a year, still afford the payments on the mansion and fourth car, and still afford the world cruise, though not as often. It is time the entire medical profession does what the lowly first responder, EMT, fire fighter, police officer, and a host of other jobs are required to constantly execute. Self assessment is definitely in order here. Who are they really working for?

Influenza - a politician's honeypot?

The Thai government has, in their kindness, decided to give cloth face masks to every school student in the country. This is supposed to be a preventative measure against the 2009 Influenza pandemic. Unfortunately it appears to be a chance for the politicians to earn a little, (or a lot) of extra gravy because the Thai government has not seen fit to provide the training or resources necessary to make best use of the masks and the masks are not fit for purpose in any case.

Let us look at a little bit of information about the 2009 Influenza pandemic, frequently referred to as Swine Flu or H1N1.

The pandemic is believed to have originated in a giant pig feed lot at La Gloria village, Vera Cruz, Mexico. The lot is owned and operated by Granjas Carroll, a subsidiary of the giant US pork producing corporation Smithfield Foods Inc. (Smithfield moved much of their pork production to Mexico to evade considerably more stringent health and safety regulations in the USA.)

The La Gloria pig lot produces almost 1 million pigs per year. These pigs produce so much faecal effluent that it can not be properly treated on site. It has to be kept in giant lagoons that frequently overflow, polluting local water supplies. The amount of effluent is so great that the company has at times resorted to atomising the faeces and pumping them into the atmosphere, frequently spreading respiratory and other infections to local communities. Our new pandemic is believed to have started as a direct result of just such an episode following a spate of pig deaths at the lot.

The first known, index case of the pandemic was a four year old boy named Edgar Hernandez from La Gloria village. Edgar recovered, but since then almost 100% of the population of La Gloria have caught the disease.

The virus is particularly virulent, easy to catch, and is spread by inhalation or contact with mucous membranes. Most sufferers have fairly mild symptoms, a fever, sore throat, a cough and sniffles. However some, with previously compromised immune or health systems, will unfortunately die. The mortality rate for people who are confirmed sufferers from H1N1 varies from country to country. Some countries report mortality rates as high as almost 4% while the world average is a little under 0.5%. The higher mortality rates are presumed to be due to most mild attacks of the flu going unreported, this is true everywhere. Overall true mortality is likely to be somewhere between 0.1 and 0.2%. Thailand currently reports mortality of almost 2%.

The H1N1 influenza virus is a particle approximately 0.12 microns diameter, and it can survive for up to 24 hours outside a host body, either in the air or on a surface, as long as it is in a moist or humid environment. When it is expelled from the host, by a cough or a sneeze, the virus is generally carried in a drop of sputum that can range in diameter from 0.3 to 20 microns or more. The size of the sputum drop is important because it affects the manner in which the spread of the influenza can be controlled.

Influenza protection

To best ensure safety from influenza in a school, or other community, the following precautions should be taken:

• General measures.
  Proper hand washing is the most important factor in preventing transmission of disease. Hands can be washed with water and antimicrobial hand soap. If hands are not visibly dirty, an alcohol based hand cleaning solution or hand wipes can be utilized. Hands should be washed at least once per hour, before and after performing cleaning tasks and every time a person coughs or sneezes.
  Avoid touching eyes, nose, mouth or genitals. Wash hands if you do so.
  A constant supply of tissues is essential. If anybody coughs, sneezes or needs to clear their throat or nose it should be done into a tissue and the used tissue immediately discarded into a receptacle reserved for the purpose. Hands should be washed immediately afterwards.

• Face Masks.
  Face masks are of very little use as general protection against the influenza virus and may well increase the danger of passing it. All masks have a very limited effective usage period, ranging from about 30 minutes or so for the standard cloth mask up to a few hours for an N95 certified mask with activated carbon filter. (N95 are so called because they are certified to catch approximately 95% of particles of 0.3 microns.) For best safety, all masks should be N95 certified. Unfortunately most cloth masks, unless they are three layer finely woven silk with cotton filling, are little use unless the particles are 50-100 microns or so in size.
  Masks need to be used correctly if they are to have any efficacy. They should only be used if an infection is suspected and should be replaced before their period of efficacy is over.
  A damp mask, or one used past the safety period will become a reservoir of infection to be passed to anybody who touches it. Used masks need to be handled with care, using latex gloves, and disposed of under biohazard safety conditions, or sterilised for re-use with boiling water or a soak in antimicrobial solution containing alcohol or bleach

• Body temperature.
  All pupils or community members need to have their body temperature monitored on a regular basis. This is most easily and safely done in a large community by using standard infra red technology however any workable method should be used.
  If somebody shows an abnormal rise in body temperature, he/she should immediately be quarantined in a room set aside for the purpose and be taken to visit a doctor as soon as circumstances permit.
  When in quarantine, the pupil should wear an N95 certified face mask to catch sputum droplets. Any person entering the room or coming within 1 meter of the patient should also wear an N95 certified face mask, latex surgical gloves, eye protection and a disposable plastic coat.

• Premises.
  All surfaces likely to be touched by community members need to be sterilised on a regular basis by spraying and wiping with an antimicrobial solution containing alcohol or bleach. These include counter tops, door knobs, stair banisters, tables, chairs, desks, elevator buttons and panels etc. Computer keyboards and other sensitive equipment should be fitted with plastic covers that can be sprayed and wiped.

• Air conditioning.
  Rooms with air conditioning should be fitted with N95 certified sheet filters and have the temperature set low. Virus particles will be caught by the filter, and if they pass through, will be taken out of the air by the dehumidifying process of the air conditioner and will be pumped safely outside and away with the drops of water and sputum removed during the cooling and dehumidifying process. A cool room temperature will also help in early identification of those with a rising fever.

The Thai government must be fully aware of all these measures as promoted by the WHO, the CDC and health authorities throughout the developed world. Why have they thrown them out of the window and reccommended almost the exact opposite behavior. Could it be that a member of said government has a fiscal interest in the face masks that are being distributed. Thailand's history of "transparency" would seem to indicate the probability that this is the case. We await the scandal likely to erupt in a few months time.

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Note: Several companies manufacture N95 certificated filter masks and rolls of filter material. 3M is possibly the most widely distributed, but Japanese and European companies are competing in the market. A good 3M disposable N95 certified mask sells for about US$1.00 and can be sourced directly from 3M or found on sale at many home improvement centres.

Christianity, the origin of Morality?

I was recently told by a friend that he had only become honest and moral because he had discovered Jesus. We had something of a discussion about this subject, so I felt it would make an interesting blog post.

If you wish to explore pre Christian teachers of morals, you can do little better than read Pythagoras a non-religious philosopher mystic who was deeply influenced by the teachings of Buddha. Following Pythagoras came Socrates who taught the meaning of what is just, and insisted that moral sentiment depended on knowledge, not any form of theology. One of his famous teachings: "We ought not to retaliate, or render evil for evil to anyone," is perhaps uncomfortably close to words said to have originated with Jesus, but they come from three hundred years earlier.

Plato was the forst sociologist and taught that moral law is utilitarian, logical law for the good of society. Aristotle, after Plato wrote the first treatise on Ethics. He too had no theocratic hangups.

By the 3rd century BC, the Stoics, taught natural ethics and self control as a basis for life. Their movement continued until just after 500 AD when Emperor Justinian closed their schools because their teachings of logical morality owed nothing to his Christian faith.

Leucippus and his student Democritus were the first European philosophers / scientists / evolutionists in about 400BC who taught that the object and origin of moral law was simply the concern for human welfare.

Epicurus, the last of the great Greek philosophers, again taught that moral acts were those which promoted a passionless tranquillity of life. They had nothing to do with religion.

Now have a look at Christian teachings. The oft quoted "Golden Rule of life", the "Royal Law" the most famous of Christ's teachings, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself" is a quotation from the Old Testament; Leviticus 19:18: "Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD." This is 500 years older than Christianity and some 100 plus years after the Lord Buddha was teaching about universal love, where he stated that every man "should love his fellows as a mother loves her children," and "hatred ceases by love: this is an old rule." A bit different from the Jewish position, where his neighbour was only regarded as being a fellow Jew. The Jews excluded other races from the necessity to be loved, much as many Christians do today.

If we stay at the time of the Buddha, about two hundred years before the Old Testament was written and have a look a bit further East at the teachings of Confucius "Recompense injury with kindness" and "What you do not like when done to yourself, do not do to others." Confucius's student Menicus went on to teach, "A benevolent man does not lay up anger' nor cherish resentment against his brother, but only regards him with affection and love." About the same time Lao-Tse was teaching, "Recompense injury with kindness." All these great moralists were living in the heart of Agnostic China, where religion did not have any import.

Christianity, did it introduce humanity to morality? I am afraid not.

Perhaps in time we can build an enlightened society where frankness, courage, honorableness, and consideration for others and a social or utilitarian theory of morals rules our lives without hangups from misplaced teachers, clergy, mullahs and busybodies behind net curtains. We need to love our fellow beings and allow acts and thoughts that injure no one in any way. These must be regarded as a man's or woman's own business, not meat for the narrow minded or bigoted bible thumping pulpit screamer.

From Prometheus Unbound:

None wrought his lips in truth-entangling lines
Which smiled the lie his tongue disdained to speak;
None, with firm sneer, trod out in his heart
The sparks of love and hope till there remained
Those bitter ashes, a soul self-consumed.

None talked that common, false, cold, hollow talk
Which makes the heart deny the yes it breathes,
Yet question that unmeant hypocrisy
With such a self-mistrust as has no name.
And women, too, frank, beautiful, and kind
As the free heaven which rains fresh light and dew
On the wide earth, past; gentle, radiant forms,
From custom's evil taint exempt and pure,
Speaking the wisdom once they could not think,
Looking emotions once they feared to feel,
And, changed to all which once they dared not be,
Yet, being now, made earth like heaven; nor pride
Nor jealousy, nor envy, nor ill shame,
The bitterest of those drops of treasured gall,
Spoiled the sweet taste of the nepenthe, love.

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792 – 1822)

Mishes - Benedikta House

From: http://www.akha.org/content/missions/benediktahouse.html

Benedikta House

Mr. Woon and his boy friend Mr. Thavee

The investigation into the activities of Mr. Woon at Benedikta house happened at the request of the Akha.

Traditional Akha said that Mr. Woon was trying to convert people at Hooh Mah Akha village and had taken down some village signs.

We went to Mr. Woon's Benedikta mission and wanted to pay him a visit, but he wasn't there, so we just got a picture of the old wooden house.

Then we got an email that said Mr. Woon was getting 10 million baht to build a very large "fake orphanage", since most of his kids were not orphans. We were told that Mr. Woon was one strange guy.

At this time an Akha man called us and told us that Mr. Woon had a homosexual lover named Mr. Nok Thavee and that the two of them were raping and selling some of the young boys as young as 8 years. We were also told that he had molested scores of other boys in the shower.

Mr. Woon reportedly bought the new house below in Chaingmai Laguna Homes Complex for Mr. Nok Thavee. Mr. Woon's blue Ford is shown.

Shortly after this time three male victims of Mr. Woon filed claims in the court in Bangkok. An article about Mr. Woon appeared on the front page of the Daily News Thai Language paper in January,2004.

Mr. Woon turned himself in to the CSD police in Bangkok and paid 500,000 baht and was released. We later ;;heard a larger sum was also confiscated. But as to date we have no more information on the criminal procedings in Thailand. We were told by sources that there was a criminal case pending in Sweden against Mr. Woon. (of Malaysian nationality, Mr. Woon also holds a Swedish passport and was sponsored by a Swedish Mission http://www.kungsbacka.pingst.se/mission/index.htm

His link in Thailand is now missing from the site.

Swedish police contacted us but never contacted the children witnesses in six months time. The Swedish embassy never contacted the children either.

We find this very disturbing, that children who went to this much effort to go to Bangkok, find their way through the justice system, and file a case, are ignored by the Swedish government.

Pictures below show the old orphanage, with sign, then where some of the kids were relocated to around the corner. Ms. Eva of Ban Chavit Mai, which also has Akha children and a bakery downtown Chiangrai, helped move some of the kids. Of Swedish citizenship also, we wonder what Ms. Eva knew and when she knew it?

Huts of Akha from Hooh Mah Akha who were converted and moved to a lowlands marsh, the remains of one of the splendid mountain homes. Religious fanaticism imposed on indigenous people can make fools of many.

;;

The video below from Al Jazeera television is interesting.

The sooner the Thai powers that be understand that their policy of protecting religion includes the protection of the rights of minorities to practice their age old beliefs, whether they be Buddhist, Animist or other, the better. It is evil incarnate to permit the coerced conversion that is taking place in Thailand's hills in current times.

Royalty

The protection of the royal institution of Thailand, like many similar regimes, has two rationales. First, reverence for the royal personage or institution and insecurity. Thai's leaped on the protect the King bandwagon, understandably, when various foreign interests were busy dividing up the place for their own gains.

In this most recent issue of charging the entire Foreign Correspondence Club of Thailand, FCCT, with a supposed insult to the Royal institution has several interesting facets. We can ignore the obvious for the moment. Thailand does not care that much what the world opinion of the country is. Generally speaking, their short sightedness is legendary. The relevant persons in foreign countries that operate businesses in Thailand know full well that good graces can be bought and how to buy them. The rest of the world, and the working class of Thailand itself can go leap off a cliff. Thailand is a full standing member of the international 'prostitute your country for profit' club.

One of the more interesting aspects of this FCCT brouhaha is that the police will investigate the offense. Now it is well know the police in general are an entirely rogue organization. They legally collect bribes, and almost always place the interests of their senior officers first and foremost, which of course means the politicians and elite who pull their strings. There never has been a serious effort to clean up the act of the Thai police and probably never will be.

In keeping with the police being manipulatable we have Jakrapob himself who will suffer (or not) various penalties for his actions dependent upon his connections with police and government officials. What penance he may ultimately pay could easily be less that the penalties the FCCT might receive. After all, justice is not only for sale, it will give preferential treatment to Thai nationals first. Unless, of course, we are talking about a serious foreign business interest who's damaged position could adversely affect various persons of an even higher position than say, Jakrapob can manipulate.

Then of course we have Laksana Kornsilpa, the whistle blower, and where exactly her loyalties lie. Therein lies the rub, and the crux of the matter. The laws pertaining to protecting the royal institute are extremely archaic, and at present, pretty ridiculous. His Majesty King Bhumibol has led a life that is far above critical reproach. Criticism of him will only serve, ultimately, to further highlight the incredible service he has done for the country during his long and justly esteemed reign. By all means, if it is felt it is required, lower the boom on the Royal ridiculers when your king acts like Than Shwe and the entire ruling authority is a farcical bananarama. Don't lessen King Bhumibol by enveloping his services to not only Thailand but the world in a small minded shallow mud slinging endeavor that is invariably enacted, at least in part, to simply further a persons social or political goals.

Do I accuse Ms Laksana of less than altruistic intents? By no means! I accuse her of Lese Majeste of course, but that isn't the relevant issue here. Lese Majeste?? My dearest Ms Laksana, His Majesty is, first and foremost, the epitome of Buddhism in this country. Beyond that, he has sternly ruled his own life and all the people he has affected by rigid codes taken directly from the Dharma. No where within those teachings will you find advocacy for recrimination or selective justice. What you, Ms Laksana, are charging, is that neutral individuals disseminated information that could be considered harmful to the Royal Institution. NOT His Majesty. Did they do this allegedly criminal act with intent, be it deliberate or incidental, to harm the Royal Institute? Perhaps, if you completely ignore the Buddhist teachings and only pursue the ancient, pre-civilized code of grabbing a larger club and pummeling anyone who you disagree with. Or, of course, there is the possibility that the Royal Institution presently represents ideals or goals that coincide with your own personal interests. Regardless which, it is seriously doubtful if any will find your actions and intents to fully adhere and support the eightfold path. Choose dear Madam, the intents and desires of the King, or the petty recriminations of the small and shallow people who support the Royal Institution as they see fit, when it is convenient and the institute not always a perfect reflection of the intents of the foremost Buddhist of Thailand.

Idiocy

Today I have just about had it. Thailand has a few draconian laws and some particularly stupid ones, far too out of date for the modern 21st century world. One particular law that glovelike fits this category is that of Lese Majeste. It is not legal to say or write anything or take any action that might be deemed disrespectful to the monarchy of Thailand.

Now, H.M. the King is a wonderful man. He has done a lot of good for his country over the 60+ years of his reign. I have respect for him, but to be unable to point out a carbunkle that needs attention is just plain wrong. Anybody and everybody benefits from well-meaning criticism. Why not H.M.?

The following is from the Nation (English language Thai) newspaper today:

FCCT board faces police probe over lese majeste - By Pravit Rojanaphruk - The Nation - Published on July 2, 2009

For the first time in its five-decade history, the whole board of the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand (FCCT) has been accused of committing lese majeste, a crime with a maximum jail sentence of 15 years.

Laksana Kornsilpa, 57, a translator and a critic of ousted and convicted former premier Thaksin Shinawatra filed a lese majeste complaint against the 13-member board at Lumpini police station on Tuesday night.

Laksana was quoted on ASTV Manager website as claiming the board's decision to sell DVD copies of Jakrapob Penkair's controversial speech at the club back in 2007 constituted an act of lese majeste.

She alleged that the whole board "may be acting in an organised fashion and the goal may be to undermine the credibility of the high institution of Thailand".

ASTV Manager daily also quoted Laksana as saying some major local newspapers may also part of a movement to undermine the monarchy.

FCCT president Marwaan Macan-Markar said the board members have decided not to give separate interviews. It issued a statement saying: "The FCCT will cooperate with such an inquiry [by the police]."

The board, includes three British nationals including the BBC's Bangkok correspondent Jonathan Head, three American nationals, including two working for Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal, an Australian national and a Thai news reader for Channel 3, Karuna Buakamsri.

Social critic and lese majeste case defendant Sulak Sivaraksa, reacting to the news, told The Nation yesterday that "the problem of [abusing] lese majeste law is now utterly messy".

"The fact that leading world intellectuals like Noam Chomsky and others have petitioned to [PM] Abhisit [Vejjajiva to reform the law] is a testimony to it. If we let it goes on like this it will get even messier. It's time for the government to do something."

A source within the FCCT, speaking on condition of anonymity, said he was "surprised" at the latest allegation, which came after two years of the speech being made, adding that "it places Thailand in a very poor light".

DVDs were set up largely for club members who missed interesting talks and sales are restricted solely for FCCT members. Few copies of the Jakrapob talk are understood to have been sold because a manuscript of his talk circulated in Bangkok shortly after he was charged, and the video can be downloaded free from some websites.

In the comments' section on ASTV Manager's website, most posters expressed support for Laksana and praised her for the move.

One said: "Put them in jail for 99 years."

Another asked the site to post a picture of Jonathan Head so the person could attack him if he or she ran into him.

(You can download a copy of Jajrapob's speech from the Reporters without Frontiers site here: http://www.rsf.org/Jakrapob-Penkair.html

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The sheer, mindblowing stupidity of charging the whole board of the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand with lese majeste over a DVD, of a public-domain, year old speech, on sale to members only just beggars belief for this modern century.

Unfortunately the person asking for a picture of Jonathan Head so that he might be attacked is only too symptomatic of the acute xenophobia displayed by much of Thai society today.

I am only one of many here who are looking for a way to leave. I fear H.M. is elderly and unhealthy. He is unlikely to see many more seasons pass. There will probably be a less than peaceful transition to the next monarch, if any, and expatriates are highly likely to be fairly high up in the firing line. A significant (hopefully) minority of the populace have an acute dislike of non-asians and blame us for the worst part of their ills.

In the past week I have even met two Thai families, well connected people, who are trying to sell up to move away before the excrement is spread far and wide by powerful propellers. I wish I had such a chance.

Why?

July 4th is soon here. This is a little thought to celebrate the large numbers of American fundamental evangelical missionaries who run, like termites, over our hills spreading their news of flaming hell and damnation and the simple dip in the river to solve all ills.

Why?

Why are you trying to destroy my beliefs, my society, my culture?

What makes you so very sure your values, your God is better than mine?

Will He teach me what to sow, and when?
Will your God teach me what herbs to mix to ease my wife's pains in
childbirth?
Will He teach me how to look after my water supply, what to put on my land to strengthen my crops, how to respect my family, my elders, my children?

My Gods do all these things, and very much more.

What does your god have to offer me, except pain and dissent, empty promises of salvation or threats of everlasting suffering?

Why can't you just go home and leave me happy, in peace in my village?

Why?