Religion and the Root of Evil

Based on a previous post made on MySpace years ago in response to Christopher Hitchins.  Myspace has since done away with the old blogs and site accessibility. (Sarcasm here) But if you send in a request you can get access in "a few short months" which in internet time is enough of an age to allow for the full evolution of a new species and its subsequent extinction. (The old post was waaaay shorter anyway)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Hitchens

It's common among atheist groups to say "religion is the root of all evil". As proof they will often cite holy wars and terrorist attacks seemingly motivated by religion. These religious beliefs are what motivated people to kill, destroy towns, cities, and attack little girls on their way to school.And I agree there are some crazy people wielding religion as a weapon and using it to justify their sadism.  I also think this is a smoke screen and it's political bull that's the real motivation.  The need to control others is strong in some people.

Perfect examples can be found anywhere around the globe. The gassing of Kurd civilians by Saddam Hussein; the killing of Shi 'ites and destruction of temples not adherent to his religious beliefs.

Also in the middle east, the continued attacks on Israel due to the hatred of Jews.  They live surrounded by Muslims whose holy book declare Jews as villains. The book calls for their extermination.  My hubbie and I had some conversations around this a few years ago when he studied the Koran. He basically summed it up (the English translation) "God is Great. We hate Jews and this is why."

We also have the Afghanistan Taliban whose religious beliefs regarding the control of women is infamous with torture, sadism, and imprisonment. A woman was raped to death in a soccer stadium as thousands were forced to watch for accidentally showing her ankle while standing up.  Her escort had been killed at the picnic they had been having together for defending her from the soldiers. Women and children starved to death because they could not leave their homes to get food with no male relatives left alive to escort them. Little girls are still being attacked for trying to go to school.

Then of course, there are the ethnic wars of Africa, the oppression of native people in Australia and the Americas.  All of these oppressions and attempted genocides have a religious component, an ethnic superiority flair.

In order to call something the "root of all evil" you have to break it down to it's lowest common denominator. Asking How and Why are two great ways to get to the lowest number on the multiplication tree of philosophical and psychological thought.

So let's do that: Why does religion exist? How did it become such an important part of how a person defines themself?

Ancient societies have a few factors that archeologists look for to determine when they have become a human society and ceased to be nomadic homo erectus type animals. One is burial.  They begin to bury their dead.
Often these burials involved painting the body, dressing the body and burying them with something of significance like a weapon or a necklace. Other factors include, cultivating seeds, food preservation, domesticating animals, and ritual.  Ancient societies begin to notice patterns in nature. They begin to celebrate those patterns and sometimes come to believe that they must enact ritual to support that pattern, like the rising of the sun after the longest night of the year, or dancing around a fire and wearing special items to bring on a great hunt.

From the development of an awareness of these patterns they begin to develop a sense of the future.  They can predict that the sun will rise every day, the moon will follow a pattern of phases every 28 days, the seasons will follow a cycle. They plant, hunt and preserve food to survive these cycles. Eventually they are going to start asking questions about what happens after death and what force controls all these cycles? This is where the belief in spirits, the Gods and Goddesses of the old worlds come from.

Burial practices follow these beliefs. In order to conquer the fear of death, death must  not be seen as the end. Ideas of an after life, or of a person somehow coming back after death begin to develop. We see this in burials where all the earthly pleasures and needs are taken care of. For example in ancient Egypt we see servants, concubines, food, musical instruments, weapons, clothes, etc, being left with the mummified pharoah. Spells are carved into the walls, the sarcophagus, and even painted into the linens wrapped around the body. These spells protect the body, the soul and give instructions for the spirit on his quest to the other side.

http://www.sextimeandpower.com/     (Great Book about women's menstrual cycle and pregnancy shaping society and even men's attitudes toward relationships)

http://books.google.com/books/about/The_Goddesses_and_Gods_of_Old_Europe_650.html?id=zKFFOoPlyjIC         (Another classic powerful book on the archeological evidence of matriarchal societies and the transition to patriarchal dominance)

So religion came into existence to explain why the world is as it is. Religions explain the creation of the world, man's place in it, and give man a sense of partnership with the forces that shape the world and his own survival. Ritual is a way for man to try to manipulate nature.  It became so essential to mankind because it defines one's tribe.  A tribe has the same rituals, manner of dress, modes of speech, cyclical patterns and behaviors governed by those patterns. You know who you are by the tribe you ally yourself to.  You know who doesn't belong in the same way.  Besides age and sex, this element became part of the earliest sense of self-definition of a human being: name, age, gender, tribal affiliation.

Why do different societies war with each other?

When societies came in contact with each other they found their rituals, languages, clothing, and names of gods were not the same. As a result of this contact with each other they became nervous. This is where the crux of the matter of our problem evolves. When these people confronted differences in others, they couldn't predict the behavior of these other groups. They were too different.  From this inability to know what the other would do in any situation, came fear of each other. Specifically they feared violence, death, and theft of resources.

If the two societies that are so different could not agree on a set of rules to keep their relationship friendly, then war would often follow. That fear would lead to violence. I guess they may have thought that if they struck first they could save themselves, and this other evil group would be destroyed so any other society they might have come across would be spared as well. We see this in some modern propaganda where the other group is labeled immoral, evil and set on the destruction of our pure and moral society. Religious fanatics often use this argument against atheists and anyone who supports free will and a secular legal system.

How did social laws evolve? Why are laws different everywhere?

The friendly group would lay down laws to govern how people treat each other. These laws became the social contract of the society. In some cases severe punishments were visited upon those that acted in anti-social ways. What constitutes anti-social was highly relative to the society in question.

For some societies like Greece, homosexuality was tolerated and even endorsed.  Some philosophers believed wasting one's seed on a woman was deadly to a man's sanity.  A waste by itself at best. Other societies would punish homosexuality with torture and/or death. Some societies didn't even have a word for such a thing, it had not been publicly brought up.

The Chosen Ones?

The success of a society over another was often called God's Gift or Favor. It was believed that their god was stronger than the other group's and therefore enabled the victory. In the past few millenia, groups have claimed that the other god doesn't even exist, or is actually an evil deity or demon. Those people have been misled by evil and must be rehabilitated or converted to save their souls.

The truth to why some societies are successful and generate invention, technology and massive food production is actually tied up in geographic luck. It has nothing to do with gods or even necessarily intelligence. If you happen to be born in an area of the world with large spaces of good farm land that can support thousands of varieties of crops, animals and insect life, it's only a matter of time before you domesticate those resources and a small number of people become food producers while others have the luxury of free time to pursue art, invention, music, government, academia and eventually exploration and conquest.

Western Europe was one such perfect breeding ground for such success. The area now known as China was another fantastic place for agriculture, plant and animal diversity and thus invention and art.  Really good book on this:  Guns, Germs and Steel

http://www.pbs.org/gunsgermssteel/        (There's a book and a documentary)

(Summary so far:   Humans developed religion to explain cycles of nature, to help them try to manipulate nature for their benefit and eventually created social roles around these beliefs. Not to mention to dispell fear of death.  When they came across people who were different they attacked out of fear or created strict rules governing behavior in order to get control of their fear of each other. Fear leads to violence and destruction.

Eventually the cart was placed before the horse. The same beliefs that unified a society enabling working together so they could evolve and invent and explore other worlds, became the justification for their success. Actually it was luck combined with intelligence that created powerful societies, not god.)

How does religion affect us today? Why is it still such a sensitive issue?

So what we have now is religion as the remnant of an old tradition that enabled us as a group to identify members of our tribe. Tribal members, people who we take for granted are safe and follow the same set of rules, are accepted. Outsiders are still pressured to convert or are attacked. We use this same mentality toward politics, education, even simple interest groups we are involved in.

Human beings value their own lives and the lives of those they love. As such they seek communities where they feel safe. They define that feeling of safety as groups of people they have stuff in common with.  Laws support that sense of safety, and historically this has included segregation in America. We are still segregated economically.  In some places, like Northern Ireland, segregation is still used to try to prevent violence. When the laws fail or are not equally enforced, people become afraid and vigilantism rocks the community.  People start to hide, leave, and economies and governments fall often into war. War is what kills, encourages others to be aggressive and destructive and to annihilate the lives of the "others".

So the root of all evil is not religion. Religion is a manifestation of a human being's emotional need to belong to a group where they feel safe.  It's the fear that motivated that need to belong that brings about violence. Fear of difference, fear of unpredictable behavior from the foreign tribe, fear that the different tribe is going to take your stuff including your life, is what brings about war. War is a violent attempt to control the behavior of others. Do as we say or your life is forfeit.

Control of others motivated by fear of differences is the rallying sentiment behind abortion clinic bombings, terrorist attacks, genocide, persecutions of all types and women in particular. For some reason men and even women are terrified of other women expressing themselves sexually and controlling their reproduction.  I really don't know what is bug up their butt.  All I can say is maybe the answer is in The Handmaid's Tale or some other female exploration of dystopic societies in fiction.

So Fear is the root of all evil.  It leads to aggression, an attempt to control other's behaviors in order to make them predictable and thus safe. Or dead. Dead works too.

New BirthCenter in Buffalo-- Above Abortion Clinic!

http://www.buffalonews.com/city-region/medical/birthing-center-to-open-in-buffalo-in-the-fall-20130824

I really hate talking about abortion publicly because people (surprisingly mostly women) get crazy emotional and hysterical about it.  But this event is both really cool and fodder for angst.

I personally love this idea. The women who would use a birthcenter are most likely well educated on birth choices already.  Often, these are women who would have a home birth but due to distance or the smallness or construction status of their dwellings can't have it at home. Before this, the closest birth center was near Batavia about an hour drive from here.

The lowest rate of natural birth and highest rate of C-sections is in the lower classes. Doctors tend to withhold information from patients and poor patients are especially susceptible to being manipulated by doctors. Plus they may lack access to computers and other resources to research their choices.

Since these clinics tend to serve poor women without health insurance or medicaid only, this is a great place to have a birth clinic. Poor women who want to keep their pregnancy can get medical checkups, take classes on birth and babies, and the alternative choice is staring them right in the face in the same building.  Not to mention on average, according to the article, it is $8,000 cheaper to have a birth center birth instead of a hospital birth.

I met with Dr. Morrison when I was under Eileen Stewart's care.  I love Eileen. She's a total sweetheart. We felt very supported by her. She didn't bug me about gaining too much weight like a lot of doctors will do. She checked up on my nutrition, recommended healthy natural ways to deal with the sniffles I got during the winter while I was pregnant. She gave me the name of the chiropractor I still go to now.

There have been only a few serious complaints against this idea of having the center with the abortion clinic. One includes a question of women not being comfortable going to an abortion center to give birth. I don't believe that the type of women who would give birth with a midwife would be so closed minded that they would protest this. Anyone who is educated isn't going to confuse the two things.

There was one responder who basically tried to imply that you can't trust an OB/GYN who provides abortion to also birth live babies. I think they were trying to imply that she would kill the babies of parents who wanted them.  Besides the obvious malpractice suits that would follow, a doctor who has taken an oath to do no harm, won't do that.

Yes, there was a news story about a male doctor who would kill babies removed from the womb in the third trimester. The man must have been a jack-the-ripper type serial killer. He was breaking the law in that third trimester abortions are illegal and the babies were basically born alive. He killed them after taking them out.  No mentally stable doctor would ever pull shit like that.  He was a serial killer with anti-social personality issues.

Dr. Morrison has decades of experience birthing live babies as does Stewart. It would have been nice to have interviews with patients and mothers of these women to get a  real feel for how great they are. The article was definitely missing that. Can't wait till it opens and the first year of births can be counted and celebrated.

Garden Techniques and Trials

Being interested in developing survival tactics in case the shit hits the fan has been a growing interest of my hubbie and I. My friend also married a man who is into survivalist and farming techniques.  So food has become a bit of an obsession.  Most specifically, ways that make us chemically independent through soil management, cooperative planting to get multiple crops from the same box, and pest control.  Here's a bit of an overview on our successes and mistakes. 


2008     We have no backyard here so we set up gardens at my father-in-law's house four years ago.   He doesn't mind letting us use his dirt as long as he can eat all the tomatoes he wants.  The first year we had raised boxes using wood borders about 12 inches up.  We planted two 5 foot by 5 foot boxes and one large box about 5 feet by ten or twelve feet. We used wooden borders only this first year. We also got grandma to let us put four square boxes of five by five at her place. 

We planted about 5 boxes of tomatoes with carrots and turnips in between rows. We also had two boxes of corn with squash between the rows.  The squash didn't take. I think we weren't getting enough pollinators. It may have not been getting enough sun either. 
We did get a ton of tomatoes. We ended up canning almost 60 quarts that year and didn't have to buy tomato sauce until the following March or April. At the end of the year we put the garden to bed with leaves piled up over the dirt. 

2009       My husband got a copy of the Seed Savers Exchange catalog  Fantastic source for organic and heirloom variety seeds.  Really interesting and rare varieties. 

http://www.seedsavers.org/

 He decided the following year to do a garden of all purple veg.  We got Cherokee purple tomatoes, German extra hardy garlic, purple beans, carrots.  We stacked tires and planted Peruvian purple potatoes.  We got about 40 lbs of potatoes out of those tires and wanted to do it again the following year but got cited by the city court for littering because of the tires. We had to take the garden down and so didn't get a second year of potatoes in 2010.

That second gardening year we also planted rhubarb. Made fantastic pies. We saved seeds at the end of the year as well to replant in the fall.

Corn is pretty easy; you let it dry then twist your hands around the cob to rub the seeds off.
Tomato seeds have to be spooned out of the choice tomatoes and put in a jar.  Cover with wax paper with a couple of holes poked into it. Let ferment about 2 weeks or just until the sliminess is off the seeds. Then spread on a paper towel to dry out. Bottle and store. 
Beans; let husks dry and crack out seeds. Don't keep any veg in plastic bags too long, it molds.
Garlic; just save the bulbs you want to re-use. Dry the bulbs well then store in a paper bag.

 The beans didn't work out as well. The peas couldn't get enough water and so wilted after the first harvest.  Cabbages and carrots failed. Carrots didn't grow very big and the cabbages and brussel sprouts didn't grow more than a few inches until they died. Poor year for tomatoes too. Good thing we didn't need to live off of it.

We stored the rhubarb roots in sand and planned to put them back in but didn't get around to it. After two years there's no point. The roots are dead. We had to take them out of the soil in the first place because of the citation. It was one of the things we were growing in tires as well. Hubbie and I joke that if we had painted the tires pretty colors maybe the city would have let us be. 

We also might be under tighter scrutiny because we live so close to CanalFest.  They want outsiders to think the city is a pretty and well-kept place. Crazy branches of above ground potato shrubs don't look pretty. They look like weeds.

2010        I was working in Elmira so the garden didn't get very well taken care of .  Hubbie planted tomatoes and garlic and that was about it.   Saved seeds again. Small harvest of tomatoes. Enough for sandwiches and that was about it. 

Hubbie built a wire support system for a wild grape vine in his dad's backyard. No grapes this year. Cut it all back down to about 2-3 feet from the ground. 

2011-2012  This was the year our daughter was born and her first year and a half with us.  Way too exhausted and buisy.  Hubbie did most of the gardening. We did not water like we should have. I did start planting garlic bulbs around my roses to keep the aphids off. Works great.  

 Again, sustaining our tomato and garlic harvests.  Hubbie had started research on bee-keeping. In his gardening research he found many of the plants we were having trouble with were pollinated by bugs. That first year we had planted sunflowers and marigolds around the garden which attracted pollinators so a good harvest.  The next few years we kept it weeded and no flowers so no pollinators.

He thinks that had a huge impact on productivity.  The corn was hand pollinated the first year we planted it. We decided not to plant it again after 2008.  To much labor and water involved. Good corn though.

First and second year vine branches. No grapes again. Might be linked to pollinators.

2013      This year has been off to a great start. We got 34 quarts on tomatoes in the first three weeks. We would have gotten more if we didn't get hit with early blight. I lost more than half of my roses and one box of tomatoes suffered badly losing almost all of their leaves. We sprayed with organic copper spray and they seem to be coming back.  

             A few other things to help counter blight is to cover the soil with wood chips or shredded wood to stop rain spattering spores up onto the plants. When you water, don't get the leaves wet. Keep the hose close to the ground or set up an irrigation pipe to direct the water over the roots or even feed water into the soil directly by placing the pipe perpendicular to the ground and a few inches deep.  Drill holes before putting it in the ground. Saw a southern farmer do this. We plan to do this with our own garden when me move to a place with a yard, 

             Tons of pollinators this year as well. We left two boxes fallow and ended up with boxes of wild flowers. Wild mustard greens and flowers seemed to really do the trick. They grow about 6 feet high and the bees love them. I also left some milkweed in the garden for any monarch caterpillars that might be around. 


            The German garlic we have been using seems to not be doing as well. I told hubbie I want to get some new bulbs in. We had a bad year last year 2012 when we didn't manage to cover the beds with leaves like we should have and the bulbs were severely undernourished. This years crop has fewer cloves than previous.  The cloves are huge but the bulbs are not 5-6 cloves like they used to be but more 4 or less cloves per bulb.

Garlic needs about 18 inches or more of leaves and greens piled onto it when it is planted in the fall. It's a heavy feeder and the composting greens and leaves help feed it through the winter and the spring. It also needs to be rotated to a different location every year on a three to four year cycle. Same with tomatoes.  Garlic attracts nematodes and really drains nutrient from the soil.  

           I've made sauce twice using our tomatoes and garlic.  It feels great to know where your food comes from.
There's this sense of pride and pleasure knowing we created this and nurtured and now are enjoying directly the food we grew. Getting a paycheck is not the same. Money is a symbol of value. Food is real value.

"Fox News Contributor's Sexist Comments on Women's Health Care Spark Outrage"

http://shine.yahoo.com/healthy-living/fox-s-sexist-comments-on-women-s-healthcare-spark-outrage-172914267.html


ME:  Insurance companies save money two ways with men: fewer doctor visits and they are more likely to let themselves die than seek early diagnosis. They lose money from men with lower premiums and treatments that are sky high because of late stage 3-4 diagnosis. Often only when it is too late. This math doesn't make sense to me. "Charge them lower premiums because they are more likely to die before we have to pay for treatments." 

Insurance companies make money off of women with higher premiums and cheaper treatments because women are more likely to get diagnosed early with regular check-ups. Yes, the checkups are costly, but that's maybe 50$ per checkup which comes to about 100$ a year with a reg checkup and gyno checkup. (Although papsmear lab fees are way inflated.) Alternative therapies are paid for out of pocket. "Charge them more now to punish them for not letting themselves die."


Responder:
Health care rates are also based on risk (and actual history of claims) 
Why do older people pay more for health insurance then younger people? Why does a 64 years old female pay more for health insurance than a female of child bearing age? 

The Dr. may not have stated his point well, but in most age groups women have higher health care costs than men. BUT- health care premiums are spread over an age group-- for example: a 24 year old married female pays the same health care insurance as a 24 yr old unmarried female-- even when pregnancy and childbirth costs are factored in. 

So, if females have a higher risk factor than males (based on years of actual claims)- then isn't it sexist
and discriminatory to charge males the same premium as females? Won't males be subsidizing 
the health care costs for females?

ME:
Men have a higher risk of cancers, strokes and heart disease when compared to women. Women have a higher rate of pregnancy and birth than men do. So we reward men by charging them less despite a greater risk of accident, heart attack and stroke. Then we punish women for giving birth by charging them more. It still doesn't add up.

And shouldn't men contribute to the cost of pregnancy and childbirth considering it was sperm from a male plus the egg from the female that created that child in the first place?

Intelligence, Atheism and the need for Religion

Reading article about Atheism and Intelligence.

http://news.yahoo.com/religious-people-are-less-intelligent-than-atheists--study-finds--113350723.html#upCr476

I agree with the assertion of the article that people who are of high intelligence tend to question and challenge the concepts of religion. Most notable of these is the tendency of atheists to see themselves as the shapers of their own fate. (Brave movie connection as well. "Fate be changed") Intelligent people tend to be more successful because of their level of education and their problem solving skills. “Jesus take the Wheel” is not a concept they could accept.

One of the things that draws people to paganism is this concept as well. I remember when I first started studying the authors that I read included Laurie Cabot, Scott Cunningham, and DJ Conway. There are others as well that I have read since then, as well as researching eastern religions and LeVay satanism.

Almost all authors of note in these communities will mention the role that an individual has in shaping their own lives. Some of these authors will stop at thinking positive and letting positive things come to you. Like attracts like. This concept is most common in eastern philosophies and new age occult books.

Paganism and Satanism go a few steps further. The Goddess does not want us to be door-mats. We must defend ourselves if attacked and go after what we want to achieve. Satanism holds it a “sin” to be stupid in the sense that one must not assume others hold the same values and would act the same way in any given situation as the "believer". There is also a tenet of holding one's domain sacred and any who would disrespect one in their domain should be treated aggressively and removed. This does not reflect the belief of “turning the other cheek” as in Abrahamic traditions.

LaVay wrote of the concept of manipulating probabilities with spells and ritual. If you seek to find a job and you only have a 40% chance of getting a job at that particular company or in that job field, then a spell could tweak that probability. Say the energy you send out increases your chances to 60%.

The next step is action. In witchcraft, authors and teachers speak of silence about the spell. The belief is that if you talk about it you could dilute the energy. This especially makes sense in talking to others about your goal. Their negative ideas and cynical comments can decrease your drive to succeed. Their inability to believe in you and affect your ability to believe in yourself. Peer pressure works powerfully in our society. This low opinion of your abilities will affect your tone of voice, your posture, and your attitude in interviews and at fairs. Not to mention, being a witch is not exactly accepted in our society yet.

You still have to put yourself out there in order to make things happen. You can do all the spells in the world but if you don't mail out your resume, browse listings and go to job fairs, nothing will happen. You have to network and put your name out. This is where atheists get it right as well.

You cannot rely on an accident or luck to make things happen. Often people who do this end up with things they did not want. This can happen in magical communities as well. If you read an event as a sign that you should take that job or date that person, the sign could be wrong. Because of that “magical” indication that you were meant to be, you might ignore warning signals that it's actually wrong for you; warning signs of an abusive relationship or a really stressful and traumatizing job position. Stubbornness in your ideas can lead you to try to stick it out hoping it will get better or you'll get stronger so you can take it.

[In my younger years I have made this mistake a few times with an abusive relationship as well as a job that was harmful to my psyche. It took me over a year to shake the abusive X and two years in a dead-end job to realize that I was breaking down. The last few months of that job meant therapy so I could finish the year and then PTSD symptoms and breakdowns for two years after. It was very difficult to enter a classroom again and took a year of subbing to be able to function normally without out-of- control emotional responses to my environment or the kids. I'd over-react to slight things sometimes, and be apathetic to things that needed strict attention. I even had a breakdown when I witnessed a student fight. I managed to get out of sight and it was my planning period, but it shook me and I had a really tough second half of the day. I manage fine now. I'm in a really good place at this point in my life. ]

This is where non-religious people get it right. They don't see spiritual signs at all and so can remain open to analyzing relationships and job environments in a more reasonable way, not to say they don't make mistakes out of fear, addiction, or co-dependence. Since you only have one life, there is no afterlife or reincarnation, you'd better get it right and enjoy the heck out of this one.

When bad things happen, sometimes religion can be comforting. But it can also keep one from growing beyond the experience. If one becomes dependent on a deity intervening, and everything that happens is meant to be, it can lead to paralysis. No decisions are being made, no improvements or emotional processing of anger or grief occurs. It can actually contribute to making things worse or an emotional breakdown from refusing to process the events and feelings.

This can be clearly seen in fascist groups that refuse to accept a scientific explanation when it is staring them in the face and their very lives depend on it. Global warming is one such event that many are still sticking their heads in the sand about. Watching glaciers fall apart, watching the oceans warm and species die out as storms become more deadly, should be enough to turn believers into every reasonable person. However, religion is not reasonable. It is faith and “you can't fix faith”. (Shepard from Firefly)

Some even intentionally litter and waste our resources believing if they destroy the planet it will bring about the second coming sooner. They look forward to and work toward the destruction of all life on earth with glee. Very scary people.

The other side of this double edged blade is that ideologies can bring about great changes. Sometimes religious people do some amazingly altruistic things as a result of compassion they learned from religious leaders. However, Atheists do not have religion but they do have ideology and compassion. This belief in something greater than us is not dependent on religion and ritual. You can believe in creating a healthier planet for the human species and not need the motivation of God's Will.

I don't think getting rid of religion is a good idea. It's part of human expression and experience. Our symbols and myths come from religious history. We study human nature, experience, and psychology through these myths and symbols. It is such ritual and symbols in my religion that helped me process a traumatic childhood. I was able to use the energy of deity and these mental-imagery techniques to develop a sense of positive relationships and my own growth. Religion was a very powerful psychological and emotional tool. Again, therapy is expensive. Religion can definitely be practiced on the cheap.

But we also need to be careful. When misused, religion can be dangerous and fascist. We must never pass laws for religious reasons or persecute people for religious reasons. Religion is a powerful force of oppression and a sense of “other”-ness. Those who are not of the same religion can be demonized and dehumanized. This is how atheists get support from history and psychology in claiming religion is the root of all evil.

Religion is like a gun. It's not the tool that is evil but the hand that holds it. Compassion can lead one to use it to help others, defend the weak and support a just society. If the hand holding it is driven by fear then great injustice occurs.

And this is where small minds become influential. When one lacks education, one lacks a deep sense of reason. The higher in the academic tiers one gets (usually but not always) the greater one's sense of reason, the greater one is able to analyze a situation and question fallacies of that reason. You have to be able to be objective and sometimes put your emotions aside. This requires many years of cognitive training as well as simply growing up so your cerebrum can fully form. Many who rush to judgment or are dragged around by emotion lack this training. They are even suspicious of this training and develop a fear of those who are highly educated.

Some intellects can suffer from fallacious paths of thought. If they become too dependent on reason and then something in their logical chain of thought is off, then they can become tyrannical. Compassion is essential when dealing with genius. A genius without compassion can endorse eugenics and other genocidal tendencies. (Examples in literature and TV abound.)

We're seeing this now in our political parties. One appeals to religion, conservative values and fear. The other appeals to humanitarianism and compassion—even to the point of fostering dependence and learned helplessness.

(Need to discuss Selfishly motivated Altruism later)

Brave movie review from a Feminist English Teacher

8/10/2013

I've been chewing over this for a few days now. My husband and I watched some reviews of Brave the movie on Youtube. The first thing that I noticed was an almost total lack of female reviewers. The males seemed to be doing most of the talking and it all sounded the same. Almost like they were copying each other. The complaints listed a sudden change in the tone of the movie when the queen changed into a bear, a total lack of understanding as to why she turned into a bear and not some other magical effect, and a lack of adventure or meaningful action.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzWoeQ-GWAU

Hubbie and I had some great discussions about where the reviewers were missing the point. There were things they were not taking seriously, belittling, overlooking and misjudging. I dismissed the men mostly because the movie focused on a relationship and its evolution between two females. Men really can't understand that just because they are men. It's a genetic loss on their part. Hubbie, as a male, made some great points about socialization and the female perspective. He really is in touch with his feminine side. It's nice to see.

 A recent edition of SageWoman included tons of articles on gender and spirituality and the third wave of feminism which seeks to include gender, sexuality, socio-economic status, race and men's roles in feminism. These are things that were overlooked during the second wave and this new breed of feminist seeks to include these things in the discussion. Some of my ideas come from this edition as well as books on motherhood, growing up female and my own literary analysis.

First, one must understand there are two types of fairy tales: masculine and feminine. The masculine fairytale often involves a boy leaving home to reclaim his destiny or reclaim his crown. Sometimes it was stolen by an evil uncle, or sometimes this fate lies in the claiming of a woman or magical weapon. He travels far and wide, meets many allies and gathers magical tools. The conflict he comes across is often a magical beast, a maze of problems he must solve to claim the maiden or weapon, or the slaying of the evil wizard/uncle. Male stories are everywhere. The Athurian Legends, Merlin, Legend of the Seeker, Star Wars, etc. are all male fairy tales or legend story arcs. Stories that fall outside of the fairy tale like UP and Finding Nemo have male leads. They would have been just as good had it been a mother and daughter separated and searching for each other, or a grandmother figure and girl scout flying away in a balloon house. The socialization of our society makes the default of these stories masculine. It probably just didn't occur to the writers to make the characters female, even as it would have no impact on the direction of the story. Or perhaps the only time they think of using female characters is during a female story arc.

The feminine fairy tale consists mostly of an impossible home life. She must flee for her life as in Snow White; or she is kidnapped like in Tangled, the story of Rapunzel; or she seeks an escape from abuse like in Cinderella. All of these stories feature a romantic lead who saves the princess. In Snow White it's the seven dwarves who act as father-figures keeping her safe until the prince can take her away and keep her safe for good. In Cinderella it is her beauty that attracts the prince and marriage that is her rescue from domestic violence. In Tangled it is a handsome rogue who gets her out of her tower. Even though she starts out as her own agent of change, he takes her fate into his own hands when he cuts her hair off, thereby taking her choice away from her. It is only by accident that her tear brings him back from death. Neither of these events come from her choice, her intelligence, skill or her intentional action.

Brave is different because Merida very much takes an active role in her choices and the direction she takes in life. She is her father's daughter and like many 2^nd wave feminists, she rejects the subtle and familial focus of her mother. She sees what her mother has to teach her as useless and silly. She goes along with it to be dutiful but when she is put to the test, she aggressively turns her back on it.

2^nd Wave feminism seemed to focus on career paths and masculine traits as a way for women to gain equal footing with men. The side effect of this was to belittle stay-at-home moms, feminine traits like cooperation, the subconscious, emotion, relationships and family, peace and diplomacy. To accept these female traits would have been tantamount to treason. It was believed that to be valuable one must be masculine because femininity is not valued in our society. Ambitious and professional women rejected femininity and female friends. Merida in the beginning is most definitely a masculine character whose values lie in combat skills, aggression and action.

Elinor embodies the female traits of subtlety, diplomacy and a quiet strength that literally parts the waves of the battle in the great hall. Her silent presence is highly respected and revered by the men of the court. Her soft-spokenness is powerful. Her tapestries, which might be sneered at as a useless female activity, are historical records of events and people in the kingdom. It is from these tapestries that history gets recorded for future generations. Her recounting of the Legend of the Four Princes is part of the kingdom's oral history.

In our society, oral history is often considered women's history, since men wrote their stories down and their stories involve men's victories. Women preserved the wisdom of female stories such as the women of the Bible or Goddess mythology. The also re-interpreted male stories. Examples of this include a feminist attempt at a re-interpretation of Genesis. In that version Eve chose willingly to eat of the tree of Knowledge. She understood the risks, she was not a victim of the serpent and her gift to her children was free-will which she had determined was worth the price of pain and death.

 The men and Merida sneered at the oral tradition, saying they had already heard it before. They saw it as merely entertainment. Elinor saw it as a lesson to be meditated on and then lived. Merida would learn this as she got to know her mother as a person separate from her role as queen.

This leads us to the next point. Not only is this story different because it focuses on two women and their relationship, but it is a female adventure. By this I do not mean it ends in marriage as do traditional female fairtytales. The adventure is domestic/local and subconscious. Merida does not leave her home like Cinderella and the other fairytale princesses. This is instead about internal change, revelation and a shift in perspective. Male adventure usually revolves around violence, weapons, attacking and traveling far away. The men in the hall when they set up their barricades and throw spears at each other while arguing over who will marry the princess, covers the male point of view in this story. The film only shows this for only a few minutes because it is not the primary narrative thrust.

The female narrative in this case is triggered by a physical change of self. When Elinor turns into a bear it is both accidental and very much intentional. Merida did not plan it. However, we know something is going to happen involving bears because of Mor'du in the beginning and because of the obsession the witch has with bear carvings. The story of the four princes plays heavily in this as well. When we put these three foreshadowing clues together, it should not have been a surprise to anyone that Elinor turned into a bear. Nor should it be a surprise that Mor'du is the fourth prince. So I reject this idea that people were surprised, disappointed or felt the narrative made a complete 180 degree turn at this point.

This is also not a surprise because this is a Celtic tale. Anyone who knows Celtic legends or mythology, even just King Arthur, should have seen the animal shape-shifting “twist” coming from a mile away. Merlin was said to have turned Arthur into different animals to try to teach him the wisdom of each animal and how seeing through another's eyes could lead to wisdom. Elinor's experience does just that for both main characters. This animal tradition still exists today in modern Shamanism.

Being changed into a bear takes Elinor out of her element. She must leave the castle which is her domain, the place where she is the master and teacher. She follows her daughter into the forest. Elinor doesn't have a clue about the forest and the animals. Her daughter for the first time becomes her teacher. Elinor starts to see Merida as the intelligent and capable young woman she has become and ceases to regard her as an empty vessel to be filled with her own knowledge or as an extension of her own identity. An acknowledgment of their separateness occurs. From this separateness a relationship of equals can emerge. They begin to see each other as people and not just as roles or positions like princess and queen. Stripping away the civilized social roles enables them to just be people with each other. Elinor as a bear is taken out of her element and gains an opportunity to really learn who her daughter is as an individual. This is a major trans formative moment. I am a bit concerned that so many overlooked it in the reviews. This scene seems to embody the whole point of the adventure and the character evolution that was the primary focus of this film.

I believe this also answers the problem that Adrienne Rich wrote about in Of Woman Born. She talked about mothers as being symbols, or place holders for their children. Society and children failed to see mothers as human beings with their own identity, their own interests and separateness.This led to the isolation and neglect of the mother in the domestic sphere and from this came stress, depression and even violent reactions like child-abuse and suicide. This story provides a healthy example of a mother and daughter who come to see each other as independent people, and not as social roles, as I've said earlier. Finally, a mother who is also a person in her child's eyes.

The lessons that Merida learned from her mistake, from the change her mother went through, the loss of the face and body of the woman she knew as her mother, the loss of that comfort she remembered in her childhood dream when they sang to each other, came to full fruition in two scenes.

The first one shows us how much Merida learned from her mother's tutelage on how to be a princess. She takes on her mother's character traits to an extent, in order to gain the attention of the crowd of warring men. She imitates her mother's walk, posture and voice projection as well as careful slow and diplomatic speech. However, when the men start to shout over her, she channels her father's forceful presence yelling, “Shut it!” She also invokes the feminine oral history of the four princes. She does not allow the men to dismiss this tale and explicitly reveals the lesson of the story and how they can all do better if they learn from it. Some have said that she compromises in order to make her family happy. I don't see her compromising here. I see a change. She has gained new wisdom and is changing how she views herself and her place in the world because of it. She has integrated both masculine and feminine traits and used both to get attention, hold the floor, and get her point across and not be shouted or bullied out of her power.

I believe this Merida has resolved the conflict left us by the second wave feminist war of the sexes and found a peace within herself with both aspects of self. It is the hope the third wave of feminism has for both men and women. To value equally the masculine and feminine traits within ourselves, our spirits and our society. With this integration we can find peace with each other and hopefully create a healthier society, as Merida did by laying down new rules for her kingdom. The tradition that took power away from women to choose their mates, and took power away from the princes to choose their brides as well, was tossed aside in favor of a new tradition that would honor free-will and each individual having a say in their own life and destiny. That is true liberty.

The second scene is brief. Her father tries to kill her mother/bear. Even though Merida in the earlier scene has accepted the lessons of her mother and has made peace with her feminine side, she still is fierce and dons the power and action of her masculine side, that she learned from her father. Her tosses her aside and she is restrained but she flips the men aside and fights her own father, defeating him with her sword, a most phallic symbol. She has succeeded both mother and father and has become fully a whole and powerful person who wears the traits of male and female equally and fluently.

The tradition of fairy tales told to children is one that was intended to teach children the lessons they needed to know in order to be successful in society. What happens to children who disobey their parents, who are greedy or gluttonous, or who trust the wrong people? These same tales also give the answer, like the witch when she said “Fate be changed; look inside. Mend the bond torn by pride”. They give children a blue-print on how to navigate the threats and problems of childhood and adolescence. Our modern Young Adult books like Harry Potter and Sweep Series do the same for children today.

Now I come to why I think some of the reviewers, including the female reviewers surprisingly, had such a problem fully comprehending the importance of this film. I asked many questions regarding this and it took me a while to formulate potential ideas as to why the misunderstandings occured.

At first I thought it might have something to do with a lack of understanding of fairytale structures and specifically Celtic mythology. The magical creatures, the shape changing, all seemed to be a struggle for some viewers. The witch was a real person, not a jealous and evil character, but benevolent and funny. She had a sweet yet feisty personality. She was not like your average witch in a fairy tale. She was a helper and not trying to destroy the princess to eat her, use her magical hair, or kill her out of jealousy. She was a great cartoon crone, in the pagan sense.

Perhaps these viewers, who were all younger than me, were not familiar with King Arthur and animal shamanism. They didn't know about or understand the connection of experiencing life in another's body in order to gain new wisdom. There is a long tradition of taking on the form of an animal. In tribal societies they do so in order to get into the mindset of the prey they will be hunting. There are elaborate hunting rituals that men engage in before they leave as a party to hunt and get food. Still practiced today in some parts of the world. So perhaps the concepts presented from this culture were just too foreign for these younger viewers to handle or process.

Could it be a lack of imaginative childhood? I remember when I was young, my friends would spend hours on this vacant lot we called “the jungle” with trees and bushes and wildflowers. We would make up stories and act them out. Not reenact movies we had seen or books, but make up totally new stories and improv our way through them. My back porch was a time machine (not literally) and jumping off one side would get you to the future and the other would take you to the past. I don't know how kids in their teens spend their imaginative years or how young people in their 20s now spent their free time as kids. Did they watch TV and play video games? Did they leave the house at all? Is that imaginative play essential to truly understand metaphor and symbol and allegory? Could they not see the layers and depth of the story, the characters, their evolution, etc. because of this missing skillset? We know in wild animals that play is essential to that animal's survival. They learn hunting skills, grappling, killing, and social cues from their play. Why would humans be any different? Boys are exposed to certain types of toys that encourage math and science and girls get toys that encourage babies and homemaking even today. We protest this knowing that what they play with can program their interests and skill sets even as young as one. The type of play our children engage in will shape their brains, the social connections and knowledge and thus determine their ability to live a full and enjoyable adult life. So could there be a stunting of imagination in our children because of a loss in free-thinking and imaginative play?

The last possibility leads me to socialization. The last point also involved socialization through play, but this question regards gender role training. Because our society belittles females and female traits, it might be hard for men and women to take anything seriously that focuses on a female point of view. This occurs to the point that having a female character "just because", like female characters for UP which could be a gender-neutral story, doesn't even enter the minds of writers as a possibility. The only time female characters are added is when a girl is needed for a female role. Mother, daughter, token female to appeal to a wider audience, housekeeper or servant, victim to be rescued and evoke the viewer's emotional reaction. Even in princess stories from Disney the supporting cast is all male like the bug and alligator in The Princess and the Frog.  FeministFrequency on YouTube covers a series of tropes describing in full these female roles in video games and how harmful these stereotypes are to females, males, and society as a whole.

Because society cannot take female points of view seriously, viewers do not believe that their perceptions and experiences have any value or lesson to teach. They violently reject or simply overlook these women and accompanying female traits as superficial, vain, girlie, and as having no impact on society. Much like Merida did in the beginning of the film. She learned later they did impact her ability to be powerful in society. Stories about girls are often stories about mean girls, girls fighting over a guy, girls being sexual or being sexual objects. Mothers and daughters are almost never addressed in films and when they are they are always fighting. Even in “chick flicks” they are at odds with each other. Trying to find a healthy mother-daughter relationship is impossible. This movie presents a troubled relationship but, like a good fairytale, it gives us a pathway, a vision, out of the conflict and toward resolution and understanding. It's a way for our young people to envision what it would be like to really appreciate one's mother and to see her as a person. It is troubling when a female reviewer says repeatedly and with contempt that she just doesn't care about Merida as a character at all and this conflict is the same as all others.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnev3eTmKCU

In How to Be a Woman by Caitlin Moran, the author discusses something she describes as her imaginative landscape. In the book she focuses on visions of sexual pleasure, but I believe her concept applies to this as well. In order for us to be able to see ourselves in healthy relationships, we have to have examples. We have to have seen it on TV or in real life, or read it in a book when we are in our formative years so we can add it to our imagination. Once we have that vision in our heads, it becomes like a landmark. We are conditioned to look for that because it feels good and makes us happy. It becomes a ruler to measure our relationships and something we can use as a model to create our own happy and healthy relationship. If we don't have these visions in our imagination we are lead to believe it is not possible or does not exist. People who have seen nothing but broken and antagonist relationships aren't going to know how to construct a healthy one. They need a model to follow, and clear signs to read so they can steer their relationship right. It is the legacy of a conflicted familial past that so many cannot accept a clear example of a healthy and happy family.

For Example, Pop Psychology authors have made millions of dollars teaching visualization as means to achieve happiness. "If you can dream it, you can do it."--Walt Disney

This imaginative landscape that is seeded during a person's youth combines socialization with imagination. You can't imagine it if you've never “seen” it and you can't create it if you can't imagine it. Therapy is expensive and fairytales are cheap.