Category: Religion

Eric Rasmusen (expect controversy from his site) writes:

I would rather see a preacher honestly say, “I believe Christians are better than other people.” A Christian has to believe that. If he doesn’t, he is denying sanctification – he is saying that even genuine Christian belief has no influence on a person’s behavior. Maybe that is true, but should somebody who believes it be a Christian?

Here is more. 

Thousands of pilgrims are pouring into the dense jungle of southern Nepal to worship a 15-year-old boy who has been hailed as a new Buddha.
    Devotees say that Ram Bomjon, who is meditating silently beneath a tree, has not eaten or had anything to drink since he sat down at his chosen spot six months ago.
    Witnesses say they have seen light emanating from the teenager’s forehead. "It looks a bit like when you shine a [flashlight] through your hand," said Tek Bahadur Lama, a member of the committee responsible for dealing with the growing number of visitors from India and elsewhere in Nepal.
    Photographs of Ram, available for about 10 cents from his makeshift shrine, have become ubiquitous across the region. "Far and wide, it’s the only topic of conversation," said Upendra Lamichami, a local journalist…

Ram’s mother, who is called Maya Devi, like the Buddha’s mother, acknowledges anxiety, particularly at mealtimes, but she tells herself: "God took him to the forest and I have faith that God will feed him."
    "He’s definitely got thinner," she said. "Early in the morning he looks sunken, like there’s no blood in him, but as the sun rises he seems to get brighter and brighter."

    He said no claim had emerged of Ram breaking his fast or moving, even to relieve himself.
    Santa Raj Subedi, the chief government official in Bara District, appealed to the capital, Katmandu, for assistance in dealing with the influx of visitors, and for a team of scientists to examine the case.
    Local doctors failed to reach a final conclusion, although they were allowed no closer than five yards from the boy mystic, declaring that they could confirm no more than that he was alive.

The fervor increased last week when a snake is said to have bitten Ram, and a curtain was drawn around him.
    After five days it was opened and he spoke. "Tell the people not to call me a Buddha. I don’t have the Buddha’s energy. I am at the level of rinpoche [lesser divinity]. A snake bit me but I do not need treatment. I need six years of deep meditation."
    Despite his protestations, "Buddha boy" is famous.
    A thriving market has grown in the once pristine forest, supplying pilgrims with everything from chewing tobacco and bicycle repairs to incense and religious amulets. The ground is covered with litter.
    A fence was built around Ram’s tree to prevent pilgrims from prodding him, then a second, and now a third is planned, as well as a bus park, leaving Ram at the center of an ever-growing circle of commerce.

Here is the link.

A student and a colleague of mine, Colleen Berndt and Larry Iannaccone, have an interesting paper on the Oracle at Delphi.  It turns out that the Oracle’s prophecies tended to be pretty accurate:

The long journey some made to reach Delphi, combined with the long waits for a consultation, indicate a greater opportunity for information to make its way to the priests and pythias. In addition to the information circulated at the local watering holes, the priestesses were able to aggregate information gleaned from petitioner.

On political subjects, it was especially important for Delphi to be independent of political influence:

When Delphi gained its independence from the Phocians, it began to benefit greatly from a perception of fairness. Lack of control by any one state meant that Delphi could operate free from any political pressure.

Since the Oracle charged by the question, it was important to think carefully about the questions one asked.  This is also good advice for those creating prediction markets today.  The cost of creating a market is largely independent of the topic, while the value varies greatly by topic.  So for the best cost-benefit, ask the biggest questions.

No excerpt here, I am just passing along the link to the paper.

Historic Russian admiral Fyodor Ushakov — a hero of Russia’s wars against Turkey and Napoleon Bonaparte — was designated the patron saint of nuclear-armed, long-distance Russian bombers by the Orthodox Church…

"I am sure he will become your intermediary as you fulfil your responsible duties to the fatherland in the long-range air force," the patriarch said.

"His strong faith helped Saint Fyodor Ushakov in all his battles," the religious leader said, reminding his audience that the famous admiral of the 18th and 19th centuries never lost a battle.

Check out the photo.  Thanks to Dave Wells and Yana for the pointer.

Ever since the Mexican peso crisis of 1994-1995, I have been well aware that the Gods of the Dismal Science are cruel and capricious, at times punishing small sins against them with disproportionate retribution.

Here is the full post.  Here are a few of my voodoo flags.  Here are two more.  Here is my favorite.

In a new op-ed, an important Catholic theologian apparently accepts the logic of my argument (and here) on theism and evolution.  Coincidental timing?  Perhaps.  But the probability that the Pope reads MR now increases! 🙂   From the NYTimes.

An influential cardinal in the Roman Catholic Church, which has long
been regarded as an ally of the theory of evolution, is now suggesting
that belief in evolution as accepted by science today may be
incompatible with Catholic faith.

The cardinal, Christoph
Schönborn, archbishop of Vienna, a theologian who is close to Pope
Benedict XVI, staked out his position in an Op-Ed article in The New York Times on Thursday,
writing, "Evolution in the sense of common ancestry might be true, but
evolution in the neo-Darwinian sense – an unguided, unplanned process
of random variation and natural selection – is not."

Thanks to Roger Sweeny for the pointer.

$12,254, according to one source.  The calculation is "seat of the pants," at the very least, but it makes for an amusing exercise:

The answer (with some help from ebible’s weights and measurements section).

• 1 Roman denarius is equal to one’s day wage for an agricultural worker. As most people in the ancient world were farmers, we can make some basic judgement about the standard of living a denarius could provide.
• 1 denarius = 1/4 Hebrew shekel. Thus, 1/4 Hebrew shekel was probably the going rate for your basic Jewish [?] in Roman times (give or take).
• Judas was given 30 silver shekels to betray Jesus (Matt 26:15)
• 30 x 1/4 = 120. Thus, Judas was paid 120 days of an annual laborer’s wage.
• 120 days is approximately 1/3 of a year
• The average annual income for the American worker is $36,764 (according to a 2002 report by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics)
• 36764 * 0.333 (i.e. one third of 36764) = 12254.66.
• Therefore, Judas betrayed Jesus in exchange for what is approximately $12,254 in today’s currency.

A purchasing power parity calculation should be much lower; one-third of an annual income back then simply didn’t buy much.  Or for a classroom exercise, imagine a strangely long-lived forward market in ancient shekels and dollars.  Thanks to Claudio Shikida for the pointer.

Rather than answer all the objections put forward to my theism and evolution post let me state the argument in another way which should make it clear that I am (obviously) correct.

Suppose that God came down from the heavens tomorrow in all his glory, throwing thunderbolts, raising the dead, turning water into wine, whatever it takes to convince everyone of his existence.  If this were to occur I have no doubt that even Richard Dawkins, precisely because he is a rational scientist, would say ‘hmmm, perhaps I wasn’t quite right about all this evolution stuff.’  My point in the post is that many religious people don’t need the demonstration – they already believe and in so doing they logically question evolution just as Dawkins would if he came to believe as they do.