Those (few) who used to follow my political blogging know that it was often heavily anti-religious (to the consternation of many of my political-philosophy soul-mates). Though still steadfastly a non-believer -- "I don't believe in Zeus, or any of the Gods that came after" - Richard Dawkins -- my attitude about the whole thing has changed stylistically. Now, I essentially put it in the same general boat as agriculture, i.e., agriculture making things like Big Statism, Big Corporatism, and Big Religion (all steadfast bedfellows -- or honor-bound thieves, take your pick) possible. Decentralized religion -- call it tribal myth -- lacks the power to harm lots of people, as Big western religions used to do (at least as antagonists) -- but Islam still does.
So what does this have to do with health & fitness, you ask? Glad you asked.
Well, one of the blogs I've been linking to in my Quick Hits posts is that of Don Matesz (husband of and co-author with Chef Rachel).
I'm woefully behind in my reading, but finally got to Don's post pointing to this one from a very interesting person, which I'll get into in a moment.
That post is about the whole Muslim custom of covering women in ridiculous looking attire from head to foot (Want a laugh from my past blogging antics? See here.) causing osteomalacia and other serious health issues linked to vitamin D deficiency (and: connect the dots).
You never get sugar-coating here (not in the food porn, and not in the principles or opinions). Plenty of bloggers are happy to refrain from stepping on toes. Not me -- though I'm less interested in regularly lobbing bombs as I used to be. Too happy, feeling too good, I suppose.
These people, to be generous, are out of touch with reality! Bad things happen when that happens, and the usual result is that people get harmed, many killed. Other than that, there's too many delusions to go around and I'm far beyond trying to point them all out.
Of course, they're just Muslims, and we're "enlightened" Christians, Jews, and general derivatives of same, right? Well, perhaps, and I will certainly stipulate to the obvious fact that that the two latter are far more benign to the health of humanity in general than the former.
I just can't understand the necessity, the imperative. Fear? I think that has a lot to do with it. But I'll move along. More than being a rare (I assure you) anti-religion post, I would just suggest to you that just as bizarre as it seemed at first to question the ingestion of grains and sugar, did you ever stop to realize that modern religions are even newer to our evolution?
Which brings me to the "interesting person" I referenced, above. Acharya S., AKA D. M. Murdock. Here's her main site (which is going to kick off audio -- a video -- so take note). She's an archeologist, and, while I read all of the "new atheist" books out the last coupla years (Dennett, Dawkins, Harris, Hitchens), I'm really more impressed by the archeological detection that demonstrates the very same theme over eons and eons (how about 5,000 BC?). What theme? Well, you'll have to check into that yourself.
She has a few videos (books you can find at that main site link), which I'll list shortest to longest.
Sun of God (3:36)
Who Was Jesus? Fingerprints of The Christ (16:19)
The Christ Conspiracy (53:40)
As much, or as little as you like. Have it your way. You don't have to believe in evolution to derive benefit from a diet based on the logic of evolution. You don't have to disbelieve in a deity, either.
It just helps. That's all.
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Idiocracy: The Dirty Side of EvolutionPlease spread the word
Have you seen the Bill Maher documentary, "Religulous"? He brings up the Horus Myth and the parallels to the Jesus story. Fascinating in so many ways.
A great way to louse up a good thing is to "market" it to death. Atheism is a faith. Islam is a faith. Christianity is a faith. One cannot convince someone else of "facts" that are contrary to their fundamental truths, because the basis of their being is based on those truths. Weather it took 60 million or 6,000 years for humankind to get where we are as people, the advancement in refined, over treated and mass produced foods have obvious and detrimental effects. Mass religion AND atheism has the same effects in that amount of time. The "primal" tagline is a good way to sell shirts vitamins and books, and the religious tags are nearly the same. It all boils down to the simple truth that we need live simple, eat simple, and love each other more than we love ourselves. Love the blog, but please stick to the food porn!
Thanks for the thoughtful entry. Of course, as the author of a blog called "raincitypastor" (see http://www.raincitypastor.blogspot.com) you might guess that I'd point to other scholars such as Frank Collins and NT Wright in order to suggest that there are thoughtful scholars on both sides of this equation.
Mainly, though, I wrote to thank you for your contributions to health, both mine and others. In a world of misinformation (religious or otherwise), I'm finding your offerings both motivational and well documented. In fact, I slow roasted a tri-tip for supper and said a little prayer of gratitude for your wisdom!!
thanks for over generalising the issues.
I came here to pick a fight.
Actually, I'm here to contend the notion that atheism is a religion, Perhaps to the "newly devout" it's a religion. But if you've never believed, ever, it's nothing you'll want to shove in people's faces, or bring up in conversation just to rabble-rouse.
Perhaps you can expand on what you were meaning, Matt?
Oh and Richard: Great post. It's impossible, in my view, to have an outlet that sticks 100% to one facet of your personality/views. This is why I've included "folly" in my subtitle on my new design.
That said, have you seen the movie, "The God who wasn't there"? I think you'd quite like it.
Best,
Skyler
Erin:
Yep, saw it recently. Thought the beginning parts were too "Morreesque," i.e., ambush, but the second half was excellent.
Some atheists are just as dogmatic about it as some religious people are about their religion.
However, the fact remains that one side is asserting the _real existence_ of a _thing_ and the other side is rejecting that assertion — however badly some atheists may argue their point.
Theists can offer no credible or scientifically objective evidence for the real, actual existence of the thing, which they generally admit to and hence call for faith.
If one's faith in such matters gives him or her comfort, fine. We perhaps all have our comforting fantasies, hopes, etc.
I was raised in a fundamentalist baptist environment and spent a year in divinity school. I found that faith was far to high a price to pay for me. I prefer to look reality square in the face.
And, yea, this diversion shall be brief. Back to food porn and other health and fitness topics ASAP.
Richard:
"I slow roasted a tri-tip for supper and said a little prayer of gratitude for your wisdom!!"
Ha! I'll take it!
I understand there are serious and sincere people/scholars. I attended divinity school in '79/'80 (Tennessee Temple University, Chattanooga). After leaving and setting divine matters aside while completing university and then on for some years abroad as a US Navy officer, is was roughly 20 years ago, now, that I was finally able to assert my non-belief, have never wavered, and never looked back.
I haven't the slightest doubt that my life has been tremendously enriched as a result.
But, after all, that's just me.
Mo:
I can only take your comment to mean that I have lumped everyone into the same boat, i.e., Christians, Jews, Muslims, Eastern religions, and all derivatives of same. If that's not what you meant, feel free to clarify.
I do make (and did) distinctions I think are appropriate to make, such as, Islam is today in many ways as primitive, violent, oppressive as was Christianity and Judaism centuries ago.
It's an important distinction.
However, in terms of veracity, I make no distinction. They're all a bunch of fanciful stories based upon faulty premises and primitive superstition having root in the inexplicable wonder of the cosmos to primitive man, so far as I can tell, and the subject no longer holds sufficient interest with me to bother with it much, anymore.
I would point out that it's easy to convince a Christian that Islam is a false religion, or at best, horribly misguided. The converse holds true as well, and that ought to give everyone a lot of pause, right there.
Each will themselves claim that "they can't both be true," which is true. The problem proceeds from there, and the bloodshed is soon to follow.
Because people are locked in their box, i.e., hold unwavering allegiance to their _premises_, the only alternative for them is to declare their religion the one true, and all others false.
They don't allow themselves to consider the much stronger, more logical possibility: that they're _all_ false, no matter their ability to apparently give comfort and inspire many.
Yep, I've seen it. Was raised in a similar environment to the creator of that film, small private religious school and all.
Great post Richard!
It's funny how how conventional wisdom seems to seep into everything. Took me 21 years to recognize how ingrained in my life they were.
Watching Zeitgeist was pretty cool. The filmmaker relating the constellations with the events in the bible was beyond interesting.
Danny
There's some interesting stuff in the Acharya S line on Earl Doherty's website. He also has a review of Vardis Fisher's 'Testament of Man' 12 volume series of novels on religious and social ideas. The first few might be of interest to primal types as they are historical novels set in paleo times about hunter gatherers. I remember a particularly vivid description of them killing and eating a mammoth.
I really like your site and think you spread a lot of great information, but the idea that religion is something relatively new in the timeline of our evolution is just false. Sure, organized religions like Christianity and Islam are pretty new, but all the evidence we have pertaining to this subject shows that early man believed in deitys and myths. If anything, they attributed much more to divine sources than we do, even those who call themselves "religious." They certainly did not restrict their beliefs to what can only be proven empirically or verified by the scientific method. What's actually very, very new is the idea of atheism.
"They certainly did not restrict their beliefs to what can only be proven empirically or verified by the scientific method."
Yep, some things never change.
"What's actually very, very new is the idea of atheism."
…Some things.
I would say my issue with "belief in a God" is that there is no evidence to support that "God" does exist. Also the evolutionary process does not seem to suggest anything about a Creator, but points to a randomized process where adaptations had to be made to improve "fitness" of organisms.
I think its up to us humans to improve the quality of our lives and health. Humans nor any other living being is made to be Immortal(, but then again, none of us will ever no the exact moment of when we die.
Richard, speaking of which, did you hear about Art Devany's fasting insulin levels of below hunter and gatherers? He is typical of someone who is attempting to use science/evolution to counter anti-aging. I can only hope that his diet and EF approach will keep him from aging to bc that sure would be something if this insulin thing was in fact meaningful. I am skeptical that he is aging as slow as he says he is, but I can't deny that Evolutionary Fitness is way better than the standard american diet.
how is atheism a religion? what tenets does atheism have? what proof do you have that the earth is 6,000 years old when scientific evidence says something radically different?
how does atheism have the same effects as religion?
Richard, love your blog – you are doing great work here, so congratulations.
Something more related to religion and nutrition…I am Jewish but not particularly religious, nor am I kosher (I like my bacon and eggs too much!), but I drive to/from work every day though my local orthodox Jewish area.
What I have noticed since going primal and certainly low-carb is the very high percentage of orthodox adults that are overweight, bordering on obese – I'd say probably 75%, and a about 50% of the kids are too.
That got me thinking why that would be. And it dawned on me. Kosher meat is ridiculously expensive – at least it is here in Australia. Significant sources of high quality protein would be very difficult to maintain, particularly with 5-8 kids in the family to feed. I'm certain there is absolutely no source of grass-fed kosher beef, pastured chicken and certainly no pork!
So what does the diet revert to? Carbs. And lots of it. It's cheap and readily accessible – particularly kosher bread. The local kosher bakeries here are crammed full of people buying bagels, challahs (a jewish sweet egg loaf commonly eaten on the sabbath) and other kosher breads. This is not to mention the raft of kosher packaged (read: processed) goods.
I've come to realise that a kosher diet is not very healthy at all. It all makes sense now.
Given that the great apes from which we evolved must be atheists (they even have trouble with higher-order relational processes, e.g., analogical reasoning), atheism is the defacto ancestral condition. Theism emerged somewhere along the way in human evolution, but my guess is that it only really took hold after the transition from the genus Australopithicine to Homo and then probably after language evolved (which is actually more recent than many scientists even realize–probably only a few hundred thousand years ago). Theism may be a very successful psychological autapomorphy (unique derived trait) or meme in Dawkin's language, doesn't mean its been good for our health. Thanks for drawing us to this parallel, Richard!
How about the mostly agriculturally oriented birth-death-rebirth basis for much of mythology.
I read somewhere that Israel has high CVD mortality.
Yep, another of those unintended consequences. Early prohibition of pork was probably due trichinosis, but the leaders probably figured it would just be easier to have God command it rather than have to give a rational explanation.
Richard, you might be interested in this:
Freedom to Learn
It's a collection of essays by Peter Gray on "the roles of play and curiosity as foundations for learning."
His current series is "Play Makes Us Human," with the most recent essay being Why Hunter-Gatherers' Work Is Play.
Another recent essay was Play Is the Foundation for Religion, in which he outlines the H-G origins of religion, and then notes:
"As religion evolved (or should I say devolved) from the hunter-gatherers' comic pantheons to the medieval monotheisms it became less playful and more dangerous. As nature became an enemy rather than a friend, and as the spirit world became hierarchical, the element of fear began to overwhelm the element of play. God became not a playmate, but the supreme source of punishment and reward, to be worshipped, served, and feared. As religion became serious, people began to confound the imaginary religious world with the real world."
He cites H-Gs a lot, for example here:
Children Educate Themselves III: The Wisdom of Hunter-Gatherers
and here:
The Natural Environment for Children’s Self-Education: How The Sudbury Valley School is Like a Hunter-Gatherer Band
In fact, the whole thing is well worth reading from the beginning; it just started up a year ago, and the essays aren't very long.
But then, my kids are unschoolers; of course I was going to like it.
Interesting comment and I appreciate your reply, but I don't think you have any basis for refering to great apes as atheists. Given the evidence, I don't think we can detect any kind of awareness regarding the essential nature of the universe. Human consciousness is a mystery; the consciousness of animals, even relatively intelligent ones like apes, is even more so.
Theism and other religious ideas emerged because as human beings developed consciousness they encountered a profound mystery regarding where they came from, what "meaning", if any, is attached to their lives, what happens after death, questions related to cosmology, etc. These mysteries have not been solved. The fact that these mysteries and the inherent weakness in human consciousness have been exploited by tyrants starting religions does not make them any less real.
I would suggest reading the great philosopher Schopenhauer, who was a die-hard atheist, on this matter.
Religion isn't all bad. Traditional Christians encourage intermittent fasting (the Orthodox fast almost every Wednesday and Friday). And the Fall sure seems like a metaphor for the transition from a hunter-gatherer to agricultural lifestyles.
@Matt said
Sorry, but I really have to clear this up. It's actually a lack of faith. I think you think that Atheism is a faith because most of us have "faith" in evolution, big bang cosmology, etc? Correct me if I am wrong.
The default position, the one we are all born with, is a lack of a belief in a god. This is the default position.
Many religions and sects of religions claim their own variations on a particular god.
Burden of proof is on the person making the claim.
Atheists say, "provide us with reasonable proof of your claim", and if they don't feel like they have gotten any, then they reject the claim.
Atheism is simply a lack of belief in a diety, that's all.
Granted most Atheists believe in evolution, but that is also because they have looked at the claim and said that yes, this is a reasonable and well supported argument for the origin of the human species.
@Richard Nikoley
I think that's probably one of the longest reply:reply word ratio I've ever seen.
Actually, while I've been an atheist since my young teens, low-carb never really clicked with me until I connected our evolutionary heritage with diet.
And from a Paleo/Primal perspective, religion does fit into this niche because it's about, as you said, a species of animal trying to interpret the cosmos through his newfound sentience. As Carl Sagain said, a way for the universe to understand itself.
I'm glad you aren't one to hold back on taboo topics and just speak your mind. I'm 100% behind the approach of a reasoned and reasonable look at reality. Why be afraid of what might be the truth, or what might be false? We have one life, we need to spend it exploring all avenues of thought and modes of living.