"With modern processes and medical care, eating pig flesh is not such a problem anymore".
- Certainly, but i was refering to historical pork eating practices. That said, there's quite a large tapeworm problem in france because of their tendency to undercook pork and other meats.
"Of course, the problem with religion is, what was once a good idea is now dogma. I am of the opinion that science is superior to religion as science (done properly) is self-correcting". Oh you are indeed, 100% right there, no question. I wasnt attempting to justify religion, but to merely show the kinds of reasons that religions like Islam, Christianity etc. have survived memetically so well in our population over the centurys. If only people realised that scientific explainations make interesting little stories too.
The existance of religion in general seems to be a by product of our storytelling nature, the nature which played a large part in our ability to out-compete neanderthals. We are after all not really wise men (homo sapiens) but rather storytelling apes (pans narratans) and our drive to make sense out of an incredibly complex universe is what makes us human.
If anyone doubts the impact of following a certain religion on the evolutionary path of a tribe then they should really consider why the god of the jews and the muslims forbade them to eat pig flesh - the most parasite ridden meat you can find. This commandment prevented the investation of the followers by tapeworms and other nasty bastards, drastically lowering the amount of morbidity and mortality in the population. The religion (and the people) proliferated.
Plus there's always the fact that devout followers are more likely to survive and procreate in a society that has a tendency to stone non-believers to death;)
Im a biochemist who works in clinical trials and i can tell you right now that that study is terribly terribly flawed, and really shouldnt be given the weight it has been in the media.
From the independant article
"Greenpeace said the Russian trials were also badly flawed. Half of the rats in the trial died, and results were taken from those that survived, in breach of normal scientific practice".
Basically this russian group abused/neglected a large group of rats, and gathered data attempting to link their unfortunate conditions to a pretty charged topic. The worst thing about these kinds of reports and pseudoscience is that it takes away from serious studies to determine the health benefits of GM, or in fact any foods.
Slashdot Mirror
"With modern processes and medical care, eating pig flesh is not such a problem anymore".
- Certainly, but i was refering to historical pork eating practices. That said, there's quite a large tapeworm problem in france because of their tendency to undercook pork and other meats.
"Of course, the problem with religion is, what was once a good idea is now dogma. I am of the
opinion that science is superior to religion as science (done properly) is self-correcting".
Oh you are indeed, 100% right there, no question. I wasnt attempting to justify religion, but to merely show the kinds of reasons that religions like Islam, Christianity etc. have survived memetically so well in our population over the centurys. If only people realised that scientific explainations make interesting little stories too.
The existance of religion in general seems to be a by product of our storytelling nature, the nature which played a large part in our ability to out-compete neanderthals. We are after all not really wise men (homo sapiens) but rather storytelling apes (pans narratans) and our drive to make sense out of an incredibly complex universe is what makes us human. If anyone doubts the impact of following a certain religion on the evolutionary path of a tribe then they should really consider why the god of the jews and the muslims forbade them to eat pig flesh - the most parasite ridden meat you can find. This commandment prevented the investation of the followers by tapeworms and other nasty bastards, drastically lowering the amount of morbidity and mortality in the population. The religion (and the people) proliferated. Plus there's always the fact that devout followers are more likely to survive and procreate in a society that has a tendency to stone non-believers to death ;)
Im a biochemist who works in clinical trials and i can tell you right now that that study is terribly terribly flawed, and really shouldnt be given the weight it has been in the media. From the independant article "Greenpeace said the Russian trials were also badly flawed. Half of the rats in the trial died, and results were taken from those that survived, in breach of normal scientific practice". Basically this russian group abused/neglected a large group of rats, and gathered data attempting to link their unfortunate conditions to a pretty charged topic. The worst thing about these kinds of reports and pseudoscience is that it takes away from serious studies to determine the health benefits of GM, or in fact any foods.