Happy Hallowe’en!
My boys are not very excited about Hallowe’en this year, and I will be in class this evening while they hand out the goodies, so I really am not participating much at all.
Usually, I am in costume at work and read spooky stories to trick or treaters, but not this year. This year we are not dressing up at all, or reading either. However, I made myself a Hallowe’en pin to wear, which you may or may not be able to see below, where it is reposing on the first full skein of Wool of the Andes for #2 son’s sweater. The sweaters I am working on right now are gray and navy blue (that is Pipes under the gray one), so neither will make interesting pictures.
Mostly at work right now I am apologizing to people and sending them away empty-handed because we don’t have what they need. Also I fluff things and spread them out to disguise the lack of stock. Soon it will be like those Soviet grocery stores we used to hear about in elementary school back when I was a child. Our teachers always painted lurid word-pictures for us of how little there was in Soviet grocery stores, compared with our dozens of different brands of toothpaste.
The boys are not excited about Hallowe’en, but #2 son is excited about Thanksgiving, and in particular the stretch between Thanksgiving and Christmas, which he assures me is his favorite time of year. That is of course Advent, and I like it a lot too.
We are expecting both the girls home this weekend, and that is also very exciting. #1 daughter is working till 10:00 at night right now, and then they will be leaving tomorrow on a 27-hour road trip to get here, but once she arrives it will be serious fun around here. The wedding, which will include dancing and karaoke, and the tapas party, and we are thinking that we will try to squeeze in a turkey dinner since #1 daughter and son-in-law won’t be here for Thanksgiving.
So we have a lot to look forward to.
I am also looking forward to some spirited discussion of The God Delusion. #1 daughter and Son-in-Law both are very big on spirited discussion. They haven’t actually been reading much of the book, and #2 daughter hasn’t even received her copy yet, but I may have enough scornful things to say to start a conversation, and once it is started it can be counted upon to continue.
Elizbit posted an interesting review of The God Delusion last week, and if you click on her name, you can read it. This guy is more scornful than I have been, but he makes some very interesting points. And of course he has read the whole book.
I have moved on to the next section, and I think Dawkins may be back on form. He is going to tell us how religion is bad for us. Lots of people say this, of course, including some of you guys on your xangas. There is always a large logical problem with that claim, though. Namely, religion is so basic to human beings (it is one of the ways that archaeologists decide whether a particular primate is human or not) that it is like the joke about pregnancy being caused by rain — 100% of pregnant women have been rained upon, so pregnancy is caused by rain. Claiming that bad (or good) behavior is caused by religion is just like that.
Dawkins takes this bull by the horns in his next section. Religion, he says, is as common among humans as heterosexuality. Since it is clearly a waste of time and resources, it must be for something.
When Dawkins talks about wasting time here, he doesn’t mean that people’s prayer time takes away from their TV-watching. He does say that sort of thing elsewhere, but here he is talking specifically about reproductive success: anything we do that doesn’t ensure procreation and raising our offspring to procreate successfully is a waste of time, since it doesn’t keep our genes in the gene pool. Keeping our genes in the pool is, Dawkins has said many times, the entire and only point to life.
Heterosexuality has obvious advantages in terms of keeping those genes in the pool, but religion’s usefulness in this matter is less clear. Since people keep doing it, though, Dawkins has faith that there must be an evolutionary explanation.
So today, as you prepare for trick or treaters, or carve your jack-o-lantern, or work, or put the finishing touches on your costume, or make your home ready for guests, or shape popcorn balls for your loved ones, ask yourself: Will this keep my genes in the pool? If not, it is a waste of time, so just skip it. In this way, we can attain the amazing reproductive success of insects, who rarely waste time doing anything but procreating and eating.
Just something to think about.
much to ponder…
I enjoyed this post very much; thanks for writing it. I too am looking forward to the stretch of time from Thanksgiving to Christmas, which — provided there’s no ice storm, and the power stays on — is my favorite time of the year too. I suppose Dawkins would disapprove, since all of us are far too busy to do any procreating during that period.
I do wonder, though: Will it keep your store’s gene in the pool if you continue not to have any stock?
I forgot to say how much I admire the Halloween pin you made…. Very nice.
I know it may be hard for Dawkins to believe, but some humans aspire to be more than insects.
I love your pin!
LOL! I really should get to procreating more. I’m thinking of skipping the reading and just enjoying your reports.
I have been thinking about the holidays alot and was thinking about blogging my wandering thoughts. Lots of my traditions have changed.
Evolutionary theory in both biology and psychology amuses me. When people like Dawkins argue that something like religion must have some gene propagating purpose they always seem to search for some sort of direct link between say religion and sex. They often forget to consider that producing babies is only the start. Those babies have to live long enough to be able to propagate their genes as well (ie: reach puberty). Therefore the caregivers must live long enough to ensure that the children reach puberty. As well as external sources leading to early premature death of the caregivers there are internal sources. A permanently stressed caregiver develops both physical and mental disorders that increase the likelihood of early death, either by accident, illness or their own hand. Anything that might decrease that stress increases the likelihood that the caregiver will live long enough to get the child safely to reproductive age. For some people religion does decrease that stress – a big conributor to stress is the feeling that one has no control over events. A religion eases this by allowing people to believe that 1) God has control so 2) if I believe in God and follow God’s rules I will have some control by proxy
Where’s Darfur? (Geography is not one of my academic strengths 🙂 ) I didn’t realise that Dawkins is actually the originator of the Selfish Gene theory, shows you how ignorant I am (I just checked out his bio on the web) I’d probably get real annoyed while arguing (discussing?) with him face to face. Seeing as how his reputation (and probably a fair bit of his income – cynical, cynical!) is founded on this whole selfish gene/evolutionary base, I’m not sure there would be any point discussing these things with him. My father always used to say that whenever reading opinions or theories make sure I keep in mind what the writer/speaker has invested in his/her theory. How much does he/she stand to lose by admitting that he/she may not be right. If there is a lot to lose (reputation, money) there may not be much room for reason or logic in the writing.