Religion

Written several years ago, but not published until today.

Having finished my reading of the Bible (all of it), the time has come to once again attempt to I have come to believe that religion is man-made, humans' search for meaning about the deepest questions.   Where do we come from, and where do we go when we die? Are we alone, or is there a higher power that is somehow in charge? How did all this come to be? Was the universe created, or was it always thus? If created, what came before? What created the creator?  

These questions are intriguing, but unanswerable. Such an entity as the Creator (if it exists at all) is unknowable to humans. It would be too vast and totally different from anything we could understand. 

Applying reasoning (which perhaps is a mistake when dealing with this question),  it is hard to even think about a creator. I'm willing to concede that there may have been a creator, but that would have to be an entity with no beginning or end, which itself was not created but had the omniscient power to create the universe.  

But would that be an entity with the qualities described in scripture: loving and watching over everyone; judging human behavior and sending us to our reward or damnation; sending his son to Earth and then bringing him back to Heaven, to later return and save the faithful and send the damned down to Hell; reincarnating souls to a higher or lower level (as in Eastern religion); requiring that we follow the Ten Commandments, attend church or temple, take communion, eat no meat (again, as in Eastern religion), eat only kosher food, wear clothes with tassels, circumcise men, obey prescribed behavior towards a spouse, and so much more. 

What then is religion? Where did it come from? It seems to me that religion was created by humans. I think religious doctrine evolved in to explain the unexplainable. order society and show us how to live a good, virtuous life. But as an origin story, it doesn't work for me.

The Covid Diary

I just discovered this hitherto unpublished summary of my bout with Covid in 2023.

First Nine Days

Started feeling bad Nov. 22/23. Absent from Megan's Thanksgiving dinner.

Teleconference with Doximity Dr. Kucura Nov. 25

This is the sickest I've been in many years. Nasal congestion, sore throat, fever (as high as 104), body aches, cough (productive), no appetite, diarrhea. Rattling chest sounds (bronchitis?) during early stages. 

Exhaustion: slept most of day and through the night. 

Brain function: difficulty concentrating.  e.g. creating spreadsheet comparing yield spreads (10 yr vs. 2 year and 2 month) took much longer than it normally would. Interpreting results was equally difficult. Reading a novel, watching a movie or TV show seemed too much effort. But watched social media from outset.

Lost 12 pounds in first seven days; lived on fluids.  Eating even a few bites of solid food was as much as I could do, and then under protest.

Nancy: "I've never seen you this sick." Threatened to take me to the ER if I didn't start eating. 

Day 10

Today is first day I've felt hungry. Still very spaced out. Brain fogged. 

Day 11

First sip of coffee since this began. No alcohol during the entire period. 

Day 15 (Dec. 6)

Getting better. Cough is much less severe. This is more protracted than any cold I've ever experienced. Energy level still very low. Still sleeping more than usual in daytime.  Unable/unwilling to walk dogs or drive. Able to edit Wikipedia without too much effort. No alcohol since before Day 1 - remarkable.  Diarrhea mostly gone. Still waking in middle of the night with pyjamas/bedsheets damp with perspiration. No alcohol.

Day 17 (Dec. 7)

Diarrhea. sinus headache. No alcohol.

Day 18 (Dec. 8)

Last night was almost normal. Slept soundly, minimal coughing. Today: sinus headache. Still no alcohol since inception.

Day 20 (Dec. 13)

Diarrhea.

Day 21 (Dec. 14 )

Still have lingering symptoms: fatigue, cough, hoarseness. Dr. Floyd says this could last another week (4 weeks total). Weight: 207. 

Day 22 (Dec. 15)

Weight: 205. Still no alcohol since inception of covid.

The Adventures of Donald Trump

I may be the first person to conflate Donald Trump with H. Rider Haggard. 

This was born after browsing through the pages of Wikipedia (as I do every day). I found myself engrossed in an article about Haggard's 1886 novel "She: A History of Adventure." 

As any schoolboy of my generation knows, Haggard wrote his novel after a stint as a civil servant in Africa. His adventures included the expedition that established British control over the Boer republic in the Transvaal. Haggard himself raised the Union flag over the capital of Pretoria in May 1877. Later he declared: "It will be some years before people at home realize how great an act it has been, an act without parallel. I am very proud of having been connected with it. Twenty years hence it will be a great thing to have hoisted the Union Jack over the Transvaal for the first time." 

Haggard believed it was Britain's mission to conquer and hold in subjection, "not from thirst of conquest but for the sake of law, justice, and order."  To my jaded eye, his Transvall adventure bears a striking resemblance to Trump's recent exploits in Iran and Venezuela, his dreams of annexing Canada and Greenland, doing something to Cuba, renaming the Gulf of Mexico, and God only knows what will follow. 

I wish it would all go away like a bad dream or a bout with diarrhea. But that's not likely to happen soon enough. 

N.B. Haggard's novel was recreated in the 1965 movie "She" starring Ursula Andress.

The Story of Civilization by Will and Ariel Durant

I grew up in a family with lots of books. All 11 volumes of The Story of Civilization stood tall on my parents' bookshelves from my earliest childhood recollections. At that time I was puzzled by the title of the first volume: "Our Oriental Heritage." How could that be correct? To my young mind the Orient was China, or Japan, the home of Joe Jitsu, an Oriental cartoon character who appeared on The Dick Tracy show on WIPX Channel 11 in the New York area in the early 1960s, hosted by "Chief" Joe Bolton.

But the Durant's story of civilization defines "oriental" in broader terms. They start with "the beginning of humanity, when some freak or crank, half animal and half man, squatted in a cave or in a tree, cracking his brain to invent the first common noun." Then they move on to The Stone Age. Written history began some 6,000 years ago, and for half of that period "the center of human affairs was in the Near East....The Aryans did not establish civilization - they took it from Babylon and Sumeria." Ah, now I understand.

Further support for an Oriental heritage: the ancient city of Susa, located in what is now Iran. There  archaeologists found human remains dating back 20,000 years. Evidence of an advanced culture emerged around 4500 BC.  Arabic numerals and the decimal system "came to us through the Arabs from India." 

The Durants' Orient includes India. This is when the book really caught my attention It explains not just Indian history, but a deep dive into Hindu philosophy and religion as well. Above the pantheon of Hindu gods and goddesses is Brahman, an ineffable concept "from which all existence proceeds, and to which everything returns, the cause of all that exists. Brahman is everywhere and inside each living being, and there is connected spiritual oneness in all existence."  

To the Hindu, if we have not lived a good life, our essence returns to Brahman when we die. Then it is reincarnated in a new life. We have another opportunity to do better. The cycle of birth, death and reincarnation continues until we achieve perfection and become one with Brahman. The Durants note that Hindu religion is much more complex than this brief description, but those are the thoughts that I took from this part of the book.

As for "the life of the mind" (as the Durants call it), to the Hindu "the purpose of knowledge and philosophy is not control of the world so much as release from it...the goal of thought is to find freedom from the suffering of frustrated desire by achieving freedom from desire itself." The Durants  magnanimously decline to judge such beliefs, "for our judgments in the West are usually based on corporeal experience and material results, which seem irrelevant and superficial to the Hindu saint." 

Still ahead lies Chinese and Japanese history. And that's just in volume 1. Ahead are 10 more volumes of more familiar western European stuff, such as "Rousseau and Revolution" and "The Age of Napoleon." I hope I live long enough, and retain my eyesight long enough, to read them all.

N.B. "The Story of Civilization" was first published in 1934. and was revised and updated numerous times before both Durants died in 1981. The version before me is dated 1954, which happens to be the year I was born.

Is Trump Building His Own Paramilitary Militia?

Our democracy is in danger. This article from The Economist (January 31, 2026) makes some excellent points. I agree with all of them.

ICE's Impunity is a Formula for More Violence.

Venezuelan Adventure

Today's news of the U.S. intervention in Venezuela sent me rushing to my search engine. How many times has the USA done such a thing in the past? The list is sobering. I remember when the USA invaded Panama and deposed Noriega. And Iraq, Afghanistan and Grenada. Not to mention Vietnam. I understand the reasons for those adventures, sort of. Now we can add Venezuela to the list. 

After watching today's Trump news conference, I have grave concerns about this incursion. At first I thought it was being done to stop drug smuggling into the US by deposing a corrupt dictator. But who gave him the authority to step in and kick over a sovereign nation's government?

I doubt today's action will have much effect on stopping illegal drug imports. The US is a huge market for high-stakes smugglers. Illegal substances have a way of finding new ways around barriers because there is so much demand, and so much money, in the USA. Despite the actions announced today, the problem of drug abuse and addiction will pop up again and again, even if we stop the outflow from Venezuela. How about attacking the demand side of this problem? More federal funding for drug education and help for the addicted? Our federal goverment doesn't seem to even consider a two-prong approach.

Even worse were Trump's statements that "we" (meaning him and his minions) are going to run Venezuela now, and U.S. oil companies will run the Venezuelan oil industry. That sounds like a takeover of the entire country, including its economy. I have the sickening feeling that Mr. President decided to make those sweeping statements on the spur of the moment, without first having a robust debate with his own advisors. I shudder to think of how that unexpected statement must have been received by Venezuelans. They're losing the right to rule themselves without foreign interference.