Fiannan

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Everything posted by Fiannan

  1. Mythbusters did something similar to destroy the myth that a nail in Coke will disolve in any way. Also, moderate caffeine use is okay -- check the article on energy drinks in this month's Ensign.
  2. MorningStar, animals eat, we eat...animals go through breeding cycles, humans go through breeding cycles...animals care for their young, humans care for their young... Now there are two ways you can look at this and they are either that we share common ancestors or that we share a common designer. I believe the latter. The big difference is that we have a soul that is capable of abstract choice and creativity rather than pure instinct. We should not discount our biological urges or design. There has to be a reason humans are designed the way they are and yes we can speculate on the reasons but should not pretend we are not similar to animals in many ways. To see that the extended family model benefits the aged as well as the young is something our ancestors would have said was self evident. Many American Indians said that our responsibilites in the family unit extend five generations. That fits what I am saying quite well I believe.
  3. Interesting since there are Muslims who have immigrated to Canada that want Canada to allow them to live under Sharia law and be able to practice their faith and marriage customs and not be subjected to Canadian law.
  4. Don't gripe at me for the laws of biology. In much of Europe, children are divided into programs of study in high school depending on their interests and aptitudes. You can be placed in a natural science tracking category in which most of your classes will be math and science oriented or you can be placed in a social science category where most of your classwork is humanities oriented. I have joked that there may be an easy way to see if your child (as young as 6) will be an N student or an S student. Show them an animal program on Discovery where a lion chases down, kils and eats a cute baby gazelle. Observe what your child says -- if they get mad that the cameraman didn't do something to save the gazelle or that the lion was really mean then they are likely to grow up to be a social science student. If they find the laws of nature interesting and observe that the lion now can feed her cubs then they are likely to become natural science students. Again, who was the author of the laws of biology?
  5. Well, if polygamy is immoral then that would make the religion of Judaism questionable for condoning it (as well as the prophets practicing it) as well as sects that sprang out of Judaism -- namely Christianity and Islam. At least the Muslims are more in touch with the origins of their religion. In fairness to the Jews a rabinical councel in Europe asked Jews not to practice polygamy several centuries ago for fear of persecution from Christians. The main point here is that grandparent's main biological function is to continue to work to assist their offspring in rearing of children so as to insure more of their genes are passed on. Simple biology. In traditional society the fact that males retain their reproductive capabilities implies that they could also take additional wives as this meant stronger males would pass on their genes and the genetic health of the society would be enhanced. Again, simple biology. Interesting how biology and religion can work together so many times.
  6. Depends. So-called male menopause is more a psychological or behavior (not biological) construct although psychology can have a huge effect on psysiology. From what I have read males who go through a psychological period that can be associated with the mid-life crisis (trying to regain youth or trying to change direction in life) do so when their wives end their reproductive cycle. Evolutionary psychology would say this is an attempt not to recapture youth but to appeal to younger partners. So one might expect someone like Congressman Dennis Kucinich who is 62 (and married to a woman who is 31) not to go through such a state for more than 15 or 20 years while perhaps actor Ashton Kuchner who is 30 (and married to a woman who is 46) might go through such a period in the near future -- that is if these theories are correct. The psychological impact of going through a "change of life" could either cause someone to try to fight or to go with the societal flow and adopt a lifestyle that is more akin to an older person. I personally believe that LDS people set the stage for "midlife" earlier than most people do. My wife and I were watching a movie last might which featured a love triagle between characters played by Jack Nicholson, Keuna Reeves adn Diane Keeton. Reeves is portrayed as a young doctor but when he did the role he was 40 in real life -- an age that most LDS people associate with being an older man and where you are expected to be celebrating your 15+ wedding anniversary. Maybe that's why so many LDS males in their 40s look older as they are already seeing their kids go off on missions and getting married. You choose to see yourself as "maturing" and your body adjusts to that state of being.
  7. Are you sure about the elephants? The documentary series would be wrong then. Role of women? The purpose was to deal with human biology and culture. In the spirit of equality let's deal with both genders. Females go through menopause and males don't. Why is that? From a biological point alone this would suppose that human males who survive past menopause in their original mate still serve the purpose of defending the tribe and hunting for food for the young. The strongest would then be able to take additional mates (biologically humans would be considered to be moderately polygamist as the larger the male in a species than the female the more mates he would be expected to get and since human males are slightly larger than close genetic females then one would expect the older male to take one or two additional wives if he was capable of it -- which is what we witness in most traditional societies). The "midlife crisis" in the human male is suspected of in reality being the realization (consciously or subconsciously) than his mate is no longer capable of reproducing his genes -- males who display this "crisis" usually do so when their wife reaches menopause -- which may be the reason so many males who are active in the Church get disfellowshipped in their 50s, or divorce and take trophy wives, they may not understand the biology behind such drives and be able to compensate for it. So what's up with the role of women? Females bear children and males defend the herd and sire offspring based on their strength -- in a more natural biological sense. If anything the male is more expendible as you only need one male for several females to keep the tribe functioning while females are more valuable biologically and thus are given bodies better able to fight disease and the elements than men are blessed with. Just biology -- yet aren't we supposed to gain insight about the creation by studying the world around us, and sometimes learning about ourselves in the process?
  8. Actually, that is not exactly what Church leaders taught in essence about blacks. True, they did teach, and I suppose still do, that Ham was cursed and that blacks are descendants of Ham but from my understanding that pre-dates the restoration by centuries. In the Book of Ezra anyone that was not pure Hebrew was cast out of the congregation and many see this as saying races should not mix -- although the reason given by Church leaders for not marrying outside of the races after the revelation for giving blacks the priesthood was that it places a huge burden on the couple from day one. One could note that the priesthood used to only be allowed to be given to those descended of Levi and even Jesus said His earthly mission was intended only for Jews. As for present teachings one could cite things like birth control as rather confusing for members. In the past leaders (yes, inspired leaders) said that family limitation was a violation of the temple covenant and could jeapordize your place in the next life. Birth control was discouraged as late as the 1990s yet one can see that todays politically correct PR way of dealing with the issue leaves the impression that leaders have changed their mind when in reality what they seem to want is for people to read the real message between the lines. And judging from how many people in the Church of all ages continue to get body piercings and tatoos and shrug off as relatively unimportant the urgings against it (it is after all pretty unimportnat in the grand scheme of things) maybe LDS people aren't all that different from those who feel that questioning of authority is okay. We just feel you shouldn't question for the sake of questioning -- and yes, LDS people do believe their leaders are inspired, but that they can be human as well and that some ideas (i.e. white shirts for Church occasions) are more a factor of cultural factors.
  9. I was just watching my copy of the BBC series "The Human Body" the other day and they were dealing with the scientific view of life (basically that all living creatures have a duty to fulfil to repropagate their genes before they die). Then they dealt with the paradox as to why human females live past their reproductive period -- sometimes half their life extends past menopause. So what was the explaination for this? Well, if the purpose of life is to reproduce your genes (again, pure Darwinistic biology) then the only logical explaination is that the human female is to assist her offspring in the raising of their children -- thus making life easier for her offpring and enabling them to reproduce at a higher rate. To support this idea the program noted that humans and pilot whales were the only creatures that the female goes through a menopause. The other interesting characteristic is that they are also the only creatures that the concept of "grandchildren" holds any importance. When observing pilot whales one finds the older females assist their duaghters in caring for the young. Up until recent times in the western world this was the role of grandparents as well -- not to give presents on birthdays or occasionally babysitting but to be there to instruct the grandchildren, to care for the grandchildren and also assist in everyday family functions until the time of death. This was the extended family -- a concept supported by scripture as well as biology. One wonders if we will continue our separation from our biological legacy for long. The "nuclear family" is an artificial concept of the industrial age and probably wil fade away in time as it devalues and degregates the older people and puts additional work and responsibilities on the young. Besides, it's just not natural.
  10. OJ Simpson would likely concur -- on all counts.
  11. Hate to admit it but it would help to curb the big drug companies from pushing their products so much. Problem is, we have the worse combination for abuse to take place -- corporate incentives to promote more diagnosis of ADD/ADHD coupled with socialized education in an environment that focuses on rote memorization and conformity.
  12. Or maybe they were designed prior to someone labeling a set of behaviors as a "disorder" and then prescribing drugs to solve it. Yes, ADD/ADHD is a relatively recent phenomena. And it is not universally recognized or (if recognized) not treated the same way or diagnosed in such a frivilous manner. Did anyone take note that the Frontline documentary pointed out that American kids consume 4X more pharmaseuticals for psychological "disorders" than all other kids in the world combined? Does that mean the rest of the world (i.e. Germany, France, Italy, Russia, China, Israel...) is just unenlightened or is the US situation truly out of control -- with businesses running the show and many doctors following the lead? Or educators thinking that behavioral control in the classroom justifies druging kids into submission since it might improve their concentration?
  13. And if they discriminate on such details then it's good to find out now rather than later. A person who demands a RM is probably someone who cares more about symbolism and status rather than substance. Personally, I think what's on the inside counts a lot more than something like if you went on a mssion or not.
  14. And how many times is this ignored in real life situations where kids are put on ritalin? I found one of those tests that is called "Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale (ASRS-v1.1) Symptoms Checklist. If you score 4 our of 6 in the range of "sometimes, often or very often" (of course on a couple of the questions "sometimes" doesn't count) then you are a considered a candidate for this label. However, this checklist ignores a lot of other possible personality issues. On the first question it asks something about having a hard time wrapping up a project. It fails to account for issues with perfectionistic tendencies which would explain such an attribute. It would also ignore issues with "fear of success" which could be something that could be dealt with in Individual Psychology. The second question deals with organization problems which again can have its roots in the above. The third question deals with problems remembering appointments. Okay, there are personality characteristics associated with things like the INTP personality traits found in the Myers/Briggs Junian Personality Test (as well as several other core personalitues) that have this as a characteristic. Many people have a problem with tedius details (i.e. highly creative types). The forth question deals with getting started in projects that require a lot of thought. Again, issues with failure and success as well as perfectionism. The fifth question deals with moving around a lot when you have to sit for long periods. Gee, too bad for kenestitic people. Also, since when is not being able to sit through a boring lecture motionless against the human nature? The final major question deals with feeling like you are driven by a motor. Okay, and the problem again is? For those who watched the Frontline documentary who would think that the first child was in any way suffereing from a disorder? I like the fact they mentioned that his parents were French and they had never heard of their child's behavior being abnormal for a little boy. The child liked to be a star which is common, so what? And if the child is naturally histeronic is there something wrong with that?
  15. It's a math concept, nothing more! The poor guy only has to find one gal who he can marry. That's all. The only time he'd have to worry about the opinions of a lot of gals is if he had the goal of getting 10 wives -- then he'd have to worry about the prevailing attitude in a singles ward or in a stake or the entire LDS world! One shouldn't be all that hard to find.
  16. It doesn't have to be. :) You may not be able (yet) to stop the clock but you can slow it down a lot. Just pick an age and maintain the vitality that you had at that age. It does wonders. Most anti-aging experts will say that you can keep your body about 15 - 20 years younger physically than your chronological age. Eating right, staying active, and challenging your mind and your mindset (don't dwell on age or how others your age live). My heart was tested a couple of years ago and turns out I was in the top 10%. And even in the upper 40s I still have problems sometimes with some acne (oily skin). Hair color hardly different than it was in my 30s. Then again, I like to challenge my limits (when I was in Tibet last spring the elevation where I was staying was 3600 meters but I still went running -- even though one of the people I was with who was half my age was really scared of me doing this yet her fears were totally unjustified. In fact, I was one of the few westerners who stayed totally healthy when doing an overnighter at a monestary nearly 4000 meters high where they were doing sky burials). Hope I can maintain the slowing of the age thing. I guess it just takes a psychological and physical commitment to do so.:)
  17. Strange, thought it was pretty simple to grasp. The point is, it doesn't matter if you go into a singles ward and 80% (hypothetically speaking) of the females will only date an RM. You only need one out of the entire ward (heck, LDS universe) that will like you, connect to you, and marry you. I would hope there would be enough diversity that in a ward or stake you could find a few who will find you interesting and then only one that you want to get sealed to. There is no consensus in the LDS world in regards to issues like whether one needs to bag a RM -- I have known females who don't want to marry a RM.
  18. You know, until polygamy comes back you only need to find one special woman who cares more about you and your spiritual qualities than the status of being able to say "I bagged a RM,". This situation is akin to dropping out of college and setting up a business. In a short time the person becomes quite wealthy, starts dating a woman and then she finds out you don't have a college degree -- so she drops the man because she has been taught that having such a degree is a measure of one's success. The point of that illustration? Simple, having served a mission may increase your chances of developing spiritually but it's not necessarily a good indication of how one will develop for the rest of one's life. And many men who never served missions for a variety of reasons now serve the Church in its highest callings. So there's the analogy, not being interested in a man because he doesn't have a collge degree, but still is successful, is akin to not being interested in a man who is spiritual but not a RM. Now again, that being said we all discriminate in the dating process. I know one guy who vowed never to date anyone shorter than him because he didn't want his kids to be short like he was. Is that okay? Sure it is, we have the right to say we will only date people of (fill in the blank). Like I said,
  19. A Finnish friend of mine in college got her patriarchal blessing and was listed as being part of the tribe of Mennassa so I suppose there may be some link -- Lehi's family was not all of the descendants of Joseph. Genetics would make it hard to confirm or denigh anything though. Joseph married and ancient Egyptian -- who knows if many of those peoples exist today in Egypt. I read a study on Egyptian genetics that claimed there was no evidence that Negro blood existed in modern Egyptians but that to me seems very unlikely since Egyptians were invaded by Nubians a few times and some pharoahs were black. Also, black slaves were imported into Egypt and even though in the Muslim times many of the males were castrated the women must have contributed genes. Sometimes Egyptians are born with red or blonde hair (probably throwbacks to earlier peoples since pharoahs were often quite light -- Rameses was a red head) but then again they could be from Jewish or ancient Libyan or... If one wants to really see how genetic markers are not that good at determining movement just look at Finland. Russians have probably made their mark there but Finnish tribes also contributed to Russia's gene pool. Then when we consider movements in modern times one can see that one of those popular DNA tests to see where your ancestors came from can get very sketchy results since even in more recent history people have moved around and contributed to gene pools in ways that make it impossible to say "Here's where my ancestors originated from:"
  20. There are two primary reasons Muslims leave their countries and move to Europe. The first is to escape countries that are either theocratic or military dominated and allow for little freedom. Most of these people come from the more educated classes. Many also can find better opportunities for professionally trained people in Europe. The second group consists of people who can find a better living on the welfore programs offered in much of Europe. Many do wind up with jobs but these jobs are generally very low-end in nature. The problem is, many of the young people are finding themselves not all that into integrating into the European way of life. Many from educated, and generally secular, families are finding more meaning offered by religion than their parents did. They have grown up in a culture (at elast in Scandinavia) that expects teenagers to be having sex -- and that one should celebrate homosexuality as a wonderful thing and abortion as a cornerstone of western democracy. They also see a people so afraid of offending people that they are getting rid of many of their traditions. So what you have left is a cultural vacume in which the people around you have no real meaning of life or purpose. Sp many Muslim youth turn to something with answers. Many others, mostly from the poorer immigrants, feel trapped in a system that sees them as something different. They often stop trying in school and build up antagonism towards the Europeans. This has erupted in violent riots in places like France that are similar to the race riots we sometimes see in the United States. I personally don't blame the Muslims for not wanted to integrate into European culture. Americans I know who live in Scandinavia joke that the only reason they apply for duel citizenship (most live there due to marriage to Scandinavian women) is for easier travel in Europe as well as not to have to mess around with visas if they choose to move to another EU country. Their #1 loyalty is tot he USA. And most Muslims I know who live in Europe identify with their homeland much more than the country they may have been born in.
  21. Iranian President's Christmas Message Ironic that many leaders of Christian nations try to give Christmas messages that are watered down to the point that they are just a "holiday greeting". Hope this at least can help clear up the misconception that Muslims don't believe in Jesus.
  22. An atheist, fully disgusted with the Christmas holidays, decides to go hiking in the mountains on Christmas day. While he's hiking a huge grizzley bear wanders onto the path, notices him and starts to approach. Suddenly the atheist thinks fast and says a prayer -- "God, if you are there, and I seriously doubt you are, but if you are there please demonstrate some of that awesome power your followers claim you have and make that bear into a nice Christian bear." Then, all of the sudden an angel appears, grins and sighs, and says "Well, guess what my brother, your wish has been granted." Then the bear gets on its knees and folds its arms and bows its head. The atheist then says, "Never seen a bear do that before...what's the matter with him?" The angel replies "Oh, nothing is wrong...he's just saying grace before dinner!"
  23. God decides to take a break and spend some time in Miami. He sits on a park bench, dressed in conventional attire, and looks out over the beautiful beach scene. Soon a couple of middle-aged Jewish women come over and sit down and start talking. Jewish woman #1: "What's the world coming to? My son always was a good Jewish boy. He went to temple all the time, loved to read his torah, and I thought he'd someday become a rabbi. Then he went off to college and within a year announces that he's become a Christian!!! Jewish woman #2: "Yes, I know what you mean. My son started dating a Chrisian girl when he was in medical school. Next thing you know he goes and announces they are engaged and he's decided to become a Christian as well!!! Then God replies: "I know exactly what you women are going through. I have a son and when I sent Him on a religious mission to Israel of all places..."
  24. Why do people assume Muslims are against Christmas? True, Islam does not celebrate the Pagan holiday of the Winter Solstice co-opted by the Catholic Church and called Christmas but neither did most Christians until more recent times. Did Joseph Smith's family have a Christmas tree? No they didn't -- in those days you might have people over for a family meal but that was the extent of it. That being said, many more Muslims are celebrating Christmas -- when the sunami hit Thialand and Indonesia some imams claimed it was punishment for Muslims celebrating Christmas. I have never heard of Muslims calling for an end to Christmas. Muslims put more emphasis in the koran on Mary and the birth of Jesus than the Bible does. They just don't see Jesus as the Son of God, just a major prophet. The people who get all bent out of shape over Christmas tend to be white, secular, wimpy, "celebrate diversity" types who'se extent of celebrating diversity might entail picking up on the local men on the beaches of Beleze while on holiday (if they are females...oh wait, maybe...) or buying some ethnic CD or some other ritual to prove how open-minded they are. They feel they have to protect people from being offended even though the vast majority of those people are not offended by traditions. The problem is, they think everyone loves them for their efforts yet the people they seek to "defend" don't have any particular love for them nor do the people who enjoy the traditions their parents and grandparents passed on.