Mathematician John Paulos has been working hard to help us imagine the amount of money spent to invade and occupy Iraq. Many experts suggest that it has cost $700 billion in direct costs and probably twice that much if you include the indirect costs. Others estimate the cost at $2…
The Washington Post reports on Obama's willingness to address issues that afflict many African American communities: Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) is delivering pointed critiques of the African American community as he campaigns for its votes, lamenting that many of his generation are "disenfranchising" themselves because they don't vote, taking rappers…
In his new book, The Evolutionary Bases of Consumption (2007), Gad Saad serves as a tour guide, draws connections from human biology to the purchasing decisions of human consumers. He strongly advocates that no explanation of consumer behavior is complete unless that explanation considers human evolution–we always need to consider “ultimate” explanations as well as “proximate” explanations. Saad has me sold, and I’m only halfway through his book. I don’t buy $40 books every day, but this book delves into a topic that fascinates me. Also, I must’ve felt deep in my bones that buying this book would make me more attractive to potential mates (or something like that). Bottom line: I bought the book, I’m reading every word of it and I’m marking up the margins ferociously. It is a terrific collection of ideas, collected and presented by Saad, who is a talented writer and thinker.
One section of the book is titled “Gift giving As a Means of Creating and/or Solidifying Bonds.” I wanted to share some of the ideas from that chapter.
Saad begins by recognizing that the “economic repercussions of the giftgiving ritual are enormous.” That people are so willing to participate in store sponsored events (Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, secretary of state, etc.) “is a testament to our innate drive to engage in a reciprocal exchanges.” Very few gifts are given without an expectation that something will be coming back in return, someday, courtesy of today’s beneficiary. Saad gives the example of friends who treat …
In an Edge article titled “Why the Gods are not winning,” Gregory Paul & Phil Zuckerman characterize the belief that religion is gaining ground in the 21st century as a myth. First, they present some real life statistics:
…The evangelical authors of the WCE [World Christian Encyclopedia] lament that no Christian “in 1900 expected the massive defections from Christianity that subsequently took place in Western Europe due to secularism…. and in the Americas due to materialism…. The number of nonreligionists…. throughout the 20th century has skyrocketed from 3.2 million in 1900, to 697 million in 1970, and on to 918 million in AD 2000…. Equally startling has been the meteoritic growth of secularism…. Two immense quasi-religious systems have emerged at the expense of the world’s religions: agnosticism…. and atheism…. From a miniscule presence in 1900, a mere 0.2% of the globe, these systems…. are today expanding at the extraordinary rate of 8.5 million new converts each year, and are likely to reach one billion adherents soon. A large percentage of their members are the children, grandchildren or the great-great-grandchildren of persons who in their lifetimes were practicing Christians” (italics added). (The WCE probably understates today’s nonreligious. They have Christians constituting 68-94% of nations where surveys indicate that a quarter to half or more are not religious, and they may overestimate Chinese Christians by a factor of two. In that case the nonreligious probably soared past the billion mark already, and the three great faiths total 64% at most.)
Far from
Look how low the bar has now gotten. This is from the President's May 2, 2007 address to the Associated General Contractors of America: ..."But slowly but surely, the truth will be known. Either we'll succeed, or we won't succeed. And the definition of success as I described is sectarian…