In my first post on this blog I said that Religion is an inescapable part of human nature—it has been a part of all human cultures everywhere and at all times. Religion serves important functions by providing, among other things: 1) a way to make parts of our lives sacred and allow us to commune with God (or some higher power); 2) moral guidelines and answers to deep life questions; 3) ceremonies and rites marking major life events; 4) a…
The authors of a recent article in The Lancet found nine “potentially modifiable” risk factors that appear to account for 35% of dementia: Our results suggest that around 35% of dementia is attributable to a combination of the following nine risk factors: education to a maximum of age 11–12 years, midlife hypertension, midlife obesity, hearing loss, late-life depression, diabetes, physical inactivity, smoking, and social isolation. I suspect that genetic factors may affect these risk factors as well, so making behavior…
“We are a nation of pioneers….We have but little room for the timid, the irresolute, and the idle.” -Theodore Roosevelt America used to see itself as a nation of pioneers. We need to start seeing ourselves that way again.
The rhetorical claim that America is a “nation of immigrants” is so common that it is taken for granted. This propagandistic notion is beaten into our heads from childhood. But is this how the American nation traditionally saw itself? I’ll look at quantitative data from Google engrams in a subsequent post. Here, we look something more qualitative: a speech from Theodore Roosevelt at the Minnesota State Fair on September 2, 1901. Roosevelt gave this speech less than two weeks before…
(Note: I wrote this post when I changed my blog’s name and URL to TemplesandAshes.com.) Welcome to my new blog. In this first post, I explain 13 major themes for the blog (#2 explains the name): 1) Tradition: Our cultural traditions represent the accumulated wisdom of our ancestors. They were fine-tuned over generations and lasted, usually, because they served a useful purpose. Rejecting tradition means turning our backs on the accumulated wisdom of our ancestors. Lasting progress usually comes by…