dispelling myths

santa and mushrooms? this article is of questionable veracity ... but it is fascinating even if only 10% true:
The psychedelic secrets of Santa Claus [cannabis culture]

about the princess obsession among girls in america
What’s Wrong With Cinderella? [nytimes]

article about pentecostalism on the rise:
Christianity reborn [economist]
whats fascinating to me here is how the article seems to show that mysticism is somehow an innate human quality ... as advanced as science is -- and even though it has explained some huge percentage of natural phenomena -- people still turn to these thoughts and feelings about evil spirits and the afterlife and such.

Had an interesting discussion with uday about how to reconcile this or if its possible ... should science explain religion? should science explain the human tendency toward spiritualizing the physical world? (see that recent article about the "religion gene") And if so won't there always be some backlash toward this? that seems to be what we are seeing now. science can explain away all of the mysterious, but won't this innate human quality then rear its head? causing people to talk about these irrational thoughts.

My belief is that psychology can explain alot of this. If there is a devil it is an evil tendency that exists within us all. if there is a god it is the loving ideal that we each hold in our heads. and if there is an afterlife it is in the minds and hearts of people that have known you, or loved you, or known your work or your life.

I think this explanation is really nice ... it touches on the human desire to be immortalized through work -- to build a bridge or a building or cure a disease or write a novel. And it also kind of turns religious dogma into like this contract. You want to be immortalized. So you believe in an afterlife. You believe your ancestors are in heaven. You induct your children into these same beliefs. And you thus guarantee that you will live on after your life in their hearts and minds.