The Flashlight, July 7-21, 2006
The New Middle East War
NY Times and CNN
Late in June the Palestinian Hamas captured an Israeli soldier. On July 12 the Lebanese Hisbollah (Party of God, Shia), captured two more Israeli soldiers in south Lebanon. The Israelis took their tanks into Gaza to punish the Palestinians, but their main thrust was to the north. Their bombers hit targets in southern Lebanon and south Beirut, destroying the Beirut airport, strategic bridges, roads, and buildings where they believed missiles and Hizbollah leaders were hidden.
Hizbollah rained rockets on northern Israel, reaching as far as Haifa, but the ratio of casualities (mostly civilians) was ten Lebanese to one Israeli. Over 330 Lebanese died and 1000 were wounded.
Now half a million Lebanese are homeless, having fled either to the Lebanese mountain villages, to Syria, or abroad. There are 130,000 Lebanese refugees in Syria. Thousand of Americans and European are being transported, mainly by sea, to Cyprus, where they can charter flights home.
The Israeli Army has called up all its reserves and is concentrating its power along its northern border with Lebanon. Since bombing is insufficient to destroy the well hidden rocket launching sites of Hizbollah, the Israelis evidentally plan to invade southern Lebanon (again). But in the last six years Hizbollah has had time to set up tank traps and ambushes all over the area.
While Kofi Annan, Sec.-Gen. of the UN called for an immediate cease fire, the US postponed supporting it, so that the Israeli will have more time to crush Hisbollah. On Friday, July 21, Sec. of State Condi Rice announced a planned meeting of European and Arab states in Rome to discuss the situation and find a way to dissolve and disband Hizbollah, which is financed and supported by Iran.
Iraq Grows Bloodier
Washington Post, 7-6. Shia militants have taken to murdering secular Sunni college professors. Students in danger of failing a course threaten to kill their professors. There is an exodus of professors from Iraq. Ninety have reportedly been killed.
Times of London, 7-14. There has been an orgy of ethnic cleansing in Baghdad.
NY Times 7-19. According to Iraqi government agencies, the death toll in June was over 100 civilians a day. According to the UN the total deaths so far this years is overe 15,000, mostly civilians. CNN 7-21. The past week has been the bloodiest in Iraq since the invasion ov 2003.
Russia. The Economist, 7-15-- 7-21.
High world oil prices have boosted the Russian economy, which is growing at the average rate of 6.5% a year. There is now a sizable middle class. The standard of living is rising. But corruption and inefficiency are rife. The army is a "cesspit of graft." All political opposition has been crushed. Conditions in Chechnia are improving, but violence is spreading elsewhere in the northern Causcasus.
US Politics. Straws in the Wind
NY Times 7-21. In the Democractic primary in Connecticut coming Aug. 8 Senator Lieberman currently lags behind his opponent with 47% support to 51% for millionaire businessman Ned Lamont. The issue is Lieberman's support of the war in Iraq. Lieberman announced that if he loses the Democratic nomination he will run as an Independent in November. [That is not kosher in the minds of many].
NY Times 7-19. Ralph Reed, former director of the Christian Coalition, who is now tainted by his relationship to lobbyist Jack Abramof, lost the Republic primary for lieutenant governor of Georgia.
The Economist, 7-15 -- 7-21. Cries for impeachment of the President continue. The cities of San Francisco, Chapel Hill (NC) and Marlboro Vt. have adopted resolutions supporting impeachment and the city of Berkeley, CA is expected to do so in November. A short film, How to Impeach a President, is circulating.
Science, Religion, and Politics
Washington Post, 7-26. A Medical Crisis of Conscience
[Quakers are used to defying the law in the name of higher morality. Now religious conservatives are doing the same for different reasons.]
Religious conservatives in medical occupations, in defiance of the law, have refused to sell a rape victime the Morning After Pill, to transport a patient to the hospital for an abortion, to permit the use of embryonic stem cells for medical research where it is legal, to assist in a suicide, and to remove ventilators from terminally ill persons. Some argue that people with such beliefs should seek another occupation.
CNN 7-19. Embryonic stem cell research. For the first time in five years, Pres. Bush vetoed a bill. It would have permitted increased federal support of embryonic stem cell research. He equated such research with murder.
Many Republic pr0-life leaders supported the bill, including Sen. John McCain and Majority Leader Bil Frist. According to the Pew Research Poll, two-thirds of Democrats and Independents and nearly one half of Republicans now support embryonic stem cell research.
American Religious Beliefs, compiled by Kevin Phillips, in his book, Ameerican Theocracy, p. 102.
Is the Bible literally accurate?
National, Yes, 55%. Evangelical Protestants, 83%
Do you believe in God? (Gallup Poll 2004)
Yes, 80%
Do you believe in the Devil?
Yes, 70%
Do you believe in God's creation in six days?
Yes, 61%
Will events in the Book of Revelation occur some time in the future?
All Christians, Yes, 59%; No, 33%
"The God Pill" -- The Economist, July 15-21
For the first time after a hiatus of forty years, scientists have made a controlled experiment using a hallucinogen with human volunteers. Roland Griffiths et al. of Johns Hopkins University wrote an article in Psychopharmacology (July or August, 2006) called, "Psilocybin can occasion mystical-type experiences having substantial personal meaning and spiritual experience."
The volunteer participants were mostly middle aged college graduates who prayed and went to religious services. They described feeling peace, intense happiness, and a sense of the unity of all things. Two months after the trial 79% reported increased well being or satisfaction. Dr. Solomon Snyder suggested that investigation of such drugs could help scientists understand the molecular changes in the brain that underlie religious experiences.
This raises the question: Is there a spiritual world outside of the human brain which can be contacted by taking a drug or are religious experiences only a function of brain anatomy and biochemistry?
NY Times and CNN
Late in June the Palestinian Hamas captured an Israeli soldier. On July 12 the Lebanese Hisbollah (Party of God, Shia), captured two more Israeli soldiers in south Lebanon. The Israelis took their tanks into Gaza to punish the Palestinians, but their main thrust was to the north. Their bombers hit targets in southern Lebanon and south Beirut, destroying the Beirut airport, strategic bridges, roads, and buildings where they believed missiles and Hizbollah leaders were hidden.
Hizbollah rained rockets on northern Israel, reaching as far as Haifa, but the ratio of casualities (mostly civilians) was ten Lebanese to one Israeli. Over 330 Lebanese died and 1000 were wounded.
Now half a million Lebanese are homeless, having fled either to the Lebanese mountain villages, to Syria, or abroad. There are 130,000 Lebanese refugees in Syria. Thousand of Americans and European are being transported, mainly by sea, to Cyprus, where they can charter flights home.
The Israeli Army has called up all its reserves and is concentrating its power along its northern border with Lebanon. Since bombing is insufficient to destroy the well hidden rocket launching sites of Hizbollah, the Israelis evidentally plan to invade southern Lebanon (again). But in the last six years Hizbollah has had time to set up tank traps and ambushes all over the area.
While Kofi Annan, Sec.-Gen. of the UN called for an immediate cease fire, the US postponed supporting it, so that the Israeli will have more time to crush Hisbollah. On Friday, July 21, Sec. of State Condi Rice announced a planned meeting of European and Arab states in Rome to discuss the situation and find a way to dissolve and disband Hizbollah, which is financed and supported by Iran.
Iraq Grows Bloodier
Washington Post, 7-6. Shia militants have taken to murdering secular Sunni college professors. Students in danger of failing a course threaten to kill their professors. There is an exodus of professors from Iraq. Ninety have reportedly been killed.
Times of London, 7-14. There has been an orgy of ethnic cleansing in Baghdad.
NY Times 7-19. According to Iraqi government agencies, the death toll in June was over 100 civilians a day. According to the UN the total deaths so far this years is overe 15,000, mostly civilians. CNN 7-21. The past week has been the bloodiest in Iraq since the invasion ov 2003.
Russia. The Economist, 7-15-- 7-21.
High world oil prices have boosted the Russian economy, which is growing at the average rate of 6.5% a year. There is now a sizable middle class. The standard of living is rising. But corruption and inefficiency are rife. The army is a "cesspit of graft." All political opposition has been crushed. Conditions in Chechnia are improving, but violence is spreading elsewhere in the northern Causcasus.
US Politics. Straws in the Wind
NY Times 7-21. In the Democractic primary in Connecticut coming Aug. 8 Senator Lieberman currently lags behind his opponent with 47% support to 51% for millionaire businessman Ned Lamont. The issue is Lieberman's support of the war in Iraq. Lieberman announced that if he loses the Democratic nomination he will run as an Independent in November. [That is not kosher in the minds of many].
NY Times 7-19. Ralph Reed, former director of the Christian Coalition, who is now tainted by his relationship to lobbyist Jack Abramof, lost the Republic primary for lieutenant governor of Georgia.
The Economist, 7-15 -- 7-21. Cries for impeachment of the President continue. The cities of San Francisco, Chapel Hill (NC) and Marlboro Vt. have adopted resolutions supporting impeachment and the city of Berkeley, CA is expected to do so in November. A short film, How to Impeach a President, is circulating.
Science, Religion, and Politics
Washington Post, 7-26. A Medical Crisis of Conscience
[Quakers are used to defying the law in the name of higher morality. Now religious conservatives are doing the same for different reasons.]
Religious conservatives in medical occupations, in defiance of the law, have refused to sell a rape victime the Morning After Pill, to transport a patient to the hospital for an abortion, to permit the use of embryonic stem cells for medical research where it is legal, to assist in a suicide, and to remove ventilators from terminally ill persons. Some argue that people with such beliefs should seek another occupation.
CNN 7-19. Embryonic stem cell research. For the first time in five years, Pres. Bush vetoed a bill. It would have permitted increased federal support of embryonic stem cell research. He equated such research with murder.
Many Republic pr0-life leaders supported the bill, including Sen. John McCain and Majority Leader Bil Frist. According to the Pew Research Poll, two-thirds of Democrats and Independents and nearly one half of Republicans now support embryonic stem cell research.
American Religious Beliefs, compiled by Kevin Phillips, in his book, Ameerican Theocracy, p. 102.
Is the Bible literally accurate?
National, Yes, 55%. Evangelical Protestants, 83%
Do you believe in God? (Gallup Poll 2004)
Yes, 80%
Do you believe in the Devil?
Yes, 70%
Do you believe in God's creation in six days?
Yes, 61%
Will events in the Book of Revelation occur some time in the future?
All Christians, Yes, 59%; No, 33%
"The God Pill" -- The Economist, July 15-21
For the first time after a hiatus of forty years, scientists have made a controlled experiment using a hallucinogen with human volunteers. Roland Griffiths et al. of Johns Hopkins University wrote an article in Psychopharmacology (July or August, 2006) called, "Psilocybin can occasion mystical-type experiences having substantial personal meaning and spiritual experience."
The volunteer participants were mostly middle aged college graduates who prayed and went to religious services. They described feeling peace, intense happiness, and a sense of the unity of all things. Two months after the trial 79% reported increased well being or satisfaction. Dr. Solomon Snyder suggested that investigation of such drugs could help scientists understand the molecular changes in the brain that underlie religious experiences.
This raises the question: Is there a spiritual world outside of the human brain which can be contacted by taking a drug or are religious experiences only a function of brain anatomy and biochemistry?
posted by THE FLASHLIGHT at 4:01 PM
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