We are witnessing the death of several myths: The heroic Doctor, The honest Politician, the righteous Prosecutor, the invincible Army, the very accomplished Federal Agent, the selfless Teacher, and, of course, the informed Voter.
Tag: Myths
Peaceful Muslims – The Vast Majority Myth
Is it true that the vast majority of Muslims are peaceful? What if it’s false?
We often hear it said that the vast majority of Muslims are peaceful and reject violence. That proposition is worth examining because if it’s not true there is cause to worry. Of course, you should be worried already. Even if only a small percentage of the world’s 1.6 billion Muslims are prepared to use violence, that still works out to a large number. However, if the vast-majority thesis doesn’t hold up, you might want to order a Kevlar vest from Amazon, or, if you’re the accommodating type, you could start practicing the Shahada—the Islamic declaration of faith.
There is a good deal of polling data to suggest that the vast majority of Muslims are not just your standard-issue vast majority. For example, Pew polls of public opinion in Pakistan and Egypt show that the vast majority (about 82 percent) favor stoning for adultery, amputation for theft, and death for apostates. So, even if a majority in these countries are not personally inclined to violence, they have no problem with the violent application of sharia law.
But rather than rely on polling data, let’s look at some other ways of assessing the “vast majority” proposition. For some perspective, here are some other “vast majority” propositions that just popped into my head:
Proposition 1. The vast majority of people are peaceful until they’re not.
Proposition 2. The vast majority of people go with the flow.
Proposition 3. The majority of people in any society are women and children.
With the exception of the third proposition, there is no empirical evidence for these propositions, but they seem just as reasonable as the proposition that the vast majority of Muslims are peaceful—a supposition which also has no empirical support. However, Proposition 3 does lend credence to the “vast majority of Muslims” thesis since women and children are, for various reasons, less inclined to violence than adult males. It would therefore be reasonable to say of any society that at least a majority are peaceful.
But people who are peaceful today will not necessarily be peaceful tomorrow. It’s probably safe to say that the vast majority of Hutus were behaving peacefully before the Rwanda genocide of 1994 … and then they stopped behaving peacefully. Using clubs, machetes, and, occasionally, guns, the Hutu managed to kill about 800,000 Tutsi in the space of one hundred days. It’s likely that the vast majority did not take part in the killings, but, by all accounts, a sizeable number did, and an even greater number were complicit. According to reports, most of the Tutsi victims who lived in rural villages were murdered by their neighbors.
So, in line with Proposition 1, the majority of the Hutu were peaceful until they were not. And, in line with Proposition 2, the majority of the Hutu went with the flow—the flow, in this case, being in the direction of mayhem. It should be noted, however, that there were powerful incentives to go with the flow. Moderate Hutus who declined to join in the killing were often killed by their fellow Hutus as a warning to others.
Although women took part in the slaughter, Proposition 3 would suggest that the majority of them did not. And if you combine the women with the children, the elderly, and the moderates, it is reasonable to assume that the majority of Hutu did not participate in the carnage. That, however, would have been small comfort to the Tutsi. The more you think about it, the less comforting it is to know that the vast majority of any population won’t take up arms against you.
History is full of examples of peoples and nations who were peaceful and then were not. Prior to World War I, the vast majority of Europeans were behaving peacefully. Then came 1914, and the European nations went to war with each other. The majority, of course, remained at home and were never involved in battle, but it seems safe to say that most of them fully backed their own side in the conflict and welcomed news of enemy casualties.
Given the right circumstances, the majority of almost any population will willingly put itself on a war footing and turn their homeland into a home front. The questions is, is there something about Islamic cultures that make them more susceptible to warlike attitudes more of the time?
Before attempting an answer, let’s briefly consider another historical example—the Spartans. Were the vast majority of Spartans peaceful? In the sense that the great majority, including women, children, and the elderly were not at war all the time, yes. Still, we would be mistaken to call them a peaceful people. Sparta was a warrior culture, and it cultivated a warrior mentality in its citizens.
The Spartans were a unique case, but in so far as Islam has a tendency, it tends in the direction of Sparta rather than, say, in the direction of Sweden—a land which was once host to a warrior culture of its own. But the Vikings are long gone, and their peaceful descendants look like they will be the first European nation to fall to Islam—a culture which has been more or less at war with the rest of the world since its inception.
Why is the sharia penalty for apostasy death? Because Islam understands itself to be an army. And the penalty for deserting an army in wartime is death. But for Islam, all times are wartimes. The basic division in the Islamic faith is between the House of Islam and the House of War. The essential mission given to Muslims is to bring the House of War (all non-Islamic nations) under the control of the House of Islam.
Like the Spartans, the first Muslims were warriors. Their leader was both a prophet and a warlord. Since Muslims are still expected to model their behavior on Muhammad, it’s not surprising that Muslim cultures will be more prone to violence than, say, cultures that take Jesus or Buddha as their inspiration. Our own culture is completely sold on the importance of having role models to emulate, but hasn’t yet grasped the consequences that follow when 1.6 billion people take Muhammad as their primary role model. Indeed, one of the chief appeals of ISIS and company is their promise to return Islam to those glorious days when Muhammad spread the faith by force.
It may well be that a great many Muslims today just want to be left alone to go about their business. But one of the built-in features of Islam is that, if you’re a Muslim, it won’t leave you alone. It wants to force you to be good. However, the only way to know if you’re good is if you conform to sharia. Thus, where Islam is practiced in its purest form, the virtue police patrol the streets, and everyone understands that if they convert to another religion they can be executed for apostasy—that is to say, desertion.
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An Anthology Of Mythical Creatures
Venere compiles 50 mythological creatures from all over the world, by the region and their country of origin.
Stories. We have been telling them since the dawn of mankind, fueled by the instinct to imagine and create. They are the lifeblood of every culture; they unite communities, establish traditions, and strengthen identities. Often, these stories run rampant with mythical beasts that terrify, devour, rescue, and bewilder. What are the origins of these fanciful tales? Creation myths, true sightings, political propaganda, bedtime musings, nightmares, daydreams, and ancient media are just a hint of the possible sparks. Believe or not, they can offer captivating insight into the places that we love traveling to.
12 Old Wives’ Tales That Are Actually True
Those Old Wives’ Tales your grandmother used to tell you aren’t actually all that far off the mark, according to some new scientific studies.
The wisdom of old wives has developed over centuries of life and human experience – and while many of these have now been proven by modern science to be mere superstition, some of them do have some surprising scientific merit!
Here we present 12 old wives tales that science has proven have merit and may surprise you:
Health
1. Chicken soup as medicine
We’ve all heard the ye olde wisdom that when you have a cold you should eat chicken soup, no? Well, turns out it has some truth to it. While chicken soup won’t go so far as curing you of the common cold, it will go some way towards relieving the symptoms.
Scientists have discovered that chicken soup can actually reduce inflammation by slowing down the white blood cell activity responsible for causing said inflammation. So go forth – and eat soup, snotty ones!
2. A long, arduous labour = baby boy
It’s true – science has proven that boys give their mothers more grief during labour than girls. A 2003 Irish study found that women who give birth to baby boys are more likely to run into complications during labour, resulting in a higher number of emergency caesareans.
Why? The study suggests that this is because boys are generally larger and heavier at birth than girls – and they have bigger heads.
3. An apple a day keeps the doctor away
Yeah, yeah – we all know eating fruit and veggies every day is important for our overall health. But an ‘apple’? A ‘day’? Turns out those old wives weren’t just nagging … they were actually spot on.
A 2013 study found that if all people aged over 50 in the UK ate just one apple per day, they would actually prevent – or delay – 8500 heart attacks and strokes every year. So let them eat apples!
4. Chocolate helps to relieve premenstrual cramps
Turns out those chocolate cravings you get just before you get your period don’t just rock up to undermine your healthy eating regime. They actually happen for physiological reasons.
Studies suggest that chocolate contains nutrients and antioxidants such as anandamide, which can have a calming effect, and keep anxiety and moods in balance. So you don’t need to feel guilty about inhaling that extra piece of chocolate – but don’t overdo it!
5. A hot bath decreases chance of conception for blokes
If you and your partner are trying to conceive, make sure the man in the equation avoids a hot bath prior to the ‘act’. While old wives have known it for eons, science has proven it to be so.
A 2007 scientific study found that ‘wet heat exposure’ in a hot tub, bath or jacuzzi, is in fact a real risk factor for male fertility. So skip the hot bath before bed, fellas.
6. Heartburn in pregnancy means you’re going to have a hairy baby
Yep, that’s right. Ancient wisdom predicts that if you’re pregnant and suffering from hardcore heartburn, chances are you’re going to give birth to a hairy one …
And science now backs this theory up! A 2007 study at John Hopkins University discovered, much to their surprise, that a sample of women who endured horrible heartburn did in fact give birth to babies that had more than the average amount of hair for a newborn bubba.
Nature
7. Full moon
No, you’re not imagining it when your kids go a bit bonkers when there’s a full moon on display. Those old wives have been hinting for centuries that a full moon can make for some weird-ass behaviour – from both animals and humans alike.
Generally, researchers have yet to prove categorically that our behaviour, fertility and birth rate, etc. are affected by lunar patterns (are you are LUNAtic?). But one study in particular has found that we find it more difficult to sleep around the time of a full moon, despite black-out blinds, etc.
8. Red sky at night, shepherd’s delight
Is the old adage “Red sky at night, sailor’s/shepherd’s delight. Red sky in morning, sailor’s/shepherd’s warning” true, or is it just one of those silly old wives’ tale?
According to the Library of Congress there’s certainly a scientific explanation for it:
“When there’s a red sky at night, this means that the setting sun is sending its light through a high concentration of dust particles, indicating high pressure and stable air coming in from the west. Meaning good weather will follow … A red sunrise can mean that a high pressure system (good weather) has already passed, thus indicating that a storm system (low pressure) may be moving to the east. A morning sky that is a deep, fiery red can indicate that there is high water content in the atmosphere. So, rain could be on its way.”
Culture
9. Hair of the dog
Did you overdo it last night and drink more champagne than you should have? Feeling a bit crook as a result? Ye ol’ wives would tell you to get straight back on that horse and have another drink to alleviate the symptoms of a hangover.
Do they speak the truth? Science says yes. Research has shown that consuming small doses of alcohol can actually relieve alcohol withdrawal symptoms. But a word of caution – easing the effects can increase dependency on alcohol creating a vicious cycle. So best way to avoid a pounding hangover? Drink a big glass of water before going to bed. Or even better … just don’t drink alcohol to excess!
10. Count sheep to fall asleep
Those old wives have been telling wakeful kids for centuries to close their eyes and count sheep to fall asleep. And it turns out they’re right about that as well … Well, sort of.
You see, while there hasn’t been a specific scientific study proving that counting actual ‘sheep’ will work to put you to slumber, the use of visualisation or mental imagery can certainly assist in getting you to the land of nod. How? It can help to distract you from thinking stressful or anxious thoughts – commonly associated with insomnia – which will make you fall asleep sooner. So baa.
Food
11. Not-so-sweet dreams are made of cheese
Have you experienced the phenomenon of eating a cheesy pizza for dinner and then having a sometimes scary, lucid dream that night? Well, this is so common that the old wives have been at it again, giving it a place in folklore.
But it also has a place in science too, apparently. There are some scientific theories that suggest it’s the bacterial and fungal elements of cheese that are the culprits. These contain psychoactive ingredients, which have the potential to affect dreams. BUT … not all cheese-induced dreams will be scary.
12. Fish is brain food
“Eat your fish, it’s good for you,” says every mother to every child, like, ever. It’s old wisdom that fish is good for the brain. But does this hold true in science? Why, yes. Yes it does.
A recent Harvard study found that the more fish mothers ate during their second trimester of pregnancy, the better their babies did on tests when they were six months old. But mums need to be mindful of the kind of fish they’re eating when pregnant to avoid the mercury-laden ones, such as swordfish.
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