Eye on Faith

Saturday, March 7, 2015

Roaches: Our new best friends

Forget these guys... (Public Domain)

Forget cute little puppies and heroic St. Bernards. If you’re trapped under a building, remote-controlled roaches can quickly become your new best friends.

Not only can cockroaches survive “dangerous amounts of nuclear radiation,” but they can also grow a new leg if need be. How many rescuers can match these feats?

Live Science explains that “cyborg roaches,” with their implanted electrodes that enable “scientists to steer the creatures around,” may some day be carrying out “reconnaissance” missions and/or locating human survivors.

If you’re already cringing at the thought of getting up close and personal with these newfound buddies, consider this: Roaches have gotten a bad rap. Commonly thought to be filth incarnate, they are actually “constantly cleaning themselves.”

If you’re instead cringing about the seemingly cruel treatment of these insects, rest assured that scientists are working on a “steering mechanism” that’s less invasive than the implanted electrodes. Team leader Hong Liang has also stated: We don’t work them hard. We let them rest.

Resources

http://news.yahoo.com/cyborg-roaches-could-used-disaster-survivors-010229497.html

Friday, March 6, 2015

Elders are gifts, not 'burdens'

Mahatma Gandhi (Public Domain)

When a father in his 80s decides to kill his wife and himself so that they won’t be “a burden on their family,” something has gone terribly horribly wrong.

That “something” is our throw-away society. When a car needs a few major repairs… time for a new one. When a food item is one day past its expiration date… time to toss it. Never mind that others are dying for lack of that same nourishment.

And so it is with our elders... Whether they be animals or humans, their liberty and pursuit of happiness is often forfeited at the first signs of major illness.

When diagnosed with a so-called terminal disease, animals are often “put down.” Why not instead “put them up” by lovingly caring for them in their time of need?

As for people, it behooves us to come up with much better support systems than we currently have. It was Mahatma Gandhi who warned: The true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members.

Resources

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/missouri-man-88-pleads-guilty-fatally-stabbing-wife-29351203

Thursday, March 5, 2015

Love: A bare-bones guide

Cowboy or Cowgirl? (Photo by Hibernian)

If we could peer into the very core of love, we might find that it has no race, gender, disability, age or religion.

In Santa Monica, California on Valentine’s Day, folks were shown what that might look like.

Hidden behind a huge X-ray screen were a number of loving couples. As they hugged one another, the viewers could only see their skeletons interacting.

As the couples afterwards stepped out in front of the screen, viewers could then see their physical attributes. Some were gay, some elderly. Some were interracial, some interfaith.

This presentation vividly displayed the bare-bones facts about love: that it transcends all worldly categories and labels.

The Ad Council video of such must have struck an international nerve. US Magazine reports that it received “more than 1.1 million views in just 24 hours.”

If we could all routinely view love from the inside out, the subconscious prejudices that dominate many a human interaction might finally be laid to rest.

Resources

http://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/ad-councils-love-has-no-labels-video-will-make-you-cry-watch-201543

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Honduran 'Monkey God' reminiscent of Hanuman

'Lost City' (Illustration by Virgil Finlay)

There has been much talk lately of an extraordinary find deep within the Honduran jungle. This discovery is said to be the long-lost White City (“La Ciudad Blanca”) of the Monkey God.

The Honduran Monkey God and accompanying rituals were vividly described by explorer Theodore Morde back in 1940. He believed the White City (so-called because of the color of its stones) to be the capital of the Chorotegan people.

Morde’s Paya guides explained what the Monkey God’s temple had once looked like. This knowledge had been orally passed down to them for generations.

According to these guides, the Monkey God’s temple had a “long staired approach” which was “lined with stone effigies of monkeys.” The temple’s core

consisted of “a high stone dais on which there was a statue of the Monkey God… [and] before it was a place of sacrifice.” There were also two other “colossal” images: one of a frog, the other of a crocodile.

Stories also abound about a monkey who had “stolen three women with whom it bred.” The offspring of these unions were believed to be “half-man and half-spirit,” and were called Urus (“Sons of the Hairy Men”).

The Hindu god Hanuman is also a Monkey God. He has been regarded as an avatar of Shiva, and is featured in both the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Hanuman’s great physical strength seems comparable to that of the Honduran Monkey God’s.

Resources

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanuman

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Ciudad_Blanca

Tuesday, March 3, 2015

India's daughters: Blaming the victims

Afghanistan 2011 (Public Domain)

On International Women’s Day, a film named “India’s Daughter” will be shown in seven countries.

According to the AFP, this film exposes the heinous ways in which women are being blamed for their own oppression.

Mukesh Singh, a rapist whose victim died from the attack, made these shocking statements: You can’t clap with one hand – it takes two hands. A decent girl won’t roam around at 9 o’clock at night…

A girl is far more responsible for rape than a boy. About 20 percent of girls are good.

Singh also had the shocking gall to blame his victim for fighting back. He said: She should just be silent and allow the rape. Then they’d [the whole gang] have dropped her off after doing her.

Sentenced to be executed for this crime (as a result of testimony given by the victim before she died), Singh even added this vicious threat: Now when they rape, they won’t leave the girl like we did. They will kill her.

Just as it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a societal mindset to steer a child so off kilter. Kudos to “ordinary Indians” for their valiant efforts to reverse that mindset.

Although India is still deeply steeped in patriarchal attitudes, Leslee Udwin (the award-winning creator of “India’s Daughter”) recently proclaimed: In my lifetime, I can’t recall any other country standing up with such commitment and determination for women’s rights.

Resources

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/delhi-rapist-blames-victim-for-being-out-at-night/ar-BBiaAoE

Monday, March 2, 2015

'HEAVEN' surgery: Far from heavenly

Alexis Carroll, Transplant Pioneer (PD)

With human head transplants allegedly only two years from fruition, some have been feeling aghast at the prospect.

The proclaimer himself, Dr. Sergio Canavero of Italy, dubbed this procedure “HEAVEN” (short for “head anastomosis venture”). It involves the attachment of a decapitated human head to another human body via the use of spinal-cord “fusogens” such as chitosan and PolyEthyleneGlycol (PEG).

Wikipedia explains that when Dr. Robert J. White first transplanted a monkey’s head, there were many ethically- based protests. PETA (“People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals”) has since denounced White’s experiments as “epitomizing the crude, cruel vivisection industry,” and others have compared him with Doctor Frankenstein.

Dr. Jerry Silver called the current state of this procedure “barbaric,” and wondered aloud (should things go horribly wrong): Can you imagine looking around the room, and you’re just a head?

Then there are other key factors to consider: Would personality traits and memories somehow become confused when one person’s head is fused with another’s body? This type of a fate could be far worse than either natural death, or than living with difficult conditions in one’s original, God-given body.

Resources

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head_transplant

Sunday, March 1, 2015

Peace circles: Exchanging rings in Oslo

Nobel Peace Center in Oslo (Photo by Dirk Shroder)

Shortly after a synagogue in Copenhagen was

viciously attacked, Muslims of nearby Oslo were determined to demonstrate that “humanity is one.”

Huff Post Religion reports that they did so by

forming a peace circle around a local synagogue. In return, hundreds recently “gathered around the Central Jamaat-E Ahl-E Sunnat mosque in Oslo to participate in and form a human peace ring.”

These hundreds included people “of all faiths

and ethnicities.” Among them were Ervin Kohn, “president of the Jewish Community of Oslo” and Mehtab Afsar, “secretary general of the Islamic Council of Norway.”

What a beautiful example for the rest of humanity to follow.

If only they would…

Resources

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/28/norway-mosque-peace-ring_n_6775646.html