Native American History: It Must Be Taught

"In a major victory for Native American rights, the Supreme Court has upheld key provisions of the Indian Child Welfare Act, giving preference for adoption of Native American children to their tribes and families. The law was passed 45 years ago to protect tribal sovereignty and to correct past government abuses. In a new book, historian Ned Blackhawk recasts the story of America to include Native American history. The author joins Hari Sreenivasan to explain why Indigenous history is essential to understanding modern America."

Click on the link below for an important look at Native American history:

Completing the American Story: How Native Americans Shaped the Nation

Syncretism: The History Of Christianity

Click on the links below for a clear understanding of how Christianity began and developed, just like virtually all of today's religions:

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"The word 'syncretism' comes from a Greek word first used to describe rival Greek armies who joined together to fight a common enemy. It later described the combination of religious ideas to form a new religion.

"Syncretism is not a distinct religion. It is the practice of combining teachings and practices of various religions, changing the tenets or beliefs of anyone. The combinations may result in a new theology for a religion, or even in a new sect."

Syncretism Not New to Christianity

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"For @ColdCaseChristianity J Warner Wallace, he used to consider the Bible to be more like mythology than history... and not even original mythology at that. But now, the good detective seems to think that God inspired all the false religions before Christianity as a way to signal how really-real Christianity is.

"Dr. Dennis MacDonald is probably known best for a methodology called mimesis criticism. That's the use of imitation of classical Greek poetry in particular in the composition of the gospels and the acts of the apostles. He's joining me today to see if Wallace's claims make sense."

Yahweh Inspired FALSE Religions to Prepare for Jesus??

Sports Betting: What Could Go Wrong?

"You’ve probably encountered an advertisement for sports betting in one form or another. In the past few years, there’s been a marked rise in the number of online sports betting ads from companies like DraftKings and FanDuel. Gambling companies now spend billions of dollars a year on advertising. At the same time, there’s growing concern over the effect betting is having on our experience with sports, the lack of comprehensive federal regulation, and its addictive potential. Eric Lipton is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and New York Times investigative reporter. He’s spent years following the sports betting boom. Lipton joins WITHpod to discuss how we got to this moment where sports gambling ads are integrated into almost every sports broadcast, the role of lobbying in the explosion of online betting, how the space is policed, and more."

Click on the link below for a podcast discussing the dangers of this "entertainment." (Hint: the USA banned it decades ago for reasons.)

The Explosion of Online Sports Betting

History, Authority, Expert, And Growing Up

History: the study of past events.

Authority: the power to influence or command thought, opinion, or behavior.

Expert: a person who has a comprehensive and authoritative knowledge of or skill in a particular area.

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Human history began in ignorance, violence, and within small nomadic groups. As time progressed, humans became more organized and settled but ignorance and authoritarian control persisted. Democratic ideas evolved out of Greece but humanity at large was still ignorant of reality and under authoritarian control. Organized religion sprouted from persistent human ignorance of reality in attempts to explain the unexplainable, as well as to reinforce authoritarian control and to provide some comfort. Eventually, only a few hundred years ago, modern science and the Industrial Revolution sprouted. These phenomena exponentially expanded human knowledge, progress, and well-being. Democracy became a reality and knowledge expanded to the point where it caused the founding of institutions dedicated to creating expertise in specialized areas. 

The above growth in freedom, knowledge, and understanding of reality can be viewed as being analogous to a child growing up. However, there is a major immaturity from our ignorant and superstitious past holding humanity back and it is religion. Ironically, the most prominent religion has the following teaching but can't accept it as a reality:

• "When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things." ~ I Corinthians

ISN'T IT MORE THAN TIME FOR HUMANITY TO GROW UP?

 

The History Of Trumpism

"Chris Hayes: 'There is no referee. Fox News and the conservative movement destroyed the conditions for that. So now, it is just a head-to-head battle of who you like more, who you believe, and who you trust more. They trust Donald Trump.'"

Click on the link below for a 10-min video of how conservatives have destroyed our society:

How The American Right Built Its Own Echo Chamber

Recovering From Colonialism

"Today, we tell a story of colonialism, dispossession, and cultural renaissance as a lens through which to understand alienation, a primary condition of modernity."

Click on the link below for the podcast which delves into how colonized cultures can come back to live at least to some degree within their indigenous communities:

Exist, Resist, Indigenize, Decolonize

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"The murder rate for native women and girls living on reservations in the U.S. is ten times higher than the national average for women, according to the Urban Indian Health Institute. Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Justice’s federal missing person database only logs a fraction of those cases. Our guest this week, who has investigated cases for indigenous girls from nine months old to women in their eighties, points out that this is part of a broader trend of data erasure. Abigail Echo-Hawk is the director of the Urban Indian Health Institute, which focuses on research and decolonizing data for urban American Indian and Alaska Native communities. She also serves as executive vice president of the Seattle Indian Health Board and is an enrolled citizen of the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma. She joins WITHpod to discuss recovering the true story of her people prior to and post the Columbus encounter, the importance of rethinking misconceptions, health disparities in indigenous and Alaska native communities, and the work that lies ahead to break down feelings of 'invisibility.'”

Click on the link below for a better understanding of the need for an Indigenous Peoples Day:

Recovering Native Narratives and Data

Like Religion, Alternatives To Medicine Continue To Survive Without Supporting Evidence

Since establishing this blog several years ago, I have focused much of my energy on attacking the two major pseudosciences of religion and alternatives to medicine. Click on the link below for an interesting video on the history of the latter. Ironically, many religious folks will shake their heads and say how silly were those practices. The reality: both are silly and harmful to the informed today.

"Modern medicine has seen more development in the past 50 years than in all of human history combined. Many long-practiced medical treatments now seem completely bizarre in retrospect - things like putting animal dung on a wound, drinking urine, carving holes in your skull, or drinking medicinal potions made of morphine or mercury. But which practices are considered the most peculiar from all of human medical history? Which practices were once used as medicinal treatments only to be later found incredibly dangerous?"

Bizarre Medical Practices From History

"Block" History Month

"Today, we take a look at the importance of teaching a full and unflinching version of Black history and why the campaign to block it is reaching a peak at this moment in time."

Click on the link below for a sobering look at history denial in general and Black history in particular. The brain disease of magical/anti-science thinking is winning:

The Campaign to Erase Uncomfortable Truths About Black History

"Human Rights" Vs "States' Rights"

Since at least the onset of the US Civil War, groups of people within individual states have used parts of the US Constitution to support nefarious anti-democratic activity under the banner of "States' Rights." Below are some reasons why states' rights do not trump human rights and why the federal government is the final arbiter in protecting both human rights and democracy:

"The protection of fundamental human rights was a foundation stone in the establishment of the United States over 200 years ago." (link)

"Article VI, Paragraph 2 of the U.S. Constitution is commonly referred to as the Supremacy Clause. It establishes that the federal constitution, and federal law generally, take precedence over state laws, and even state constitutions. It prohibits states from interfering with the federal government's exercise of its constitutional powers, and from assuming any functions that are exclusively entrusted to the federal government. - - - " (link)

Human rights are embedded within the US Constitution and its Amendments. (link)

One has to be willfully ignorant not to see what is happening within both federal and state governments, as well as small and larger groups of organized civilians, to defy human rights by acting outside of laws protecting such. It is not unusual for these folks to cloak their action within the "States' Right" meme. Consistent with this is the phenomenon of the "Constitutional Sheriff." Click on the link below for a podcast delving into the history of sheriffs and this concept of such:

The "Constitutional Sheriff" Myth

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A point to ponder: bodily autonomy is a universal, precedent-supported human right. Why is the US Supreme Court essentially finding that such is a "States' Rights" issue?

Why The Republican Party Is Anti-Democratic

"If working people were a bit more desperate about their economic situations, the wealthy believe they’d be less likely to organize, protest, or even vote."

There is no doubt that the Republican party is for the rich and is anti-democratic. To understand why one has to understand its full history and evolution of it. Click on the link below for a 12-minute video that fully exposes why it acts the way it does:

The Dark Reason The Rich Hate Democracy Revealed.

Click on the link below for an analysis of our cyclic views of wealth in the USA:

The Real Reason The Rich Flock To Davos

T

A Current Look At Life Extinction On Earth

There have been five mass extinctions since the Earth was formed and 99+% of all species have gone extinct in Earth's history. Since I consider this to be an important issue, I offer the following two videos that may update you on current thinking on the subject:

Human Extinction: What Are the Risks?

Earth currently experiencing a sixth mass extinction, according to scientists

The USA Is Not Learning From History

Several decades ago, the USA experienced a serious attempt to overthrow the government that was eerily similar to what it is presently going through. This happened during the 1930s/early 1940s. Rachel Maddow, per usual, has superbly delved through American history to present a multi-episode podcast on the situation:  Click on the links below to listen to the series (completed). 

Episode 1: Trip 19   OCTOBER 10TH, 2022 | 36:40 | S1:E1

Episode 2: The Brooklyn Boys   OCTOBER 10TH, 2022 | 38:30 | S1:E2

Episode 3: The Day   OCTOBER 17TH, 2022 | 38:34 | S1:E3

Episode 4: A Bad Angle  OCTOBER 24TH, 2022 | 37:43 | S1:E4

Episode 5: Shut It Down  OCTOBER 31ST, 2022 | 49:42 | S1:E5

Episode 6: Bedlam  NOVEMBER 7TH, 2022 | 41:24 | S1:E6

Episode 7: Rinse, Repeat  NOVEMBER 14TH, 2022 | 43:47 | S1:E7

Episode 8 (final episode)  NOVEMBER 21TH, 2022

Political Violence In The USA Is Not New

"Today, we take a look at our extremely steady history of political violence from the Revolution, through the Civil War, Reconstruction and Jim Crow, into the Civil Rights era, the Militia Movement and domestic terrorism, and now to our current once-again-radicalized, right-wing movement willing to use and tacitly condone violence as a political tactic."

Click on the link below for a podcast on the matter:

A History of Political Violence in the US

This Adds Insult To Injury

I have posted in the past regarding the evils of how Native Americans have been treated. Click on the link below for a brief video supporting the return of artifacts belonging to them that have been stolen:

Let's talk about Native American artifacts being returned - - - 

Paul And The Founding Of Christianity

The question of how Christianity started is a very much open question, as there is NO objective evidence supporting its founding. Since Paul's writings appear to be the first written material for a Jesus of the Bible and were written decades after the supposed events, some Bible scholars (especially the secular ones) support the claim that Paul was the founder of Christianity as we know it today. 

Click on the link below for an 18-min video interview with Richard Carrier Ph.D., a noted secular scholar who has devoted his professional life to the study of early Christianity:

How Did Christianity Really Start?

By International Definitions, The USA Is In A Civil War

"Democracy in America is balanced on a knife edge, says political scientist Barbara F. Walter, but it may not be too late to rescue it. Walter is the author of "How Civil Wars Start" and she speaks with Hari Sreenivasan about how America can prevent another one from starting."

Click on the link below for an 18-min video going in-depth on the history and present features of civil wars presented by a recognized historian on the subject:

How Civil Wars Start

Photo by Hasan Almasi on Unsplash

The Americas Before Columbus

In recent years around this time in the Fall, controversy erupts over the question of the role, if any, Christopher Columbus should play in the USA's recognition of notable individuals in its history. This book, entitled 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus, is a welcome counter to the claims of conservatives:

"Traditionally, Americans learned in school that the ancestors of the people who inhabited the Western Hemisphere at the time of Columbus’s landing had crossed the Bering Strait twelve thousand years ago; existed mainly in small, nomadic bands; and lived so lightly on the land that the Americas was, for all practical purposes, still a vast wilderness.

"In a book that startles and persuades, Mann reveals how a new generation of researchers equipped with novel scientific techniques came to previously unheard-of conclusions. Among them:

• In 1491 there were probably more people living in the Americas than in Europe.
• Certain cities–such as Tenochtitlán, the Aztec capital–were far greater in population than any contemporary European city. Furthermore, Tenochtitlán, unlike any capital in Europe at that time, had running water, beautiful botanical gardens, and immaculately clean streets.
• The earliest cities in the Western Hemisphere were thriving before the Egyptians built the great pyramids.
• Pre-Columbian Indians in Mexico developed corn by a breeding process so sophisticated that the journal Science recently described it as “man’s first, and perhaps the greatest, feat of genetic engineering.”
• Amazonian Indians learned how to farm the rain forest without destroying it–a process scientists are studying today in the hope of regaining this lost knowledge.
• Native Americans transformed their land so completely that Europeans arrived in a hemisphere already massively “landscaped” by human beings."

Why Is There Still Religion And Medical Quackery?

The major religions of today began when written communication was rudimentary and well before modern science evolved. It was a period of ignorance and superstition:

The Growth of Knowledge

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INTELLIGENCE: the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills.

KNOWLEDGE: facts, information, and skills acquired by a person through experience or education.

SCIENCE: knowledge about the natural world that is based on facts learned through experiments and observation.

UNDERSTANDING: the capacity for rational thought or inference or discrimination.

IGNORANCE: lack of knowledge or information.

SUPERSTITION: a belief or practice resulting from ignorance, fear of the unknown, trust in magic or chance, or a false conception of causation.

QUACKERY: dishonest practices and claims to have special knowledge and skill in some field, typically medicine.

RELIGION: many definitions, but usually includes belief in spiritual beings/the supernatural/a God.

The History Of No Legal Accountability In The USA

"Today, as we wait to see if Trump will ever be indicted for any of his many, many, many crimes, we take a look at the long and illustrious history of powerful people avoiding prosecution in the United States."

Click on the link below for a depressing look at criminality run-amok in the USA historically. The moral: lack of punishment rewards bad behavior:

Avoiding Accountability

How Did Religion Evolve?

"Naturalism Next joins me to discuss 'the cognitive science argument against theism.' We talk about the psychology of religion, hyperactive agency detection, signaling theory, and more on the evolutionary origins of religious belief. Crucially, theories from modern cognitive science of religion are antecedently more likely on naturalism than on theism, and so provide good evidence against theism.

"We have plausible natural mechanisms that account for religious belief and practice – how they form and how they spread. The persistence and prevalence of religious belief can be understood through the framework of evolutionary theory and cognitive science of religion, providing us an answer to the question, 'If God doesn’t exist, why does nearly everyone believe in God?'"

Click on the link below for an enlightening, balanced podcast on the history and science of religion:

How we have religion