About me:

"And now abideth faith, hope, and charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity." Saul of Tarsus (c 70 AD)

Omnipresent Lambodara, pure and peaceful doer of all good. Take away my fear and anger. Let me see Thee everywhere and at all times. Show me the truth that there is no intrinsic evil. Remove all barriers in my mind to understanding, true trust and love. Guide me to a harmonious life and righteous success in the fulfillment of my dharma. Ganesha sharanam, sharanam Ganesha.

"The ink of the scholar is more sacred than the blood of the martyr." The prophet Mahomet (c 600 AD).

A genetic cladogram of all major phyla shows clearly that all living organisms on this planet share common ancestry. Common ancestry is one of the most controversial aspects of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. It seems strange to me that this is so. Singularity of origin would seem to support monotheism to my way of thinking. Of course, the theory of evolution always has played hell with the "status quo".

A Bonobo couple contemplates love. The Bonobo chimpanzee is the species most closely related to human beings. We share a common ancestor with Bonobos within the past 3-5 million years.

A map of mitochondrial DNA haplogroups confirms the single African origin hypothesis. Modern human beings arose in Tanzania or Ethiopia within the past 200-300 thousand years. The subsequent dispersal , exodus and diaspora, of the modern human species from Africa has all occurred within the last 100 thousand years. This means that no group or race of us is very much more different than any other.

The seed of Western Civilization originated in Babylon, modern day Iraq, and was spread into Celtic Europe by early Persian influence on the ancient Mediterranean Greeks circa 1500 BC. Archaelogical artifacts from this time period show little record of warfare in Central Europe and it is generally believed that the Persian influence met little resistance from, or was perhaps even welcomed by, the native pre-Roman Celtic societies. If this is true it would mean a largely bloodless conquest marked by the transmission of music and culture, imagine that!

Bagpipes, being played in the Syrian style above, originated in the Middle East and the Mediterranean region. They were brought to the Pictish Scots by the Persian influence on the Celts (see map below) a thousand years before the bloody Roman conquests subdued Europe by force.

Celtic influence in Europe circ 400 BC.

What are the consequences of abusing religous beliefs for war and profit? Join me for a 45 minute exploration concerning how an ancient apocalyptic beleif is being exploited for political gain and learn about some of the unsavory alliances behind such work. This lecture is available to religious, scientific, and scholarly student groups interested in the dynamics of social change. Please contact the author through this web page for more information. A summary is available on this weblog.