"A team of scientists at the University of Utah has proposed that the unusual pattern of genetic diseases seen among Jews of central or northern European origin, or Ashkenazim, is the result of natural selection for enhanced intellectual ability."
And yet I am neither ill nor brilliant, despite being something like 110% Ashkenazi. Wait, percents only go up to 100%? What? I don't get it.
Now do you understand the reason why:
ReplyDelete"For whatever reason, Jews who rediscover their religion--unlike, say, Protestants or Muslims--tend not to do so religiously."
Having always been happy to have been born a member of the tribe, I've never had to rediscover my religion. But lord save us from the utter insanity of the Jewish sacred texts. God says I'm not allowed to eat scallops?
The religions descended from Abraham all tend to be designed for slack jawed yokels.
When smart folks get interested in spirituality, they gravitate towards religions descended from Buddha and Lao-Tzu - which deal with some of the problems of consciousness in a much more sophisticated way.
(If you didn't bother taking religion classes, The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind provides a decent overview of understanding the religious impulse.)
Blogger doesn't want me to be Petey sometimes...
ReplyDeleteInterestingly, the NY Times article had nothing to say re: cultural background and family influence on intellectual achievement. All nature/ no nurture. Not that they have to do controlled experiments of Ashkenazi identical twins separated at birth, one raised by same group, and the other raised by WASPs, but . . . clearly, in an environment that prizes and encourages education, children will do better than in one that favors other pursuits. And who says you're not brilliant? -- JM
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