Moist Meat

Professor Lionel Tiger

Lionel Tiger is an anthropology professor at Rutgers University who wrote a piece in The Wall Street Journal titled Is the Supernatural Only Natural? He thinks God is brain chemistry.

Tiger believes faith in God is the result of  “links between social behavior and brain chemistry.” He notes that social interaction causes secretion of serotonin, an opiate-like hormone, and asserts “… religion is a natural system that replaces what we call “brainpain,” with its antidote, “brainsoothing.”” In other words, religious social interaction triggers serotonin to soothe our souls (or whatever it soothes, considering that Tiger doesn’t believe in souls).

Another observation: “Religion tastes sweet to the brain – especially the remarkable idea of an afterlife that holds people accountable for their sweaty and ambiguous earthly lives and rewards or deprives them elsewhere.” Tiger thinks the afterlife is a ridiculous idea and “… research concerning the moist meat in our skull” shows brain function is the source of religion, not the supernatural.

He thinks religion depends “more on the imaginative and deeply felt assertions of thinkers and advocates than on the kind of tough evidence, for example, required in a legal trial for fraud.” Let’s ignore the smugness and look at what he’s saying.

His claim that faith can't produce trial evidence is a cheap shot because Tiger's position on religion wouldn’t pass muster in court either. The question is, “What does the evidence support?” whether it's usable in court or not.  He claims the brain produces religious experience. If so, why does this ability exist at all? Isn't  it more plausible to believe man is deliberately wired to experience a real God than to think it's just there for no particular reason?

Tiger believes “very few people are convinced by theology”. It’s anybody’s guess why he thinks this, since there are questions that can only be answered by faith. For instance, where did our highly organized universe come from? Tiger probably thinks it magically “appeared” while the faithful see the hand of a Creator, just like Einstein did.

And how does he account for verifed out-of-body experiences or personal miracles that can’t be chalked up to coincidence? There’s more to these than serotonin.

Tiger rejects the idea of reward and punishment in an afterlife. But the prospect of divine judgment is a practical incentive to live by the Golden Rule. Without God’s influence, why would man behave morally? If we’re just soulless “moist meat” we’re merely self-absorbed critters– which is the way many have been behaving.

Our society has developed major problems after flouting God’s teachings and this decline demonstrates the rightness of God’s direction. It’s a vindication of His teachings and further proof of His reality.

It’ll be hard for Tiger to convince a jury in his “legal trial for fraud” that serotonin even comes close to explaining it all.



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Faulting Fans

The U.S. Open

When a tennis ball is hit out of bounds it’s called a fault. Out of bounds fan behavior has finally reached the
 esteemed US Open.

I’m not a tennis fan but I do know it’s got to be quiet during play. To the uninitiated it’s amusing to watch thousands of intent but silent people sit cheek by jowl moving their heads in unison. Left to right, right to left, left to right……

The sport is dignified – except maybe for John McEnroe back in the day – and respects time honored traditions. Tennis was one place where splashy self-centeredness was usually held at bay.

Everything a player sees and hears is important: crowd movement, conversation, flash photography and cell phones are banned to enable concentration. Players need to hear the sound of the ball coming off an opponent’s racket to help determine their return. Plus, the umpire’s rulings can’t be heard above chatter.

But even tennis has been affected by the societal coarseness that’s metastasized over the past forty years. It happened at the U.S. Open. According to Karen Crouse writing in The New York Times, “a women’s singles match was being played, but in a midlevel suite two men and two women, drinks in hand and backs to the court, carried on as if they were at a cocktail mixer.”

“On one point, their peals of laughter caused the server to catch her toss and the chair umpire to call for silence. The suite holders were so oblivious, they did not know the scolding was directed at them. The match ended, and they kept talking.”

“Last year, fans were shouting between serves” said Daniel E. Doyle, executive director of the Institute for International Sport at the University of Rhode Island. A “fan approached the offenders and told them to be quiet.” Peace was restored when an usher got involved. According to Doyle, “It was as if they were oblivious to the protocol. They were more important than the athletes who were on the court competing.” Doyle described the “disintegration of fan etiquette as “the biggest threat to sportsmanship.”

Sportsmanship used to teach kids to play fair, be courteous to other players, not to gloat in victory or be a sore loser. Professional athletes were expected to publicly embrace these concepts even if they were less than perfect in private life, while the fans generally emulated and promoted the sentiments. We’ve lost this informal social compact as intrusive, crude behavior became a normal part of spectator behavior.  It mirrors changes in society at large.

The decline of sportsmanship coincides with attacks against Christianity and its values. After all, what’s the essence of sportsmanship if it’s not “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you?

Rampant offensiveness nourishes the moral relativism that brought us to this point. If we’re to restore civility - which we need in everyday life even more than in sports - we need a resurgence of Christianity. Is there anything else that can do it?

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