What's a Billion Dollar
As you might notice, I last wrote here in 2006 but I just saw this on the web courtesy a tweet by @picturecool and I just had to lift my pen... er, my fingers again. The figure intends to put some major world dollar figures - debts, budgets, expenses, estimates, charities, etc. - in some perspective, and you do get an amazing feel of where all the money in the world is going, or should be going, or of how much somebody said something will cost vs. what they really cost!

For example, if you look at that big purple rectangle on the top right side, that, my friend, is how much, it is estimated, that the Iraq war will cost - 3,000 billions of dollars! Notice that it is just an estimate, at the end may go up or come down. This rectangle is the largest block in the figure, except for the worst case financial losses for the US government (again an estimate) in the current global financial crisis. Bigger even than the actual losses of $2,800B in the crisis to date (August of 2009). Now, if you scoot down to the left of that big purple rectangle and squint, you will see a "small" faded out purple rectangle, representing a measly 60 billion dollars. That was what the advocates for the war said in 2003 it would cost the American tax payers. Now, I am a project Manager and I know that sometime it costs more to do something than was initially estimated, but this... this ballooning of 50 times the of the original estimate - something just smells fishy to me.

Ok, let's take a look at something else. If the American charity givers wanted ($300B), they could wipe out the entire debt of the countries in the African continent to Western nations ($200B), feed every child in the world for one whole year ($54B) and still have a lot of spare change left over in the coffers to save the Amazon forest ($21B). Compare the defense budget of the various nations ($511B) to the cost of sending a manned mission to Mars ($230B). Compare how much it would cost the world to move to solar and other renewable energy sources ($515B) to how much OPEC earns from oil exports ($520B) each year. It is fascinating to see how much lasting good can be done if people can somehow become less parochial! It is depressing to see how far we are from attaining it.

Last night I was watching Teleamazonas in Ecuador. There was this show (Este Lunes) on the importance of religion in people´s life in modern times. The panelists were two Catholics, one Evangelist and two members of the Bahai sect. No other religions were represented although the moderator, Jorge Ortiz, said that representatives from the Jewish and Muslim communities were invited but they declined to join the discussion.

Now, I have no beef with what was said during the program although having just two religions represented did limit the discussion. The talk was too much centered on how, in the case of the Christians, God, being omnipotent and omniscient, must be revered and attended to, how the twentieth century was a time when people abandoned God, resulting in so much suffering in the world that the wave has turned and more and more people are finding solace in religion. I would have found the discussion much more interesting if the panelists had found a way to detach themselves from the dogma and delved a bit more into what is religion and why do people follow the various forms practiced in the world. I thought of calling their hot number to contribute my two cents worth but then refrained from it - I do not feel easy with public speaking - and thought I´d write a blog on the subject instead. So here goes.

First, I do not have much faith in organized religion - for me religion is a personal matter of spirituality and good conduct. I believe that in essence all religions are the same - I have not yet heard of a religion that promotes thievery, lies, criminality, infidelity, and other conducts generally considered anti-social. The difference mostly lies in how God, Allah, Bhagwan, the Jah, the Jehovah, the Great Soul, or the Great Power (however He, She or It may be denominated) is presented to the people, and the mentality imposed on them of thinking that anyone not believing in the same form as they are inferior to them.

Now why do people require religion? I think the following factors would help realize what is it about religion - any religion - that people find attractive.

Big Daddy Factor: A child, when growing up needs a controlling presence to tell him what to do, the right way to do things and, in general, guide his conducts in such a way so as to become socially acceptable among his peers. This need is still present to a greater or lesser extent when the child has grown up and religion fills this need. Religion forms a reference frame for a person to shape his conduct so that his family and neighbors find him acceptable.

Scapegoat: People sometime need to assign responsibility to an external factor for events that generate sorrow and tragedy. Whenever something tragic happens it is someone else being punished by god for his wicked deeds!

Tribal Identity: Religion forms a bond between tribal groups. Witness the Hutus and the Tutsis in the Horn of Africa or the Jews and the Muslims in the Middle East.

Thus you can see why organized religion - contrary to what they preach - do no promote peace and harmony in the world. On the contrary, they create divisions between groups of people, creating discord and promote bloody conflicts. The Hindu-Muslim riots in India (see this for example), Shi'a-Sunni conflicts in Iran and Iraq, the Muslim fatwas (remember Salman Rushdie?) and jihads and the Christian Crusades and inquisitions through the ages have brought nothing but suffering to the masses.

Read Religion Explained (http://www.jhuger.com/kisshank.php) for an alternate look at organised religion.