Young Folks are Losing My Religion

“Thoughts are the shadows of our feelings — always darker, emptier and simpler.” – Friedrich Nietzsche

“In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.” – Ibid.

Young Folks in Western Countries are Losing My Religion: Washington-based Pew Research Center’s most recent analysis of 106 nations found that only in Ghana and the former Soviet republic of Georgia are young people more religious than their elders. In 46 of the 106 nations, people between the ages of 18 and 39 are less likely to say religion is very important to them than adults over the age of 40. Pew research in 2015 showed the US population was growing less religious, with younger Americans less likely to attend church, believe in God, or say religion was important to them.

The latest research calculated an age gap in the US of 17 points. In other words, 43% of Americans under age 40 say religion is very important to them, compared to 60% of adults ages 40 and over, equaling an age gap of 17 points. Age gaps are also common in Latin America, with gaps appearing in 14 out of 19 countries. Europe, too, has several nations with some of the world’s widest country-level gaps, including Poland, where just 16% of adults under 40 say religion is very important, compared with 40% of older people who say it is. One explanation for older Poles being more religious may have to do with the Cold War, a time when the Catholic Church was aligned with Polish nationalism and resistance to the Soviet Union.

Besides Poland, large age gaps exist in Greece, Chile, Romania, and Portugal – all predominantly Christian countries, and all with 20 or more points between the two age groups. Age gaps are more likely to be a feature of Christian-majority countries than Muslim-majority ones.

– George Carlin used to say there were seven dirty words that couldn’t be said on television, after which, of course, he immediately said them. But that was the 1970s. In 2015 British actor, comedian, and writer Stephen Fry learned that if you blaspheme God on television in Ireland, someone WILL complain. But now Ireland’s decided it’s time to hold a referendum on removing the anti-blasphemy prohibition from their 1937 constitution, along with a reference to the role of “a woman’s life within the home.” (BBC)

– The US Government Accountability Office (GAO) has come out with a new report that shines a spotlight on some pretty ridiculous wastefulness in the Pentagon’s multibillion-dollar Global Train and Equip program, which bankrolls training, supplies, and weapons to militaries of foreign nations. We’re talking things like providing body armor and helmets in the wrong size, or bright orange life jackets for tactical units needing to hide in the bush, or sending vehicles to our partner nations without any maintenance or repair parts. According to the GAO, only eight out of 21 projects studied in 2016 and 2017 showed improved capabilities in the local military forces that the programs are supposed to be helping. (NYT)

– Crispr is a complex immune system found in bacteria that is revolutionizing DNA editing. Since 2012, Crispr systems have become the fastest, easiest, and cheapest methods scientists have ever had to manipulate the code of life in any organism on Earth, humans included. A multi-billion dollar business was quickly born. But when two teams of scientists tried using Crispr to turn stem cells into neurons, they found many of them died unless a cancer-fighting gene was also deactivated. Their findings, reported in the journal Nature Medicine, initially cast doubt on the viability of Crispr therapies. Never fear. There’ll be as many lives for Crispr as Jurassic Park sequels, i.e., endless. (NYT)

– Surprise — Names Matter. For example, if your country is named “Macedonia,” Greece won’t let you into either NATO or the EU — for decades. But if you change your name to “Severna Makedonija,” or “Republic of North Macedonia,” you’re good to go. Now really, was it that hard? (NYT)

– CNN says “Ending the US-South Korea war games would be a win for Beijing.” No kidding. Didn’t we discuss this? (CNN)

– Maybe Vietnam should change its name to Republic of South China. Because its National Assembly just passed a draconian cybersecurity law that feels a lot like what the Chinese government does to its people. The law requires companies like Google and Facebook to store all data of Vietnam-based users in the country and open local offices. Some provisions will make it easier for the government to identify and prosecute people for online activities; overall, authorities will have wide discretion to determine when expression can be censored as “illegal,” and shut it down. Critics warn the bill will limit free speech, deter foreign investors, and seriously limit Vietnam’s digital economy. (Bloomberg)

A Middle Ages War in the Middle East: Houthis, who are Iranian-aligned Shiite rebels, and their allies have controlled the Red Sea port city of Hodeida, in Yemen, for three years. Wednesday morning a Saudi-led coalition backing Yemen’s exiled government began an assault on Hodeida that could cause even further chaos in the Arab world’s poorest nation. An estimated 8.4 million Yemenis are facing famine, and Hodeida is crucial to the supply chain. Up to 80% of the aid sent to the country, including medicines, fuel, and food, goes through the port. The Saudi coalition claims the Houthis are using the port to smuggle arms and raise taxes.

Sulaiman Almazroui, the United Arab Emirates’ ambassador to the UK, told reporters the coalition expected the operation, known as “Golden Victory,” would last just days, not months, and food distribution shouldn’t be disrupted. However, a Plan B was available to replace any loss of aid caused by coalition airstrikes, which were pounding fortifications in the city in support of ground operations by Yemeni, UAE, and Sudanese troops. Aid agencies operating on the ground disagreed with Almazroui’s assessment, warning that the operation will cut off humanitarian supply lines to millions and directly endanger the lives of some 200,000 people living in the city.

The ground attack is being led by forces loyal to Yemen’s former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, who was assassinated by his former Houthi allies last December. Over 10,000 people have been killed, and two million more displaced, in Yemen’s civil war. The Saudi-led coalition has been criticized for airstrikes that have killed civilians, while the UN and Western nations blame Iran for supplying Houthis with assault weapons and ballistic missiles, which the rebels have fired at Riyadh and elsewhere in Saudi Arabia. Both the UK and the US, with close ties to the Saudis, have been criticized for tacitly approving the assault by not intervening more decisively to deter it.

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• Gossiping Is Good. The surprising virtues of talking behind people’s backs (The Atlantic)
• Overtaxed Working Memory Knocks the Brain Out of Sync (Quanta)
• Beware the ‘mother of all credit bubbles’ (WaPo)
• Vice Shows the Perils of the ‘Greater Fool’ Theory (NYT)
• How to Talk to Kids, According to Mister Rogers (Offspring)
• Being Black in America Can Be Hazardous to Your Health. In Baltimore and other segregated cities, the life-expectancy gap between African Americans and whites is as much as 20 years. One young woman’s struggle shows why. (The Atlantic)
• Einstein’s travel diaries reveal ‘shocking’ xenophobia. Private journals kept by the scientist and humanitarian icon show prejudiced attitudes towards the people he met while travelling in Asia (The Guardian)
• What Happens When a Bad-Tempered, Distractible Doofus Runs an Empire?(The New Yorker)
• All the Nuclear Missile Submarines in the World in One Chart (Popular Mechanics)

“He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.” – Friedrich Nietzsche

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