This is a grave situation demanding round the clock vigilence and prep on a wartime-basis. Millions of lives are hanging in the balance; still the matter is kept postponed and the multitudinous voice hushed. Procrastination is of little help any more. If the state leaders- ruling and opposition- don't have the political will, call C.K. Janu for our aid; she, for sure, has the ghuts to rescue the state of Kerala and its people in an emergency like this...or ask Hazare to intervene for us.
Thanking you,
Adv. Alex Abraham Odikandathil
See for yourself:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLJlbCkhek4&feature=related
Monday, November 28, 2011
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Experts predict:
Organized religion is driven towards extinction.
This has to happen in at least nine countries – Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Netherlands, Austria, Czech Republic, Finland and Switzerland. All organized religions will vanish eventually from nine western-style democracies, a team of mathematicians predict in a paper based on census data stretching back to a hundred years.
They can’t make a prediction about the United States because the U.S. census doesn’t ask about religion, lead author Daniel Abrams said. But nine other countries provide enough data for detailed mathematical modeling, he asserted. “If you look at the available data, ‘unaffiliated’ is the fastest-growing group" in those countries, he remarked. “We start with two big assumptions based on sociology,” he explained.
The first is that it’s more attractive to be part of the majority than the minority, so as religious affiliation declines, it becomes more popular not to be a churchgoer than to be one, he said – what Abrams calls the majority effect. “People are more likely to switch to groups with more members. Social networks will have a powerful influence, he said. “Just a few connections to people who are (religiously) unaffiliated is enough to drive the effect,” he added.
The other assumption underlying the prediction is that there are social, economic and political advantages in being unaffiliated with a religion in the countries where it’s in decline – what Abrams calls the utility effect.“The utility of being unaffiliated seems to be higher than affiliated in western democracies,” he said. Abrams and his co-authors are not passing any judgment on religion, he’s quick to say – they’re just modeling a prediction based on trends. “We’re not trying to make any commentary about religion or whether people should be religious or not,” he explained.
" I became interested in this because I saw survey data results for the U.S. and was surprised by how large the unaffiliated group was,” he said, referring to a number of studies done by universities and think tanks on trends in religion. Studies suggest that “unaffiliated” is the fastest-growing religious group in the United States, with about 15% of the population falling into a category experts call the “nones.” They’re not necessarily atheists or non-believers, experts say, just people who do not associate themselves with a particular religion or house of worship at the time of the survey.
Abrams had done an earlier study looking into the extinction of languages spoken by small numbers of people. When he saw the religion data, his co-author “Richard Wiener suggested we try to apply a similar technique to religious affiliation,” Abrams said. The paper, by Abrams, Wiener and Haley A. Yaple, is called “A mathematical model of social group competition with application to the growth of religious non-affiliation.” They presented it this week at the Dallas meeting of the American Physical Society.
Only the Czech Republic already has a majority of people who are unaffiliated with religion, but the Netherlands, for example, will go from about 40% unaffiliated today to more than 70% by 2050, they expect. Even deeply Catholic Ireland will see religion die out, the model predicts. “They’ve gone from 0.04% unaffiliated in 1961 to 4.2% in 2006, our most recent data point,” Abrams says. He admits that the increase in Muslim immigration to Europe may throw off the model, but he thinks the trend is robust enough to withstand some challenges.
“Netherlands data goes back to 1860,” he pointed out. “Every single data that we were able to find shows that people are moving from the affiliated to unaffiliated. I can’t imagine that will change, but that’s personal opinion, not what the data shows.” But Barry Kosmin, a demographer of religion at Trinity College in Connecticut, is doubtful. “Religion relies on human beings. They aren’t rational or predictable according to the laws of physics. Religious fervor waxes and wanes in unpredictable ways,” he said. “The Jewish tradition that says prophecy is for fools and children is probably wise,” he added.
And Abrams, Wiener and Yaple are not the first to predict the end of religion. Peter Berger, a former president of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, has said, “People will become so bored with what religious groups have to offer that they will look elsewhere.” He said Protestantism “has reached the strange state of self-liquidation,” that Catholicism was in severe crisis, and anticipated that “religions are likely to survive in small enclaves and pockets” in the United States. He made those predictions in February 1968.
This has to happen in at least nine countries – Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Netherlands, Austria, Czech Republic, Finland and Switzerland. All organized religions will vanish eventually from nine western-style democracies, a team of mathematicians predict in a paper based on census data stretching back to a hundred years.
They can’t make a prediction about the United States because the U.S. census doesn’t ask about religion, lead author Daniel Abrams said. But nine other countries provide enough data for detailed mathematical modeling, he asserted. “If you look at the available data, ‘unaffiliated’ is the fastest-growing group" in those countries, he remarked. “We start with two big assumptions based on sociology,” he explained.
The first is that it’s more attractive to be part of the majority than the minority, so as religious affiliation declines, it becomes more popular not to be a churchgoer than to be one, he said – what Abrams calls the majority effect. “People are more likely to switch to groups with more members. Social networks will have a powerful influence, he said. “Just a few connections to people who are (religiously) unaffiliated is enough to drive the effect,” he added.
The other assumption underlying the prediction is that there are social, economic and political advantages in being unaffiliated with a religion in the countries where it’s in decline – what Abrams calls the utility effect.“The utility of being unaffiliated seems to be higher than affiliated in western democracies,” he said. Abrams and his co-authors are not passing any judgment on religion, he’s quick to say – they’re just modeling a prediction based on trends. “We’re not trying to make any commentary about religion or whether people should be religious or not,” he explained.
" I became interested in this because I saw survey data results for the U.S. and was surprised by how large the unaffiliated group was,” he said, referring to a number of studies done by universities and think tanks on trends in religion. Studies suggest that “unaffiliated” is the fastest-growing religious group in the United States, with about 15% of the population falling into a category experts call the “nones.” They’re not necessarily atheists or non-believers, experts say, just people who do not associate themselves with a particular religion or house of worship at the time of the survey.
Abrams had done an earlier study looking into the extinction of languages spoken by small numbers of people. When he saw the religion data, his co-author “Richard Wiener suggested we try to apply a similar technique to religious affiliation,” Abrams said. The paper, by Abrams, Wiener and Haley A. Yaple, is called “A mathematical model of social group competition with application to the growth of religious non-affiliation.” They presented it this week at the Dallas meeting of the American Physical Society.
Only the Czech Republic already has a majority of people who are unaffiliated with religion, but the Netherlands, for example, will go from about 40% unaffiliated today to more than 70% by 2050, they expect. Even deeply Catholic Ireland will see religion die out, the model predicts. “They’ve gone from 0.04% unaffiliated in 1961 to 4.2% in 2006, our most recent data point,” Abrams says. He admits that the increase in Muslim immigration to Europe may throw off the model, but he thinks the trend is robust enough to withstand some challenges.
“Netherlands data goes back to 1860,” he pointed out. “Every single data that we were able to find shows that people are moving from the affiliated to unaffiliated. I can’t imagine that will change, but that’s personal opinion, not what the data shows.” But Barry Kosmin, a demographer of religion at Trinity College in Connecticut, is doubtful. “Religion relies on human beings. They aren’t rational or predictable according to the laws of physics. Religious fervor waxes and wanes in unpredictable ways,” he said. “The Jewish tradition that says prophecy is for fools and children is probably wise,” he added.
And Abrams, Wiener and Yaple are not the first to predict the end of religion. Peter Berger, a former president of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, has said, “People will become so bored with what religious groups have to offer that they will look elsewhere.” He said Protestantism “has reached the strange state of self-liquidation,” that Catholicism was in severe crisis, and anticipated that “religions are likely to survive in small enclaves and pockets” in the United States. He made those predictions in February 1968.
Saturday, November 12, 2011
To share; to give
I remember how fascinated I was when I read about the Dead Sea for the first time. As you may probably recall, the Dead Sea is really a lake and not a sea at all.
Its so high in salt content that the human body can float easily in/on it. You can almost lie down on its waters and read a book! The salt content in the Dead Sea is as high as 35% - almost ten times the usual ocean water. And all that saltiness has made sure the non- existence of any life in the Dead Sea- no fish, no vegetation, no sea animals: nothing lives in the Dead Sea.
And hence the name, Dead Sea.
While the Dead Sea has remained etched in my memory, I don't seem to recall reading about the Sea of Galilee in my younger days. So when I heard about the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea and the tale of the two seas... wait a minute... I was intrigued.
It turns out that the Sea of Galilee is just north of the Dead Sea. Both the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea intake water from River Jordan. Yet they are very, very different.
Unlike the Dead Sea, the Sea of Galilee is pretty, resplendent with rich, colorful marine life. There are lots of plants... lots of fish too. In fact, the sea of Galilee is home to over twenty different species of fishes.
Same region; same source of water : yet while one sea is vigorous with life, the other is dead- but why?
Here, apparently, is the reason. The River Jordan flows into the Sea of Galilee and then flows out. The water simply passes through the Sea of Galilee in, then out - and that keeps the sea healthy and vibrant, teeming with marine life.
But the Dead Sea is far below the mean sea level, that it has no outlet. The water flows in from the River Jordan but does not flow out. There are no outlet streams. It is estimated that over a million tons of water evaporate from the Dead Sea on any given day. Leaving it salty and too full of minerals- unfit for any marine life.
Let me repeat!
The Dead Sea takes water from the River Jordan, and holds it. It does not give out.
And the result?
No life springs forth.
Just think about it.
Life is not just about getting. Its also about giving. We all need to be like the Sea of Galilee.
We are fortunate in having wealth, knowledge, love and respect. But if we don't learn to give, we would all end up like the Dead Sea. Love and respect, wealth and knowledge- all could evaporate, like the water in the Dead Sea.
If we maintain the dead sea mentality of merely taking in more everything... the result can be disastrous. Its a good idea to make sure that in the sea of your own life, you create outlets... not one but many. Give vent to love, respect and wealth along with your other intense feelings... its capable of cooling you down.
Make sure you don't just get, you give too.
And may you open the floodgates to happiness.
Enjoy your week-end,
Love,
Prof. Dr. Alex Abraham Odikandathil
Share; give.
Experience life.
Experience the magic!
Its so high in salt content that the human body can float easily in/on it. You can almost lie down on its waters and read a book! The salt content in the Dead Sea is as high as 35% - almost ten times the usual ocean water. And all that saltiness has made sure the non- existence of any life in the Dead Sea- no fish, no vegetation, no sea animals: nothing lives in the Dead Sea.
And hence the name, Dead Sea.
While the Dead Sea has remained etched in my memory, I don't seem to recall reading about the Sea of Galilee in my younger days. So when I heard about the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea and the tale of the two seas... wait a minute... I was intrigued.
It turns out that the Sea of Galilee is just north of the Dead Sea. Both the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea intake water from River Jordan. Yet they are very, very different.
Unlike the Dead Sea, the Sea of Galilee is pretty, resplendent with rich, colorful marine life. There are lots of plants... lots of fish too. In fact, the sea of Galilee is home to over twenty different species of fishes.
Same region; same source of water : yet while one sea is vigorous with life, the other is dead- but why?
Here, apparently, is the reason. The River Jordan flows into the Sea of Galilee and then flows out. The water simply passes through the Sea of Galilee in, then out - and that keeps the sea healthy and vibrant, teeming with marine life.
But the Dead Sea is far below the mean sea level, that it has no outlet. The water flows in from the River Jordan but does not flow out. There are no outlet streams. It is estimated that over a million tons of water evaporate from the Dead Sea on any given day. Leaving it salty and too full of minerals- unfit for any marine life.
Let me repeat!
The Dead Sea takes water from the River Jordan, and holds it. It does not give out.
And the result?
No life springs forth.
Just think about it.
Life is not just about getting. Its also about giving. We all need to be like the Sea of Galilee.
We are fortunate in having wealth, knowledge, love and respect. But if we don't learn to give, we would all end up like the Dead Sea. Love and respect, wealth and knowledge- all could evaporate, like the water in the Dead Sea.
If we maintain the dead sea mentality of merely taking in more everything... the result can be disastrous. Its a good idea to make sure that in the sea of your own life, you create outlets... not one but many. Give vent to love, respect and wealth along with your other intense feelings... its capable of cooling you down.
Make sure you don't just get, you give too.
And may you open the floodgates to happiness.
Enjoy your week-end,
Love,
Prof. Dr. Alex Abraham Odikandathil
Share; give.
Experience life.
Experience the magic!
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