I say a little prayer for you

Readers of this blog know well that I am not a fanatical atheist who mocks the faithful and their religions.  I fully understand the phenomenal role that religion plays in helping humans make sense of our fleeting existence; after all, we are meaning-haunted creatures.

My problem is when the faithful bring their religion into public policy making.  Into various collective decisions.

COVID-19 is a recent, but yet another, context in which religion and faith interferes with public policy.  Recall the President yelling--does he ever speak calmly though!--that everything will reopen by Easter?  Imagine if that were to happen when we are in the thick of first wave of this awful pandemic!

Passover began Wednesday. Easter is Sunday. Ramadan begin a few days later on the 23rd.  It is an Abrahamic convergence of sorts when the cousins worship their own respective gods!

In their respective prayers, do the faithful wish the others good health during this pandemic?  Or, do they believe that their god will protect them, but the infidels be damned?

Decades ago, a born-again fundamentalist told me that my parents and I will go to hell despite the fact that we are good people because we don't believe in Jesus--HE is the only one who can save us, she sincerely said!

Sure, she and other faithful can believe whatever they want.  Those are personal issues.  But, what if those beliefs interfere with the common good?

In public policy, prayers are risky. Prayers to God can give people a false sense of reassurance that something has been done. In the context of COVID-19, this could mean actions to control the virus or protect those on the front lines of the pandemic—the health care workers, fire fighters, and store clerks, among others. In the worst case, prayers can take the place of effective action, such as social distancing and material aid, which can prevent people from becoming sick and dying.

Further, prayers are cheap. They don't cost a damn thing.  Helping people out in the real world during catastrophes is bloody expensive, for which material donations and taxes are necessary.

In two out of three studies, I found that Christians who prayed for hurricane victims donated less than Christians who did not pray for the victims. While it is unknown how prayers affect other forms of support during a pandemic, it is a real risk that they have similar effects, given that the same social and psychological mechanisms may be at play. In my research, I found that prayers may take the place of material help in the wake of a natural disaster because religious Christians regard the act of praying itself to be directly helpful—hurricane victims’ material need was perceived as lower, after they had first received prayers.

With prayers, one can maintain a safe distance between one's mouth and their wallet.  Not for this atheist though, who sincerely believes that god is irrelevant when doing the right thing. I have been donating left, right, and center, these past few weeks.  I don't care whether you pray--donate, locally!

The Political Science

Ever since the dumbing down began with Ronald Reagan, Republicans have been on an anti-science assault in everything but the military.  When it comes to bombing the shit out of brown people, they want to use everything that science and technology can give them!

Now, we have a sociopath President who believes he is the world's chief scientist.  In this context, “there’s no scientist alive who can fix the underlying problem, because the problem is Trump himself."

Scientists have to accept a little bit of blame here.  For years, they behaved as if connecting with the public was beneath them.  It took the awfulness of tRump for scientists to wake up, but by then it was way too late.

I blogged in May 2017 that merely marching for science would not do a damn thing.  The following is a slightly edited version of the post from three years ago.
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The election of the current president is not the only one that has happened at this interesting time in history.  He and his complete disregard for the truth is not that unique.  That was on the political side of our lives. Almost all the dynamics that helped the president completely dismiss the truth are also the ones challenging the work of scientists.  Nobel laureate Venki Ramakrishnan says:

The Internet and the World Wide Web have been a tremendous boon to scientists. It's made communication far easier among scientists. It's in many ways leveled the playing field.
...
Along with the benefits, what has happened is a huge amount of noise. You have all of these people spouting pseudoscientific jargon and pushing their own ideas as if they were science. ... The public is bombarded with all this information, so who do we believe?

The people end up believing whoever tells them the simplest of stories--even if those stories are nothing but bullshit!

I blogged about Ramakrishnan, in 2010, after reading his essay.  Back then he was a freshly minted Nobel laureate.

Back to Ramakrishnan in the contemporary context:

How do we as a science community grapple with this and communicate to the public a sense of what science is about, what is reliable in science, what is uncertain in science, and what is just plain wrong in science? How do we live with uncertainty? Scientists live with uncertainty. We know that no matter how confident we are in our theories, it is possible that we're wrong, that our ideas may be wrong, and we always have to be prepared for that. That isn't to say that our ideas lack merit and that they shouldn't be taken seriously.

In the seminar class last fall, I had materials for students to think about the role of uncertainty in knowledge.  Understanding that is a necessary path towards intellectual boldness, I told them.  If Ramakrishnan had talked about all these back then, I would have made the students watch the interview.

So, why is Ramakrishnan talking about these now?  Because, he is now the head of the Royal Society.  With that honor comes the responsibility--he has to address science and society:

The last year has been very interesting because, for the first time, I've been taken out of my little area of ribosomes and structural biology into thinking about broader issues about science. How do we communicate science? How do we ensure that science is reliable? How do we promote interaction among scientists? How do we constantly make the case of why science is important not just to government, but to the public and to others? It's been a very interesting experience because it's made me think about science in a much broader context.

I wish scientists would do more of that--if they want to make sure that science survives the likes of the current president of the US.  Marching for science alone will not achieve anything.

Sleep tight ... especially in the time of the coronavirus

"I hope you are resting enough and sleeping well," I recently wrote to a friend in the old country.

Sleep has always been an integral part of good health, and being healthy is even more important during these COVID-19 times than ever before.

Even when life was calmer, I have blogged in plenty about sleep.  Like:

Back in 2015, I remarked about the income inequality aspect in sleep too--"The less you make, the likelier you are to sleep less than six hours a night"!
In 2016, I was concerned that our eyes being focused on electronic gadgets for hours on, especially before bed time, is seriously screwing up our sleep patterns.
A year later, I happily noted that my boring life includes good sleep: "The more all our daily practices are aligned, the better off we will be.  Of course, the downside is that others then refer to us as being regimented and boring.  I will gladly take "boring" because I don't ever want to have sleep issues."

Now, the coronavirus makes me sleep even more, because there is very little to do.

It is not only the hours of sleep, but it is also about the regular schedule, which is what I wrote about in 2016: "All I know about sleep is very simple: go to bed about the same time, and wake up about the same time,  Weekday or weekend. America or India."

It is all about a rhythm to life.  The rhythm that makes me boring to many ;)  It is a rhythm that is also largely in sync with sunrise and sundown.  The kind of rhythm that our ancestors in east Africa experienced.  This circadian rhythm is a prescription for good health over the next two years of COVID-19:

Social distancing and washing hands have become the frontline in the fight against COVID-19, but there is another powerfully protective resource immediately available to all: your circadian rhythm.

A powerful booster shot.  How can we maintain a robust circadian rhythm? "Sleep is the most profound predictor of a healthy circadian rhythm."

So, yes, washing your hands. Stay apart for now so that we can come together later.  And, sleep well.  And, oh, pay no attention to that orange man behind the curtain!