WHY IS THERE STILL RELIGION TODAY?

Today, I focus on something spiritual. However, I first introduce you to the latest newcomer, the BA2.75 subvariant, called Centaurus, and will this week analyze how this strain could affect the future of our Pandemic.

One more newsworthy piece, for, on the heels of Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senator Ed Markey and four other members of the U.S. Congress, visited Taiwan to meet with President Tsai Ing-wen and industrialists to discuss tensions in the Taiwan Strait and follow-up on semiconductor investments. The delegation had previously met with new South Korea President Yoon Suk Yeol. Clearly, the Ukraine War has solidified the White House position for maintaining Taiwan independence. Next, you will see U.S, warships in that strait, plus a few high profile trade talks.

Any anthropologist would recognize that religion played a key roll in the development of early human societies. What has long surprised me is how all the major religions have not only survived, but seem to be thriving in this growing educated society. Of particular noteworthiness is how the general populace of the USA has maintained a high level of belief in God and the Afterlife, against all scientific logic. While polls differ, and the numbers are declining, 80% of Americans believe in God and an afterlife.

My vision of the beginning ignores the light and God. Our ancestors were apes, and they even today band together for survival. Early forms of Homo sapiens evolved 5-7 million years ago through something like a chimpanzee (we do share 99% of the same genes), and small groups of near humans rose to a next level of development, blending altruism and self-sacrifice, but recognizing that some Supreme Being watching over you might well have been useful to keep subjects in check. In those early days, I can imagine the individuals cowed by fear and influenced by fables and possible miracles. Helped that after death, if you were good, you would go to Heaven. Bad, and on to Hell. Depending on location and circumstances, religions came and some disappeared. The most successful went on to become what we have today.

Mind you, way before Jesus and Buddha, there was Iranian prophet Zoroaster, perhaps 3500 years ago. During the Bronze Age of Iran, he had a vision of one supreme God. It took a millennium, but Zoroastrianism became the first monotheistic faith, reigning supreme over the Persian Empire for a millennium. Yet, 1500 years later, Zoroastrianism is dying, down to maybe 100,000 adherents. So not all religions continue grow.

So while some religions have come and gone, the major ones today are doing well, with almost as many Hindus as Christians projected by 2060.

So in this mostly educated world, why has religion continued to thrive? To many, religion provides security. Those countries with the highest rates of atheism tend to be those that provide their citizens with relatively high economic, political and existential stability. A good example is Europe, particularly Scandinavia, but even Japan, Israel and other parts of the Orient and Oceania. Then there is the U.S., which is an obvious outlier.

Certainly, there is something to the human mind that goes beyond mere security and survival. According to Big God author Ara Norenzayan:

Additionally, non-believers often lean on what could be interpreted as religious proxies – sports teams, yoga, professional institutions, Mother Nature and more – to guide their values in life. As a testament to this, witchcraft is gaining popularity in the US, and paganism seems to be the fastest growing religion in the UK.

Thus, it is possible that there are psychological, neurological, historical, cultural and logistical reasons that religion will never go away. Religion has successfully perpetuated itself. Then, too, maybe there is a God.

A NEXT COVID SUBVARIANT?

By now most know that the Omicron BA.5 subvariant has become the dominant infectious agent, now accounting for more than 80% of all COVID-19 cases. Very few are aware that a new one, BA.4.6, is sneaking in and steadily rising, now accounting for 13% of sequenced samples . However, as BA.4.6 has emerged from BA.4, while there is uncertainty, the scientific sense is that the latest bivalent booster targeting BA.4 and BA.5 should also be effective for this next threat. One concern is that Evusheld--the only monoclonal antibody authorized for COVID prevention in immunocompromised individuals--is not effective against BA.4.6. Here is a reference as to what this means. A series of two injections is involved. Evusheld was developed by British-Swedish company AstraZeneca, and is a t ixagevimab co-packaged with cilgavimab . More recently, Los Angeles County reported on subvariant BA.2.75.2 . which Tony Fauci termed suspicious and troublesome. This strain has also been spreading in

Part 3: OUR NEXT AROUND THE WORLD ODYSSEY

Before I get into my third, and final, part of this cruise series, let me start with some more newsworthy topics. Thursday was my pandemic day for years. Thus, every so often I return to bring you up to date on the latest developments. All these subvariants derived from that Omicron variant, and each quickly became dominant, with slightly different symptoms. One of these will shock you. There has been a significant decline in the lost of taste and smell. From two-thirds of early patients to now only 10-20% show these symptoms. JN.1, now the dominant subvariant, results in mostly mild symptoms. However, once JN.1 infects some, there seem to be longer-lasting symptoms. Clearly, the latest booster helps prevent contracting Covid. A competing subvariant, BA.2.86, also known as Pirola , a month ago made a run, but JN.1 prevailed. No variant in particular, but research has shown that some of you will begin to lose hair for several months. This is caused by stress more than anythi

HONOLULU TO SEATTLE

The story of the day is Hurricane Milton, now a Category 4 at 145 MPH, with a track that has moved further south and the eye projected to make landfall just south of Sarasota. Good news for Tampa, which is 73 miles north. Milton will crash into Florida as a Category 4, and is huge, so a lot of problems can still be expected in Tampa Bay with storm surge. If the eye had crossed into the state just north of Tampa, the damage would have been catastrophic. Milton is a fast-moving storm, currently at 17 MPH, so as bad as the rainfall will be over Florida, again, a blessing. The eye will make landfall around 10PM EDT today, and will move into the Atlantic Ocean north of Palm Bay Thursday morning. My first trip to Seattle was in June of 1962 just after I graduated from Stanford University. Caught a bus. Was called the Century 21 Exposition . Also the Seattle World's Fair. 10 million joined me on a six-month run. My first. These are held every five years, and there have only been

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