Upgraded your god/gods recently?

There was a time when people would visit their witch-doctors when they were unwell. Gradually, it became rather unscientific to do that, so people started to visit GPs instead.

There used to be a time when people raised their voices to the heavens in times of famine (recession), sickness, poverty, natural disasters, and asked 'why'. If you were being slowly crucified to death for something you had not done, you might have wanted to ask, "God, god! Why have you forsaken me?" Nowadays you can google up on why tsunamis happen, how recessions come about, read up on how injustice happens everyday in the news.

Formerly, when I was a christian, I had the idea that if you were sick, that there was no real need to see a doctor. There seemed to be some verses in the bible that says you can just ask the leaders in the church to pray for you. (Try to get the verses later) In order to be completely well, you should probably confess all your sins as well. There's probably some scientific truth to that. Being truthful to yourself can probably save you from a lot of emotional and mental self-deception.

As an avid atheist nowadays, I try my best to get my hands on the latest scientific knowledge on taking care of our own bodies, and have come to acknowlede that excercise is essential for our healths.

In the past, when I received some health advice, I would ignore them, thinking God would take care of me. Maybe it had some placebo effect.

The verses in question:

13Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms.14 Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord:15And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.16Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.17Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months.18And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.19Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him;20Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.

Gradually, our gods become more sophisticated than that. Some people look to goverments, who tell their people to just trust them, everything will be ok. Or we depend on our moneys and incomes. Or we trust in belonging to a family, clan, tribe, or group, or in having friends in high places. Or any other gimmicks.

Is Singapore more cold-blooded?

I was just watching the Beyond Belief Conference where it was noted that physically caning criminal offenders (most times until the skin comes out) reduces the probability of a criminal repeating his crime after coming out of jail.

Although this fact is known, very few countries do that because it's considered barbaric. However, guess which country practices it? Yes, Singapore. As a result, Singapore does have a very low rate of recidivism.

Is it because Singapore is largely secular? Or is it because she's more willing to be cold-blooded in her policies? Food for thought.

It was also discussed that caning is probably not as cold-blooded or cruel as it may seem at first because it actually helps the convict in the sense of providing him with a very stong motivation not to ever come back to prison again.