What Did The Last Easter

Australia Is The Most Isolated Continent.

To Science We Owe Dramatic Changes In Our Smug Self-image. Astronomy Taught Us That Our Earth Is Not The Center Of The Universe, But Merely One Of Nine Planets Circling One Of Billions Of Stars. From Biology We Learned That Humans Were Not Specially Created By God But Evolved Along With Tens Of Millions Of Other Species.

The Metaphor Is So Obvious. Easter Island Isolated In The Pacific Ocean — Once The Island Got Into Trouble, There Was No Way They Could Get Free. There Was No Other People From Whom They Could Get Help. In The Same Way That We On Planet Earth, If We Ruin Our Own [world], We Won't Be Able To Get Help.

Aids And Malaria And Tb Are National Security Issues. A Worldwide Program To Get A Start On Dealing With These Issues Would Cost About $25 Billion... It's, What, A Few Months In Iraq.

Besides Justifying The Transfer Of Wealth To Kleptocrats, Institutionalized Religion Brings Two Other Important Benefits To Centralized Societies. First, Shared Ideology Or Religion Helps Solve The Problem Of How Unrelated Individuals Are To Live Together Without Killing Each Other—by Providing Them With A Bond Not Based On Kinship. Second, It Gives People A Motive, Other Than Genetic Self-interest, For Sacrificing Their Lives On Behalf Of Others.