Religion is in our DNA podcast

 

It’s strange: as paleo people, we believe that our diet evolved along with us, making us what we are.  For instance, there has never, ever, been a vegetarian or vegan tribe or culture. Humans have always eaten animal products, some more than others, but ALL rely on the amazing nutrition in animal derived foods.  Eating animals and products taken from animals made us what we are- you can’t take animals out of our evolution and arrive at modern humans.

This is widely accepted amongst those who believe in an ancestral diet and lifestyle.  But, though most of us see ourselves as grounded in science in our beliefs, many of us at the same time deny the truth, or meaning of religion in our lives!  We denigrate the idea of a god, or of any universal laws outside of man’s own laws.  Many believe that science has displaced the idea of God, gods, or even religion itself.

But just because there has never been a culture that didn’t eat animals- there has never been a culture without religion.  Never.  Even the Neanderthals had burials of their dead, with flowers heaped on the departed.  There is something deep within us that requires us to believe in a spiritual world, a place beyond the mortal sphere in which we reside today.  And so it has always been!

To live without a notion of a spiritual realm, a place of higher goodness and ultimate laws and reason, is akin to eating processed foods developed in the past 50 years or so, and thinking that we now know better than nature itself, and can replace wild game, vegetables, fruits and nuts with chemically made ‘Beyond Burgers’ and do just as well, health wise.  

This is completely delusional!  To live on fast food, processed grains and vegetable seed oils is disastrous for our physical health and well-being, and is a fast track to auto-immune diseases and even mental health.  We all know this as followers of various renditions of the Paleo Diet, and we all experience first hand the amazing benefits of red meat, seafood, pastured dairy and fermented vegetables.  The Paleo Diet is nothing short of life changing!

But what about religion?  Aren’t we beyond that now, since after all we know there are no supernatural beings on Mt. Olympus, and doesn’t Heaven seem, well, unscientific?  

Well, only if you also believe that eating natural animal products and seafood is ‘unscientific’, and that a low fat, soy based diet of lab grown food-like substances slathered in chemically extracted seed oils is the epitome of true science and all-knowing enlightenment…  

We evolved eating and living a certain way- in Nature, in a circadian cycle with the sun of light and darkness, sleep and waking.  Ancestral types of foodstuffs,  cooked by fire and thus made bio-available with maximum nutrients.  In tribes of similar humans, working together for survival, and with good health as pretty much a birthright.  

The tribe had a center though, it always did, and that center was religion.  It is as much a part of us as our need for protein and fat- we need a higher plane to relate to, something above and beyond our daily lives.  

This was true all over the world- whether one god or many, whether Socrates’ daemon (literally a ‘divine something’) that warned him of right and wrong, or the many Hindu gods or those of the Egyptians or Babylonians.   It’s true, there are always some who do not believe in a particular god or gods, but there is always something that is worshipped.  Always.  

Just because, right now, certain groups (Communists spring to mind) that vehemently deny and denigrate any sort of religion- this only confirms that they are very wrong.

Mankind can, at certain times and places, put himself as ‘above and beyond needing to believe in a higher power than himself’.  He can even believe it, just as he believes that heaven can exist here upon earth, and if we just elect the right people, Utopia can be here forever!  

You can believe it, you can convince yourself that Science is God, and mankind is ALL, we just need to be modern and believe in ourselves…

But you’ll be wrong.  The need for religion, a higher power, is there.  It is in our very DNA.

Are we really Paleo, or are we... Barbarians?? PaleoJay podcast #57

Are both "paleo"?

First off, I want to say- I am so glad to have my computer back and running!  Thanks so much to Elan technology of Columbus Ohio for “saving my PASTURED bacon!”  New hard drive with total data recovery- thank guys!!  And now, lets go into the show:

I have always loved the Paleo metaphor for diet and lifestyle!  Paleo, ancestral, primal; they all kind of work- they get the idea across that we have strayed from our roots- our future is in our past- we have REALLY MESSED THINGS UP!!

But, when I really think about it, at this point we should really call ourselves barbarians!

I have always loved reading about ancient history and civilizations!  Did you know that the mummies of the ancient Egyptian pharaohs tend to be riddled with artherosclerosis, arthritis, and most of the modern diseases that we thought were only... modern!?

Well, they are!  The Egyptians of thousands of years ago might have been surrounded by “barbarians” that had none of these diseases, and most of their own lower classes probably were also immune, since they didn’t have the money to eat lots of grains, mainly in the form of sweetened confections that the upper classes prized.  The more in depth that the old mummies are studied, the more modern diseases are discovered in these ancient corpses!

And then there is Tacitus...  a Roman from 98 A.D., he wrote about the German barbarians of the time- 

“he mentions that they all have common physical characteristics, blue eyes (truces et caerulei oculi = "sky-coloured, azure, dark blue, dark green), reddish hair ( rutilae comae = "red, golden-red, reddish yellow") and large bodies, vigorous at the first onset but not tolerant of exhausting labour, tolerant of hunger and cold but not of heat.[2]

In Chapter 7, Tacitus describes their government and leadership as somewhat merit-based and egalitarian, with leadership by example rather than authority and that punishments are carried out by the priests. He mentions (Ch. 8) that the opinions of women are given respect. In Chapter 9, Tacitus describes a form of folk assembly rather similar to the publicThings recorded in later Germanic sources: in these public deliberations, the final decision rests with the men of the tribe as a whole.”

Sounds like a pretty fair, modern group of folks, really, doesn’t it?  He goes on to say that they don’t eat much grains, being from a cold, inhospitable land (nothing like the sunny Mediteranean!!) and mainly subsist on meat, vegetables, and dairy herds!  Sounds pretty PRIMAL, doesn’t it?  I think these guys would have loved a good Paleo smoothie, along with a nice grass fed steak topped with butter and bacon!  And think of this: potatoes weren’t even discovered yet!!  These ancient barbarians were golden!!

At any rate, what I think about the German barbarians is this: WE, we Paleo folk, are more like THEM than pure hunter/ gatherers!  WE live in civilization, or preferably on the outskirts of it (in more rural communities that are self-sufficient), and can choose to pick and choose from what civilization has to offer, but ignore and pass by the decadence and rotten morals that it is also riddled with...  We can use the technology of civilization, but ignore and shun the GMO’s, the pharmaceutical poisons, and the toxic processed fake foods!

We instinctively know better!  

We can be Noble Barbarians! Taking what we want of value of modern civilized society, and ignoring and reviling what we KNOW to be foul!  

Kind of gives you a mission, doesn’t it?  Do what’s right- 

1. Eat what’s right- only real food... RIGHT??
2. Exercise right- real, bodyweight, and moving-through-nature exercise!
3. Sleep right, plenty of it!
4. LIVE right- avoid decadence and the EVILS that civilization tends to accumulate
5. Live TRIBALLY- this is what the barbarians kept up from paleolithic times- a TRIBE is the only natural agglomeration of peoples that really works, and that keeps everyone accountable!  No welfare in a tribe!!

And there you have it!  Another thing the Romans noticed-  They realized that these barbarians were awfully similar to their own ancestors!  The upper classes all had “ancestor rooms” in their houses, with wax faces of the ancestors going back hundreds of years, which they saw every day since they were children...  and the oldest ones were..

 blue eyes ("sky-coloured, azure, dark blue, dark green), reddish hair  "red, golden-red, reddish yellow") and large bodies

In other words, they recognized that these barbarians were in face the same tribes of people that had originally conquered Italy in the early days, and were just like their own ancestors!  Blonde hair was particularly prized by ancient Romans...

So, let’s be proud to be Paleo/Barbarians!  Best of both worlds!!  

And also, I received an audio message from Deborah S. Hart-Serafini that I wanted to share- Deborah is an avid Vitamix fan, as am I, and she, well, just listen to her here: 

I feel the same way as Deborah!  And you should too, my Barbarian/Paleo friend!!

Don’t be a decadent Roman or Egyptian, eating sweetened honey-cakes of wheat, sugar, hummingbird wings and dates- be a barbarian!  EAT REAL FOODS!  Live a real life, not one of subservience to a self proclaimed political or priestly class, be part of a vital TRIBE- a community of EQUALS!

Get yourself a Vitamix- There is a special on now where you can get one for $299!!- just click on barbarian paleojay’s link to the right, and blend and cook your own food-Do NOT take the “medicines” they try to drug you with-  don’t rely on the Aristocratic Decadent Powers-that-be- Take back your health!!

This is my message to you!

J