…and this is a 
This is your body on religion
Category: History • Religion
Posted on: November 14, 2006 11:36 PM, by PZ Myers
Religious ritual can make you very, very sick, and even kill you. This somewhat morbid, mildly gross, and terribly sad story about the Essenes, the religious zealots who authored the Dead Sea scrolls, is an interesting anthropological look at an ancient failed cult.
It seems that their requirements for dealing with their own waste were mistakenly ineffective. They excreted into pits that protected parasites, which they would then carry back…and before they could return to the group, they had to bathe by total immersion in a cistern, which meant they'd basically soak in each other's infestations.
The ritual cleansing "is a total immersion, which means that it gets in your ears, in your eyes and in your mouth," Zias said. "It is not hard to imagine how sick everyone must have been."
The sickness is reflected in the Qumran cemetery, which had been partially excavated previously.
"The graveyard at Qumran is the unhealthiest group I have ever studied in over 30 years," Zias said.
Fewer than 6% of the men buried there survived to age 40, he said. In contrast, cemeteries from the same period excavated at Jericho show that half the men lived beyond age 40.
Bleh. I think I need to take a shower.
There is a kind of metaphor here, though—this is what you get when you seek religious purity.
Comments
That's interesting, but not as interesting as the demise of the heretic Arius, who died on the crapper with what Socrates Scholasticus described as "a violent relaxation of the bowels." Needless to say, his Christian opponents said it was God's will.
Posted by: Oxhead | November 15, 2006 12:13 AM
I'm curious about the details of this study. Is it possible that metazoan intestinal parasite communities could survive outside of their hosts for centuries in soil that was once used as a latrine?
Posted by: jester1 | November 15, 2006 12:15 AM
..
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"There is a kind of metaphor here, though--this is what you get when you seek religious purity."
WOSIJMU: "If you have a faulty model of reality in your head, you get right answers only by accident."
These guys were in the majority of those who got wrong answers. You kinda have to forgive them for living in a time when they had no science.
But then again, if you think as I do that religion was the prime force holding back the development of science, probably for thousands of years, they may have got what they deserved.
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...
Posted by: Hank Fox | November 15, 2006 12:22 AM
Way to generalize, you endlessly clueless dingbat.
And while it is generally accepted that the Essenes were the authors of the Dead Sea scrolls, there are some scholars that beg to differ. This is mentioned at the exhibit of the scrolls at the Pacific Science Center in Seattle. . .what those differing opinions were escape me in my weariness just now. . .said weariness not at all lessened by your increasingly strident foolishness.
Posted by: hoody | November 15, 2006 12:37 AM
It's also worth noting that the Essences were religious extremists, not typical of the Jewish community as a whole or even the observant Jews of the period. To argue from this case study to a claim about all religion would be like arguing from a monomanic academic to the psychology of all academics.
OK, maybe that's not such a good analogy, but you know what I mean...
Posted by: John Wilkins | November 15, 2006 1:04 AM
The Essenes were indeed extremists, but like all such people, they neither origniated nor existed in a vacuum. Their nutty practices are in most cases just explicit enactments of the underlying ideological aspects of the parent religion. It's true that the overriding concern with ritual purity increases dramatically as one moves towards the extreme ends of the socio-religious spectrum -- towards the new-age crystal-wavers no less so than the crypto-fascist purity-ball dads -- but the basis for that concern is in absolutely no way absent from their religious substrates.
Posted by: Dan | November 15, 2006 1:40 AM
It just shows that there's a world of difference between ritual purity and plain old cleanliness. When I was in grad school (in another geological era) I had a roommate who was an Orthodox Jew, and went with him one day to a kosher butcher's for meat. In a showcase of chopped beef, there was something that looked like a fat gray worm. Looking closer, I realized that it was a cigarette ash! Right in plain view! I complained to my friend, who said, "Well, it's vegetable matter, no harm."
Posted by: Jonathan Lubin | November 15, 2006 1:50 AM
your increasingly strident foolishness
Uh, hoody ... there's a dark pot in your mirror.
This "metaphor" may not be PZ's most rigid analytical claim ... but at least he's capable of recognizing that.
Posted by: truth machine | November 15, 2006 1:53 AM
Purity -- I can't help but also see a metaphorical link with recent suspicions that overuse of antibacterial soaps may adversely affect childrens' immune symptom development (e.g. studies of asthma in farm children) and foster the selection of resistant strains.
Posted by: melior | November 15, 2006 2:08 AM
"Some people might laugh, but it is terribly sad," he said. "They were so dedicated and had such a strenuous lifestyle, but they were probably lowering their life expectancy and ruining their health in an effort to do what is right."
Perhaps it is tragic, but not as tragic as religious zealots who are 'lowering life expectancy' of people in faraway countries.
Posted by: amph | November 15, 2006 3:09 AM
wow first spam post i've ever seen!
... uhh... kill it? with fire?
please...
Posted by: Cat of Many Faces | November 15, 2006 5:25 AM
Elvis has been alive for eternity.
Posted by: Rev. BigDumbChimp | November 15, 2006 7:14 AM
amph wrote:
You mean "religious zealots" like these?
God told me to invade Iraq, Bush tells Palestinian ministers
Posted by: Dark Matter | November 15, 2006 8:43 AM
Much closer to home, in the Strib: Where mysticism meets medicine
Posted by: quork | November 15, 2006 9:03 AM
John Wilkins, atheist in denial said:
The point is valid that religious revelation is no better than making **** up as a way of gaining accurate knowledge about the world. If someone has given up 90% of their irrationalism, then good for them on the 90%, but it does not make the remaining 10% rational, good or valid.
Posted by: quork | November 15, 2006 9:14 AM
Posted by: quork | November 15, 2006 10:01 AM
Posted by: quork | November 15, 2006 10:05 AM
Cigarette ash, fresh off the cigarette, is probably sterile.
Posted by: steve s | November 15, 2006 10:35 AM
As to Arius, there is no hard evidence for it, but it is possible that he was poisoned. He denied that Jesus and God were of the same substance, and hence made many enemies among the faithful. Of course, religious people don't kill their opponents, so it must have been a parasite after all.
Posted by: gkru | November 15, 2006 1:32 PM
But one also has to look at the bright sight. All this variance makes a wonderful playground for biological studies. The atom bombs certainly did as much good as harm in that at least the countless deaths weren`t futile but accumulated to the knowledge of coming generations.
I would be utterly interested in MHC studies and other immune system related studies on a molecular biological scale of the survivors. And while i am at it, i have to point out if such folks are out there what else is amongst our 6 billion brethren. All we need is more scientists!! - for those folk`s own good, so that they actually contribute something to society and the species at large.
Posted by: lo | November 15, 2006 2:59 PM
Steve -- between 'sterile' and 'something one wants in the hamburger' there is quite a large gulf.
Posted by: jrochest | November 15, 2006 6:15 PM
jrochest wrote:
For example, I doubt many germs would be growing on pure radium.
Posted by: Blake Stacey | November 15, 2006 6:17 PM
Just goes to show the damage God did when he neglected to mention germs when He inspired the writers of the Bible.
Imagine how many people would have been saved if he'd mentioned that part of His creation.
Posted by: Jon H | November 16, 2006 12:03 AM
from the article:
Holy shit... (no pun intended). Maybe it's just my limited worldview, but how does one get into a field like that? Oh well, I guess somebody has to be an expert...
Posted by: Millimeter Wave | November 16, 2006 12:47 AM