The Binary Circumstance

Happy New Year to all my readers. I appreciate your loyalty and interest.

For New Years Eve I celebrated by eating buffalo for dinner. I’ve never had it before.

I didn’t think it had a really strong flavor but I liked it a lot. According to Great Range Brand Bison, buffalo is leaner than both beef and chicken. Check their buffalo facts page.

It’s interesting that the species has been brought back from the brink of extinction by private ranchers who saw profit potential in raising bison.

I was doing some research on wheat allergy (which is very rare) which led me to article on gluten and then to an article about coeliac disease.

Coeliac disease (also called celiac disease, non-tropical sprue, c(o)eliac sprue and gluten intolerance) is a digestive disorder. It is characterised by damage or flattening to all or part of the villi lining the small intestine, causing scar tissue that cannot absorb nutrients. This damage is caused by exposure to gluten and related proteins found in wheat, rye, malt, barley and oats.

[…]

Coeliacs (people with coeliac disease) may also be symptom-free, but they are still doing damage to their small intestines. Regardless of the presence or absence of symptoms, the disorder is associated with an increased risk of osteoporosis and MALT lymphoma, a form of intestinal cancer.

Strict adherence to a gluten-free diet typically resolves all symptoms and conditions caused by coeliac disease. In coeliacs who are not on a gluten-free diet, the disease may present through one or more of the following symptoms. The presence of these symptoms does not mean the individual is coeliac. These symptoms are also associated with other diseases, some of which are life-threatening; therefore, patients with these symptoms should promptly consult a doctor for differential diagnosis.

Dietary deficiencies, which may manifest as symptoms in particular body systems (e.g., digestive or nervous system) or may be noticed on routine blood tests, are common in coeliacs. Up to 50% of coeliac disease patients have malabsorption-related diarrhea (with bulky, pale, offensive-smelling stools which may float in the toilet bowl). This symptom is known as steatorrhea. However, some coeliacs suffer from constipation. Excess flatulence is common, and some coeliacs also experience infrequent, minor rectal bleeding. Unexplained weight loss (or even obesity occasioned by overeating due to cravings for nutrients), indigestion, acid reflux, excessive tiredness (coeliacs have reported falling asleep while driving) and an itchy rash (dermatitis) may also be a sign of the disorder.

That’s some background about the disease. What I found really interesting is how the Catholic Church deals with those who have an intolerance of gluten:

The Christian sacrament of the Eucharist presents a unique challenge for Christian sufferers of coeliac disease. In its classical form, the bread and/or communion wafers have traditionally contained wheat flour, and therefore gluten. Coeliacs are therefore presented with a choice between denying themselves a central part of their religious practice or placing themselves at risk of serious illness. In response to this, some makers of communion wafers have begun making gluten-free versions (usually made of rice), which are now widely available. Many churches permit (or have no official policy on) use of these wafers, while other churches do not allow them.

In particular, Roman Catholic doctrine requires that the Eucharistic host (communion wafer) must contain at least some unleavened wheat, as did the bread served at the Last Supper. The Catholic Church has approved the use of low-gluten wafers, but even these are not gluten-free. Some Catholic coeliac sufferers have requested permission to use rice wafers; these petitions have so far been denied 2.

Official Roman Catholic doctrine is that a Catholic may validly receive communion by consuming either the consecrated host or the consecrated wine (or both). Because Christ is risen, his Body and Blood are reunited; therefore each sip of consecrated wine is both the Body & Blood, as much as each host is also both the Body & Blood. In both cases, the accidents of bread and wine remain (see Transubstantiation). The Council of Trent decreed that all of Christ, his Body, Blood, Soul, & Divinity are fully present in each species:

For we do not receive in the Sacred Host one part of Christ and in the Chalice the other, as though our reception of the totality depended upon our partaking of both forms; on the contrary, under the appearance of bread alone, as well as under the appearance of wine alone, we receive Christ whole and entire (cf. Council of Trent, Sess. XIII, can. iii).

Therefore, since any Catholic can receive the Eucharist in the “fullness of the sacrament” (Catechism, Section 1390) simply in a sip of consecrated wine (even an approved low-alcohol wine), even those who cannot safely consume wheat (or indeed, any other grain) can safely partake of the Eucharist.

While damage to the villi in the small intestine can be verified through tests, the fact that the communion wafer and wine have been transformed into flesh and blood cannot. The evidence is that they remain bread and wine in spite of all Christian delusions to the contrary.

All this stuff about how you can get the full value (both flesh and blood) out of a sip of consecrated wine is ridiculous. If you can get the full sacrament from the wine then you can get the full sacrament from a non-wheat wafer and some consecrated wine also, right? As a matter of fact, a candy bar or a steak should do just as well as a communion wafer if the wafer in not necessary for the “fullness of the sacrament.”

So what’s the big deal about gluten-free wafers?

I would submit that such nonsense–that a wheat wafer and wine are transformed into the body and blood of God–is responsible for damage to the brain and religion is a symptom of the resulting mental illness.

Those suffering from gluten intolerance who have removed wheat from their diet might want to give some thought to removing the superstition of religion from their diet.

Just as removing wheat from the diet can repair damage to the intestines and restore the body to health, removing religion from the diet of ideas can repair mental illness and lead to healthier, more rational thinking.

I wonder how this would go over in the U.S.:

STOCKHOLM, Sweden - Cheap Monday jeans are a hot commodity among young Swedes thanks to their trendy tight fit and low price, even if a few buyers are turned off by the logo: a skull with a cross turned upside down on its forehead.

Logo designer Bjorn Atldax says he’s not just trying for an antiestablishment vibe.

“It is an active statement against Christianity,” Atldax told The Associated Press. “I’m not a Satanist myself, but I have a great dislike for organized religion.”

The label’s makers say it’s more of a joke, but Atldax insists his graphic designs have a purpose beyond selling denim: to make young people question Christianity, a “force of evil” that he blames for sparking wars throughout history.

In more religious countries, that might raise a furious response, maybe even prompt retailers to drop the brand.

Not in Sweden, a secular country that cherishes its free speech and where churchgoing has been declining for decades.

Who needs organized religion when you have organized state to the extent that Sweden does anyway?

A reader recently left a comment on my 18-month-old post Ayn Rand: The Roots of War which challenged my interpretation of the Ayn Rand Institutes’s (ARI) position on the War in Iraq.

I pointed out that the article was published more than 18 months ago and that ARI may have changed their position since I wrote it.

Chris Matthew Sciabarra wrote an article ARI, Iraq, and Healthy Dissent which goes into much more historical detail about the positions that Objectivist organizations took on the war.