I haven't read the article thoroughly though I intermittently followed the debate on "Scientific Thinking for the 'Re-Africanization' and Secularization of Africa". Anyway, I am of the opinion that in a significant way, the way(s) Africa/Africans inherited Christianity and Islam negatively affects our scientific and development thinking. In last year's Mwalimu Nyerere's intellectual festival a participant asked Wole Soyinka if we can do away with these 'foreign' religions in Africa and he answered, jokingly yet seriously, that it is too late. His laughing audience seemed to agree. If we put our religious biases and sentiments aside then we can be honest enough to admit that we inherited these religions with a lot of 'Western/Euro-American' and 'Eastern/Arabic' cultural baggages that have nothing to do with Christianity and Islam. I sometimes look at the strict dress codes of certain churches and wonder what those clothes have to do with what Christians - or even Jesus - wore in the actual craddle of modern Christianity - 'Asia Minor'. Now I don't think the solution is secularization since, as a self-proclaimed Christian myself, I am opposed to it (See this entry in my other blog that address secularization vs christianization: http://ufunuo.blogspot.com/2010/06/representing-truth-in-relative-world.html) especially in relation to the quest for 'absolute truth' vis-a-vis 'relative truth'. However, I agree with Kwasi Wiredu's call to decolonize religion - as well as philosophy - in Africa that he has publicly posted at http://web.africa.ufl.edu/asq/v1/4/3.htm. I also wish we could partake in what Okot p'Bitek undertakes when he questions African Religions in Western Scholarship, that is, de-westernize religion. I believe the solution is to Africanize our religious thinking without necessarily secularizing it. That way we can really develop our modern scientific thinking. After all modernity can hardly replace religiosity.
From: Faustin Kamuzora <frkamuzora@yahoo.co.uk>
To: wanazuoni@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Mon, July 12, 2010 6:18:09 PM
Subject: Re: [wanazuoni] Lower IQs found in disease-rife countries, scientists claim
Hi Chambi,
In my opinion, the three "enemies" cause each other. Economists call this relationship as double causation. In essence you have to fight them simultaneously. There are some people who are not poor but highly ignorant (you know some rich nations with a lot of ignorant people and their decisions leave a lot to be desired).
I have recently joined USA Africa Dialogue forum (thanks to your lead from one article you forwarded to Wanazuoni) and I have read an interesting posting by Hamel and later response of Kolapo on "Scientific Thinking for the 'Re-Africanization' and secularization of Africa", what is your take on the article?
Best wishes.
Kamuzora
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/jun/30/disease-rife-countries-low-iqs
People who live in countries where disease is rife may have lower IQs
because they have to divert energy away from brain development to
fight infections, scientists in the US claim.
The controversial idea might help explain why national IQ scores
differ around the world, and are lower in some warmer countries where
debilitating parasites such as malaria are widespread, they say.
Researchers behind the theory claim the impact of disease on IQ scores
has been under-appreciated, and believe it ranks alongside education
and wealth as a major factor that influences cognitive ability.
Attempts to measure intelligence around the world are fraught with
difficulty and many researchers doubt that IQ tests are a suitable
tool for the job. The average intelligence of a nation is likely to be
governed by a complex web of interwoven factors.
The latest theory, put forward by Randy Thornhill and others at the
University of New Mexico, adds disease to a long list of environmental
and other issues that may all play a role in determining intelligence.
Thornhill made the news in 2000, when he coauthored a provocative book
called A Natural History of Rape in which he argues that sexual
coercion emerged as an evolutionary adaptation.
Writing in the journal, Proceedings of the Royal Society, Thornhill
and his colleagues explain that children under five devote much of
their energy to brain development. When the body has to fight
infections, it may have to sacrifice brain development, they say.
To test the idea, Thornhill's group used three published surveys of
global IQ scores and compared them with data from the World Health
Organisation (WHO) on how badly infectious diseases affect different
countries. The list included common infections, such as malaria,
tetanus and tuberculosis.
The scientists found that the level of infectious disease in a country
was closely linked to the average national IQ. The heavier the burden
of disease, the lower the nation's IQ scores. Thornhill believes that
nations who have lived with diseases for long periods may have
adapted, by developing better immune systems at the expense of brain
function.
"The effect of infectious disease on IQ is bigger than any other
single factor we looked at," said Chris Eppig, lead author on the
paper. "Disease is a major sap on the body's energy, and the brain
takes a lot of energy to build. If you don't have enough, you can't do
it properly."
"The consequence of this, if we're right, is that the IQ of a nation
will be largely unaffected until you can lift the burden of disease,"
Eppig added.
"It's an interesting and provocative finding," said Geraint Rees,
director of the UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience. "It explains
about 50 to 60% of the variability in IQ scores and appears to be
independent of some other factors such as overall GDP."
"The authors suggest that more infectious disease could lead to lower
IQ scores through an impact on brain development. This is an
interesting speculation, but the data don't prove it one way or the
other," he said. "A bigger problem is that it might be driven by a
third factor, that affects both infectious disease prevalence and IQ
test scores."
For reasons that are unclear, IQ scores are generally rising around
the world. Thornhill suggests monitoring rates of infectious diseases
in nations as they develop, to see if they decline and IQ tests scores
rise.
Richard Lynn, professor of psychology at Ulster University, and author
of the 2002 book, IQ and the Wealth of Nations, said disease and IQ is
a two-way relationship, with low national IQs being partly responsible
for widespread infectious diseases.
"In recent decades, HIV has been a serious infectious disease, and it
has a high infection rate in low IQ countries, especially in southern
Africa, where it is present in around 30% of the population ? This is
attributable to the low IQ of the population who do not understand the
way the infection is contracted, and have erroneous beliefs about how
to prevent infection."
guardian.co. uk Copyright (c) Guardian News and Media Limited. 2010
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