RATIONALIST INTERNATIONAL
Bulletin # 27
20 December 1999

Editor: Sanal Edamaruku
Address: P.O.Box 9110, New Delhi-110091, India.
Telephone: +91-11-2253255, +91-11-84539526 Fax:
+91-11-2256042
E-mail: edamaruku@yahoo.com


First Rationalist / Humanist International event in
the 21st century

27 DAYS MORE TO THE
INTERNATIONAL RATIONALIST CONFERENCE


The International Rationalist Conference on
"Rationalist Agenda for the 21st Century" will begin
on 17 January 2000 at Trivandrum, capital of Kerala in
India. Preparations are in full swing at Trivandrum.

Participants from 21 countries and several states of
India have already registered.  If you wish to be a
delegate, registration is still possible. Please
contact edamaruku@yahoo.com immediately for an online
registration form and all practical information.



Report from the UK

YOUNG BRITONS:
61 PER CENT DO NOT BELIEVE IN CHRISTIANITY

A poll of 1,000 young Britons aged 15 -24 reveal that
only 39 per cent had any believe in Christianity. 
Church leaders say they were not surprised by the
outcome of the poll by the market research company
Roar. Freedom from the Christian belief and its
influence do not seem to be sufficient for being
rational.  Seventy per cent had "some belief" in
ghosts and 61 per cent in aliens. The survey also
revealed that more young Britons believe in the
existence of aliens and ghosts that of gods.

Report from Italy

JOHN PAUL CANONIZED 296 SAINTS

Out of the 592 saints canonized by the Roman Catholic
church since the sixteenth century, 296 were created
by the present pope John Paul II.  He proclaimed 12
new saints in November, among them was Saint Hector,
the first Argentinean canonized. A tenth Spaniard, who
was killed during the civil war 1937, and two Italians
were also in the list.  The new Argentinean saint
Hector Valdivielso Saez was one of a group of nine,
known as the "Brothers of Turon" who were shot by
Spanish left-wing revolutionaries in November 1934
during a failed upraising in the northern province of
Austria.

Report from Japan

CHILDREN SAVED FROM NEO-RELIGIOUS GROUP

Nine children aged 7-16 were taken into protection
from the facilities of a Japanese neo-religious group
in Tokyo recently during police raids. They were
removed from the custody of the religious group "Life
Space", whose deciples kept a corpse at an airport
hotel and insisted it was alive.

The police raided Life Space buildings in Tokyo and
the "Arts Village"  restaurant  in central Japan's
Nagoya, operated by the religious group. They also
raided hotel rooms in the eastern Japanese town of
Oarai, home of Life Space "guru" Koji Takahashi, a
former tax accountant.

In a television interview Takahashi, 61, was asked
about allegations he had separated children from their
parents in the religious group and taken them abroad
to countries including Spain and the United States. He
said they were studying abroad and "you can't do that
without moving".

During the raids earlier, police found the mummified
corpse of 66 years old Shinichi Kobayashi in a hotel
room that was occupied for more than four months by
two members of Life Space.

Member of the religious group, Kenji Kobayashi, 31,
son of the dead man, said he was "confident my father
was alive until he was taken away".

Kobajashi's case was not the only death linked to the
religious group. Kyoto district court ordered Life
Space in November 98 to pay 28 million Yen (268,000
Dollars) in damages to the parents of a 22 years old
man who died in 1995 while taking a scalding bath in a
"self-enlightenment" seminar.

Tolerance for neo-religious groups in Japan has been
sapped by the Aum Supreme Truth's murderous 1995
poison gas attack on Tokyo's subway, which resulted in
12 deaths. The Life Space religious group is similar
to, though smaller than, Aum Supreme Truth.

Report from India

WIDOWS DUBBED AS WITCHES IN BIHAR
(Based on a report by Navin Upadhyay)

Superstition and blind belief rule rampant in the
rural areas of Bihar state. A recent study by Free
Legal Aid Committee in Bihar reports cases of husbands
of the alleged "witches" in the hills and forests of
south Bihar killed and their wives accused of "eating
them up with their evil power". In many cases the
husband of the alleged "witch" is murdered in cold
blood to deprive the ill-fated and ostracized widow of
her home and hearth.

Tepi Devi, 28, was the second wife of Baran Manjhi,
whose first wife had failed to deliver any children.
His relatives who had expected to inherit his land
since he had no offspring did not like Tepi's arrival
in the Manjhi household.

Last year in August when diarrhea broke out in the
village and Baran's brother Sufal died of it Tepi was
accused of having killed him by using her evil power.
The villagers dragged her by her hair and brutally
assaulted her. Later, she alongwith her husband was
locked up with Sufal's body in a room and asked to
either revive him or eat him up.

Not well herself, when released four hours later, Tepi
waalf-dead. Still her tormentors forced her to eat
human excreta. Unfortunately for Tepi, Sufal's wife
also fell ill. Accusing fingers were once again raised
at Tepi.

Baran Manjhi and she were forced to sell off their
land and trinkets to pay for the ill woman's
treatment. But Sufal's wife also died. Tepi was again
subjected to torture and humiliation.

Some months back, her husband was killed while
returning home from the village market. His head was
crushed with stones and alcohol poured on his body.
The blame again was on Tepi. This happened in Chouda
village in Bokaro district in Bihar state.

Dania Devi of village Navadih under Chanhu block in
Ranchi district (in Bihar state) is also an alleged
"witch" whose husband was killed nearly two years
back. Dania's relatives branded her as witch and held
her responsible for every ailment that afflicted the
village. "I was blamed for every sickness and death in
the village," said Dania who lives in terror after her
husband was lynched to death in a forest by
unidentified men.


Science report

SENSATIONAL BREAK THROUGH IN
HUMAN GENOME RESEARCH

An international team of scientists has unveiled the
first map of a human chromosome. This is the first
time that a complete chapter of the human instruction
book lies open. The breaking of the human chromosome
code is seen as an important milestone in efforts to
map the complete human genome. The research team
includes scientists at Wellcome Trust Sangar Centre in
Britain, Keio University in Japan, the University of
Oklahoma and the Washington University at St. Louis as
well as scientists in France and Germany.  The
research project aims at producing a rough draft of
the human genetic map in about six months and a
finished version by 2003.

The mapped out chromosome is known as Chromosome
number 22. It is the second smallest of the 23 pairs
of chromosomes in every human cell, holding about 1.6
per cent of the genetic code. The map was pierced
together by cloning fragments of DNA, inserting them
into E-coli bacteria and looking for shared sequences
of DNA that can be identified chemically. This special
chromosome contains a high number of genes, which are
believed to play a role in the development of more
than 30 diseases including congenital heart decease,
schizophrenia and leukemia. On the base of the new
information, tools could be developed to diagnose a
predisposition to certain diseases and biological
therapies to replace or correct faulty genes. The map
of Chromosome number 22 shows 679 genes out of which
more than half were previously unknown.  There are
still gaps in the chemical sequence of the chromosome.
The scientists expect that further work may reveal
some 300 more genes.

The scientists involved in the work of the human
genome map insist to keep their research transparent
for the public and put their results in the public
domains over the internet every day in order to
stimulate other researchers in the interest of maximal
medical use of the findings. There are, in contrast,
parallel efforts going on by a Maryland based
corporation, which researches secretly and tries to
patent their research. The Celera Genomic Corp. has
already applied for patents on 6,500 different gene
sequences.

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