“But there is also another, more subtle connection between the drug war and violence, pinpointed by economists Brendan O’Flaherty and Rajiv Sethi . As they argue, above-average homicide rates will result from low rates of successful investigation and prosecution of homicide cases. If you live in an environment where you know that someone can shoot you with impunity, you are much more likely to be ready to shoot to kill at the first sign of danger. When murder goes unpunished, it begets more murder, partly for purposes of retaliation, partly because people are emboldened by lawlessness, but also as a matter of preemption. Unpunished murder makes everyone (including police) trigger-happy. Such places operate according to the dictum that the best defense is a strong offense.”

Randall: “The question each individual faces is whether religion or science offers a greater sense of control over the world.” If a religion is offering a sense of control over the world, it’s doing it wrong. Religions, in fact, offer the exact opposite: a way to deal with the fact that you do NOT have control over the world.

“The point of the AVID (of which the haka is the best example) is: *To intimidate competitors with loud sounds. *To intimidate competitors visually. *To project the image of a single, powerful organism. Remember, the AVID would have been used for confrontational scavenging as well as defense against predators — and would have included rocks as physical weapons to fall back on when the intimidation display wasn’t perfectly effective as a non-contact defense.”