Pseudoscience and Superstition
Re: B L O O D T Y P E A N D P E R S O N A L I T Y
There's been a lot of talk in Korea these days about the alleged link between blood type and personality.This talk in not new. When I arrived in Korea seven years ago, many people asked me blood type. I couldn't answer; I didn't know. I called my mother, a nurse. Surely she would know. She didn't. I had my blood tested about two years ago, just to find out my blood type. It was Type A.
My wife told me yesterday that a certain Korean insurance company is now only considering applicants with Type B or Type O blood. This prompted me to try to verify if there was any truth to what seemed an outrageous claim. There wasn't.
This comes from the above article:
Strange that Koreans, with their less than fond memories of Japanese militarism and eugenics, would so readily adopt an idea whose origin is in the Japanese Imperial Army.
I pray this "false knowledge" disappears soon.
[As an aside, the cultural chauvinist in me was tempted to assign this superstition to some cultural deficiency in the as-yet pre-scientific Oriental mind. My better angels triumphed, however, and I turned my attention to my beloved Occidental civilization, whose mind has for a century been dominated by much more sinister pseudosciences like Freudianism and Marxism. Christianity experienced remarkable growth in Korea during the 20th Century, supplanting shamanism and other folk beliefs. Christianity has experienced nothing but decline in Europe over the same period, as it is replaced by superstitious New Age mysticism. Who now has the better mind?]
Re: B L O O D T Y P E A N D P E R S O N A L I T Y
There's been a lot of talk in Korea these days about the alleged link between blood type and personality.This talk in not new. When I arrived in Korea seven years ago, many people asked me blood type. I couldn't answer; I didn't know. I called my mother, a nurse. Surely she would know. She didn't. I had my blood tested about two years ago, just to find out my blood type. It was Type A.
My wife told me yesterday that a certain Korean insurance company is now only considering applicants with Type B or Type O blood. This prompted me to try to verify if there was any truth to what seemed an outrageous claim. There wasn't.
This comes from the above article:
- "The idea of a correlation between blood type and personality was first noted in the 1930s during Japan's invasion of eastern Asia. Military leaders commissioned a study on how blood type influences personality in an effort to breed better soldiers."
Strange that Koreans, with their less than fond memories of Japanese militarism and eugenics, would so readily adopt an idea whose origin is in the Japanese Imperial Army.
I pray this "false knowledge" disappears soon.
[As an aside, the cultural chauvinist in me was tempted to assign this superstition to some cultural deficiency in the as-yet pre-scientific Oriental mind. My better angels triumphed, however, and I turned my attention to my beloved Occidental civilization, whose mind has for a century been dominated by much more sinister pseudosciences like Freudianism and Marxism. Christianity experienced remarkable growth in Korea during the 20th Century, supplanting shamanism and other folk beliefs. Christianity has experienced nothing but decline in Europe over the same period, as it is replaced by superstitious New Age mysticism. Who now has the better mind?]
Redeemed by Our Savior, I work out my salvation with fear and trembling in Pohang, South Korea, where I live with my wife, daughter, and son and teach English at a science and technology university. Baptized a Methodist and raised a Missouri Synod Lutheran in Buffalo, NY, I spent six years as a guest of the Anglican Communion before being received by the Grace of God into the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church on the Feast of Saint Andrew, my patron, anno domini 2002.
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