I have such sympathy for the forerunners of science in religious circles. This especially true for clergy. Those that pursue both scientific methodology and fervent spiritual pursuit, are inevitably mocked by both sides. No one gives them a fair and unbiased assessment.

The earliest documented appearance of rabies on our planet has been in Mesopotamia around 2000 B.C. ... The symptoms of rabies were diagnosed throughout history, following its inception, as being a form of undead or cursed type of creature, revenants if you will.

Deep in the psychological caves of their mental platonicdarkness, there is no rainbow colour or light of reason in many areasof their psyche, their inner mind. Instead they have marriedthemselves to a dragon of a creature, so terrible that even Jupiterfeared this monstrosity of pompous ignorance. Their hope of thebeauty of Cupid is just a lovemaking session in the dark room ofignorance of both science and religion.

So, the first things we must do is decide which it is: Asubstantive and hidden thing that produces cultural symptoms or it is the meme “hypothesis” and testable. If it is not falsifiable it cannot meet the criteria of scientific fact, according to the very structure of the scientific methodology itself. This would put it in the latter category of faith-based belief systems