John Templeton and The Curse of Chief Wahoo

We are mourning the passing, last week at the age of 95, of billionaire philanthropist John Templeton. Born into a poor Tennessee family, Templeton was an investing pioneer, who became a billionaire by being the first person to invest in globally diversified mutual funds. In 1999, Money magazine called Templeton "arguably the greatest global stock picker of the century."

According to the Wall Street Journal:

[Templeton] became one of the world's great fund managers by investing at what he called 'points of maximum pessimism.' Yet Templeton . . . was never himself a pessimist. As an investor he always had confidence his picks would improve over the long term. Appropriately, the same 'enthusiasm for progress,' as he put it, also made him one of the world's great philanthropists.

A devout Presbyterian, Templeton believed 'that God is vastly greater than human beings can comprehend,' and sought to use his wealth to help reconcile science and religion.

One way he did this was by founding, in 1972, the Templeton Prize for Progress Toward Research of Discoveries About Spiritual Realities. The Wall Street Journal tells us that "Templeton was unhappy that the Nobel Prize excluded faith, so he ensured the honor always had a higher cash prize (now about $1.6 million). . . . [Additionally, Templeton] established the Templeton Foundation, which supports academic research in fields like cognitive science and evolutionary biology, as well as work related to the origin and nature of spirituality."

"The Templeton Foundation encourages research into "big questions" by awarding philanthropic aide to institutions and people who pursue the answers to such questions through "explorations into the laws of nature and the universe to questions on the nature of love, gratitude, forgiveness, and creativity."

Templeton states the purpose of his Foundation as follows:

"We are trying to persuade people that no human has yet grasped 1% of what can be known about spiritual realities. So we are encouraging people to start using the same methods of science that have been so productive in other areas, in order to discover spiritual realities."

While a committed Christian, Templeton was optimistic about the role that other religions play in humanity's "religious progress," once asking, "[w]hy shouldn't I try to learn more? Why shouldn't I go to Hindu services? Why shouldn't I go to Muslim services? If you are not egotistical, you will welcome the opportunity to learn more."

Is anyone else as happy as we are that (perhaps) the best stock picker of the last century believed and did these things?

We are sure that Templeton would have been interested in the Curse of Chief Wahoo, a bona fide spiritual reality, and might even have signed our petition. The topic of the Curse is right up Templeton's alley, at the seams of science and religion. On one side we have the religious aspects of justice, karma, offended Native spirits, Tribe fans' zealous attachment to Wahoo, and the zealous opposition to Wahoo by activists. On the other we have the scientifically irrefutable remarkable and painful awfulness of the results achieved by Cleveland teams over the last 50-plus years, as well as the inarguable fact that Wahoo is the only racial caricature created by people not of that race and employed by those people as a logo of a major American sports team. "Love, gratitude, forgiveness and creativity," or the lack thereof, are involved here as well. Anyone who could make progress toward research proving the existence of The Curse of Chief Wahoo would bring us that much closer to a long awaited championship and would deserve every penny of the $1.6 million Templeton Prize. We would even chip in with a major award of our own.

Thanks to Wikipedia for an excellent collection of sources.