Thursday, May 28, 2009
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Why
If science deals with how while religion deals with why, then religion has not held up its end of the bargain. There is plenty we don't know yet. But all we do know comes from science, not religion. This is because most of the time why without how is useless.
A child asks "Why? Why? Why?" because her world revolves around her. She demands to know why things happen to her. That's pretty reasonable. Then the child grows older and begins to learn in a structured environment, school or what have you, and is called upon to discover how things work because that's how we accumulate knowledge. This also begins the shift in the child's understanding away from the ego-centric view of the universe.
Why is an important question in many situations. Why was I fired? Why can't I touch the hot Corn Baller? But in most cases why is a part of the larger how. Why did the bridge collapse? We can't answer that unless we know how it's supposed to work, how metal, brick etc behave, how gravity, weather etc affect the structure.
Religion was invented by our ancestors as a pre-science way of explaining our experiences. Why did the rain flood us out? There must be some angry force to which we are responsible. Why are there earthquakes and forest fires? Because the gods of earth and fire are angry. Then we started to learn how these natural forces work and how do deal with situations as they arose and even to make predictions about some of them. As a result, we started not getting dead whenever there were natural disasters. We began to understand that how was a much more useful question to ask than why. And how much more exciting it is to learn about the world and the cosmos than to wonder at it without knowing!
But for many, the need to know why, especially why we are here, is a question that drives the more practical curiosity out of the spotlight. For many, "Why are we here?" is the ultimate question. The problem is that in all the thousands and thousands of years since we've been pondering the question, religion has yet to bring us an answer.
Religion is the refusal to grow out of the toddler stage of needing to be the center of the universe, of asking why without asking how.
A child asks "Why? Why? Why?" because her world revolves around her. She demands to know why things happen to her. That's pretty reasonable. Then the child grows older and begins to learn in a structured environment, school or what have you, and is called upon to discover how things work because that's how we accumulate knowledge. This also begins the shift in the child's understanding away from the ego-centric view of the universe.
Why is an important question in many situations. Why was I fired? Why can't I touch the hot Corn Baller? But in most cases why is a part of the larger how. Why did the bridge collapse? We can't answer that unless we know how it's supposed to work, how metal, brick etc behave, how gravity, weather etc affect the structure.
Religion was invented by our ancestors as a pre-science way of explaining our experiences. Why did the rain flood us out? There must be some angry force to which we are responsible. Why are there earthquakes and forest fires? Because the gods of earth and fire are angry. Then we started to learn how these natural forces work and how do deal with situations as they arose and even to make predictions about some of them. As a result, we started not getting dead whenever there were natural disasters. We began to understand that how was a much more useful question to ask than why. And how much more exciting it is to learn about the world and the cosmos than to wonder at it without knowing!
But for many, the need to know why, especially why we are here, is a question that drives the more practical curiosity out of the spotlight. For many, "Why are we here?" is the ultimate question. The problem is that in all the thousands and thousands of years since we've been pondering the question, religion has yet to bring us an answer.
Religion is the refusal to grow out of the toddler stage of needing to be the center of the universe, of asking why without asking how.
Genesis Revisited
I wish I could take credit for this. The video was created by this dude:
http://www.youtube.com/user/norwonk
Genesis, Version 2.0.
Text by Michael Shermer, editor of "Sceptic Magazine" and author of "Why Darwin Matters":
"To convey the logical absurdity of trying to squeeze the round peg of science into the square hole of religion, I penned the following scientific revision of the Genesis creation story. It is not intended as a sacrilege of the poetic beauty of Genesis; rather, it is a mere extension of what the creationists have already done to Genesis in their insistence that it be read not as mythic saga but as scientific prose. If Genesis were written in the language of modern science, it would read something like this."
Monday, May 25, 2009
All For The Glory Of God
"Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God."
Corinthians 10:31 (KJV)
On tv once I saw christian body builders. What? Yes, christian body builders. They were "...busting baseball bats for Jesus."
Corinthians 10:31 (KJV)
On tv once I saw christian body builders. What? Yes, christian body builders. They were "...busting baseball bats for Jesus."
Thursday, May 21, 2009
They don't stay two...it's true.
My fiance says that people who don't have children often satisfy parental instincts by pouring all that energy into their pets. Many people think of pets as family members. I sure did. When my first marriage dissolved, one of the hardest things about the break-up was the loss of my dog. Once I'd dealt with the feelings of inadequacy, the thought that I'd done something wrong, the total overhaul of the patterns of day to day life, the loss of contact with her family etc, once I'd gotten through all that, there was still this gaping hole in my life where Lois, our beagle, used to live. That hung on longer than anything else.
My fiance has a two year old girl, Willow, and so now I have a two year old girl, Willow. (I'm lucky, I fell in love with to girls and it's totally acceptable!) Willow is amazingly beautiful and smart. Needless to say, my affection for her has more than filled the void left by my pet-child, the beagle.
One of the coolest things, so far, is watching her develop, learn new things and incorporate experiences into her life. That's one of the big differences between a child and a pet. Children develop. See, we, humans, have this thing called intelligence, meaning we learn stuff. While Lois is still limited to her three track mind - feed me! lick your face! go outside! - Willow actually has new words and phrases in her vocabulary that she didn't have a week ago. So with Willow we don't have to do that thing pet owners do where they create a cartoon voice and dialogue for their pets. Kids provide their own dialogue.
For example, now when we get in the car to go to school she doesn't just say, "Bowie!" She says, "I want listen to Bowie!" (Yes, that's David Bowie.)
Or, when she and I were playing, tickling and peak-a-boo, like you do, she accidentally scratched my eye. When I reacted she leaned in, whispered, "Oh baby," and kissed my eye. I was a little weirded out. But it's behavior she'd observed in Kristina and myself, we call each other, "baby," and Willow picked up on it. A few days later I bumped my head putting her in her car seat. She tilted her head to once said and asked, "You ok, baby?"
Another time she overheard Kristina and me discussing diaper rash and echoed me saying that she, Willow, needed to put "medicine on her junk."
Language is fun.
Here's a poem I wrote for her.
My life smells of talcum powder
And stale cheerios
Yesterday, Willow told me for the first time,
unsolicited
that she loves me.
—Flint, 5/09
My fiance has a two year old girl, Willow, and so now I have a two year old girl, Willow. (I'm lucky, I fell in love with to girls and it's totally acceptable!) Willow is amazingly beautiful and smart. Needless to say, my affection for her has more than filled the void left by my pet-child, the beagle.
One of the coolest things, so far, is watching her develop, learn new things and incorporate experiences into her life. That's one of the big differences between a child and a pet. Children develop. See, we, humans, have this thing called intelligence, meaning we learn stuff. While Lois is still limited to her three track mind - feed me! lick your face! go outside! - Willow actually has new words and phrases in her vocabulary that she didn't have a week ago. So with Willow we don't have to do that thing pet owners do where they create a cartoon voice and dialogue for their pets. Kids provide their own dialogue.
For example, now when we get in the car to go to school she doesn't just say, "Bowie!" She says, "I want listen to Bowie!" (Yes, that's David Bowie.)
Or, when she and I were playing, tickling and peak-a-boo, like you do, she accidentally scratched my eye. When I reacted she leaned in, whispered, "Oh baby," and kissed my eye. I was a little weirded out. But it's behavior she'd observed in Kristina and myself, we call each other, "baby," and Willow picked up on it. A few days later I bumped my head putting her in her car seat. She tilted her head to once said and asked, "You ok, baby?"
Another time she overheard Kristina and me discussing diaper rash and echoed me saying that she, Willow, needed to put "medicine on her junk."
Language is fun.
Here's a poem I wrote for her.
My life smells of talcum powder
And stale cheerios
Yesterday, Willow told me for the first time,
unsolicited
that she loves me.
—Flint, 5/09
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Hello
By way of introduction let me say that this blog will be eclectic, often controversial (ooh I’m so dangerous. Ok, so offensive anyway) and most of all shamelessly self-promoting. I’ll include thoughts on stuff and things like science, skepticism, beer and hummus, also cartoons, gig announcements and much much more! Subscribe! I promise, you’ll get stuff.
So, to kick things off
And also buy some stuff from me at
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