Wednesday 29 June 2011

Creationism, ID, and The Theory of Evolution

So, what bothers me most about Creationism, Intelligent Design, and what it's called now, Teaching the Controversy is that people who teach it as a science use unscientific means of proving so called facts. I have never faulted anyone for having faith. I am a fairly spiritual person, (Spiritual, not religious) and I can make pretty dramatic leaps of faith when it comes to understanding the world around me. For example, I believe that the Holy Catholic Bible has many stories in it which have very real, and very relevant guidelines on living a good life and being a good human being, it also attempts to answer questions on the origin on life. (It has also been proven, that this very Bible, was edited, many many times, as many Holy Scriptures were left out because of conflicting viewpoints or stories those priests way back when decided, didn't fit with their image of God.) Thousands of years ago, where there was no modern science to help understand the world around us, people used stories, metaphors, and supernatural beings to explain why the world worked the way it did. We didn't know then what we know now, and I'm not saying that all that knowledge of the past is moot, but I do find it rather primitive minded to deny things we can prove, and do prove, on a daily basis. It seems to me that those who wish to believe that Creationism, or Intelligent Design is in fact the truth, would simply have to shift their way of thinking, just a little bit. Maybe God created evolution, church goers are always told that God is everywhere and that God made all things, so maybe, just maybe, God did make everything, he just didn't make it all at once. Maybe he set into motion, the building blocks of life that would eventually produce, us, Humans in his own image. Maybe.

The second problem I have with Intelligent Design is that people actually believe this conflicting 'science' should be taught in schools right next to regular science, and we can let the children decide what they believe. Unfortunately, the majority of students are idiots, I was an idiot in high school, I thought I knew everything and nobody could tell me better, it's part of the maturing process as we let go of our ego-centric behavior and realize that we are not the most important thing in the universe. To me that's like saying, "Okay in this version of math, 1+1=2, but we are going to teach an alternative math where we can show you that 1+1=3, and we will let you, the students, decided which you prefer." Banks would never go for this, as I would bring in all my loonies two by two, and make a mega profit by simple addition.

The third problem I have with Intelligent Design is that it requires you to take things based on the word of another person, not research they have done, or not done, in many cases, and we are to take it as fact. While the church behind intelligent design, recognizes that they have erred many times, for example the fact that the world was flat and that everything revolved around the earth was recognized as incorrect, albeit many many years after this theory was able to be proved.

Religion, in my opinion, originated as a way to control people, but I recognize that my opinion cannot be proven. Religion has been proven, to enrich peoples lives by adding a spiritual element. But why should that interfere with our quest for knowledge. I don't see a conflict with science and say, the 10 commandments. Because those commandments regulate how decent a human being we are, but it does not regulate learning, nor does it conflict with evolution.

And there is my thoughts for the day...

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Tuesday 28 June 2011

Do you remember?

Enjoying the island of Fogo, i came across these in a little corner store. For some reason, I only bought one, but I fully intend on going back to collect them all. Do you remember?
It is amazing how the littlest things can bring back a flood of memories. I can recall almost losing an eye to one of those little plastic propellers. Good times! These things are made with good old fashioned Styrofoam and even had adjustable flaps. From what I can recall, you had to adjust them in their up position in order for any of these things to have decent air time. The kid in me wants to rip open the package and act out epic air combat situations while the adult in me wants to save them for some unknown reason.

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Monday 27 June 2011

Documentaries

I love watching Docs. More specifically, I love to learn about the world around me and the people living in it. I have a new favorite website http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/ and I've been feeding the mind with countless bits of data, and I just love how information flows. For example, I was watching a Doc called McLibel, which is about a court case in England where McDonalds sued two regular people who wanted to inform regular citizens about the food McDonalds was serving. In the documentary, I saw an interview with a beef farmer who had said that the harsh chemicals he used to make the cows grow faster caused negative health effects for his workers. He said that he was sure that a lot of his beef, ended up in McDonalds. I wondered, where did the rest go? I looked for other Docs on the subject, found one on Chickens, and how many chickens can't even stand or walk around properly because of the growth hormones given to them to plump up their breasts.

I thought to myself, "What about DDT?" Do you remember DDT? Check it out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DDT to summarize, it was widely used as an insecticide shortly after world war 2, that's 1949. However, scientists found that this chemical was very effective in killing insects, however, this compound didn't end there, in fact it didn't break down at all. It was found in higher concentration in the things that ate the insects, and then found in a higher concentration in the things that ate the things that ate the bugs! (Meaning us, humans, and yes, a high enough dose can kill you) Long story short, it was a disaster, thankfully, scientists backed by research data got the wide use of DDT banned around the world. Scientists even attributed to the return of the Bald Eagle (Nearing extinction at one point, which baffled me with America's importance on symbolism) to the fact that DDT was no longer used. DDT was banned from the US in 1972, that's 53 years of use before the effects were found to be harmful to the environment and to humans.

Okay, present day. 53 Years of use before a product was banned due to it's harmful effects to humans. I wondered how long were these growth hormones and harsh chemicals used on our food tested before they were put into use. Were they tested for 50+ years? I highly doubt it. I haven't found a single doc talking about this possible danger. I say possible because the chemicals used may very well be harmless to humans. I just don't know, and I would love to know...

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