Dusty
I put on my sin, a dirty old coat
Comfortable, well-worn skin;
Everything is spotty today,
The world through scratched lenses
Moves in and out of focus.
That hard drive head crash wail
Assails my ears and
Discernment rails my fear
Toward the inevitable
Clear thought:
I am desert dusty,
Wrinkle-filled,
Crusty, lusty, musty -
Unwashed and unwashable
But for the bathing
Sin scathing light
Of truth.
Friday, July 30, 2010
Saturday, July 17, 2010
We sure are lucky!
Remember my last post? Watching another pop-science program. In one 5 minute segment the word "lucky" came up half of a dozen times. We sure are lucky our Earth is in the right spot in the solar system to support life! We sure are lucky the Earth as a moderate magnetic field that shields us from dangerous radiation! We sure are lucky conditions were right over a billion years ago to allow for the formation of complex, organic (carbon based) molecules! We sure are lucky those molecules somehow recombined to form a complex, self-replicating machine! We sure are lucky those complex, self-replicating machines could run other machinery to generate protein covers, organelles that produce a variety of proteins and chemicals enabling cellular reproduction, etc.
We sure are lucky!
We sure are lucky!
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
It made me smile
Was watching a new series on National Geographic channel, "The Known Universe" I think it was called. I am please to say that I have been pleasantly surprised twice in the past few months, once by an article in Scientific American and now an episode of this series.
I fully expected the same pop-science rhetoric from this program, especially because the scientists ON the program were the same ones I've seen on other programs that glorify theories as tho' they are writ.
No. When this program ended I found myself smiling. Why? Simple. This episode dealt with the creation of the universe. While all the usual theories were covered, the show ended with one of the scientists saying this (paraphrase): We can never know how the universe was created. There is no scientist who can grasp any more than a small part of the current theories being put forth.
And there it was. The truth. We can never know - we can only guess based on observation and mathematical formulae trying to describe (and tie together) the effects of the forces we can see and feel.
-- begin rant --
I am not anti-science. I know it seems like I "pick on science" from time to time but that isn't the case. I pick on the idea that in our culture today science (and technology) is portrayed as the solution to all our problems, past, present and future. Scientific theory is taught unabashedly as fact in our schools, and portrayed in the media in the same light, when in FACT many of the theories taught are simply worth little more than guesswork. The origin of the universe? What I was taught 30 years ago is completely different now.
In a way that's O.K. Much science is about putting forward an idea that supports what we can observe. When we can observe more, what we put forth naturally changes. Science is a process, a method of understanding the world around us. But it seems as tho' kids aren't taught this today.
-- end rant --
You know, I really want my own children to be free-thinkers. I want them to be able to find truth for themselves. I don't want them weighted any which way, but instead be balanced. Sometimes I fear that they don't have a chance to be that way, since I weigh them down with my own concepts and feelings on both science and faith. I want them to understand that they have choices to make in life, and that they should be discerning and honest in how they go about making them - both to themselves and to anyone else their decisions might affect.
It's late, I am tired and rambling. Good night!
I fully expected the same pop-science rhetoric from this program, especially because the scientists ON the program were the same ones I've seen on other programs that glorify theories as tho' they are writ.
No. When this program ended I found myself smiling. Why? Simple. This episode dealt with the creation of the universe. While all the usual theories were covered, the show ended with one of the scientists saying this (paraphrase): We can never know how the universe was created. There is no scientist who can grasp any more than a small part of the current theories being put forth.
And there it was. The truth. We can never know - we can only guess based on observation and mathematical formulae trying to describe (and tie together) the effects of the forces we can see and feel.
-- begin rant --
I am not anti-science. I know it seems like I "pick on science" from time to time but that isn't the case. I pick on the idea that in our culture today science (and technology) is portrayed as the solution to all our problems, past, present and future. Scientific theory is taught unabashedly as fact in our schools, and portrayed in the media in the same light, when in FACT many of the theories taught are simply worth little more than guesswork. The origin of the universe? What I was taught 30 years ago is completely different now.
In a way that's O.K. Much science is about putting forward an idea that supports what we can observe. When we can observe more, what we put forth naturally changes. Science is a process, a method of understanding the world around us. But it seems as tho' kids aren't taught this today.
-- end rant --
You know, I really want my own children to be free-thinkers. I want them to be able to find truth for themselves. I don't want them weighted any which way, but instead be balanced. Sometimes I fear that they don't have a chance to be that way, since I weigh them down with my own concepts and feelings on both science and faith. I want them to understand that they have choices to make in life, and that they should be discerning and honest in how they go about making them - both to themselves and to anyone else their decisions might affect.
It's late, I am tired and rambling. Good night!
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