(Originally posted on Facebook Apr 11, 2007)
I sometimes like to consider myself a scientist. Probably not a scientist by the traditional definition. But I like thinking about questions that don't have any solid answers, and trying to see if I can come up with something of my own. I guess after reading what I just wrote, I see that pretty much is what it means to be a scientist. I don't get paid for it anyway (just made fun of) so I don't have the title, only what I call myself in my head. OK, so even I can barely understand what I am trying to say here so I am just going to move on.
Humans have free will. This allows them to think about, and do, whatever they want, theoretically(that is for another time though). We also have faith and beliefs that are crammed into our brain alongside the free will section of our heads. This addition tends to make us very stubborn and set in our ways when it comes to changing something we believe in.
Indulge me for a minute and take a trip back five hundred years to Germany or Poland or somewhere, the borders were a little fuzzy back then. This is where Copernicus first came up with the idea for a heliocentric (sun centered) solar system. His idea began to circulate around the western world.
Flash Forward another 100 years in Italy and you will find Galileo. He defended heliocentrism to the church. The churches reasoning for denying his claims was from a few bible quotes as follows....
Psalm 93:1, Psalm 96:10, and Chronicles 16:30 state that "the world is firmly established, it cannot be moved."
Psalm 104:5 says, "[the LORD] set the earth on its foundations; it can never be moved."
The reason I bring the Bible into this is because while I was researching Galileo I came across these bible quotes and they reminded me of something. What was it? oh thats right. I hear it all the time from Christian fundamentalists arguing against atrocities that have the potential to tear our society apart, such as gay marriage( A man shall not lie with another man as he lies with a woman--- or something to that effect). Societies change, people change, perhaps the thing that these people use to guide every decision they make in their day-to-day life, then in turn try to force on the rest of us, should be updated. Now before you get outraged I am not suggesting that we rewrite the Bible. We need to take it down a peg or two. I think these people, these fundamentalists need to realize that this book was NOT written by God. It was written by the same bald pink monkeys that write everything else on the world.
Now I am not just bagging on Christians, but since I am one, I have the most material to do so. It is happening all over the world. A first grade text book from Saudi Arabia has the following quote( as well as I can remember it) "Islam is right, all other religions are false" . They are saying this to first graders in school, not in church.
Crap, this kind of turned into a rant about religion, thats not what I am trying to to I am just trying to illustrate man's stubbornness to changing his ideas/beliefs.
When Chemistry was first introduced, it was met with great disbelief. Things that we can't see affect every little part of our lives? Yeah right. But now it is taught in all our schools. (an interesting tidbit about the father of modern chemistry, Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier, is that right before he was beheaded for being a scientist/ tax collector, he performed his last experiment. He asked the executioner to count how many times he blinked his eyes after he was decapitated in order to see how long the head remains conscious after it is separated from the body(dedication)).
Noone has ever seen a proton, neutron, or an electron before. We see evidence of their presence so we can assume that they are there. but we still can not see that they are there. We have all the equations written down in laguage that we(well some of us) can understand. But what if, in the future, it all gets proven wrong. Would you be able to accept it? or would you become angry and defensive because it goes against what you chose, or were told to believe?
In closing I just want to say that just because something makes sense to you does not, by any means, mean it is right. Keep an open mind about things and come and join me in the gray area. It is very comfortable here and I don't find myself getting offended by much of anything, except ignorance....and Paris Hilton
Well I hope you all managed to get through this mess of thought fragments, and bad grammar all right. Until I see you again...
Have a scientastic day,
--Seth
I sometimes like to consider myself a scientist. Probably not a scientist by the traditional definition. But I like thinking about questions that don't have any solid answers, and trying to see if I can come up with something of my own. I guess after reading what I just wrote, I see that pretty much is what it means to be a scientist. I don't get paid for it anyway (just made fun of) so I don't have the title, only what I call myself in my head. OK, so even I can barely understand what I am trying to say here so I am just going to move on.
Humans have free will. This allows them to think about, and do, whatever they want, theoretically(that is for another time though). We also have faith and beliefs that are crammed into our brain alongside the free will section of our heads. This addition tends to make us very stubborn and set in our ways when it comes to changing something we believe in.
Indulge me for a minute and take a trip back five hundred years to Germany or Poland or somewhere, the borders were a little fuzzy back then. This is where Copernicus first came up with the idea for a heliocentric (sun centered) solar system. His idea began to circulate around the western world.
Flash Forward another 100 years in Italy and you will find Galileo. He defended heliocentrism to the church. The churches reasoning for denying his claims was from a few bible quotes as follows....
Psalm 93:1, Psalm 96:10, and Chronicles 16:30 state that "the world is firmly established, it cannot be moved."
Psalm 104:5 says, "[the LORD] set the earth on its foundations; it can never be moved."
The reason I bring the Bible into this is because while I was researching Galileo I came across these bible quotes and they reminded me of something. What was it? oh thats right. I hear it all the time from Christian fundamentalists arguing against atrocities that have the potential to tear our society apart, such as gay marriage( A man shall not lie with another man as he lies with a woman--- or something to that effect). Societies change, people change, perhaps the thing that these people use to guide every decision they make in their day-to-day life, then in turn try to force on the rest of us, should be updated. Now before you get outraged I am not suggesting that we rewrite the Bible. We need to take it down a peg or two. I think these people, these fundamentalists need to realize that this book was NOT written by God. It was written by the same bald pink monkeys that write everything else on the world.
Now I am not just bagging on Christians, but since I am one, I have the most material to do so. It is happening all over the world. A first grade text book from Saudi Arabia has the following quote( as well as I can remember it) "Islam is right, all other religions are false" . They are saying this to first graders in school, not in church.
Crap, this kind of turned into a rant about religion, thats not what I am trying to to I am just trying to illustrate man's stubbornness to changing his ideas/beliefs.
When Chemistry was first introduced, it was met with great disbelief. Things that we can't see affect every little part of our lives? Yeah right. But now it is taught in all our schools. (an interesting tidbit about the father of modern chemistry, Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier, is that right before he was beheaded for being a scientist/ tax collector, he performed his last experiment. He asked the executioner to count how many times he blinked his eyes after he was decapitated in order to see how long the head remains conscious after it is separated from the body(dedication)).
Noone has ever seen a proton, neutron, or an electron before. We see evidence of their presence so we can assume that they are there. but we still can not see that they are there. We have all the equations written down in laguage that we(well some of us) can understand. But what if, in the future, it all gets proven wrong. Would you be able to accept it? or would you become angry and defensive because it goes against what you chose, or were told to believe?
In closing I just want to say that just because something makes sense to you does not, by any means, mean it is right. Keep an open mind about things and come and join me in the gray area. It is very comfortable here and I don't find myself getting offended by much of anything, except ignorance....and Paris Hilton
Well I hope you all managed to get through this mess of thought fragments, and bad grammar all right. Until I see you again...
Have a scientastic day,
--Seth
Nothing to do with the topic... I just think it is fun to look at.
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