Science and Reason

Sometimes Heart and Humanity get in the way of Reason and Understanding. There is no logical reason to risk your own life running into a fire to save others, but firefighters do it every day. It makes no sense. There is no paycheck that is worth anything when you're dead.

It is said that faith can occlude scientific discovery. Some have suggested that if we could rid the world of mindless fantasies about gods and angels and demons, that humanity would be ready for the next step (whatever that step is).

I beg to differ with that world view. Faith and Heart offer answers to the big questions and hope to continue on. Let's do a comparative study and survey the effects it might have on people's lives.

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Where did the Earth come from?

Faith says that the Earth was created by and is watched over by a god or gods. The inhabitants of Earth are watched and cared for and those who do evil will be held responsible, possibly forever - even if they manage to fool their victims and the systems of justice in this lifetime.

Faith tells our hearts that we all carry a spark of the divine and that our lives are ours to use as we wish. We have a mission as a race, and there is purpose and fulfillment in whatever we manage to contribute as individuals. This makes it a joy to wake up and play our little part every day, and it helps us prepare our children to do the same after us.

Science has no clue where the Earth came from, it just kind of fell into place here. There was this giant cloud of stuff from somewhere and it started to swirl and then it collected into clouds and compacted into stars, planets, asteroids, and nebulae.

Earth was primordial and life accidentally happened one day, whether because of a bolt of lightning striking the right mix of chemicals in a swamp or something like that. In the scientific mind of today there is no god that sparked life, we are all just animals - and over a long, long time, animals started to compete with each other, and then of course the animals with the biggest fangs started to win all the time. Then one day, animals got tired of the fangs approach and developed rational thought, language, and eventually, digital watches. This was the ultimate in evolution so far and those animals who had the extra thinkyness took the advantage.

Then they made the ultimate mistake of thinking about their place in the universe, and as it turns out there isn't one. With this world view, there is no point, no mission, no purpose, no reward. It's so depressing that it's a perfectly reasonable lifestyle to work just as much as is needed to keep ones self wasted or drunk all weekend long. Any injustice is acceptable, as long as you get away with it, because there is no music to face after your life here is over.

Ultimately, there is no point to life in this belief system. There is no reason to save people from fires - they will just die later. There is no reason to build great buildings, they will all eventually fall. There is no reason to care for people - they will all die anyway. Children? Why bring them into this veil of tears? Why not just stay as drunk as possible until you die? What else makes any sense?

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Is there a God?

Faith says "Yes".

Science says, "Well, we don't know for sure. There is no proof whether a god exists or not."

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Aren't Digital Watches Cool?

Faith says, "yeah they are pretty cool."

Science says, "They are, but it just helps us mark the minutes until depressing things happen".

You Might be an Elitist if...

• you find yourself thinking that others should be forced to act in a certain way "for the greater good".
• you think that certain people must suffer or die for the sake of the world.
• you think that governments should be in charge of who gets to breed, and when.
• it offends you when somebody disagrees with you - even when you weren't there.
• you have no problem with the notion that some people are 'workers', some are 'thinkers' and some are 'leaders'.
• you think that some people are expendable for the cause of peace.
• you look down on people of faith and think they need an imaginary 'god' to help them get by.
• you frown on the successful and productive in society for their 'greed'.
• you think that government ought to force people to behave a certain way.
• you think that 'tolerance' means everyone else should listen to you, but you know you have nothing to learn from 'them'.
• you have said phrases like 'to make a good omelet, you have to crack a few eggs" - where the eggs symbolize some group of people.
• you think that some things might be good for 'the many' even though they are bad for 'the few' - and you still advocate them.
• you think of words, promises, and laws as a method to achieve a result. Even if unfair and untrue, they are good if they bring about a desired change, such as "If I say this, they will to that".
• you think it's ok to trash a person's name, reputation, and fortune when they stand in the way of your agenda.

Watch out, elitism is all around us, in one form or another. The whole argument about the nanny state centers on elitism. When I hear the phrase "The Government will take care of you", I know it really means "The Government will take your freedom and be in control of everything you do".

Please. Only you can fight elitism.

Thomas L. Friedman is a real piece of ...

... work.

I watched the Discovery channel program Addicted to Oil: Thomas L. Friedman Reporting last night at the request of a friend. What a distortion. Or should I say collection of distortions. Be very careful. Tommy's oh so reasonable attitude is quite disarming, unless you have at least half a brain in your head.

The main point seemed to be to get the U.S. government to fund a bunch of technology that is not ready for prime time; solar panels, hydrogen fuel cells, hybrid vehicles, windmills, etc. Take your pick whether or not is makes any sense.

His argument for a new "crisis" is that we are 1) committing grevious harm to the environment (human responsibility for global warming as if it were a hard fact) and 2) buying oil from the middle east is funding "both sides of the war on terrorism".

Never mind his lunatic environut friends are doing everything in thier power to stop the use of any domestic source of fuel (oil, gas, coal, nuclear, etc). Or that we could be making existing refineries more efficient and "greener" with upgrades blocked because "it ain't good enough" to satisfy the whim of the anti-oil lobby.

Well, I never...

Did you ever have so much to do that you couldn't determine a place to start? That's been me lately. Forty-seven irons in the fire and none of them hot enough to strike. As my grandfather would say "Key-riste, boy. Get off the dime, already!"

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I've several interesting projects at work. Unfortunately they are "very important", "high priority", or "urgent" depending on which manager-type you are talking to at the moment. Of course, no two manager-types agree which is the most important.

For instance, today, I'm working along on Project A when the boss calls. He's just been in a meeting of some collection of muckity-mucks and I'm to drop everything else and concentrate on Project B. fine. Put all of the stuff away for Project A and start digging on Project B.

Another call from a different manager-type (he's just a little more rank than my boss). Project C has finally gotten the stamp of approval from the "Advisory Board" and it now basks in the golden light of "Do it now!!!" priority. Forget Project B, Project C is the thing.

Of course, I have to call my boss and tell him that the ranker called and told me to change directions. He says, "Hold on a minute, I'll call him and get the straight of it". An hour goes by and no contact at all... Do I continue on B or fold its tent in preference to C?

Just about the time I'm going insane I get a call from the most rank boss in the place... "When is Project A going to be finished? We need it yesterday!"

Aaaaahhhhh!

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I need to work from home more. ;-)

Sometimes I Think I'm Missing Something...

I hate to travel. I guess my millions of miles commuting has made me love staying home more, but as my poor family can attest, it takes an act of God to get me to book a flight or commit to a long drive.

But sometimes - once in a while - I see something like this, and I wonder...

More than likely it will turn out like my love of music, where I have the ability to really enjoy fine music, but no talent to create it. Or like my love for science fiction, where I love the books and movies, but I couldn't write a short story if my life depended on it.

Perhaps if I tried to travel, I'd discover that I really do hate it, but I still enjoy the photographs of people who do.

I wonder...

What Kind of Laptop do You Have?

You may want to be careful with it the next time you fly.

War of the Worlds: Earth Strikes Back

According to this story:

Planetary protection rules exist to allow for the study of habitability without confounding biological contamination, said John Rummel, Planetary Protection Officer at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C.

While the $1.5 billion Mars Science Laboratory effort has instruments that could study gullies and ice-covered regions on Mars, Rummel told SPACE.com that "the project has not chosen to make the spacecraft clean enough to go there … this time." Nonetheless, he added, future missions using MSL’s same landing system and rover could be cleaned well enough to go anywhere on Mars.

Wouldn't it be cool if we landed a bunch of humans there, and started terraforming Mars, with say, "green weeds" and "oxygen-nitrogen gas" weapons? Then wouldn't it be cool if we were attacked and wiped out by millions of tiny bacteria?

Media Bias On Parade

San Fransisco Chronicle blah blah blah biased coverage blah blah blah political agenda.

How to take over the world...

As part of America's insidious plot to westernize the entire world, we callously did this.

Teen-Adult Relations

...are strained at best.

This Week in the News

It's been a busy week in the news, here are some of the highlights.

• Al-Zarqawi Gets What He Deserves from a 500 Pound American-made Bomb story
• GM Announces a Factory in Russia Amid EU Strike Talks story
• Terrorist Heaven Rocked by Scandal Over Ugly, "Used Virgins"
• Bush Makes Surprise Visit to Iraq story
• U.S. Troops Attack Taliban story
• Karl Rove Cleared of Wrongdoing story
• Actress Daryl Hannah arrested in a tree story
• Drinking Coffee May Protect Liver story
• Nanotube Membranes Open Possibilities for Cheaper Desalinization story

How do you say GM in Russian?

According to this story, GM is joining a stream of automakers now opening plants in Russia. Now if we could just get them to open more plants in Mexico...

Alternate headlines for this story could have been:

Unions Force Russia Decision

Unions may cost EU jobs

Organized Labour Unemployment

Maybe the unions should stop worrying about fleecing the members and companies and work to make business more competitive.

The U. S. Marines

Thank You

The eightteen year old men who saw this scene on June 6th, 1944 (and survived) are eighty years old today.

Having been born well after the war, I have lived in a world of relative peace.

How do I express gratitude to these men?

Being Apparent

Parenting is hard. Mind-bogglingly hard. You may think that choosing bling for Friday night at the club is hard, but that's just peanuts to parenting.

When your children are born, they bring you joy, and they love you and smile at you. They need you completely for everything, even their very survival. But over time, they need you less and less, as nature prepares them to take flight and make their own way in the world.

This change manifests itself in various ways. By the time your children are teens, they no longer have any illusions that you are indeed omniscient, and they begin to doubt that the many wise things you have taught them are true at all.

I guess the best that a parent can hope for is that teenagers will resist the urge to run away and join the Hale-Bopp comet cult, and the best teens can hope for is that Dad will find an ending (or a cohesive point) to his heartwarming lecture sometime before they turn twenty.

Don't worry, I'm not going to go all Dobson on you, gentle readers. This is just to say that as a parent, a lot of times you have to be the asshole: it's required. But if you're very diligent, and very, very lucky, you get to see them make something wonderful of themselves.

To you teens, I offer this: Your friends (the ones who encouraged you to drink and use drugs and get sexual at age 15) - they don't love you. I know, they say they do, and they are encouraging you without getting all judgmental. But they didn't (and wouldn't) stay up with you all night when you had the stomach flu, they didn't give you the ear drops every 2 hours through the night when you were 18 months old, they haven't done 1,000 loads of laundry for you, they haven't put off a trip to Hawaii so you could have braces.

The truest love isn't the encouragement to be bad, it's when someone tells you you're about to screw up the rest of your life for no good reason. It's taking a hard stand, and intervening - getting between you and evil, even when the evil is the thing you want the most.

True love isn't usually rewarded with a smile, and a thank you. It's usually met with I hate you and leave me alone. True love makes hard and unpopular decisions and does what's right for you, even if it means alienation and rejection.

Love hurts. Love wants what's good for you. Love will take away your internet and cell phone to keep you safe. Love will say no to a venomous snake as a pet. Love doesn't easily back down. Get over it.

Something Wonderful

This is just a quick note to let everyone know that one of my "spawn" graduated from high school last week. As California public schools go, this one is more average than most, but she did an admirable job and is planning to attend the college of her dreams this fall.

She found a way to transcend school politics, excel amongst mediocrity, and overall executed her education plan with the precision of an historic military strike.

Well done, R.A.V. The world is yours. Our hearts swell with pride for you.

Guest Rant

I couldn't have said it better myself

Things I'm sick of hearing
Doug Patton
May 31, 2006

As I write this, today feels like a day to just "vent," so here goes...

I'm sick of hearing about high gas prices. The national media is obsessed with the issue, hoping that the more stories they run about big, evil, price-gouging oil companies versus poor, victimized, SUV-driving consumers, the more the American people simultaneously will learn to hate their gas guzzling vehicles and President George W. Bush.

I'm sick of hearing that the president's low poll numbers are due to his handling of the war on terror, especially the war in Iraq. If the self-righteous inventors of The News would stick their heads out of their ivory towers long enough to see past their own political prejudices, they would realize that the president's poll ratings are, in large part, the result of his own abandonment of virtually every conservative constituency he has asked to trust him for the last six years.

With the exception of modest (and so far temporary) tax cuts and a couple of seemingly solid Supreme Court appointments (one of which had to be forced upon him), there is precious little in the president's domestic agenda for a social and/or fiscal conservative to love.

I'm sick of hearing Ted Kennedy tell me how unfair it is that the rich have more than the poor. When he redistributes his portfolio among the less fortunate, then I might have a modicum of respect for the old windbag. Until then, he can just shut up and keep his greedy hands off my modest income.

Likewise, I'm sick of hearing John McCain, Lindsay Graham, Arlen Specter and Chuck Hagel blather on about what is fair and decent and right, as if only they have the righteous understanding to know such things.

I'm sick of hearing that everyone has a right to be proud of his or her race, creed, gender, sexual preference, marital status, religion and national origin - everyone except happily married conservative white male heterosexual Christian Americans.

I'm sick of hearing that Islam is a religion of peace that has been hijacked by a radical few. Of the approximately 1.5 billion Muslims in the world today, it has been estimated that at least 150 million of them are in support of the goals of worldwide terrorist organizations like al-Qaeda. That's a pretty big hijacking. If ten percent of American Christians supported abortion clinic bombers, we would all be under surveillance.

I'm sick of hearing political correctness on every TV show. King Solomon was right when he said there is nothing new under the sun, but come on, Hollywood, get an idea in your heads that doesn't involve bashing Republicans, conservatives, pro-lifers, businessmen, Christians, the Pentagon or the NSA.

I'm sick of hearing about all the jobs that Americans won't do. Yank all the safety nets out from under able-bodied Americans and just watch how quickly they will take those jobs.

I'm sick of hearing that millions of illegal aliens cannot be removed from our country. Make it a felony to be here and a felony to hire them and watch how quickly they leave.

I'm sick of hearing that requiring people to learn English is discriminatory. You bet it is, and that is a good thing. I was raised to believe that discriminating people were ones with high standards. We have made the word "discriminate" synonymous with "bigotry." That is nonsense.

Finally, I'm sick of hearing that America is a nation of immigrants. I welcome anyone from anywhere who yearns to legally breathe free and who will swear allegiance to my country, but don't call me an immigrant. My ancestors have been in this country since well before the Civil War, and my wife's ancestry extends back before the founding of this nation. Read my lips: as for me and my house, we are not immigrants. We are Americans!

Doug Patton is a freelance columnist who has served as a political speechwriter and policy advisor to federal, state and local candidates, elected officials and public policy organizations. His weekly columns are published in newspapers across the country and on selected Internet web sites, including TheConservativeVoice.com and GOPUSA.com, where he is a senior writer and state editor. Readers may e-mail him at dougpatton@cox.net.