What science is and what it was are very different. What started out as a study of God’s world and a attempt to understand its beauty and complexity was turned into a system bent on pushing all mention of God aside and instead raising nature itself to the position of the creator of all. The study of nature was turned on its head and so was logic and common sense. All the fantastic engineering accomplishments that are declared in living…
One of my most memorable courses I took as an undergrad was, “Developmental Biology of Plants and Animals”. You can discuss the amazing complexity of living things, but when you study how these “living things” go from being a pair of cells to a complete horse, or turtle, or fish, or even a human being you see an orchestrated process that is just as marvelous as the final individual. Those two original cell have to produce all kinds of different…
What is, “wishful thinking”? A common theme in TV shows and movies is the idea that, “if you believe in yourself or something you want to happen” hard enough, long enough and work at it with enough effort that thing will become reality. You hear very little about those that fail in such an effort and there are plenty that face that. “Oh, just believe in yourself and you will succeed!” This is a popular form of, “wishful thinking”. It’s…
It may seem like just a word, but “creationism” is something that sparks anger in many in science. The reaction is often to belittle, mock, deride, etc. That’s odd since everyone is in some form or fashion a, “creationist”. You may believe in a real Creator, or a fictional one like “evolution”, but everyone has some concept of how living creatures came to be. If your faith is in “science”, you will likely trust their creation stories. Much of what…
As I said before, Lyell thought that the earth was very old. I think he suggested a possible age in excess of 100,000 years. That was useful for people like Darwin and Huxley who needed more time then the Bible seemed to give for their natural creation mythology to work. That was until genetics got involved in dispelling the “combined trait” fallacy. Genetic traits don’t tend to combine to produce new traits. They work more in a either-or fashion. But…
We as human beings have always had a need to be loved. “Loved” for some means a “fan club” which generally comes from “fame” and some sort of “admiration”. This may come from achievement in sports or success as an actor or politician. This sort of “love” is often short lived. Some folks who are “fans” of a sports figure may be equally fond of hot dogs. This kind of “love” tends to be disappointing in the long run. Science…
How much faith should we have in “science”? Faith is where you place your confidence, your hopes, you view of reality and so on… If our faith is in something other then reality, it will fail. Reality is a win, win for us all if we can see it.