Evolution vs Creationism

Possibly because it's Sunday, I am in Kansas with no car in a state where cars are the only means of transport to civilized locations, as a result I am at home on the couch surfing the internet and reading anything that interests me. And one of these things that has interested me is this 'movement' of teaching evolution theory as fact. I am not a biologist, but it doesn't mean I cannot have an opinion on the scientific teaching method. Nothing as far as I can see is taught as fact in science, there are few if any of them around. Fact necessarily implies an 'absolute' quantity, and I believe those are hard to come by... possibly the only facts we are faced with in life is our birth and subsequent death, both are pretty indisputable states of our existence. Our life in between full of relativities.
Kinda like saying - never generalize. I believe we should say - the only fact is there are no facts. All truths have their specific context, out of which they could very well become falsehoods.

The other thing that concerns me is the 'fanaticism' with which evolutions is taught. You are considered an ignoramus if you're not on the bandwagon of common ancestry with apes and fruit flies. Anything which is fanatical makes me cautious as to its underlying validity. This is a side note, (I've been reading "Thought contagion" by Aaron Lynch where he discusses what it is that makes thoughts propagate and survive from generation to generation. One of the traits which makes a meme successful is if it has a doomsday clause, i.e. if you don't believe it you'll burn in hell. The evolutionary meme doesn't have this advantage, it's against its very teaching, while of course religion does, however, I guess the proponents of evolution (in order to gain more 'converts') have adopted aggression, you will burn in life (be ridiculed etc) if you don't believe in it.

Personally, I guess I should put this whole blab in context, I am not religious (I was, so I have some idea what it is like), however, I also do not believe that evolution is possible. So in my spare time, when I'm lazying around on various couches at various times of my life, I dream up reasons for how and why we are here. I do not have an answer, and I am comfortable with the fact that I probably never will. The more I speak to people about this, the more it seems to me that people usually aren't comfortable with not knowing this for certain. They are either religious, or evolutionists, they adopt one idea or another and put an end to it. This is a shame.

Okay, so, back to it. At first when I heard about the 'creationist' movement, I welcomed it, I thought that finally people are trying to dispel this misconception that evolution is a fact. They where taking away these prepackaged ideas about where we come from to enable people to think for themselves. However, it turns out that creationism is just a new name for religion or belief in 'the God'. This is especially evident in what James Perloff writes regarding the changes in society today loosing its morals because it is taught that it is just an animal.
To me it seems society as a whole is passing through a 'teenage' phase, where yes it is rebelling against the ideas which have been taught by the older generations who of course don't know anything. Take sex for example: back in the good old days it was taboo, it was gross and forbidden (reminds me of the days in primary school when boys had....how do you spell it? 'gimmy germs'? Hahaha). Now, and has been for a while, it's almost free love, sex is everywhere, it sells it gets attention its loosing value, little kids are told to adopt sexual identities... looking at dolls like 'Bratz' etc. Ewwwwwww.....
And most importantly, society is loosing its ability to take responsibility for its own actions. Hence, all the stupid rules and regulations and laws and litigations. That is the reason I believe the structure of society is not as 'moral' as it was in the day. It has become sick of taboos, it has broken through and is busy breaking them, and is exploring and stretching its potential and finding boundaries. This will hopefully pass as well, and we as a society don't kill ourselves during our wild years, settle down into calm moral and responsible adults. Only time will tell. But this idea, that evolution is responsible for it is crap! That seems to me almost a scare tactic to get people back into religion. Not cool.
We are past the time where the majority of society couldn't read and didn't have the time. Hence they went to church to be taught what was moral, what was good and what was bad. Sure, the beliefs most religions are based on are full of good advice regarding correct behavior, but in my opinion that is not going to land you in heaven. Being a 'good' person, will just ensure the successful propagation of your genetic information into the future, and hence society as a whole will have a greater chance of survival.

In my perfect world people would turn off their TVs and just enjoy their couches for what they are really made for...thinking about whether our ancestors are worms, Adam and Eve, little green people or ...

Hmmm...okay, my paper: NGalinRADAR2008.pdf

And my dog! :)

I'm bored

Okay, my blog is so fantastic that I am bored when I remember that I have it. :)

I am currently in Kansas, at the Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets, working on the second version of an FMCW radar for studying the depth of snow over sea ice in Antarctica. I am going to try to attach/link my paper on our work last season (SIPEX'07) to this post which is going to be published in the RADAR 2008 conference in Adelaide, Australia this year.

Currently I am struggling with the 40C (>100F) weather, and UDP packets! It's been just too long since I did any of this....I am feeling incapable..... hopefully a few solid days of work will pay off!

Making use of the blog

Hello!

I have no idea what to write in blogs, damn, i'm not traveling anywhere....so no need to keep friends and family updated on my whereabouts... not doing anything particularly different recently (I was going to say 'exciting' but no, to me what I'm doing (for my PhD that is) is quite fascinating, and interesting, and excitement necessarily goes out of it because I'm always 'in it'). Anyway, so same old....
Margaret has come back from her Japanese icebreaker Antarctic trip! :) Will be catching up with her soon I hope....in a few hours maybe....
Okay, so until next time, when I do something 'exciting' perhaps! :)

Oh, interesting article I picked up on slashdot today --> the 14 greatest engineering challenges of the 21st century: http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/25219

And reading: Metamagical Themas, Douglas Hofstadter really makes your brain hurt....self-referential sentences....e.g. I am simultaneously writing and being written....like what the??? *lol* But it's good! Recommend it! Always healthy to go for a mental jog :)

First Post!

Hello,

I'm starting a blog! :) which will hopefully grow beyond just hogging the website address, and leaving a hole in cyberspace....