The Relationship Between Science And Religion

Religion is spiritual and pedagogical
Science is secular and methodological.
The latter enhances hermeneutical thought,
The former gives meaning that some scientists sought.
Though Science’s tacit dimension does surely exist,
There need not be religion for it to subsist.
Philosophical men have wondered long,
Where the dialogue would best belong.

To ethical insight both now may lay claim.
Their paths did differ, but results are the same.
There is a problem in inferring from is to ought.
But it doesn’t have to conflict with the god that you’ve got.
Advances in theory and knowledge lead to mental satisfaction,
Whether or not you believe in divine interaction.
There is virtue in humanism you cannot ignore,
It produces Ten Commandments, minus four.

I am an Atheist that Advocates Agnosticism

The paradox:
Assume:
-There is a God that is omnipotent and omniscient
-God created all things via ordained natural laws
-Sin exists, and is not in accordance with the values of God
-God wants us to be happy, and happiness is the aim of human existence
-God punishes sinners
Conclusions from those assumptions:
-No observation of nature can be inconsistent with the existence of God
-The original conditions of the universe were set such that there would eventually be organisms aware of that being (the Anthropic Principal) and God knew this.
-Natural laws cannot be violated from within the system; one may only be placed in situations in which separate natural laws, as they have been artificially divided,
-Randomness is an illusion: knowing all of the laws and the precise position and velocity of all particles and energy negates Heisenberg’s uncertainty principal.
-Free will is an illusion: one cannot act except in accordance with natural laws whether we are aware of them or not, except in the instance of divine intervention/ miracles.
-Paradox 1: The act of sinning is therefore in accordance with and is the product of God’s natural laws, but not in accordance with God’s values.
-God knows and has always known who will and will not sin
-While Jesus could have made a difference, God still knows in advance who will and will not sin, and sin still exists.
-The rejection of Jesus as lord and savior is the invisible and unconscious consequence of natural law.
-Paradox 2: God wants us to be happy but knowingly predetermined via his non-negotiable natural laws that some would sin and therefore suffer.
-If it is therefore part of God’s values that a certain acceptable percentage not be happy, and increased happiness (though perhaps not as great as the sinless) can be attained by that percentage by continued or greater discontinuity with God’s values (e.g. via hedonism), then there is no incentive for that percentage to reduce their sin
-Paradox 3: God does not like sin but knowingly created a system by which a positive feedback loop increases it.

Calvin and Hobbes

Seems Familiar

Irony of Ironies

Sometimes the validity of Gelnaw's Law washes over me, hitting me like a wave during fair weather. Other times, it's like a tsunami. Two excellent examples: I have my ornithology Lab final next week. To study for this I need my bird book (which I haven't been using too much until now). The other night, I discovered it was missing, completely gone, as though it evaporated into the ether. In response, I went to the library and picked up a book that is actually superior. After that, I went to the zoology museum and low and behold, there was my lab book. Wow, that's like three distinctly ironic moments in one story.
Ok, now for the second example. Today is Thanksgiving in the United States. I am an American and so typically I try to do a little something for the holiday. This year I think I'll go hungry. Why? Because I'm completely out of money from my "this is not rent money" account. I recalled seeing my ballance in Denver and still having a fair amount of money. Yesterday I tried to buy fries ($2.05 CAD) and my card was declined, so I guess registering for the GRE kind of ate into that. I actually have a fair bit o' savings (thanks to Mom and Dad) but that's locked in a savings account in California and I discontinued the checking account there because I didn't want to pay a monthly fee. Foresight would have been great there. Ok, so what do I have for rations? A single potatoe, half a bottle each of mustard and ketchup, 1/5 of a bottle of ranch dressing, 1/10th of one onion, a life saver candy, 1/4 sac of flour, and 1/2 bag of brown sugar. What a Thanks Giving feast that'll make, yum! Ok, so maybe I should use some of the cash I've got for groceries. Though I think I'll have some trouble stretching $3.21. Well, Happy Thanks Giving!

GRE

Well, I spent $40 USD but It think its worth it. I postponed when I'm taking the GRE. The other day I realized that I wasn't writing it on the thrid but on the second. The second is also the day of my Ornithology Lab final. I just figured that I didn't have enough room in my brain for over 250 birds, how to recognize them, where they live, what they sound like AND the antonym of Sedulous. I've been studying for the GRE but I just don't think that it would be worth the money to write it when I've got bird info filling up all the precious little grey matter I have left. So now I'm writing it on Monday the 13th. 11 more days to study (and I don't mean 11 days to procrastinate) won't hurt either.

Drinkin' With the Profs

Ok, so last night there was a little seminar for students in Dr. lamoureux's science and religion class to learn about evolution. For this special event, Dr. Michael Caldwell was called in to help explain some of the concepts to people who have clearly never had any biology in their lives. Brilliant people I'm sure, but just no biology. Some of their questions such as "so did it go fish then monkeys then us?" only go to support my suggestion that if I have to take calculus and chemistry and English as a Paleo student, then Math, Chemistry and English majors should be forced to take at least one course of biology and one course of geology. Biology for Beginners and Rocks for Jocks. I think that this teaching method alone will go a long way to clear up the widespread misonception that "there is no evidence for evolution." Furthermore, I think that if the anti-evolution comunity is going to be so outspoken and actively recruit followers, then the evolution community ought to do the same. By the way, this has absolutely nothing to do with my religious views, I don't have problems with people who are religious and accept evolution, I just think that ignorance is perhaps the largest stumbling block in the path of the biological sciences.
After the Seminar, the profs, a bunch of paleo students and one non-paleo student went out for beers. I'd didn't pay for a single beer the whole night, and that's all right by me. I look forward to the day when I have the financial freedom to do the same for some of my students. Lamoureux, Caldwell and I had some interesting religious discussion. Basically it boiled down to accepting that we three are men of very strong belief. Caldwell and I just believe in one less god that Lamoureux does.
I also greatly appreciated the opportunity to pick Caldwell's brain about the issues with improving the Paleo program here at the U of A. From what i gather, the biggest stumbling block there is insurance. Want to take students into the field for a field school? Well, if you have more than 15 students, you would need a bus with a certified driver. Under 15 people and you need a 15 passanger van, for which you need someone with a class 4 liscence. How about if you want to teach students how to manage collections or museums, or prepare fossils for study? Well there's a limited amount of time in the curriculum, and letting students with potentially no experience handle fossils is an insurance nightmare.
On another note, I also figured out that being a man of such strong convictions, and therefore a very high level of confidence, is sexy to women. Without going into too much detail, a young lady with whom I have history, and who is currently dating someone else, had no trouble expressing the fact that she still has feelings for me. Woot! Then I figured it out; on the previous occasion that she had expressed such feelings, I had engaged in intense discussion with someone on the subject of politics. I had suspected previously that the power of word and mind were the attracting force, but last night provided supporting evidence. Of course, she was pretty drunk on both occasions, so I think it's important not to read too much into things. Also, just for clarification's sake, although she expressed feelings, we didn't do anything as the result. I know that she's seeing someone else, and I have much too strong of a superego to allow myself to overpowered by the id. That is to say, I could not ethically do anything with her. Were she my girlfriend, I would not tollerate her expressing such feelings to other men. It's the whole catagorical imperative thing. Wow, who knew I'd actually use anything from my ethics class.

SVP

SVP was great this year. As usual I missed a few of the morning talks because I was sleeping off some of the drinks from the night before. Paleo conferences are most certainly not places to get some sleep. Or rather, they aren't if you're a paleontologist. I could imagine a lot of people falling fast asleep in the dimmed halls while someone spouted jargon way above their heads. Thankfully though I was quite enthralled by the lectures and now have a much clearer idea of what I'm doing with all of this dino and bird data that I've collected. It boils down to: I have so much more to do. There was a couple of fellows who modeled the craniofacial ontogeny of the allosaurs using simple linear regression of measurements that they took using calipers. They took alot more measurements than I have, but I think that I'll take their 50 some odd different variables and apply it across taxa in order to get a better picture of the evolution of these animals. Either that or I could just use image analysis software to plot the change in shape of these skulls. In either case, I'll then use Finite element analysis to plot the amount and area of strain on the bones in the skull in a 3-D computer model based on ct scans, and see how the forces are transmitted and how it changes with a change in each of the measured variables. Then, using the concept of functional domains in the skull, I'll determine how those changes in force distribution effect each of the domains. Then if I figure out how growth rates are involved (within a phylogenetically independent context), I'll have a pretty good Idea how these animals are evolving and about the multitudinous tradeoffs involved during evolution. It'll boil down to a hell of a lot of multiple linear regressions, resulting in a model that will probably have about 50 dimensions. This way, if I ever get a partial skull, I'll be able to predict all kinds of crap about the rest of it, without ever seeing it. People with think I'm crazy and say that no-one can possibly predict all of that because of a cumulative effect of all of the deviations in the data away from an exact line. Then I'll avoid making sense out of my statements by referring them to information that they would have already known or predicted on their own and stroll out amidst a hail of questions, angry shouts and calls from starry eyed undergrads.
The last part I embellished on a bit, but I don't think that it's an unreasonable prediction.

Off to SVP

Well, once again SVP time is here. Tomorrow morning, bright and early, I hop on a plane, then a nother plane and eventually get to Denver, Colorado. This year is a bit different. I have a real purpose for being there. No, I'm not presenting. I'm schmoozing. This year I have to convince a prof through charm and wit that they can't live without me as a grad student. I even got a haircut for the occasion.