I've never quite been able to wrap my head around why some religious folks are so dead-set against the concept of evolution.
Every time it pops up in the news cycle, causes controversy in regards to schooling or is cited as a source of conflict between community members or different communities, I get all scrunchy face-level baffled.
Why can't science and spirituality be considered together?
As if it isn't possible to believe in both the slow unfolding of the cosmos and all that follows AND a supreme being?
The spontaneous creation of a universe and a world with a fully functioning ecosystem would be an impressive display of power and has formed an important part of the Judaeo-Christian story (amongst others) but there are so many ways to look at it.
The religious texts say that God created the world in six days and the orthodox faithful refuse to accept any alternatives but consider this usage of a time-frame.
In the beginning there was no time, no temporal units in the dense new matter, who is to say how long the 'days' mentioned actually lasted? They could have each spanned millennia, hundreds of millennia, after all 'a day' is a human concept based on how long it takes one particular planet to make a full revolution as it makes its slow way around one particular star.
Some argue that insisting that life evolved from the most basic common components into gradually more complex and diverse organisms as a reaction to their environment, food stuffs and predators/competitors disrespects or denies the involvement of a deity but that doesn't have to be the case.
Why wouldn't a being of infinite wisdom and compassion also be a being of infinite curiosity?
If you've got nothing but time and a whole universe to yourself why wouldn't you nudge things and wait to see what happens next?
Why wouldn't the slow playing out of consequences be as fascinating and satisfying to a divine being as to anyone who has ever taken a chance and made something new under their own power, from artisan to scientist to chef?
At its most essential, the idea that God created the universe in order to create the Earth purely to put human beings on it seems very self-centred and egotistical on behalf of humanity, and seems to glorify humans more than their creator.
If you allow yourself to contemplate the possibility that human beings were not the intended end product of creation it doesn't automatically follow that there is no power outside ourselves and that it might not care for us.
Just because a parent doesn't know how their child will turn out, can't anticipate their exact physical characteristics or personality or future actions doesn't mean they can't rejoice at their birth and revel in their accomplishments.
Just because everything might not have sprung fully formed into being doesn't mean that its existence is not a point of wonder - consider the scope of the whole.
I'm not saying that atheists or agnostics have to believe that there is a God or a pantheon of gods.
I'm not saying religiously observant people have to accept everything that science has to offer or believe that we'll ever be able to explain everything that makes up our reality.
Just to all have a think about it and accept that whether you are looking at the universe through an analytical or spiritual lens, it is a miraculous construct.
We've come a long way as a species in the centuries since the current dominant religious dialogues were founded, we're now able to understand much more complex ideas and maybe that includes being able to grasp a more intricate explanation of existence no matter how you're framing it.
To the religious: Give God credit for possibly being a more inquisitive and creative being and for the creation story we began with maybe being the most complicated explanation fallible human beings were capable of dealing with at the time.
To the scientific: Seeing as even our best guesses concerning the beginning of the universe essentially boil down to 'there was nothing and then it blew up' try not to discount or dismiss other people's beliefs out of hand even if you don't share them.
To everyone: The fact that we exist at all is pretty freaking amazing, enjoy it and if you hold your beliefs dear then you shouldn't worry or feel threatened when other people don't share them as long as nobody tries to force you to accept their view against your will. Allow everyone the chance to make up their own minds on the matter.
For myself, well, as Nick Cave says, "I don't believe in an interventionist God, but I know darlin' that [some of] you do..."
Doesn't mean we can't all get along and acknowledge that no matter how it came into being, the universe is a mind-boggling and marvellous thing.
The discovery that the sun revolves around the Earth instead of vice versa didn't cause the Earth to be rent asunder, scientific discovery need not be seen as a reductive or destructive force.
With everything new we learn, it increases not decreases our ability to appreciate and marvel at the intricacy of our wider environment and of our own physical beings.
That has to count for something.
Disclaimer time: I was raised in an Irish-Italian family which, whilst fairly laid back about observing religion and very tolerant of all religious and non-religious views, allowed me a front seat view on Catholic dogma and communities.
I tell you this so that if you read this and feel that my soul might need saving or think that I would benefit from a deeper knowledge of Christianity you can rest easy that I am fairly familiar with the material. Please do not try to convert or convince me as I'll not be changing my views for any reasons that are not my own.
I also tell you this so that if you read this and you are non-religious or follow a religion not encompassed by this post you don't feel that I am trying to convert you, disrespect your beliefs or lecture you. My own beliefs are a composite of many strains of both scientific and spiritual discussion and I won't be turning this blog into any form of evangelical podium.
I am at heart a bit of a hippie who believes that as long as you do no harm to others as far as this is possible and do what you can to lead a fulfilling life and live up to your full potential that whatever you believe is your own business.
Sorry for the big rambling explanation but seeing as I don't usually cover topics quite so contentious here I thought I should make sure I made myself clear.
In the event any insulting or close-minded comments appear rest assured they'll disappear shortly after.
Saturday, 3 July 2010
Saturday, 26 June 2010
Everybody Should Learn A Second Language
I don't care if you live in the most land-locked, single-language culture ever evolved by war, politics, economy and commodity, you should learn at least one foreign language.
Here's why.
It helps you with your own language.
It can make you more sympathetic to your fellow human beings.
It opens up experiences and encounters that you may not have had otherwise.
Let me explain further.
I had a decent education but the truth is that schools now spend far less time hammering the building blocks of grammar and language into the impressionable young minds of their students than they did previously*.
When you learn another language you become VERY aware what the different components of language are called, especially verbs, putting names and explanations to things you've only known instinctively before.
You have a better appreciation of how these components work together, especially when you're comparing how they work in your native tongue to how they work in your newly embraced language.
If you're a bit of a word nerd it affects how you see language in general and improves your use of it no matter which language you're speaking.
If you have the opportunity to travel to a country where your new language is spoken exclusively, take it.
You will never understand the immigrant experience better than you will the day you immerse yourself in a community where you can hopefully make yourself understood but cannot understand effortlessly.
It is impossible to overestimate just how alienated and claustrophobic you can feel when you can't understand the chatter of people on the train or when shopkeepers look at you patiently (or impatiently), waiting for you to make sense or to answer simple questions.
If you hear someone speaking in your first language you are overwhelmed with homesickness and you will approach strangers in a way you might never do at home just for the joy of unhindered, eloquent speech, no matter how banal the conversation topics.
But you pick up new words and tenses much more quickly and the simple pleasure of managing an everyday exchange is intoxicating, even if you know you sound like the instructions in a manual that has been translated from one language into another via a third, just making enough sense to get an answer or give one fills you with a sense of accomplishment.
Speaking a second language can allow you to meet people you might never have met, go places you might never have gone, form connections with people who you might not have bonded with without a key event or shared incident, offer help to people who feel as lost as you now know it is possible to feel, ask for help from people who (well-intentioned as they might be would have been unable to understand the tearful pleas).
It will make you re-evaluate the way you see other people and yourself.
It will make you a better person if you take full advantage of it.
Y'know, unless you just use it to pick up people of your preferred gender(s) and swear at people without them knowing it.
It can be used for that too, I guess.
*Also don't ask me about geography, I don't know anything about it worth a damn.
Here's why.
It helps you with your own language.
It can make you more sympathetic to your fellow human beings.
It opens up experiences and encounters that you may not have had otherwise.
Let me explain further.
I had a decent education but the truth is that schools now spend far less time hammering the building blocks of grammar and language into the impressionable young minds of their students than they did previously*.
When you learn another language you become VERY aware what the different components of language are called, especially verbs, putting names and explanations to things you've only known instinctively before.
You have a better appreciation of how these components work together, especially when you're comparing how they work in your native tongue to how they work in your newly embraced language.
If you're a bit of a word nerd it affects how you see language in general and improves your use of it no matter which language you're speaking.
If you have the opportunity to travel to a country where your new language is spoken exclusively, take it.
You will never understand the immigrant experience better than you will the day you immerse yourself in a community where you can hopefully make yourself understood but cannot understand effortlessly.
It is impossible to overestimate just how alienated and claustrophobic you can feel when you can't understand the chatter of people on the train or when shopkeepers look at you patiently (or impatiently), waiting for you to make sense or to answer simple questions.
If you hear someone speaking in your first language you are overwhelmed with homesickness and you will approach strangers in a way you might never do at home just for the joy of unhindered, eloquent speech, no matter how banal the conversation topics.
But you pick up new words and tenses much more quickly and the simple pleasure of managing an everyday exchange is intoxicating, even if you know you sound like the instructions in a manual that has been translated from one language into another via a third, just making enough sense to get an answer or give one fills you with a sense of accomplishment.
Speaking a second language can allow you to meet people you might never have met, go places you might never have gone, form connections with people who you might not have bonded with without a key event or shared incident, offer help to people who feel as lost as you now know it is possible to feel, ask for help from people who (well-intentioned as they might be would have been unable to understand the tearful pleas).
It will make you re-evaluate the way you see other people and yourself.
It will make you a better person if you take full advantage of it.
Y'know, unless you just use it to pick up people of your preferred gender(s) and swear at people without them knowing it.
It can be used for that too, I guess.
*Also don't ask me about geography, I don't know anything about it worth a damn.
Sunday, 20 June 2010
God Helps Those Who Help Themselves Stay Away From Self-Help
*Click click click*
"Welcome to your first lesson on how to actualise your full youness! By taking this first step you have already put yourself on the road to realising your true destiny!"
"If you say so, buddy."
"Now we're going to start out with some affirmations just to get you in the right headspace to visualise your unique core of personhood."
"I... would rather not visualise that..."
"Repeat after me: I am an important and special person with unfulfilled potential and opportunities!"
"I am sitting alone in a dark room talking to myself!"
"Very good. Now repeat after me: I can achieve anything I want if only I believe in myself!"
"If I really believed in myself I wouldn't be taking advice from a talking disc!"
"Excellent! You're doing so well!"
"Thanks disembodied validation man!"
"Now that you're warmed up and receptive it's time to massage those under-appreciated actualisation muscles-"
"Noooo thank you, I know code for 'But I didn't even order a pizza' when I hear it, see you later,"
*Slam*
"Today we're going to work on subverting the dominant paradigm and recreating the surviving structures and inhabitants in your own image because really, it's no more than you deserve..."
Sunday, 13 June 2010
And Nothing Else Matters...
This weekend I was a bridesmaid.
It's not something I've ever really cared about doing one way or another.
But for my mate Awesome, I was in.
The wedding party all wore black, including the bride.
The groom wore a top hat and a long coat with tails that looked more likely to have a rifle tucked inside it than anything else.
There were Halloween skeleton confetti and black stars scattered on the tables.
They had their bridal waltz to Metallica's 'Nothing Else Matters'.
And it was one of the most genuine weddings I've ever been to.
They didn't write their own vows because they both think that's soppy bullshit but they did have a handfasting ceremony instead of a traditional service.
They made silly noises and funny faces and cried and laughed and told people to shut up and jittered around during the ceremony and when it came time for the kiss all the guests were yelling suggestions and wolf-whistling and stamping their feet.
And that's how it should be.
They love each other and they wanted to show it in a way that was true to who they are and how they want to be.
And it was beautiful and I've never been prouder to be part of something.
Good luck and \m/
It's not something I've ever really cared about doing one way or another.
But for my mate Awesome, I was in.
The wedding party all wore black, including the bride.
The groom wore a top hat and a long coat with tails that looked more likely to have a rifle tucked inside it than anything else.
There were Halloween skeleton confetti and black stars scattered on the tables.
They had their bridal waltz to Metallica's 'Nothing Else Matters'.
And it was one of the most genuine weddings I've ever been to.
They didn't write their own vows because they both think that's soppy bullshit but they did have a handfasting ceremony instead of a traditional service.
They made silly noises and funny faces and cried and laughed and told people to shut up and jittered around during the ceremony and when it came time for the kiss all the guests were yelling suggestions and wolf-whistling and stamping their feet.
And that's how it should be.
They love each other and they wanted to show it in a way that was true to who they are and how they want to be.
And it was beautiful and I've never been prouder to be part of something.
Good luck and \m/
Sunday, 6 June 2010
The Wheels Start Turning
It's the little things really.
This video is a memory for a lot of people - either as a part of their own childhood or that of their children - but for me it was the moment when I realised something.
America isn't just a big city.
Yes, I know it sounds stupid now but as a kid watching TV or movies or being read different books you learn to equate America with New York City or various similar scenes.
Until I saw this video on Sesame Street I had no idea that America had farms, forests, suburbs, small towns...
I had just assumed it was high-rise apartment blocks from one end to the other.
No, don't ask me where I thought their food came from. I was 4! I hadn't gotten to consumerism and production cycles yet.
Once I realised that I started finding out all sorts of things.
Egypt isn't just pyramids and camels!
Africa is a continent and not a country!
Likewise Europe and Asia!
And all three are so full of different traditions and languages I'll probably never hear of all of them let alone learn them!
Some things stick in your memory, like the moment it occurs to you that everyone else has a little universe behind their eyes as well, that they aren't just props moving around in yours.
This wasn't my only childhood epiphany but it's one of the ones that has stayed with me.
When I realised the world was out there and that I wanted to see more of it.
Sunday, 30 May 2010
Dust On Dirt
I should be sorry I expect.
I should be gripped with remorse and wishing that things had been other than they are and seeing everything through a rosy glow of nostalgia-tinted grief.
Suffused with compassion, understanding and knowing that whilst things couldn't have been any other way, there were reasons for why they turned out as they did.
But I always knew that you would die this way.
And to be completely honest I'm glad you did.
You had it coming.
I know the odds of your last thought being that I was right are slim but as I look down at your cold body, limbs akimbo, I get to think it.
I don't look for too long of course, that would look unprofessional.
I wish you could see me as I move, smooth, efficient, practiced, as I dust for fingerprints, pluck fibres from fibres and catalogue the tableau of your end.
I'm very good at my job and I always do my best, even for you.
I'd like to think you'd appreciate this but going on previous experiences I won't hold my breath on that count.
They don't know that I knew you.
If they did I would be taken off the case, bundled off to see a city appointed psychologist and treated with care and caution until they were sure I was 'fit for duty'.
But instead here I am, sifting through your worldly belongings for some clue as to who killed you.
I already know why.
And so, I'm sure, did you.
I'm going to find out who did this.
Not for you, you ungrateful shit.
I'm doing it for the science.
I'm very good at my job.
Even when I don't want to be.
I should be gripped with remorse and wishing that things had been other than they are and seeing everything through a rosy glow of nostalgia-tinted grief.
Suffused with compassion, understanding and knowing that whilst things couldn't have been any other way, there were reasons for why they turned out as they did.
But I always knew that you would die this way.
And to be completely honest I'm glad you did.
You had it coming.
I know the odds of your last thought being that I was right are slim but as I look down at your cold body, limbs akimbo, I get to think it.
I don't look for too long of course, that would look unprofessional.
I wish you could see me as I move, smooth, efficient, practiced, as I dust for fingerprints, pluck fibres from fibres and catalogue the tableau of your end.
I'm very good at my job and I always do my best, even for you.
I'd like to think you'd appreciate this but going on previous experiences I won't hold my breath on that count.
They don't know that I knew you.
If they did I would be taken off the case, bundled off to see a city appointed psychologist and treated with care and caution until they were sure I was 'fit for duty'.
But instead here I am, sifting through your worldly belongings for some clue as to who killed you.
I already know why.
And so, I'm sure, did you.
I'm going to find out who did this.
Not for you, you ungrateful shit.
I'm doing it for the science.
I'm very good at my job.
Even when I don't want to be.
Monday, 24 May 2010
A Chronicle Of Chronicles Chronologically... Chronicled...
Some time ago... oh save me, it was July last year! My life is running through my hands like water and... *coff coff*...
Sorry about that...
Anyway, last year I wrote a post about having re-kickstarted reading properly.
New books!
Books that fired the imagination and stirred the emotions!
Books that scared me or inspired me or made me angry or ecstatic!
Anything except re-reading old favourites for comfort like a self-stunting numpty!
And since then I have read:
I've been keeping notes on the books and my opinions of them which I've decided to post in a little separate page attached to this blog which you can find here and posted in the sidebar.
I'm afraid I am very bad at identifying genres so it'll be very much 'thing/other thing/adjacent thing'.
The reviews might not be the most edifying ever written - I'm pretty sure the first draft of one review simply read 'Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!' - but hopefully they'll point you in the direction of some new authors and titles if you care to give them a look-see.
Go forth and read!
Sorry about that...
Anyway, last year I wrote a post about having re-kickstarted reading properly.
New books!
Books that fired the imagination and stirred the emotions!
Books that scared me or inspired me or made me angry or ecstatic!
Anything except re-reading old favourites for comfort like a self-stunting numpty!
And since then I have read:
- 65 books
- 23 296 pages
I've been keeping notes on the books and my opinions of them which I've decided to post in a little separate page attached to this blog which you can find here and posted in the sidebar.
I'm afraid I am very bad at identifying genres so it'll be very much 'thing/other thing/adjacent thing'.
The reviews might not be the most edifying ever written - I'm pretty sure the first draft of one review simply read 'Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!' - but hopefully they'll point you in the direction of some new authors and titles if you care to give them a look-see.
Go forth and read!
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