aliens, stay away

I agree with Stephen Hawking in this article. Aliens showing up would not be cool. If they were here we'd know it. I don't give any credibility to the UFO cult phenomenon. If aliens had the ability to find our planet and then show up, they would be more technically savvy than us earthlings. Harvesting is the term that comes to mind. Oh dear...

Probability is interesting to think about though. The numbers say, yes, it's possible that other life forms exist somewhere in the universe. But what the heck do we do with that information? Until we have the ability to go places, we won't know. Unless we see them coming. That's a little scary to think about.

I'm still trying to wrap my brain around the idea that we can see history through our telescopes. Millions of light years away means an even longer time ago when the event occurred. Change the subject. My brain is beginning to swell.

20 years old

Happy Birthday, Hubble!

"Hubble's unprecedented capabilities made it one of the most powerful science instruments ever conceived by humans, and certainly the one most embraced by the public. Hubble discoveries revolutionized nearly all areas of current astronomical research, from planetary science to cosmology. And, its pictures were unmistakably out of this world." (HubbleSite News Release)

Source: Hubblesite.org

brain waves

I've been told more than once in my life,"It's all in your head." A number of years ago I came to the place where I decided that the idea of a devil or a Satan was nothing more than a mental experience. This threw other ideas into play. What about feelings in general? I have experienced "hell on earth" at times in my life. But I also found relieve from these feelings by changing the way I thought about the circumstances.

The brain is an amazing and complex organ. Science has just begun to study it in the past 10-20 years. I think there's a significant chance that whatever seeming realities religious experiences bring to us are simply mental exercises. I found this article this morning that speaks to this idea.

what would happen if the world believed in...

An excellent article... long, but informative... Do you fear what might happen if the world believed in evolution?

the predicted one

the real world

" ...to deny that reality will make us a cult -- some odd group that is not really interacting with the real world." --Bruce Waltke, Christian conservative and former Bible scholar from the Reformed Theological Seminary in Florida, speaking about evolution.

Waltke has been canned by the fundamentalist police at his seminary for speaking what he truly believed. Ken Ham thinks that believing evolution undermines the moral authority of the Bible because it turns the Garden of Eden story into fable. He's right in that sense. But he's wrong about morality. There are just as many immoral, literalist, inerrant-Bible believing persons as there are immoral unbelievers, maybe more, in the U.S. anyway.

Evolution's proof has been ongoing for over 150 years and has made a healthy collection of facts. Ham would only be expected to defend the multi-million dollar investment of his Creation Museum in Kentucky. He must hang on to the 6,000-year young earth theory. The disgrace of admitting error would change his whole life. Not many people are willing to make that leap. Especially in a religion that punishes those that do not conform to its standards.

Professor Waltke has rearranged his life and now works for another conservative seminary, one who's "belief police" are evidently slightly more liberal than the previous one.

start with doubt

"If a man shall begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts,

but if he will be content to begin with doubts,

he shall end in certainties."

Francis Bacon (1561-1626) The Advancement of Learning

To end in certainty, however, depends on a continual searching for the truth.