DPC: Free Study (May 2009)

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DPC: Darkness 2

black strings mix

Halftime

That's "Dr. Meyers" to you

Sonya graduated from UIC, an event which marks the halfway point of her journey toward being an Anesthesiologist. Four years of residency at nearby Loyola begin for her later this summer.

DPC: Free Study (April 2009)

Steps

Backwards Reasoning on Science Friday

I often listen to NPR's Science Friday podcast; the show covers a wide variety of science topics, without a lot of nonsense. Every once in awhile though, something like last Friday's episode is released..

In a segment about whether science and religion can "get along," a caller stated as fact the Anthropic Priniciple, basically that the universe was "tuned" to support life, and the Science Friday host let this assertion go unchallenged. This is backwards reasoning, much like noting a hole in the ground being "tuned" to hold the water which fills it.

We know from observation that most of the universe does not support life, that there are only small regions which might contain a planet which itself might have some kind of life. Organisms evolved over millions of years to fit their environment. Similarly, water fills a hole in the ground to make a puddle, it's no coincidence that the hole "fits" the puddle.

As to the idea of science and religion getting along, they can't. Religion rests on faith, or accepting as truth assertions not based on (or in the face of) evidence. Science is based on evidence and reason, claims you can observe and test. These two ideas do not overlap; there is no common ground. If a claim is supported by evidence, you don't need faith to "believe" it. If a claim is not supported, there is no reason to accept it.

Update: The geologic column shows ample evidence of life adapting to the environment, rather than the other way around. As the environment changed (grew warmer, colder, etc), life forms either adapted or perished. Humans change their environment; heated homes in the winter, AC in the summer, etc; to make more of the world habitable. Ask a homeless person in the midwest in winter, when temperatures can reach -30F, how well his environment is "tuned to support human life."

"You will be shot"

Two posts, from unconnected blogs..

Over at Atheist Revolution, the Idiot of the Week is republican/Fox News "journalist" Joe the Plumber, with this incredible quote:

"Let me give you another extremist view, 'In God We Trust.' Say that too loud in some parts of America and you will be shot. It's terrible."

What parts of the country are these? In this country, non-Christians (especially atheists) are vilified and wrongly blamed for all manner of tragedies. A Christian student takes a gun to school and shoots dozens of kids? Must be because of atheists! Muslim terrorists fly planes into buildings? It was brought on by the ACLU!

In the real world, however, Alonzo Fyfe on Atheist Ethicist pointed out a real ad from a Christian group calling for violence against atheists. It's chilling. Mr. Fyfe correctly notes that:

"It grants a moral permission to kids with guns to go ahead and kill atheists.

If it is morally permissible to kill atheists, then other activities less likely to bring the police and courts into the matter, must also be permissible. Assault, vandalism, bullying, intimidation, theft, an "accident" in the school yard, some name-calling, withholding honors and inviting ridicule . . . if the use of a gun is permissible, these must be acceptable as well."

Here is the ad:

Tea Bagging Protest

I had the misfortune of walking passed the "Tea Party" protest, filled with people angry as hell about a black Muslim foreign socialist spending government money (but who were all strangely silent when it was a white Christian republican running up a huge deficit).

Even to my untrained eye the group in Chicago didn't appear all that organized, and as far as protests go their numbers were a tiny tiny fraction of the number of people who marched in protest of US Immigration policy. The best comment I've seen:

I’ll bet they’re wishing they had a COMMUNITY ORGANIZER now.

Culture of Victimization

This was too good not to share:

And then there are the activists who are looking forward to tomorrow because they think the president is a secret Muslim fascist/socialist who wasn't born in the U.S. and intends to impose a global currency on us while building concentration camps with FEMA money.

Banned Books

Celebrate your first amendment rights by reading a banned book before religious groups have them pulled from your libraries and bookstores.

An American Patriot

Happy Birthday Thomas Jefferson!

For Jefferson, separation of church and state was a necessary reform of the religious "tyranny" whereby a religion received state endorsement, and those not of that religion were denied rights, and even punished.

Having a secular government is just as important today as it was when this country was founded.

Heliocentric Heathens!

The Scourge of Keplarism

It is time to quit discriminating against geocentrists in the public schools just because of their beliefs, and to teach not only the children but the school administrators themselves to respect the diverse views of the teaching community.

Hilarious stuff, Atheist Ethicist author Alonzo Fyfe nails the bigotry directed at atheists and scientists.

DPC: Free Study (March, 2009)

Rites of Spring

We took Jason to a farm museum in one of the northern suburbs of Chicago. It didn't have much more to offer than the farm section of the Lincoln Park Zoo, but since we were already in the area it wasn't so bad.

Jason didn't fall off the swing, in case you were wondering.

Game Night Recap

We had just enough turnout (4 players, including 2 out of 3 Sarah's) to be able to play all of the really fun games. The previous night, our friend Ruby helped us make a batch of tamales, and Sonya made peach ice cream (non-dairy!). And despite the naysayers on Facebook, people thought the food was delicious.

We played:
    Blokus
    Uptown
    Quirkle
    Puerto Rico
And then hit the Wii for Guitar Hero and the latest Raving Rabbids game.

The next game night will likely be on April 25th.

Doctors!

There's something screwy here..

The family got a G10 camera for me for a birthday present, so I would have a camera that could keep up with the boy when we're out and about. It is much more portable than the 5D, and does an adequate job with the little lens it has. I like it! Now if only I could find a small camera bag for it..

Dreams

Yes, I still have this recurring dream, usually about one of my non-technical classes which I didn't give much attention to in the first place.

By the way, you should be reading XKCD every day. Go back through the archives. It's not like you're working right now anyway.

Protests

Sometimes the best response to bigotry is to mock it. Last year, at FAnime, a group of fundamentalists showed up to inform the rest of us cartoon fans we were all going to hell. Various individuals tried to confront them with logic and reason, but that only bolstered the fundamentalists' faith. Once they got rickrolled though...they hung their heads in defeat and left. It was glorious.

It had to be done..

LOLcat Bible

DPC: Grey

dismal winter skies

One of my few entries not to get any comments during the voting week.

DPC: January Free Study

windmill

DPC posts

I saw that my image links for my DPC entries were broken; as far as I know I've fixed them all.

DPC: A Single Tree 2

Alone at the End

I found this stump during our second trip to the Arboretum. Finding a "single" tree there, other than something like this, just wasn't going to happen.

Managing Expectations

This morning, after I asked Jason to get ready for school while I made his breakfast, he told me:

Make sure nothing explodes or burns.

Now, I'd like to know which of my so-called friends has been feeding Jason these lying lies about my cooking ability! I'm looking at you, Hamster!

Morton Arboretum (Revisited)

We had so much fun hiking around last weekend we went back for more. It was colder this time, but that didn't deter us from hiking around in the snow.

Morton Arboretum