Cyberjazzdaddy's Other Thoughts

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Straining to see past the plank

I have been listening to an atheist scientist speak on why his expertise in the area of evolution have convinced him that there is no god.  The implications of this alarm me.  And not because of any sort of separation anxiety in regards to existence with a deity.

 It may be just because I am simple and ignorant to the intricacies of the depth of philosophy and sociological theory pertaining to a cosmos based only on a material existence void of any compelling outer circumstance besides the reactions of chemicals and the laws of physics, but I can’t help but be burdened by the thought that this perception, taken to it’s logical conclusion, would render us helpless to cast judgment on any action, no matter how horrible.

When asked the question of why haven’t our moral predispositions evolved to a greater degree, he replied that perhaps the question should be why had they progressed as far as they had?

I nod in agreement. If all is simply action and reaction progressing in concentric circles of ever increasing complexity, a playing out of matter and energy that is swirling toward an unpredictable result without plan or intent, then right and wrong become mute.

War, rape, genocide, murder, love, sex, passion—-all become the same.  None better than the other.  All just small, subtle variations in a universal Petri dish.  Each insignificant in contrast to the scope it’s placed against. 

Outrage and concern become only more blustering programmed by the qualities that kept our predecessors alive and procreating.  Their contents without intrinsic value.

This is not a statement for a particular set of beliefs.  It reaches further than theology, to the heart of the nature of mankind.

Don’t forget, in as much as religion is blamed for the terror and horrors that have happened and are happening in this world, there are far larger number of religious people who have laid the groundwork for the peace and wholeness we cling to.  Founding hospitals and schools, outreach to the poor and oppressed, love for neighbors and strangers and even enemies.  No matter the symbol that motivates these impulses around the globe, every continent seems to produce a reverent driving force that seeks to build on a morality centered on compassion.

If a world filled with the complexities of various moral codes based on kindness and love of the other produces such atrocities, I can’t imagine what a world turned coldly amoral could produce when all is so easily justified.  When all would be beyond judgment.  When judgment itself becomes superfluous.

Even if religion is some grand delusion, the grounding it provides in so many ways, it would seem, is invaluable.  To be celebrated, not eradicated.

It’s not that I cannot live without the thought of a god, it’s that the loss of value in everything around me is not an attractive alternative.

If these are the choices I am faced with, I would choose to continue to be deceived.  If, in fact, it is a deception.  I can look in the face of my wife, touch the faces of my children, and place my foot on it’s next step when I live in my current state.

To my mind, if you love peace and all that implies, no matter your perspective, you love God.  Even if you don’t believe in Him.

The Hale is coming

As many of you may know, I was in Grad school with actor Tony Hale, and have been following his career as a sort of vicarious success experience since then.

Latest, Hale news——He’s going to be in the latest Switchfoot video.

I love Switchfoot.  And their new ablum is amazing.

Tony rocks.  Or at least, he will.

middle man

I hate it when there is a disagreement between two people who I like and have no problem with.  Even if they never ask you to take sides, you always feel like you are being a little unfaithful when you are with either.  Tip toeing around the elephant in the room.  Knowing what they think of the other, and feeling that your presence makes them think of their feelings and how you don’t share them.  And how that must make you a little suspect.

I’m so often in this position.  I hate it.  Can’t we all just get along.

Quotes

S. James Gates Jr. (U. of Maryland string theorist who spoke on NPR’s program Speaking of Faith about Albert Einstein):

“I suspect that he [Einstein] would have said that being and outsider is not always a bad thing.  That the outsider often carries, because of a slightly different viewpoint, the seed for an innovation.”

“One thing I think is true about people in general is that we abhor uncertainty.   I think that a large part of understanding human behavior is an attempt to create certainty, sometimes not always where it actually exists.   We have to have a sense of certainty for a sense of security  at some level.  For those of us who are scientists, however, we come to live knowing that we can never be completely certain.  And this is a state that, if someone ever does an MRI study about this, I have a suspicion that they’ll find that uncertainty is a procedure in the brain that is akin to some sort of pain.  But those of us that are scientists eventually learn to live with that.” 

“Science is not about truths.  Science is about making our beliefs less false.  [Science] claims we have provided the best, humanly possible explanation for what we see in the world around us.”

Running O' the Green

Well, I survived St. Patty’s day. 

At our house it’s an observed holiday of a sort, but not because of the Irish connection, even though my side of the family does bring the Irish.

Even though we’re Christian we’re not celebrating any religious aspect associated with any saint.

Even though we wear green, it’s not about the green.

At our house it’s pretty much entirely about… Pinch Avoidance.

The kids slink out of their bedrooms dressed in green, but not in a festive way.  More out of the same spirit that a paintball warrior will wear body armor for protection.

Suddenly, as I’m brushing my teeth I feel a sharp little pain in my left buttock.  I turn around to see a grinning little 8 year old face, filled with the glee that only comes from drawing first blood.

It’s on.

my paradox me

It’s funny:

i never claim to be more than i think i am

but i always hope other people can see how much more they are than they think

more thinkin'

Also on the “Einstein’s God” episode of NPR’s Speaking of Faith program they talked about Einstein’s theory of the warping of time. 

This to me goes a long way to speaking to the question of creation.  I’ve never been one to look at Genesis as a science book, as some do.  To me it’s more importantly a book of attribution than of technicalities.  (I should also mention that I have equal problems with the theory of Evolution.  I understand that there are many good concrete scientific applications of this theory, but the leap from on species to the other has always seemed problematic.  Not in as much as it contradicted any religious belief but more of it’s scientific quandaries in the mind of a layman like myself.  Maybe I’m just not smart enough, but that’s a discussion for another day.  I just always seem to find myself somewhere in the middle on so many things).

 However, it occurs to me that something like the warping of time, whose proof and application exist in something as familiar to us as the functioning of out GPS systems—-without which they would never work, could go a long way to relieving any anxiety of the faithful who are very married to the idea of a literal 7 days.  Einstein has said that past, present and future are actually an illusion. 

People caught in an immutable, clockwork conception of time and the universe would seem to be bound up in an arbitrary and relatively modern concept of the nature of things.

If, as Einstein said, time is something that is flexible, then the time that God took to create reality is a non-point.  Since we see God as eternal, God would exist outside of time. The radio program discusses that even St. Augustan said the world was created with time, not in time.  Meaning that creation could be measured in time as we know it because it didn’t exist yet.

Time only came into being with creation itself, so discussions of the calendar become a distraction.  To establish this from the get go would be nice, because then we could get on to probing the more important aspects of the story.  

Thinkin' spiritual

I was listening to the podcast of the NPR show “Speaking of Faith”.

They discussed how Einstein said of Jewish faith, how he was impressed that it was concerned with “Life as we live it, and can up to a point grasp it…”.  They said that he was perhaps “accustomed to and even thrilled by what you can’t yet know.”   They told of how he spoke of art, science and religion acknowledge and honor the human sense of mystery and said, “he who can no longer wonder, can no longer feel amazement, is as good as dead.  A snuffed out candle.”  Wonder occurs when “an experience conflicts with our fixed ways of seeing the world”.

That got me to thinking—-maybe here is something that could be improved upon in the Christian church in western world.  Perhaps we should concentrate less on having a religious experience, and more on having this kind of spiritual experience of the world and people around us.

Einstein was quoted in the New York times as writing, “It is very difficult to elucidate this feeling to anyone who does not experience it.  The individual feels the vanity of human desires and aims, and the nobility and marvelous order which are revealed in nature and in the world of thought.  Individual existence strikes him as a sort of prison, and he wants to experience the Universe as a single, significant whole.  The religious geniuses of all ages have been distinguished by this kind of religious feeling.  In my view, it is the most important function of art and science to awaken this feeling and keep it alive to those who are receptive to it.”

That’s how I like to think about my walk—-trying to awaken and keep alive this feeling in myself and others.  Both in spiritual matters and artistic pursuits.

Oh, and on a side note, there were still donuts left at work today when I got in.  Friday is donut day but they are usually all gone by the time I got in—-but not today!

And I got to drive my parent’s Beetle in to the dealership as a favor—-(yeah, I know.  My life should be full of more favors like that: “Oh yes, I’ll drive your Beetle, and eat this steak dinner, and go to Disney World with this large wad of cash and a new video iPod—-but only as a favor.“  I got to the end of my commute and thought, “Awww—it’s over already?”

Beetles and donuts—-now there is a spiritual experience. 

This is just a test

Ok, so this is actually the second test of this new tumble-log concept.  This first one was a bust.  Tumblr has a little pop up that you can put in your web browser favorites, but when you use it, it makes whatever you type into it a link to the website you were on when you pulled up the little dialogue box. 

Shame that.  It would be cool if I could just bring up that dialogue box and type in anything right from there.  Tumblr, if you listening, that’s a feature I’m looking for.  Have that pop up in my favorites, but when I choose it, give me the option of just making a normal post.  In fact, give me all of your main page posting options right from that pop up box so I have a quicker access to posting than having to go out to the Tumblr URL each time I have a thought.

I guarantee I would use this more if I could get to it that fast.