The 2nd Sunday Of November In Texas Pondering The Temperature & The Origins Of Life

Looking through the bars of my patio prison cell at an outer world currently heated to 31 degrees above freezing at my location on this parched part of the planet I see yet one more clear blue sky sunny Sunday in Texas.

The 2nd Sunday of the next to last month of 2011.

At day 13 we are already half way through what was recently a new month.

Changing the subject from my favorite subject to the Universe.

Last night I was tossing and turning and then found myself laying wide awake pondering how a long ago big bang spewed inanimate matter all over the Universe, with eventually one piece of that matter turning into the Earth, revolving around the sun, with conditions on the Earth somehow conducive to producing massive amounts of water.

And then somehow, due to the presence of water and an atmosphere something magical happened that caused living cells to emerge. And then somehow those living cells magically turned into a huge variety of flora and fauna.

Including giant dinosaurs.

And then the giant dinosaurs went bye bye, followed by the even more magical arrival of what eventually became known as human beings.

All the organisms that magically appeared over the passage of time are mind bogglingly complex.

The gradual evolution of inanimate matter into a HUMONGOUS multitude of living things really doesn't seem like a sensible explanation for all that is living that inhabits the Earth.

And that is what kept me awake, wondering how in the world all that inhabits the world actually came to exist.

Very perplexing.

And now it is time to go swimming. I hope not to have too bad of a shivering after swimming effect.

The Evolution of Unintelligent Design

I finished Molly Ivin's Shrub this morning. The late Molly Ivin's was a Texan who saw Texas the way most non-Texans do. As in confoundingly ridiculous a lot of the time.

Apparently the Texas education system has improved, somewhat, from the bad shape it was in a couple decade's ago. Back then Texans were fond of saying they were thankful for Mississippi, because without Mississippi, Texas would be dead last, rather than the 49th worst state in the education area. And several other areas.

Molly Ivin's details how the RWCF (Right-Wing Christian Fruitcakes) took over the Republican party during the 1990s. And then they took over the Texas school boards. The RWCF would like to have what they call Intelligent Design taught alongside Evolution.

Prior to cancelling my subscription to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram there had been a series of letters to the editor on both sides of the teaching Evolution issue. You'd have informed voices of reason and then the RWCF spouting their ill-informed, ignorant nonsense. Which they totally believe to be true.

Which is to me yet one more example of what happens when your state has the 49th worst education system in the nation.

I'm still reading the Fort Worth Star-Telegram Letters to the Editor via the paper's online edition. This morning's had a particularly amusing example of one of the RWCF's letters on the all-important Intelligent Design Evolution issue....

Why is Genesis account feared?

I continue to be amazed that many people assume that “science” pertains to facts, while “faith” relates to myth, or fables, or unsubstantiated beliefs. They seem to imagine that facts of science support evolution, over billions of years, from a supposed “big bang” explosion at the beginning of time. Then they further suppose that Biblical or Christian beliefs rest on unscientific ideas, fanciful dogmas, that even contradict the basics of science.

Harold Jacobs’ Dec. 1 letter is filled with this sort of erroneous thinking. Jacobs says that some believe that the six days of creation may be millions or billions of years. This cannot be, since evolutionists say that the heavenly bodies were formed in the beginning and vegetation came ages later.

But in the Bible, vegetation was created on the third day and the sun and stars were not created until the fourth day. If the day was a billion years long, the vegetation could not have existed without sunlight that long.

The basic fallacy in Jacobs’ reasoning, however, is that he assumes that science supports vast ages of time, that every living thing came from nonliving chemicals and that matter is either eternal or was self-created (since he doesn’t believe God created it).

Those who believe in intelligent design rightly point out the utter impossibility of explaining creation without reference to an intelligent designer — a Creator. Creationists would go beyond this, offering scientific evidences for creation in the relatively recent past, and strongly affirm that all life forms arose from earlier life forms, not from nonlife.

All living things—animals, birds, fish, insects—were created according to certain “kinds” and there has been evolution from “primitive” forms to more “advanced” forms of life. The blasphemy of Greg McKinney in the same issue is not worth refuting. His referring to “the Flying Spaghetti Monster” as Creator is an offense against all believers in God.

Why do McKinney and the two Jacobs refuse to allow students to see the evidence of science? Is this really true science? Why are they afraid of the evidences of creation?

Do they fear that acknowledging creation will mean that they must acknowledge the Creator?

— Richard Hollerman, Fort Worth

The Eye of God & The Super Bowl

It is Super Bowl Sunday. So I won't be going to church today.

Speaking of the Buckle of the Bible Belt, there is an ongoing debate here, played out in letters to the editor in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, and other places, regarding the relative validity of the concept of evolution and creationism, or as I prefer to call it, cretinism. Now, despite the fact that I think it is ridiculous to believe that the earth and all that lives here magically appeared about 6000 years ago, it seems almost equally ridiculously to believe that all life, in all its various forms, somehow magically evolved from the primordial ooze into all its amazing current day wonders, like humans and lobsters and elephants.

What I do know for a fact is I have no real clue to what the truth is, well, except for being fairly certain that the cretinism belief system is pretty much an ignorance based faith, like being a Conservative Republican.

So, this Sunday morning among the several letters to the editor regarding the cretinism/evolution debate was the most amusing one yet. I'll copy it below and then continue with my personal spewing.

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As proponents of intelligent design go on and on about the “logic” of their belief, I thought I’d use their line of reasoning to put forth my own proposal.

Like the intelligent design people, I’ll ignore the mountains of evidence and proof put forth by the various sciences, except where it suits my needs, while fixating on minor, unresolved details, (such as how the Neanderthals died off), as flaws in the theory of evolution and science in general.

Then I’ll fall back on their favorite: “You can’t prove me wrong, so I have to be right,” which is an attempt to ignore the requirement of testable evidence that is the basis of science.

Using the creationists’ line of reasoning, I now conclude that humans, and everything else, are too complex to be explained, especially if we avoid empirical evidence and proof.

Therefore, I conclude that we are in truth and fact blueberry muffins dreaming that we’re humans, and everything else is part of that dream.

Now that I’ve shown the world the truth and demonstrated that I’m using the same line of reasoning as the creationists, the Blueberry Muffin Truth must go into those science textbooks if intelligent design is allowed.

It should also be understood that, in accordance with the intelligent design system of reasoning, you’re not allowed to ask who baked us, or who made the maker.

It’s also clear that, as with the creationists, my wondrous knowledge is in no way responsible for the deterioration of education or knowledge, or America’s losing its edge in science, technology, etc.

Now I wonder how long it will be before I’m awarded a Nobel Prize.

— Allan Vrasich, Watauga

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Now, even though I must say the above writer's Blueberry Muffin Truth seems more believeable than the Intelligent Design Theory, I will admit that at times I think maybe the Cretinists have it right. Like how do you explain the fascination the masses have with football and today's absolute religious holiday level of celebrating of the Super Bowl?

Yesterday I went to get supplies for my annual Super Bowl Party. Yes, I admit I am a fellow Cretinist when it comes to the Super Bowl, but I don't actually watch the game, I watch the commercials and the half time show, not wanting to miss a potential civilization destroying moment of extreme tackiness.

So, I went to 3 stores to get my supplies, Market Street, Sprouts and Super Wal-Mart. Each was throbbing with a Christmas Eve level of madness with people in a frenzy buying their Super Bowl Party supplies. Sprouts had run out of cilantro. Which is what forced the stop at Wal-Mart. A stop I'd hoped not to have to make because I was up in the nice part of the D/FW Metroplex where there are good grocery stores. But, because I was up in the nice part of the D/FW Metroplex and not in the, well, ghetto, where I live, the Super Wal-Mart was quite nice with polished floors and plasma tvs overhead and price check devices that actually worked and no cops guarding the entrance or working girls walking the aisles.

Before I hit the publish button I must go back to religion and mention the Eye of God. That is the image you see above. It was taken by the Hubble Telescope. It is being thrown around the Internet with some believing it depicts God's Eye and thus proves He is watching us and you better be good or you won't get any Christmas presents and your special team won't win the Super Bowl.

But, what it actually depicts is the so-called Helix Nebula, which astronomers claim is "a trillion-mile-long tunnel of glowing gases." At its center is a dying star which has ejected masses of dust and gas to form tentacle-like filaments stretching toward an outer rim composed of the same material. Our own sun may look like this in a few billion years.

While I wait for that to happen it is time to start my Super Bowl Party preparations.