Richard Dawkins

Richard Dawkins (born 26 March 1941), evolutionary biologist and science writer, popularized the notion that natural selection is gene-driven. His best-sellers include The Selfish Gene, The Blind Watchmaker, and The God Delusion, in which he argues hard for evolution against creationist ideas.

At the age of 72, Dawkins hasn’t slipped into quiet retirement, but instead continues his lifelong effort to combat anti-science and religion in general. Not content to merely roast those who worship ignorance, he also lights the fires of curiosity and awe, drawing our attention to the vast, complex, dangerous, wondrous, beautiful, jaw-droppingly awesome world we live in.

Happy Birthday Professor Dawkins. Thank you for speaking for so many.

Easter

Just as Halloween and Christmas were stolen and copied pagan traditions… well, so is Easter.

Easter celebrations were held hundreds of years before Christ was born as festivals of spring honoring Eostre, the great mother goddess of the Saxons. This name was fashioned after the ancient word for spring, Eastre. The goddess Ostara was the Norse equivalent whose symbols were the hare and the egg. From this comes our modern tradition of celebrating Easter with eggs and bunnies. 

There are several goddesses that are associated with this practice:

Aphrodite from ancient Cyprus
Ashtoreth from ancient Israel
Astarte from ancient Greece
Demeter from Mycenae
Hathor from ancient Egypt
Ishtar (FAMILIAR SOUNDING EH) from Assyria
Kali, from India
Ostara a Norse Goddess of fertility

In the Mediterranean region, there was a pre-Christian spring celebration centered around the vernal equinox (March 20 or 21) that honored Cybele, the Phrygian goddess of fertility. Cybele’s consort, Attis, was considered born of a virgin and was believed to have died and been resurrected three days later. Attis derived his mythology from even earlier gods, Osiris, Dionysus, and Orpheus, who also were supposed to have been born of a virgin and suffered death and resurrection as long as 500 years before Christ was born. The death of Attis was commemorated on a Friday and the resurrection was celebrated three days later on Sunday.

There are other Easter traditions that are pagan in origin. The Easter sunrise service is derived from the ancient pagan practice of welcoming the sun on the morning of the spring equinox, marking the beginning of spring. What we now call Easter lilies were revered by the ancients as symbols of fertility and representative of the male genitalia. The ancient Babylonian religions had rituals involving dyed eggs as did the ancient Egyptians.

The Christian version of Easter is celebrated after the first full moon after the vernal equinox. Modern day neo-pagans usually have their spring celebrations on the day of the equinox. Either way, these celebrations have gone on every year continuously for over 2500 years. So, this Sunday, if you go to an Easter sunrise service, hunt for colored eggs or eat marshmallow bunnies, remember you are indulging in pagan rituals that celebrate fertility and the advent of springtime!

Space Exploration

This Is Worrying

Haikus

Today my Japanese lecturer showed us a harrowing haiku called the Iroha. I thought it was a beautiful haiku so here it is to share.

Though flowers bloom, 

they soon fall; to everyone 

this world is transient. 

Crossing the mountains of 

life's vicissitudes today, we 

shall not have light dreams 

or be infatuated again.

Apple Of Sodom

I found the center of fruit is late,

It is the center of truth today,

Cut the apple in two,

Oh, I pray it isn't true, 

I found the center of fruit is late,

Is the center of truth today,

I cut the apple in two,

Oh, I pray it isn't true, 

I've got something you can never eat,

I've got something you can never eat,

I've got something you can never eat,

I've got something you can never eat, 

I drained my heart and burn my soul,

I trained the core to stop my growth,

I pray to die in space,

to cover me in snow,

to cover me in snow,

cover me in snow,

I'm dying, I hope you're dying too,

cover me in snow,

I'm dying, I hope you're dying too

Take this from me, (hate me, hate me,)

Take this from me, (hate me, hate me,) 

1, 2, 3, he is a speed bump mannequin,

1, 2, 3, he can't move just stand still,

1, 2, 3, he is a speed bump mannequin,

1, 2, 3, he can't move just stand still, 

I've got something you can never eat,

I've got something you can never eat,

I've got something you can never eat, 

I've got something you can never eat,

I've got something you can never eat,

I've got something you can never eat, 

I've got something you can never eat,

I've got something you can never eat,

I've got something you can never eat, 

Never eat......

Japans Natural Disasters

Studying Japanese is a fucking intense subject to study in University but i feel its pretty rewarding. Yesterday was the 2nd year anniversary of Japans Tsunami disaster.

The thing to realize is that Japan has thousands of natural disasters a year. However the significance of this particular disaster was not only the scale of the earthquake and tsunami destruction but it was the first time a nuclear problem was involved in natural disasters.

One particular article that i remembered very clearly was one of some retired engineers who declared that they would come out of retirement and risk exposure to radiation as they believed that they should be taking the heat (if you would) instead of the younger generation.

Their culture is one of numerous deep rooted and deep seated belief in a respect hierarchy  While I personally am of the opinion that respect should not be automatic and that it should be earned, i can appreciate the sentiments of these older men.

How Old Are You?

How old are you?

We’re all the same age… really old

Atomic level

Since everything is made up of matter, we all consist of atoms. These atoms all come together to make us who we are, but my brothers atoms are not 4 years old or even 4 billion years old. At some point shortly after the big bang, atoms came together thus forming the different elements (think periodic chart). 

Here we are 13.7 billion years later; all of us made of the same elements. This makes me shake my head when I think of nations going to war. We’re all made of the same elements, same matter. It doesn’t seem natural. With this argument, we are all really old at about 13.7 billion years old.

We’re all about the same age… really young

Cellular level

Humans consist of around 10 trillion human cells (excluding the 100 trillion microbial cells). These cells have a turnover rate that suggests each human consists of entirely different cells every 7 years. With this argument, we are all pretty young with no one older than 7 years old.

We’re all tenants… really big compared to our landlords

Almost everything we see or touch is completely covered with a thin layer of life, i.e. bacteria. They cover us. They cover our loved ones. They cover our…everything! Also, they have been around a lot longer than we have as species. We are just using the same space they are. Heck, we are a space they live! So, in this sense, they are allowing us to use this space as tenants. They are very nice landlords, too. Consider all the benefits we receive from their generosity 

We’re all rentals… really short-lived

Since we’re all made up of the same atoms and these atoms have essentially been around forever, they have been used by other matter before us. And, most certainly, they will be used by matter long after we as humans are gone. Mother Nature sees us as atomic renters, but definitely not rent-to-own.

HIV

So there has recently been a baby child who was cured of HIV mere hours after being born with the life-shortening disease. Medical researchers administered an antiretroviral agent to the child before substantial quantities of dormant virus could build up inside of living cells. In light of this occurrence, thousands of minimally-informed people are praising God via media outlets such as Facebook and Twitter, thanking their lord and savior for bringing humanity this long-awaited miracle.

It sickens me that on the eve of such a triumph for science and for modern medicine, thousands of people are praising God for curing this child of HIV. Even if God does exist, he is not responsible for curing this child. The men and women who treated the child are responsible. Not God. This "miracle" was caused by something which can be explained by science. There was no supernatural intervention. Absolutely none.

Please, men and women and citizens of the world. Do not waste your time and energy praising a being who does not exist. Please praise instead modern medicine. Next time you think of tithing your local church, think instead of donating that money to a medical charity, or towards therapeutic research. It will do so much more for humanity there.

If you believe that God works through modern medicine for the betterment of humanity, then the least you could do is acknowledge that your money would be better spent helping the people who work to make a better tomorrow for all of humanity (yes, no matter what faith they hold). Isn't that immensely better than spending your money filling the pockets of those who tell you when, where, and how to worship a being that, if indeed all-powerful, shouldn't need worshiping?

Citizens of the world, I beseech you. Focus your energies on humanity's biggest problem: itself. Imaginary cures can only soothe imaginary maladies, and even at that they are insufficient. And they absolutely cannot affect real ones. We must inexorably pursue much-needed solutions for the problems which we face, and we have limited human resources. The time we have on this Earth as finite creatures limits the actions we can take before we vanish from the face of this planet. And we are also limited in our abilities as individuals. But if we bond together we can accomplish more than we ever could as individuals. If we pool our resources, then we can move out of the golden age of human inadequacy, and if we truly start caring for each other instead of caring for that which feeds our imagination and comforts us, then we can exceed even the current limits of our own imagination. But we can only do that by letting go of our oldest, most primitive, and most irrationally persistent beliefs.

As Friedrich Nietzsche once wrote.......... "There is not enough love and goodness in the world to permit giving any of it away to imaginary beings.