rearrange your beliefs

one of my favorite quotes from isaac asimov, taken from his book The Gods Themselves.

do physicists believe in god?

we are a small sample size, but the physicists of sixty symbols weigh in on the question... do you believe in god?



in addition, we also share our favorite "astronomical feature" in the video.

i havent written too much on my personal (lack of) belief in god on this blog, but here is something i wrote in 2006, if youre interested.

lightning strikes jesus in ohio

a couple years ago, i told you about the bizarre 6-story "touchdown jesus" statue that lived near my hometown in ohio, USA.


well, in a hilarious twist of fate, early yesterday morning a bolt of lightning struck "quicksand jesus" and it completely burned! after the estimated $700,000 damage fire finished burning, only the wire frame structure remains.


"big butter jesus" has been such an embarrassing fixture next to the interstate highway for so long that it will be a strange relief not to see it on the regular drive between my mother's house and my sister's small town home.

recently, some friends decided to make a promotional video for their soul fire tribe by spinning fire next to "i cant believe its not jesus." their caption describes it all:

Jesus never looked so HOT... until he burned to the ground. RIP 6-14-2010.

the year 2012 AD

for those of you worrying (needlessly) about the many end-of-the-world scenarios that have been put forth to occur (in)conveniently on the exact same day - december 21st, 2012 - there is a nice description by cameron hummels in today's podcast of 365 days of astronomy!

Summary: An increasing number of people believe that December 21, 2012 will mark the end of the world. Proponents of this idea cite diverse astronomical reasons for an imminent apocalypse: the end of the Mayan long-count calendar; an alignment between the Solar System and the Milky Way; the solar sunspot cycle reaching an all-time high; the reversal of the Earth's magnetic field; and a devastating collision with 'Planet X'. Tune in to hear to the facts and controversy surrounding this purported impending disaster.

listen here!

i will inevitably write more about this topic as the date approaches because people have asked me a lot of questions about these issues and i'd like to clarify what are facts and what are fallacies. to summarize: no, i am not worried. i have not heard a single doomsday claim that is supported by facts.

for more information, read what ian has to say at universe today.

family christmas carols

what i miss most while traveling is my family. this holiday season, i won't be home for christmas. while i'm enjoying the discovery of many british christmas staples (i cant believe i'd never heard of christmas crackers!), i'm feeling a bit homesick for all my family traditions.

every year, my dad's side of my family gathers together on christmas day. i have about 35 cousins on that side, so you can imagine the epic size of the event! for as long as i can remember, we have sung christmas carols together at the gigantic gathering on christmas day. in preparation for the singing, an excited energy floats around the room while people refill their bourbon slushies and find their place around the room. one uncle always leads the songs, sometimes unintentionally beginning songs on notes that make certain later notes quite unattainable to average voices! many harmonies are attempted and some are proudly achieved - although some years are definitely better than others!


the infamous song that makes everyone perk up, prepare their ears, and roll their eyes is oh holy night! the several-part harmonies reveal themselves as the family's volume increases excitedly. the voices intensify toward the climax of the song, when my aunts and uncles stand up, comedically reach out their arms, and wail "oh niiiiight diviiii-iiiine!!!!!!" inevitably, there is always an encore of the last verse of this christmas song, because the final crescendo is just so satisfyingly hilarious! at the end of this battered carol, we all smile and clap, and laugh at ourselves once again.

after going thru 20 or 30 carols, the last song we sing is always jingle bells.... dashing through the snow, in a one horse open sleigh.... as soon as this song begins, *santa* appears at the top of the stairs!! while we finish the song, he patiently makes his way to the christmas tree, through the rushing crowd of adoring children and jovial adults. at the end of the song we all cheer for santa and he tells us about his year. he usually adds a bad joke about the reds or the bengals or some other local college sports team. he distributes all the presents, one by one, with the aid of a few lucky little helpers. then we cheer him off again as he returns up the stairs to his sleigh.

when i was young and there were fewer family members, i grew to recognize santa as my uncle, mitch. now, it has become a little game to try to recognize who santa is among all of my too-grown-up boy cousins!

here's one of my favorite old pictures of the events - me, my cabbage patch doll and my mom singing with my cousin, her cabbage patch, and her mom... and the rest of the family!!!


the caroling spectacle was fun as a young child, horribly embarrassing as a teenager, and delightfully wholesome as an adult, because it's so much an endearing part of my family's culture. i will immensely miss the family gathering this year, so maybe i'll sing some carols by myself! happy holidays!

dear cincinnati zoo

dear cincinnati zoo and botanical garden,

while i maintain fond memories of walking thru your memorable animal habitats, listening to concerts by my musical favorites on your grounds, and walking around your lit up winter wonderland with my family, i will no longer visit your park if you insist on contradicting your own goals by associating with the creationist museum thru a joint-ticket program.

you have been a part of the public school system of cincinnati since 1975, which i think is wonderful. but i also think that with such involvement comes responsibility. you have the responsibility to educate and inform students and the community about the natural world - without any influence from religion of any kind (see: separation of church and state, introduced by thomas jefferson).

if you would like to collaborate with organizations in cincinnati in order to broaden your community outreach, why not contact the well-known cincinnati museum center, whose facilities you already use?!?!

collaborating with the creationist museum contradicts your own vision statement and promotes their false message about the natural ways of the universe. as stated succinctly by theoretical physicist lawrence m. krauss:

There are many and varied ways that modern science has confirmed the history of the Universe, the Solar System, the Earth, and Life on Earth. All of these methods, while independent, are in agreement and they ALL tell us that Life, the Earth, and the Universe are many orders of magnitude older than 6,000 years. There is no scientific room for errors of this many orders of magnitude. It would be like measuring the distance between New York and Los Angeles, and determining it was less than 1 inch. In order to agree with a Young Earth Creationist picture, essentially every facet of modern science - on which we base every aspect of modern technology, our vehicles, our society - would have to be completely incorrect, implying almost everything we base our modern lives on would not work as it does.

please reconsider your recently acquired collaboration, as i would very much enjoy attending your "fesitval of lights" program again one day. not only am i contacting you today, but i'm also writing to the cincinnati enquirer, and city beat magazine, in hopes of raising awareness of this important issue.

a concerned (former) cincinnatian,
amanda


UPDATE: the zoo canceled their partnership with the creationist museum :) as reported by the cincinnati enquirer.

and don't forget to have fun!

link

creating knowledge

this newly available, post-doctoral freedom in research feels as exciting as it does daunting. how does one create new knowledge? the process of becoming a (phd) doctor is to learn how to learn what no one has learned before. a strange goal.

some people create thru determination. johannes kepler certainly had some mathematical skills - he managed an amazing amount of data and repeated his calculations over and over in order to discover the shapes of the orbits in our solar system. persistence and time, trial and error, worked for him. he knew something non-circular was unfolding before him, but it took a while to identify the ellipses... what excitement to slowly see it happening!

others seem to be on a different initial plane of thought: albert einstein, isaac newton, charles darwin. the ones who looked at the questions and investigated the problems from completely new dimensions - literally!

it's rare to see researchers with such continuous insight. most of us plug away at interesting problems using our favorite techniques, hoping for clever insights to creep into our minds every so often. i like to ensure that my projects allow me to travel to mountain tops and use big telescopes, because i find those adventures particularly enjoyable.

but i wonder... what motivates researchers? the potential of discovering dramatic breakthrus? or merely producing publishable results? i guess we hope for the former while working towards the latter - to assure employment! ;)

i genuinely enjoy thinking about the complicated details of galaxy evolution theory, but i admit i get bored with the day to day statistical systematics. i'm not convinced any activity, job or hobby, completely lacks in tedium. i love cooking, but i still have to clean up afterwards. i'm alright with that though - the good things wouldnt be so good if there were no less-than-good things to compare them to.

we all have the potential to create new knowledge, new art, and new insight. in fact, each unique one of us does everyday... its just that we rarely remember to acknowledge it.

dropping knowledge

dropping knowledge is an interesting internet project that welcomes people to ask questions on many topics relevant to current global issues, and then receive answers from a wide variety of people around the world. i love the motivational phrase they use: ask in order to understand, answer in order to share.


they provide a nice 8 minute introduction video, but i'd also recommend exploring the questions and answers for yourself. let me know if any particular question or answer especially strikes you.

she's leaving home. bye, bye.

after a month-long stay in ohio, i'm leaving today! it has been wonderful to spend so much time with my family and old friends. i'm amazed that this emotionally challenging visit leaves me feeling rejuvenated as well! thank you family for welcoming me so warmly and sending me off so well!

i also wanted to thank all the readers of this blog for sharing your enthusiasm and giving me such interesting feedback! i really enjoy talking about science, astronomy, life, the universe, and everything, and it's fantastic when people respond to what i'm throwing out into the vast blogiverse!

my adventures continue with a weekend trip to baltimore, a long stop in charlotte, and then a finale stopover in austin, before heading east...

here are a couple energetic versions of my favorite cat stevens songs to enjoy as i continue my journey.


as a side note: when i play/sing "the wind" (the first song), i change the line "where i'll end up only god really knows," to "where i'll end up, only time really knows." it suits me better.

quicksand jesus

just a couple highway exits north of where i grew up in ohio, you'll find this recently-built 60 foot statue right next to the interstate:




the names i've heard for this... tribute (?)... include:

touch down jesus
king of kings
big J.
drowning jesus
"high five"-ing the lord, jesus
worlds largest christ (W.L. christ)
quicksand jesus (as my little sister calls him)
and finally, big butter jesus...

as described in this hilarious song by comedian heywood banks:


don't forget to "spread" the word!

expelled from expelled!

this is the most hilariously ironic story i've heard in a long, long time.

from my perspective, it started this past wednesday, when i went to hear richard dawkins speak on UT's campus. i knew his general debate points before going in, but i appreciated that he raised my consciousness to concepts i hadn't considered.

during his talk he mentioned a movie i hadnt heard of... ben stein's expelled: no intelligence allowed. dawkins spoke of being tricked into being interviewed for the movie by people claiming they were sympathetic to his views on biology, evolution, religion and atheism. he also mentioned that biologist and blogger, pz myers, was similarly tricked into participating in this movie that apparently claims professors should be given tenure even if they throw out the massive amounts of evidence and scientific consensus for evolution, and instead believe in creationism.


so i just read on pharyngula, pz myers blog, a fabulously ironic story from last night. read his version for yourself, but i'll summarize here. he went to a ticket-less special screening of the movie last night with his family and a few guests. the producer of the film recognized him and sent over a policeman to escort him out of the line into the theatre with the threat of arrest! pz questioned the officer, then left without a fuss, leaving his family and guests to view the film. the irony? one of his guests was freaking richard dawkins!!! hahahaha!!

the producer recognized pz, but not his guest. way to be on top of things! here's another account from a witness last night. enjoy!!

what is intelligence, anyway?

this is a particularly interesting insight as i'm stuck in the depths of writing my dissertation and studying everything i think my committee members might ask me i should know to earn my doctoral degree. unfortunately, the insight isnt terribly useful for my current predicament, but it's interesting nonetheless.

What is intelligence, anyway?
By Isaac Asimov

When I was in the army, I received the kind of aptitude test that all soldiers took and, against a normal of 100, scored 160. No one at the base had ever seen a figure like that, and for two hours they made a big fuss over me.

(It didn't mean anything. The next day I was still a buck private with KP - kitchen police - as my highest duty.)

All my life I've been registering scores like that, so that I have the complacent feeling that I'm highly intelligent, and I expect other people to think so too.

Actually, though, don't such scores simply mean that I am very good at answering the type of academic questions that are considered worthy of answers by people who make up the intelligence tests - people with intellectual bents similar to mine?

For instance, I had an auto-repair man once, who, on these intelligence tests, could not possibly have scored more than 80, by my estimate. I always took it for granted that I was far more intelligent than he was.

Yet, when anything went wrong with my car I hastened to him with it, watched him anxiously as he explored its vitals, and listened to his pronouncements as though they were divine oracles - and he always fixed my car.

Well, then, suppose my auto-repair man devised questions for an intelligence test.

Or suppose a carpenter did, or a farmer, or, indeed, almost anyone but an academician. By every one of those tests, I'd prove myself a moron, and I'd be a moron, too.

In a world where I could not use my academic training and my verbal talents but had to do something intricate or hard, working with my hands, I would do poorly.

My intelligence, then, is not absolute but is a function of the society I live in and of the fact that a small subsection of that society has managed to foist itself on the rest as an arbiter of such matters.

Consider my auto-repair man, again.

He had a habit of telling me jokes whenever he saw me.

One time he raised his head from under the automobile hood to say: "Doc, a deaf-and-mute guy went into a hardware store to ask for some nails. He put two fingers together on the counter and made hammering motions with the other hand.

"The clerk brought him a hammer. He shook his head and pointed to the two fingers he was hammering. The clerk brought him nails. He picked out the sizes he wanted, and left. Well, doc, the next guy who came in was a blind man. He wanted scissors. How do you suppose he asked for them?"

Indulgently, I lifted by right hand and made scissoring motions with my first two fingers.

Whereupon my auto-repair man laughed raucously and said, "Why, you dumb jerk, He used his voice and asked for them."

Then he said smugly, "I've been trying that on all my customers today." "Did you catch many?" I asked. "Quite a few," he said, "but I knew for sure I'd catch you."

"Why is that?" I asked. "Because you're so goddamned educated, doc, I knew you couldn't be very smart."

And I have an uneasy feeling he had something there.

an atheist bible?

the non-atheist, joan konner, has some interesting things to say about her new book the atheist's bible: an illustrious collection of irreverent thoughts. i dont like the title of her book, but i like how she handles herself in this interview. as usual, the interviewer, tucker carlson, contradicts himself repeatedly and shares "juvenile" opinions...

also, notice how many times they spell "atheist" wrong on the screen!

wafa sultan

a very brave and intriguing woman, wafa sultan, speaks strongly on al jazeera tv



i found it interesting to hear (and read) her ideas and analogies behind why islam is more to blame for its war with the west

you're how old, grandma?

i was born and raised just north of cincinnati, ohio, USA. as a kid i loved playing in the woods and grabbing creatures that lived in creeks! there was a small creek near my house, but my favorite one was in a nearby park. i would ride my bike the miles so i could go search for fossils. they were everywhere! i didnt know much about these easily-found trinkets, but i knew that the region was special for having so many fossils and i knew that these little creatures eternally stuck in rocks were really really old!!!

these fun memories happily flood my mind as i try to come to terms with a new feature of my hometown....

the creationist museum....

introducing the most ridiculous thing to come from religious zealots in a long long time... and it's located in the city where i spent my childhood and where most of my extended family resides. somehow i feel hurt by the presence of this museum.

i try to recognize, learn about, appreciate and accept that people in every part of the world live differently. no one else is like me (thats a good thing!) and i'm not like anyone else. these differences i cherish and i have no real interest in spending time pursuading people to believe in all the same things i believe in.... but i have an even harder time understanding how people think the universe is only 6,000 years old, than i have understanding how people still believe everything revolves around the earth!

Lawrence M. Krauss, a theoretical physicist, has said some wonderful things about this issue that i would like to share. please read his top 10 reasons why the universe, the sun, earth, and life are NOT 6,000 years old. he goes on....

There are many and varied ways that modern science has confirmed the history of the Universe, the Solar System, the Earth, and Life on Earth. All of these methods, while independent, are in agreement and they ALL tell us that Life, the Earth, and the Universe are many orders of magnitude older than 6,000 years. There is no scientific room for errors of this many orders of magnitude. It would be like measuring the distance between New York and Los Angeles, and determining it was less than 1 inch. In order to agree with a Young Earth Creationist picture, essentially every facet of modern science - on which we base every aspect of modern technology, our vehicles, our society - would have to be completely incorrect, implying almost everything we base our modern lives on would not work as it does.

why should this be a concern at all? because 3 american republican presidential candidates stated that they do not believe in evolution. these men seek to lead the current superpower nation yet they reject scientific consensus on biology, geology, cosmology and physics because of their literal interpretation of words written in a religious book. to be frank, this scares that crap out of me!

i dont know how i knew when i was so young that the fossils i found were so old, but i'm glad i had the freedom to investigate my intuition and to arrive at my own conclusions. this intellectual freedom is severely denied by the stout belief in any single religious text... yet three men wish to continue spreading "freedom" around the world as they believe they are defending it in the US.

read other reactions at pharyngula's creation museum carnival

politics + stupidity + religion

wish i could take credit for this very clever creation. i might buy the shirt.

dont forget to read the full essay that goes along with the cartoon.

"Scientists the world over unanimously reject Intelligent Design not because of some unconscious bias of materialism, but because Intelligent Design is simply not testable. It makes no worthwhile predictions, nor does it explain the wide array of facts encompassing biology and other fields in the way that evolution can."


ps. venn diagrams are very useful tools. to see an incredibly clever use of them, check out indexed.

openly nontheistic

representative pete stark (D. - Calif), is the first openly non-theistic member of congress, as reported by the secular coalition for america. there are most likely other nontheists in congress.... if you assume that the US congress represents the people of america and somewhere between 2 and 10% of americans are nontheists (atheists, freethinkers, humanists, and agnostics).

'Although the Constitution prohibits religious tests for public office, the Coalition's research reveals that Rep. Stark is the first open nontheist in the history of the Congress. Recent polls show that Americans without a god-belief are, as a group, more distrusted than any other minority in America. Surveys show that the majority of Americans would not vote for an atheist for president even if he or she were the most qualified for the office.

Herb Silverman, president of the Secular Coalition for America, attributes these attitudes to the demonization of people who don't believe in God. "The truth is," says Silverman, "the vast majority of us follow the Golden Rule and are as likely to be good citizens, just like Rep. Stark with over 30 years of exemplary public service. The only way to counter the prejudice against nontheists is for more people to publicly identify as nontheists. Rep. Stark shows remarkable courage in being the first member of Congress to do so."'

(i thanked rep. stark for his courage here: http://www.house.gov/stark/contact/index.htm.)

instinctive morality

i tried to write something up the other day regarding the recent "debate" on CNN about atheism. i was/am extremely disappointed by CNN's one-sided approach and confused by the panelists' notion that human morality can only be derived from religious foundations.

CNN received so much negative feedback about their reporting that paula zahn later invited the well-known atheist, richard dawkins, on the show for an interview.

i was pleasantly surprised by how well he answered her questions and responded to her claims. he can be a bit strong for my flavor of debate, but i think i understand why he does it.... as i said, i tried to write about it and failed. it turns out that my idea involves the potential to shift the range of acceptable political debate, encompassed by the overton window. i had never heard of this term, or even the concept until i read this great post at cosmicvariance.com. check it out. it's excellent and recommended!

science and religion

there was a comprehensive conference in california recently called "beyond belief" which brought together people to discuss... science and religion... and how they fit together, or not. if you do a quick youtube search, you'll find many video clips of various presenters.

my personal opinion is that spirituality is a good thing, and unique for each individual, but *religion* is not always a good thing in that most ask their followers to abide by certain rules and belief systems, teaching that all other religions are bad and wrong. this black and white picture has caused many many a war to be fought and lives to be lost. this is only one problem i have with "religion" but i will not write any further about my opinions now, and instead give an excerpt from an article i enjoyed about the conference!

"Maybe the pivotal moment came when Steven Weinberg, a Nobel laureate in physics, warned that ..the world needs to wake up from its long nightmare of religious belief,.. or when a Nobelist in chemistry, Sir Harold Kroto, called for the John Templeton Foundation to give its next $1.5 million prize for ..progress in spiritual discoveries.. to an atheist .. Richard Dawkins, the Oxford evolutionary biologist whose book ..The God Delusion.. is a national best-seller.

Or perhaps the turning point occurred at a more solemn moment, when Neil deGrasse Tyson, director of the Hayden Planetarium in New York City and an adviser to the Bush administration on space exploration, hushed the audience with heartbreaking photographs of newborns misshapen by birth defects .. testimony, he suggested, that blind nature, not an intelligent overseer, is in control.

Somewhere along the way, a forum this month at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, Calif., which might have been one more polite dialogue between science and religion, began to resemble the founding convention for a political party built on a single plank: in a world dangerously charged with ideology, science needs to take on an evangelical role, vying with religion as teller of the greatest story ever told.

Carolyn Porco, a senior research scientist at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo., called, half in jest, for the establishment of an alternative church, with Dr. Tyson, whose powerful celebration of scientific discovery had the force and cadence of a good sermon, as its first minister.

She was not entirely kidding. ..We should let the success of the religious formula guide us,.. Dr. Porco said. ..Let..s teach our children from a very young age about the story of the universe and its incredible richness and beauty. It is already so much more glorious and awesome .. and even comforting .. than anything offered by any scripture or God concept I know...

She displayed a picture taken by the Cassini spacecraft of Saturn and its glowing rings eclipsing the Sun, revealing in the shadow a barely noticeable speck called Earth."

read more ... a free-for-all on science and religion