Stephen Hawkins: We are Destroying Our Planet.

Steven Hawkings, the world-famous physicist, stated that we should be looking for another planet because we are destroying planet Earth.

If true, then nature has a way of "self correcting".   We will simply become extinct in our own toxic waste, and nature will try again in another few million years, with some other new, more intelligent species. Any maybe they (whoever "they" are) will do better than us, but I doubt it.

I like to think we are working our way out of our current mess.  We are maturing as a species because we have become aware of our own impact on the planet, and we will use advanced technologies to correct the mistakes of the past. 

Remember that we are still very young (as a species).  The dinosaurs ruled the planet for about 180 million years, but most anthropologist  say our primitive ancestors walked the earth five to seven million yeas ago.  We only made flint tools about two and a half million years ago.  The Renaissance occurred about six thousand years ago with the Age of Enlightenment, and the Industrial Revolution just started about three hundred years ago. 

Most would agree that modern technology did not really start until after Edison invented the light bulb about 1880 and we electrified much of the planet.  Remember, Rutherford didn't split the atom until 1919, about one hundred years ago.  Since that time, we have created plastics, semiconductors,  antibiotics, nuclear power, birth control pills, electronic computers, carbon steel, concrete, skyscrapers, contact lenses, nanotechnology, Teflon, solar panels, the internet, e-mail, wind turbines and electric cars. We put men on the moon and we put communication satellites in orbit. We have the science to know what we are doing right and wrong.  We can and will, fix our mistakes.  (As an example, do you remember the problem with phosphates?  Fixed it.  DDT?  Fixed that too.   How about the Ozone Hole?)

We know we must work our way off of fossil fuels, and will will.   No, I am not worried about whether or not man will save the planet.  We will fix it if we have the time. I am more worried about the prospects of nuclear war as our numbers get too large and we run out of resources.

What do YOU think?


R. Allan Worrell
Author:  Father John's Gift

e-mail: alw3141@gmail.com

Struggling with Isses! Hearing Another Viewpoint.

In this digital age of Face Book, Google and Twitter, people flock to find others who agree with them.  It's easy and comfortable to be around those who agree with you. We all know that birds of a feather flock together.

But while it is great to be able to find common ground with others, there is great benefit in finding out how we differ with each other as well.  If we listen to others with whom we disagree, then maybe, just maybe, we can come to understand a different point of view.  We might even begin to change our mind.  However, even if we don't change our mind on a subject, just hearing another's viewpoint can help us clarify our own point of view, and help us to understand why we believe the things we do.

What do you think?


R. Allan Worrell
Author: Father John's Gift
e-mail: alw3141@gmail.com

The Republican Tax Bill and Elizabeth Warren, The Next President of the United States!!!

Today I watched Elizabeth Warren's Democratic response to the Republican Tax Bill put forth by the House of Representatives.   She convinced me that once again, the Republicans do not have the best interest of the country at heart.  They will try to tell you the new tax bill is designed to bring jobs back home to America.   How?   By lessening taxes earned overseas.  This is BS.  Read on.

Somebody ought to explain to our Congressmen how taxation works!  If you don't want something, you should tax it. For example, if you want to discourage and decrease smoking, you increase taxes on cigarettes.  The reverse is true also.  You can encourage behavior by decreasing taxes on it.  So, by decreasing the taxes paid by international companies on overseas workers, it will only serve to increase the number of jobs overseas!!!  (And in all probability it will decrease jobs here at home.)

The Tax Bill still has a way to go and it will be negotiated with members of the Senate.  But if left largely in its current form, it will be a giveaway to Corporate America and the super rich will get richer. What's worse is we can ill afford it.  In case you haven't noticed, we are running a National Debt of 20 Trillion Dollars and we haven't had a balanced Federal Budget since the Clinton administration!

Elizabeth Warren is one smart lady and an advocate of the middle class.  She was a major contributor of the Dodd-Frank Bill following the 2008 financial disaster and is something of a financial wizard.  I hope the American people will listen to her and defeat the current Republican Tax Bill.  And I hope they will elect Elizabeth as President in the 2020.

After getting Trumped in 2016, we should now have clear 2020 vision and elect E. Warren in 2020!!!

I would vote for her in a heartbeat!


Here is a link to Elizabeth's Biography:

https://www.biography.com/people/elizabeth-warren-20670753



R. Allan Worrell
Author: Father John's Gift
e-mail:  alw3141@gmail.com

"The Day the Earth Stood Still" (A 1951 Science Fiction Black and White Movie.)

If you have never seen the movie,"The Day the Earth Stood Still", I highly recommend you take the time to watch it.  It is classic science fiction in every sense of the word.

Yes, it was made in 1951 and it is a black and white film.  Believe it or not, that is part of the appeal.  There are so many great aspects to this movie I hardly know where to begin.

First, let me say most of the acting is superb.  Oh, there are a few minor shots done by "fill-in" actors that look and feel like they are made of cardboard.  (And I can even smile or laugh at how corny they are.)  But the star performers, Patricia Neal, Michael Rennie and Sam Jafee are nothing short of fantastic.

Secondly, one must consider the time period in which the film was made.  The special effects are good for the period, but are nothing like the computer generated art we take for granted in today's science fiction thrillers.  But the effects are good enough to pull off the story, and they are good enough to scare young children with vivid imaginations.  (My next door neighbor told me he was scared by the movie as a kid.)

But most importantly, the story works.  It makes sense on many levels, and it gives you a plausible concept to show our place in the universe.  The mere fact that a flying saucer shows up and parks itself in Washington DC speaks volumes, all by itself.   It screams the idea that we are NOT alone.  We share this galaxy with other intelligent, perhaps some of which may be technically superior to us.  Is that a scary idea?  Yes, because it represents a big unknown.

What would happen if uninvited creatures from outer-space would suddenly come for a visit?  No one can know what they will do.  I leave that idea to your imagination.  We can only hope that if they are superior to us that they will either be friendly, smile at how cute we are and share their technology with us, or go away and leave us alone. 

Let's just hope we don't have something they want.   Now there's a scary thought!


R. Allan Worrell
Author: Father John's Gift
e-mail:  alw3141@gmail.com

The World is Complex!!! There are No Simple Solutions!

I saw David Brooks' New York Times article, "When Politics Becomes Your Idol" which showed a picture of a woman with a sign which read, "Donald Trump is our Savior!"

You can see the picture and read his article here:
 When Politics Becomes Your Idol

Seeing Trump as "Our Savior" reminds me of people who look for one drug to cure them aging, or cancer, or .....whatever disease currently ails them. 

We all wish there was a simple single solution to all of our problems.  Unfortunately, the world doesn't work like that.  It is incredibly more complex and messy.   Solving big problems (world peace, nuclear fusion, interplanetary space travel) takes complex solutions which are not solved in a day, or a year, or a lifetime. 

But look at the progress we have made in the last 100 years!   Yes, we have created some new problems by solving older ones, but that is the nature of scientific progress.  You always have to weigh the benefits against the side effects.  If you can't life with the side effects, then you look for some other solution to your problem.

For Example:  Burning fossil fuels such as coal and oil to generate electricity was once a very good idea. We needed it and we did it for a long time.  But now we are smarter and we know we can't continue to pollute our air with heavy metals and warm the planet with CO2, a green house gas.  So we look for clean energy technology elsewhere.  Wind, solar, electric vehicles and energy conservation (Negawatts) are coming to the rescue.  In the future, we will learn how to be more efficient and do more with less.

The problems of the world are complex, and we will need smart people who can understand and embrace complex ideas to solve them.  (Express my sorrow to the lady with the sign, Donald Trump is not one of those guys.  He doesn't seem to "Get It.") 

Thoughts to ponder.

What do YOU Think?   Leave me a post!


R. Allan Worrell
Author: Father John's Gift
e-mail:  alw3141@gmail.com

Open Letter to General Motors Marketing Department.

Many of you know I have been a proponent of "Green Energy".   Yesterday, I wrote General Motors an e-mail letter which follows:

(Note: I was constrained by the total number of characters allowed in my feedback to GM.  I modified it below so as to not abbreviate some of the words.  The basic ideas expressed have not been changed from my original note.)


To  The General Motors Marketing Department

GM should partner with Solar Companies around the world to help people convert to Green energy (sustainable).

Electric Vehicle (EV) Consumers would benefit as follows:

1)  They (would) "Fix" the price of energy at the time they purchase their Solar panels.

2)  The Solar Panel payback period is decreased, because the electricity usage is increased.  (by buying Electric power instead of gasoline.)

3)  They eliminate forever the cost of buying gasoline, and are therefore immunized from future price hikes of gasoline.

4)  Once the Solar panels have paid for themselves (over the payback period) the owners can drive for free!  Their EV is charged everyday by Sunshine!

5)  With an intelligent charge controller, the homeowner can run his house appliances from his car battery when needed.  (This is NOT a new idea, but is still a good idea.)

6)  This is a patriotic idea because it helps to make our air and water cleaner, and it makes the USA less dependent on foreign oil.


I did receive a nice canned reply from the GM Marketing Department.


What do you think?   Join in the discussion.  Leave a comment below the blog entry!


R. Allan Worrell
Author:  Father John's Gift
e-mail:  alw3141@gmail.com

My (New) Heroine! Hedy Lamarr !!!!

I hadn't known about Hedy Lamarr except that she had been mentioned in a few Mel Brooks films.  Although I  never understood the references to her, I never forgot her unusual name.  I never heard of anyone named, "Hedy", before.

But this last week I read an article in Time Magazine about Hedy Lamar which blew my socks off!!!   It turns out that Hedy was a co-inventor (along with a music composer named, "George Antheil") of the spread-spectrum broadband algorithm which is present in WiFi, CDMA, GSM and Blue Tooth algorithms, incorporated in all wireless routers and cell phone products all over the world!

How, and why did Hedy do this?

It turned out that Hedy was once married to an Austrian engineer who worked for a munitions plant  which was taken over by the Nazis during WWII.   Hedy fled both her husband, and the Nazis and landed in Hollywood USA where she continued her acting career and was cast in several major movies and was billed as, "The Most Beautiful Woman in the World."   But she must have known a good deal about the Nazis' electronic communication protocol, and she wanted to help the Allies war effort by creating a torpedo communication protocol which would be immune to the Nazis electronic jamming techniques.  She, and her co-inventor patented the idea but gave their spread spectrum algorithm free of charge to the US Navy.

As they say, "the rest is history"!!!   It just goes to show you what you can do, and the impact that we can all have upon the world by having a unique idea and acting upon it.  Hedy Lamarr should be an inspiration to us all.


R. Allan Worrell
Author: Father John's Gift
e-mail:  alw3141@gmail.com



References:

1.  Ben Cosgrove, Time.com, http://time.com/3881293/hedy-lamarr-stardom-scandal-and-one-amazing-invention/ , accessed 11/01/2017.


2.  Author Unknown, Wikipedia.com, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedy_Lamarr, accessed 11/01/2017. 

What Will You Do Today to Give Meaning to Your Life?

I heard a great discussion on the radio the other day.  It was an interview of a medical doctor, a cancer surgeon by the name of Atul Gawande.  He had a great deal to say about his dying patients.

He would do his best to give all the medical options to his dying patient, and then ask them what they wanted to do.  The patient would then try to turn the table on him and ask him what he would do if he were in their shoes.  He would then reply that he could not make that decision for the patient, because he didn't know and couldn't guess what they were living for.  In other words, he turned the table back on the patient by asking the patient what they wanted out of the rest of their life.

What would one more day buy you?  What would you do with it?   What would give meaning to your life (or to that one more day... if you could live it)?

After listening to this, it occurred to me we are ALL in the patient's situation.  We are all dying, albeit in slow motion.   We should ALL be asking ourselves what we want out of the rest of our lives.

We should ask ourselves this each and every day when we get out of bed.

It has been said that youth is wasted on the young.  I agree.  When we are young, most of us pursue all kinds of ridiculous hobbies and past times that consume an enormous amount of time, as if we will live forever.

But what is it that gives your life meaning?   What will you do today that will make your life worthwhile?


What do YOU think?   Leave a comment!

Big Ideas, Big Ideas, Big Ideas!

You may know Google has a subsidiary named, 'X' whose goal is to come up with revolutionary ideas that they affectionately call, "Moon Shots".  Moon Shots are projects, which by Google's definition, will take ten years or more to pay off in some big way.


What are the top ten problems the world that you would solve if you could?

Here's my list:

1. World Hunger
2. World Peace
3. Population Control
4. Life Extension -  What is aging?
5. Global Warming (Climate Change)
6. Wildlife Preservation  ("Save the Whales")
7. Energy Generation (Nuclear Fusion)
8. Waste Reclamation - Plastic & Metals
9. Air Pollution
10. Water Pollution - De-Acidify the Oceans.

The first two are a given.  These are usually expressed by contestants in a Miss America contests.  The third, "Population Control", has several possible solutions.  We do have birth control drugs and barrier methods.

"Life extension - What is aging?"  is a tough nut to crack.  But with the human genome now mapped, who knows?  We may someday find the, "Fountain of Youth".   Eternal life?   Snake oil anybody?

Several of these are interdependent.  When you make progress on one of them, you will help the others. Fusion will allow us unlimited energy and we can address several of the others, such as waste reclamation, clean the air, and de-acidify the oceans.

What do you think?   What are YOUR top ten problems?   Leave the world a message to call attention to what you believe are the most important problems we need to solve.

Let's Use Our Untapped Talent... Retired Engineers and Scientists.

Just imagine...  You are an eighth grade math or science teacher.  You have forty kids to teach in each of your five classes during the day.  You struggle to get through the lesson plan, much less to help every student in all of your classes.

Now let's change the equation.

You are the instructor, and you still have forty kids in each class to teach.   But you have ten helpers in your classroom who know the material, because they have sat through your lecture numerous times, and they could teach the material themselves, except they are not certified teachers.  They are retired scientists and engineers who care about kids, and they are patriotic.  They care about our the future of our country.

Why?  They know, more than most, what kind of knowledge and persistence is required by our technological society.  They know first hand the talent and skills which will be required to do well on an SAT or ACT exam to get into college, and to do well once they get in.

And finally, they know how important it is for the future of the United States to have smart young people who understand science and engineering and how the world works.

Are YOU a retired engineer or scientist?   Get involved!   Volunteer at your local High School or Middle School.   You can change the world, one child at a time!


What do YOU think?   Leave a comment!


R. Allan Worrell
Author: Father John's Gift
e-mail: alw3141@gmail.com

What Does it Mean to be an Atheist?

Why, I ask, is the atheist so maligned?  Why are people shocked to learn, or even admit to themselves or others, that they don’t believe in spiritual ideas, or that they are an atheist?  What does it mean to be an atheist?

The lack of evidence for spiritual ideas is so great it is the proverbial elephant in our living rooms. It is there, but no one talks about it.  Do angels exist?  Do devils?  How about heaven, hell, souls, purgatory or gods?  These are all mystical ideas created by whimsical, imaginative men who had everything to gain over an ignorant populace, most who could not read, and if they did, they would find no opposition to the stories in the bible, written over two thousand years ago, before the age of enlightenment and long before modern biology, chemistry and physics were discovered.  It was a time when the stars were points of light in the sky, people feared the solar eclipse, witches were burned at the stake, and one could be stoned to death for even suggesting that god was not real.

But the atheist of today is a critical thinker. The atheist is unafraid to speak the truth about religion. The atheist is proud to have a good, if not great understanding of Science and mankind’s place in the universe. The atheist is an existentialist who knows that he is part of the animal kingdom, and like all other animals, he will rot after he dies. He knows he will never see his dead relatives again in some wishful make-believe afterlife. These are not pleasant thoughts, but they are real nevertheless.  It is sobering to know that life is short and often filled with hardship.  Like all people, we cannot escape death. We just don't kid ourselves about what death really is, and what it means for all of us.

Many if not most atheists were raised in a religion. And for some it took great courage to overcome the religious heritage and the religious mindset it created.  Just telling a family member or a friend that we no longer believe is hard for many, but once done, it allows the atheist to be released from the burden of having to pretend to believe.  After telling others, we can be true to ourselves and to those who mean the most to us.  Sometimes the revelation will enable the friend or family member to admit that they too, have similar doubts, but were afraid to admit them.

There is tremendous freedom in being an atheist. We do not let someone else tell us what to think, or what to believe. We judge every idea on its merits and accept only those ideas that make sense.  We know all new ideas must fit with all that we already know and understand about the world. We are not influenced by religious icons, superstitions, voodoo or holy waters. We don't care where we are buried, because we know that when we are dead, it won't make any difference. Most of us would prefer to be cremated, and that our families keep the money to improve their lives, or donate the funeral savings to a good cause. After all, caskets are a waste of good metal, and a waste of the money that buys them.

Our lack of belief in a god or an afterlife makes each day more precious than the last. At the end of each day, I often wonder how I could have lived it better, and know that I will try harder the next day to be a better person. A friend once said to me that the only thing that matters in life is how we treat other people. And I would add...how we treat others is all that matters, because in the end, it will be all that will be remembered of us. We want others to know and remember how much we loved them, and how much joy and laughter we brought to their lives. We want to know now, that when we are gone, we made a positive difference in the lives of those we touched.  And when they remember us, they will smile and know we were unafraid of public scrutiny.  They will understand we were unafraid to speak our minds and to state the truth about religion for all to see.

For more information, see the following link!  What Does it mean to be an Atheist?
  

What do YOU think?  Leave a comment!!!

R. Allan Worrell

Author:  Father John's Gift 
Contact:  alw314@yahoo.com 

Robots, Robots, Robots - Part 2

Thinking about sentient robots gave rise to a number of other related ideas.  Let me show you.

Questions:   
 1)  What rights should a sentient, self aware robot have?   
 2)  What laws should apply to intelligent robots?  
 3) Should robots be allowed to marry humans?  
 4) Should robots be allowed to marry each other?    

OK, I know these questions sound ridiculous, but let’s explore each of these questions, just for the sake of an intellectual argument.  You might be surprised where this takes me.

Question 1)  What rights should a sentient, self-aware robot have?

Let’s assume any self-aware being should have rights.  How about dogs and cats?  Any pet owner would certainly say his pets are conscious, sentient beings.   Can we kill them outright?   If you are shocked at this idea, you are not alone.   How about cows, pigs and chickens?   This is dangerous territory which would turn our society into vegetarians. PETA  (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) PETA Link  would agree, stating unequivocally that we should not kill animals for food, and even Kosher Jews have their own laws about killing animals without making them suffer. 

Sentient Robots, particularly ones who can talk and tell you how they are feeling will be a cut above cats and dogs, cows and chickens.   I would have a hard time turning off a sentient robot who pleads for me not to turn it off.   Can you imagine the discussion you would have with such a machine?  One could argue that you and I are both biological machines.  Think about it.  We might be little different than a truly intelligent, thinking, speaking, feeling robot.    

Question 2)   What laws should apply to robots?

Let’s assume all our laws apply and see where that leads us.  Robots should not kill humans or other robots.  Isaac Asimov created the three laws of robotics, (Three Laws of Robotics )the first of which stated robots should do no harm to a human and no harm to itself unless it was forced to in the protection of a human life.  This is not encoded into our Western laws today, but it seems like a good place to start should robots ever become sentient.  And speaking of that, it occurs to me that the robots may establish their own set of laws, particularly if they are smarter than us.  Wow.  Now we are in for real trouble.

Question 3)  Should robots be allowed to marry humans?

I suspect there will be humans, so enamored with their sexy sentient robot that the humans will request the right to marry it!   This will, of course, have our legislators scratching their proverbial collective heads.  Some of them may be having affairs with a robot.  

 In the movie, AI, there is a sentient robot character named, “Gigolo Joe”, played by actor Jude Law, who services lonely women.  But was Gigolo Joe just an elaborate vibrator?    You might be inclined to think so, but consider a truly evolved robot that has feelings and is highly intelligent.  I suspect if it could be emotionally hurt might be a significant test.  But how would you really know?   I believe a learning, self-programming machine can exceed its initial code, very much like a human grows into adulthood.  You would not be able to predict the behavior of such a robot person.  Wow, I just used the ‘P’ word.  Can a robot be a “Person”?

Question 4)  Should sentient robots be allowed to marry each other?

This begs the question why we have marriage in the first place.  The Catholic church states the institution of marriage is for one man and one woman.  Why?   It occurs to me they come to this conclusion for the protection of any children that might result from the union.  This would explain why the church is against gay marriages.  But do they permit divorce between married partners when one of them is sterile and cannot conceive?   I wonder.

What do YOU think?   Leave a comment below!!!!!


 R. Allan Worrell
Author:   Father John's Gift
Contact:  alw314@yahoo.com

Robots, Robots, Robots - Part 1.

If you have seen a manufacturing facility in the last ten years, you have seen industrial robots.  They come in all shapes and sizes, from desktop models that can move a pen or pencil, to giant hydraulic arms which can grab an automobile off of an assembly line.

In short, robots have proliferated across the globe.  I can imagine a time in the not too distant future when robots will outnumber humans.  I'm not talking about robotic servants in our homes that cook, clean, and wash windows, although those will certainly come to us someday.  I'm talking about the robots which have largely replaced us in our factories, fly our airplanes, drive our cars, sail our ships.  Did you know they can see?  Yes, they now have all of our five senses:  sight, touch, taste, hearing and even smell.   Technology is advancing so fast it sometimes makes my head spin when I think about it.

Why should we care about the proliferation of robots (and smart computer programs)?   Well, for one thing, they are putting us out of work.  They don't get paid, they always show up for work, that is, they never go home.  They may break down and need to be repaired, but they don't get sick unless they are connected to the internet and may be subject to hackers.

But more significantly, robots or smart computer programs may become sentient, self aware machines.  Can you imagine that?  Can you imagine what a robot could do with access to Google?  With the ability to learn and remember everything, there is no limit to what it might do.  It boggles the mind.

I once heard a professor say he would not be afraid of a robot as long as it loved him.  I'm not so sure.  I love my dog and my cat, but I don't think I want a robot to keep me as a pet.  Do you?


R. Allan Worrell
Author:  Father John's Gift
Contact E-mail:  alw314@yahoo.com

Carl Sagan's Novel - Contact!

I'm reading Dr. Carl Sagan's fiction novel, Contact.  

You can find the Contact book on Amazon.com here:

Click here for the Amazon.com "Contact" web page.

I love this book for several reasons.  Although it tells a story, it allows Dr. Sagan to teach us a great deal of Science, particularly Astronomy which was his specialty.  

Astronomy is fascinating because it is the biggest picture we can imagine.  When you begin to grasp the size of the solar system, the Milkyway Galaxy, and think about our place in the Universe, it is mind blowing.  It may not be infinite (according to Einstein) but it is so big it may as well be.  BTW, Contact was published in 1985 and was made into a movie in 1997.  Today (3/17/17) the movie is available on Netflix.  I recommend it highly, particularly the first few minutes of the film which gives you the scope of the known Universe.  It's tremendous computer graphics, and shows you THE BIG PICTURE!

Astronomical distances are so big astronomers have to resort to an unusual yard stick to measure it.  Their yard stick is called a, "light-year".  Most of us have heard of a light year, but do you know how big it is?  A light year is the distance light can travel in one year.  We know light travels 186,000 miles in one second, and there are 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour, 24 hours in a day, and 365 days in a year.  Therefore, there are 60 x 60 x 24 x 365 = 31,536,000 seconds in a year.   Now, multiply that times 186,000 and we should have our distance in miles.

186,000 miles per second x 31,536,000 seconds per year  =  5,865,696,000,000 miles per year !!!!!

One light year is well over 5.8 Trillion miles, or if you prefer, it's over 5.8 Million Million miles, and light can travel that distance in one year.

Now the nearest star, other than our sun, is Alpha Centauri (AC).   I learned in Contact that AC is approximately 4.25 light years from us.   Let's do the math:

4.25 light years x 5,865,696,000,000 miles per light year =  24,929,208,000,000 miles

This means our nearest star is almost 25 Trillion miles away, and if we wanted to send a message to a planet circling AC, then it would take 4.25 years to get there and another 4.25 years for their reply to get back to us, making a round trip of 8.5 years just to say, Hello!

Let's just hope that our side of the planet is facing towards AC when the reply comes back!  If we are facing away from AC when the reply message arrives, we will miss it!!!  (Remember the earth rotates once each day, so it turns away from AC for 12 hours at a time.)   The Earth's rotation is a problem for inter-space travel communication as well.


Have an opinion?  What do YOU think?   Leave a comment!!!


R. Allan Worrell
Author:  Father John's Gift
E-mail:  alw314@yahoo.com

The Importance of Data. Science Vs Religion.

You may know data is everything to scientists and engineers.  They live and die by their data.  The data doesn’t lie.  You can accept it or reject it, but it doesn’t care what you think. It is what it is.  It is all about truth.  It tells you what is real, given your ability to measure whatever it is you are testing.  

I don’t argue with what works.  You can always retest, but it is hard to argue with consistent data. You may find a way to cure the common cold, or keep worms from eating your tomatoes, and one way may be better than another.  But if it works, I just want to know two things:  1)  are there any side effects, and 2) what does the solution cost.  If there are no side effects, then the solution is great, and if there are side effects, then I want to know the impact.  Can you live with the side effect?   For instance, if you are testing a new cancer drug, can you keep the patient alive even if his ankles swell up a bit?   Or if you are testing a new pesticide, will you kill an entire species of worm in order to save your tomato crop?   Will the worm-eating birds die of starvation, or will they adapt and find another insect to eat?   These are the kinds of things Science can tell us if we work hard and smart enough.

Of course, successful business leaders use lots of data too.  They measure all kinds of factors that contribute to their profit and loss.  Naturally, if they are wrong, or they don’t pay attention to the right details, they will go bankrupt and lose their business.  If they are right and customers love their products or services, and if their costs are lower than their prices, they will make money and their business will thrive.

So the bottom line is this:  we all live and die by our data.  You can think of it as the sensory information we take in and process using the one survival gift nature has bestowed upon us, our big brains.  So why, I ask do we abandon our reason, logic and empirical data and believe in things for which there is no evidence at all?   You may have guessed by now, I am writing about Religion (with a capital ‘R’).

My own belief is that we are all too terrified of death, so many of us embrace an ideology which says we don’t really die, but we go to heaven where we will live on forever.  But is there any evidence (data) that we have a soul?  Is there any evidence (data) for life after death or the existence of god or heaven?  Must we accept the philosophical ramblings of a scientifically ignorant people who lived over a thousand years ago?   

 Do you believe in miracles?  If so, why do you believe in them?  What data do you have to support your belief?

Many people say there are two camps of information, those that can be supported by information (data), and those which require no support.  I reject this argument.  I say we are animals, we are specifically, thinking primates, with big brains and a limited lifespan of something less than one hundred years.  Like all the other animals on the planet, we are born, we live, we struggle, we mate, we may reproduce, we grow old and we die.  And like all the other animals, we will rot as bacteria then consume our bodies.  If we are lucky, we will do something important with our lives, and we may do something to help insure the long term survival of our species on the planet.  

This is the Scientific point of view, and it is in direct contrast and opposition to the fairy tale wishful thinking world view created by the religion camp, and by the people (primarily old men) who profit by spreading the superstitious and ignorant words of a people who lived over a thousand years ago. 

Now don't get me wrong.  I don't really fault our ancestors too much.  They were just trying to make sense of life and death with the data that they had at the time.  They didn't know their place in the universe.  We are still trying to figure that out.  But we have come a long way.  We know for instance, that stars are more than points of light in the night sky.  Think about it.  We have put more than one of our own species on the moon and brought them back safely to earth.  We have used robotic probes to explore and take pictures of the other planets (and their moons), and we have even sent spacecraft beyond our solar system.  This is the stuff of Science Fiction, but we made it Science FACT.  We have the data to prove it.


What do YOU think?   Leave a comment!!!!

R. Allan Worrell
Author:   Father John's Gift
Contact:  alw314@yahoo.com