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 

Expect the Unexpected! Use a Monte Carlo Simulations.

Expect the unexpected!  

"How do I do that?"  you ask.

Figure out what is logical to happen, and then think about what illogical thing could happen instead.

The probability of the illogical happening may be bigger than the logical.  Why?   Because we can't know everything.  We don't know all the factors that may contribute to the problem at hand.  What's worse, is that we often don't know what we don't know.  Sometimes we may know the parameters but not the possible values.  We have to guess at the possible values.

What's the good in guessing?   Well, sometimes you may be able to specify a range of values for a guess, and you may also be able to associate a probability that a particular guess will occur.
You can do the calculation repeatedly and calculate a probability for each possible outcome.

There is a mathematical, computerized tool for doing this.  It is called, a Monte Carlo Simulator and is used to calculate probable outcomes for all kinds of problems where factors are unknown and some degree of risk is involved.


R. Allan Worrell
Author:  Father John's Gift

Environment, Heredity & The Concept of Heaven.

Why are we the way we are?  How did we each get to be the people we are?

Science has long accepted that each of us is the product of our environment and our heredity.  One can argue whether environment or heredity plays the greater role in our development, but few if anyone would argue that one is exclusive over the other.  Most agree that we interact with our environment based on our heredity.

If we are smart enough, we can change or manipulate our environment to be successful in our endeavors and grow and thrive as individuals.  Consider a seven foot male who learns to play basketball, or a gifted female mathematician who becomes a brilliant physicist or successful computer programmer.  But what would a seven foot male do in a culture without basketball?  Or what would the mathematician do if she were born in the Middle Ages?  One can only imagine the frustration such an individual would feel by being born in the wrong place or in the wrong time.  As a case in point, what would Mozart have become if he were born into a world without a piano or even music?  What would he have been if he was born into a middle eastern culture where music was banned?

But did you pick your initial environment into which you were born?  Did you pick your parents?  Did you pick your socioeconomic class or the fact that you were male or female, and the country or time into which you were born?  The answer must be no.   

It has occurred to me that we control none of those things.  We didn't select our parents.  We didn't select our genes (our heredity), and we didn't select our environment, our place or year in which we were born.

So, I ask an unsettling question.  How is it that we can be held accountable for who and what we are?   In short, we can't help but be the person who we are.  Each of us is predestined to succeed or fail or die trying to do that which we feel we must as we interact with our environment.   We each do the best we can with who and what we are, and what resources and opportunities we have at our disposal.

This idea turns the concept of sin on its head, and in doing so eliminates the reward or punishment for having lived a good or bad life respectively.   Yes, society must protect itself from bad people who would murder, rape, rob, steal or do other terrible things, but the predestination argument kills most of the established world religions which would have us believe we will be rewarded in heaven or damned in hell for being the people we could not help but become.

What does this tell you about organized religions?  What are their motives?


What do YOU think?   Leave a comment!!!


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

Would you take a Life Extension Pill?

If I offered you a pill that would make you live indefinitely, would you take it?

I used to ask this question to friends of mine, or sometimes to people I just met.  Why?  The answers I got were very revealing.

If the answer is that the world would become over populated if we extended life, then modern medicine is a moot point.  Why bother saving lives at all if we are all going to die eventually anyway?   Why not just accept death as a normal part of life and make room for the next person who was born today?   Of course, I am just being facetious.  My personal physician admitted to me he is just forestalling the inevitable, a fact I readily concede.   But I take his medication and his medical advice seriously.  Why?   Because I love my life!  And finally, I have to say the population argument does not hold water because we know how to prevent babies from being conceived.  We know how to use birth control, and each of us can help the world by limiting the number of people being born by taking precautions with our sexuality.

If the answer is that prolonging life is not God's plan and we should accept death so we can go to heaven to be with God for all eternity, then why not embrace death and kill ourselves now?  What is the point to living if it is for just a short time compared to eternity?   Again, I am being facetious and argumentative.  We each can and should do what we can to make the world a better place by having lived our lives as best we can. 

And I don't know about you, but there is so much I want to do before I die.  I love the concept of a "Bucket List" of things to see and do before we "kick the bucket" or "give up the ghost"!
What bothers me is that most bucket lists consist of places to travel or experiences like jumping out of an airplane, or eating exotic foods.  My bucket list consists of becoming more than I am.  For instance, I want to grow musically by learning to play improvisational jazz piano, and learn to speak Spanish fluently.

 And finally, what about those we love and care about?   We should do everything we can to help those we love develop into the people they want to be.   I get a kick out of sharing my life with others who are happy and having a blast doing what they do.

I hope you can see I would take that life extension pill in a heartbeat.   But that's just me. 

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



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

The "Theory" of Evolution

I am no longer amazed when I find otherwise intelligent adults who don't believe in evolution.  Why?
Because we call evolution, "a Theory".  The word, "theory" makes it seem like evolution is a guess, not a fact.   But nothing could be further from the truth.  We know evolution is real, not only from the fossil record of plants and animals buried in the ground all over the world, but also from current biological organisms alive and well today of which we are a part.


Yes, you got it right.  Like it or not we, as a species, are evolving!   A simple Google Search found a web site which lists five indications that we are still evolving!  These are:

1. We have developed the ability to drink milk (process lactose).
2. We are born without wisdom teeth. (They are vestigial and no longer necessary.)
3. We are resisting new diseases.   (Malaria, Tuberculosis, Leprosy)
4. We are born with smaller brains. (Our brains are more efficient!)
5. We are born with blue eyes.   (A genetic paternity test.)

Check out the web site.  Here you will find an in depth explanations of all of the above.

We Are Still Evolving

Note:  I want to be clear about what evolution is.  We are not evolving as individuals.  Each of us fortunately or unfortunately, is stuck with the genes we are born with.  We can't change them.  We evolve only as the species homo-sapiens due to changing conditions in our environment.

Need More Proof?

If you need more proof, watch this documentary film on the subject. It is the best film on evolution I have ever seen!

http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/facts-evolution/


What do YOU think?   Leave a comment!!!


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

Wading into the Cosmic Ocean.

In his book, Cosmos, Carl Sagan gave an excellent analogy of mankind's examination of the Cosmos.

“The surface of the Earth is the shore of the cosmic ocean. On this shore, we've learned most of what we know. Recently, we've waded a little way out, maybe ankle-deep, and the water seems inviting. Some part of our being knows this is where we came from. We long to return, and we can, because the cosmos is also within us. We're made of star stuff. We are a way for the cosmos to know itself.”

― Carl Sagan, Cosmos


We are only "ankle deep" in the cosmic ocean.  We have explored so very little and think we know so very much.  But we are only kindergartners learning the world with our eyes wide open and our childhood curiosity in tact.  

What do YOU think?   Leave a comment!!!

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