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New: "Devotion to the Beautiful Universe We Live In" by Vexen Crabtree: "That maths is both an artform, and a beautiful enterprise, is something that is often-repeated by those in-the-know. Likewise, it is a common theme that those who enjoy the sciences - the challenges of scientific theory - often have greater feelings towards their chosen fields than the cold experience of technical number-crunching pitted with moments of inspiration. The ongoing search for truth bestows upons its adherents a glowing satisfaction and awe at the wonder of the universe. Reality is simultaneously complex and simple, engaging and passive, black and white and colourful. Out of simple laws comes complexity, and out of the chaos of experimentation slowly comes understanding. The scientific methods of understanding the world can involve a person completely and fully; the intellectual and rational commitment to hard work and truth are obvious. Not so obvious is the emotional wonder and adoration that arises within those who seek the truth. Philosophers and scientists, as Dawkins' points out, have had a tendency towards an almost mystical and pantheistic love of the fabrics of reality." Tags: beauty, complexity, inspiration, love, pantheism, philosophy, reality, richard dawkins, science, universal, universe
Current Location: Mönchengladbach, Germany
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Evolution: Vestigial Genes & Organs, Extinctions and Inefficiency all hint at Unintelligent DesignA small page at the moment, but I'll be adding more. Especially, some quotes from The Selfish Gene, which is my in-the-car reading book. We've been having dramas getting our washing machine and dishwasher working... the former is fixed now. Tags: appendix, biology, creationism, evolution, humanity, life, richard dawkins
Current Location: Monchengladbach, Germany
Current Mood:  happy
Listening To: "Hell" by Project Pitchfork
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For some reason, it has struck me as brilliant and wonderful, the history of how single-cell organisms evolved to detect chemicals in their environment (simply using lipid-membrane spanning molecules)... and that the same mechanisms are now the same methods that multicellular organisms use to co-ordinate activities between cells. It really struck home to me that we are (in Dawkins' words) " colonies" of cells acting together... I can imagine each cell "thinking" it is alone in the environment, simply not knowing that actually it is busily communicating with millions of other cells' products, rather than with the environment external to the body.  “The mechanism of chemical sensation that originally evolved to detect environmental substances now form the basis for chemical communication between cells and organs, using hormones and neurotransmitters.”
"Neuroscience" by Bear, Connors and Paradiso, p189</p>
Anyone else find this oddly inspiring and awesome? So simple... there wasn't two different paths of evolution for cellular senses, but one... which became used in two very different circumstances! I guess that is why some diseases which are basically single-cell sometimes react en masse or change their behaviour en masse. (We have found that sometimes a critical mass of a certain excreted chemical causes a group change in single-cell disease behaviour). I've added some of this to "The Evolution of Life from the Primordial Soup to the Cell" by Vexen Crabtree (1999) - the page really does need to be made scientific, rather than rambling! Tags: bacteria, biology, cells, evolution, hormones, multicellular life, neuroscience, neurotransmitters, psychology, richard dawkins, single-cell life, staphylococcus
Current Location: Monchengladbach, Germany
Listening To: "Try to Forget '98" by De/Vision
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I've added quotes on The Great Prayer Experiment to my page "Prayer: Scientific Studies of Prayer". The results come after this nifty little quote from Prof. Richard Dawkins:
"Darwin's cousin Francis Galton was the first to analyse scientifically whether praying for people is efficacious. He noted that every Sunday, in churches throughout Britain, entire congregations prayed publicly for the health of the royal family. Shouldn't they, therefore, be unusually fit, compared with the rest of us, who are prayed for only by our nearest and dearest? Galton looked into it, and found no statistical difference. His intention may, in any case, have been satirical, as also when he prayed over randomized plots of land to see if the plants would grow any faster (they didn't)."
Anyway, the results of the 1800-patient scientific double-blind study, was: (the patients were divided into 3 groups): - Group 1: Received prayers, but were not told about them. This tests if prayers helped them recover more than normal patients. Their recovery was average.
- Group 2: Received no prayers, and were not told so. This tested if there was something about the experiment that was affecting the results. Their recovery was also average.
- Group 3: Received prayers and were told so. This tested the psychosomatic effects of knowing that one is being prayed for. This group "suffered significantly more complications".</p>
What amazing results!
The rest of my page on Prayer is my normal blunt arsenal of stark truths! Tags: charles bethea, christianity, health, prayer, praying, psychosomosis, richard dawkins, satanism, science, sociology, templeton foundation
Current Location: Germany
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1. The famous paleontologist, Richard Leakey is the author of " Origins Reconsidered: In Search of What Makes Us Human", and was for years was director of Kenya's museums. He has been fighting a battle against creationists in Kenya, in particular Pentecostal evangelicals, who are determined to use "religious toleration" to force Kenya's museums to hide science in order to avoid challenging their faith. The museum's collections include the most complete skeleton yet found of homo erectus, a 1.7 million year-old skeleton, and skeletons of the species that first evolved to walk upright, 4 million years ago. Bishop Adoyo, head of the six-million strong Pentecostal congregation "Christ is the Answer Ministries", seemingly without a sense of irony, says, "Leakey and his group want their theories presented as fact". 2. The creationist Kent Hovind, who pleaded guilty to (three times) constructing a building without permission (he wants to build another creationist humans-and-dinosaurs-existing-at-the-sam e-time themed park). He has now been "arrested and indicted in federal court on fifty-eight charges, including"... tax fraud, tax evasion, evading banking requirements and making threats against IRS investigators. "The grand-jury indictment alleges that Hovind and his wife, Jo, withdrew $430,500 from AmSouth bank between July 20, 2001, and August 9,2002. The withdrawals, most made only days apart, were consistently for amounts just below the $10,000 starting point for federally required cash-transaction reporting.". He has been stripped of his passport and guns. Both of these are reported in Skeptical Inquirer, volume 30, No. 6 (Nov/Dec 2006). The Skeptical Inquirer is my new 'thing', it is an absolutely awesome resource for discussions on all things anti-science, and has connections to many atheist, humanist and pro-science groups, including Prof. Dawkins (Oxford Uni), Richard Wiseman (Herts Uni), Daniel Dennett, Robert Sheaffer, Elizabeth Loftus (famous psychologist), etc. Just reading it's "Fellows" list made me excited! :-) Tags: atheism, creationism, fundamentalism, kent hovind, kenya, religion, richard dawkins, richard leakey
Current Location: Germany
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The Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science - a UK/USA charity committed to the teaching of science, headed by my beloved hero, Prof. Dawkins. He is the foremost evolutionary scientist, a wonderful writer and experienced educator, and he cares passionately and deeply about not only the search for truth, but the teaching of it to others. He is forceful, wise, direct, aggressively anti-religion, and a genuine and powerful force for good in the world. He is also increasingly productive (even at 65...) and vocal, and has some powerful backers and supporters. I've been toying with the idea of doing a fan-page, but, the new RDF website (linked above) is better than anything I could dream up, so, my fandom now consists of linking it, rather than trying to emulate. Click to buy from amazon.co.uk:   Tags: anti-religion, evolution, richard dawkins, science
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determined