WHERE WE CAME FROM AND WHERE WE'RE GOING

I've been meaning to write something about Intelligent Design for some time. I had been against it all along, but it wasn't until I saw an episode of Penn & Teller: Bullshit! on YouTube that showed me exactly what was wrong about it. Maybe I shouldn't put a lot of stock in what a ponytailed atheist magician and his mute partner have to say (or make gestures about, in Teller's case) regarding an issue almost entirely based on religion. Oh well. I guess this has something to do with my ability to seek the truth of life almost entirely from jaded Jewish comedians, such as Al Franken, David Cross, and the bespectacled rageaholic Lewis Black. It just seems to make a lot of sense.

Anyway, there are many reasons I oppose Intelligent Design, which for purposes of brevity, I will br referring to as I-D. First of all, the episode of Bullshit stated that in Cobb County, Georgia, all science textbooks now carry a message in the inside cover, warning that the book contains information about evolution, that evolution is only a theory, and (one could infer) that it should not taken seriously. Well, it is just a theory. The difference lies almost entirely in semantics. When average people use the word "theory" they're actually talking about something a scientist would call a hypothesis. It's a guess. When scientists talk about theories, they're referring to something that has stood up in the face of several attempts to find fault with it and come out intact.

Fundamentalist Christians want to teach I-D in Science class. This can't possibly work. What kind of laboratory experiments can we do about this? There aren't any, because
I-D is not science. It doesn't rely on the scientific method. Just as a reminder, the scientific method goes like this: You observe something, and ask "Why does that happen the way it does?" You then make a guess as to why, and then find some way to test your guess. If it turns out your guess was wrong, you make a new guess and repeat from there. Or maybe, you might even consider asking a new question.

1. Observation: We exist.
2. Question: Where did we come from?
3. Guess: We evolved from apes.
4. Test: Dig for bones.
5. Result: We found fragments of skeletons that seem to be partway between apes and humans. Maybe we did evolve.

Okay, that's a bit oversimplified. But it shows that the connection has been made.

Now try following the intelligent design line of reasoning.
1. Observation: We exist.
2. Question: Where did we come from?
3. Guess: God created the heavens and the earth and all the living things on it.
4. Test: ...um...

Now at this point the argument breaks down, because there is no possible way to test this. Christian fundamentalists believe there need be no testing, because the whole concept should be accepted on something that has absolutely no place in science--FAITH. (This is what I consider to be the true f-word, because I always start feeling more negative about a person whenever they direct it at me.) It has no place in science because faith by definition is belief in something without proof. And when you throw out the requirement of proof, all other rules break down.

Here's one metaphor I thought up: It's as if you're cooking a soup with a delicate flavor, and some asshole friend of yours thinks the soup would taste better if you added chocolate syrup. Not because he thinks it would improve the soup, but because he likes chocolate syrup. The fundamentalists don't really care about science. They're trying to throw in something that doesn't work because they'd like it to be that way. They want to turn Science class into another place to pick up new converts.

Some day I'm going to be an old man, and if my tax dollars are going to teaching kids that God created everything, I'm going to believe that my tax dollars are better spent paying for my insulin and heart prescription (after all the soda I drink and fast food I eat turns me into a diabetic with heart disease) rather than on our schools. I don't want to take money away from public schools, because they gave me an education that I truly value and plan to use well. I owe it to them.

But this is why I truly hate I-D. I believe that where you come from influences where you're going. It doesn't completely control it, but it plays a major part. Let me give you an example. When I started applying to colleges in January of 2004, These were my 6 choices:

University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA
Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, MA
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY
Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering, Needham, MA

Why each of these? Each had a great computer science program. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do yet, but I knew computers were involved. Three were in Massachusetts, because I wanted to be close enough to home to occasionally visit, but far enough that I'd have to live on campus. Masachusetts and New York were both very liberal states, and since I had been raised in a liberal state, I wanted to remain in a liberal place. (Kinda like how a lot of Deep Southerners rarely leave the South.) Michigan was an option only because my grandparents on my father's side lived there, and I could stay with them. All of these decisions based on "Where you've been influences where you will go."

What does this have to do with I-D and Evolution? Simple. If evolution is correct that Mankind came from something lesser, it means that in the future we will continue to evolve new features. We can't really say how the homo sapiens will improve, but one of my guesses is that we'll develop psychic powers. Or maybe if humans continue to move into space, we'll evolve in such a way that we can withstand the vacuum of space without suits. Humans are a step above apes. Where you've been influences where you're going. Somehow, few seem to have noticed the possibility that this step is not the last.

If I-D is right, then that means we are as good as we will ever get. God created us, this is how we are, and this is how we will be for-fucking-ever. What would happen if the Rapture occurs, and there are those who don't get in? It's the end of hope. We who are left on Earth missed the last lifeboat off a sinking ship, and sooner or later, we're going to be sucked under, and all because we refused to stop using our sense of reason and accept on blind faith the existence of God. The birth rate will slowly decline to zero, for what point is there to bearing a child destined for Hell anyway? And then we will all die, and maybe God will decide to create something else.

Even if we eliminate the possibility of the Christian prophesy of the apocalypse causing the end of everything, that means that ultimately humanity can't improve its condition. We will eventually discover everything that remains to be discovered in the universe, explain everything that can be perceived with our limited senses, and after processing it all, come up with no answer to the meaning of life, what then?

Maybe the Meaning of Life is something we're not evolved enough to understand as it is.

BROKEN DOWN

First a quick parody of a Sgt. Pepper lyric:

I'm fixing a hole
Where the light's bashed in
because my mind was wandering
on the long rooooooaaaaad....

So I'm without a car for a while. I blame the people of New Hampshire. If you people didn't have such a fondness for vanity license plates, I wouldn't have been staring at them trying to count how many I could see, and I would have noticed the car in front of me was stopped and waiting to turn. SMASH.

Judging by the fact that I'm still here making up lyrics that essentially laugh at the situation, you can tell that I was exceedingly lucky. No one was hurt, and the car still runs. And last weekend, I went to pick up a replacement headlight and parking light from a used auto parts store in Lowell. Total cost of repairs thus far: $60. I can probably defray any additional costs if I can get the hood flattened and the front crossbar straightened out. Major thanks to my dad, who's been described as "the king of kludge." Your handyman skills know no bounds.

Somehow I just can't focus on the fact that I now can't work anywhere I can't bike to, unless I get the goddamn car fixed. So I've been spending my days loafing about the house, reacquainting myself with an old obsession, Microprose's Transport Tycoon Deluxe, perhaps the only game truly worthy of bearing the Tycoon name. And in the evenings when the sun dips below the houses across the street, then, and only then, do I get out the socket wrench.

Maybe my priorities aren't quite straight. The real reason I want to get the car fixed isn't necessarily so I can get back to work (although that certainly plays a part). I want to get back to FunWorld to do some more DDR. The $20 MadCatz PS2 pad I bought as an impulse buy is truly the embodiment of the phrase "you get what you pay for." You can't get home DDR pads that are even close to the arcade quality unless you build them yourself (I'm considering it) or pay $200 for high-quality ones like the metal pads offered by Red Octane and CobaltFlux. So I want to get back to the arcade, and I want to go spend some money at Borders, and waste an afternoon lounging around the mall and eating Ms Fields cookies and Auntie Anne pretzels.

When I first started driving, I hated it. I wouldn't drive anywhere I could walk to, and most of the time I still walk to a lot of places around town. I guess I've taken having a car for granted, since I never really missed it till it was gone. At least, I can get this back.

S.Y.I.H. KENNETH LAY, 1942-2006

It now appears that Kenneth Lay will not face any jail time at all. He died today of heart disease. This is just further proof, it seems, that the universe is not fair.

You will note the letters I have written rather than the traditional R.I.P. in front of the memorial. What it stands for should be fairly obvious. And fitting.

In recognition of this event, I present to you a poem, in the style of The Nation writer Calvin Trillin.

AN EXPLANATION AS TO WHY KENNETH LAY DIED BEFORE HIS SENTENCE WAS CARRIED OUT

A fingernail as black as night
on skin of crimson hue.
The prince of darkness sat and watched,
debating what to do.

"True, earthly hell Ken Lay will face,
as fits that son-of-a-bitch,"
Intoned the pondering devil, finger
hovering o'er a switch.

Twas known that Lay would go to jail,
or so the law defined,
But Satan was a-watching and
had other plans in mind.

"But should I take him from the earth,
to meet his mortal fate?"
A smirk criscrossed his scarlet lips,
"Ah hell. I just can't wait!

TALKING ABOUT WORK AND WAGES OVER THE WEEKEND

Before I Begin, let me say Happy Canada Day.

In a comment on a previous post, I mentioned that I would buy my brother and fellow blogger JnvReno lunch.

So yesterday we went out to Brick House Pizza.

And we had a wonderful time. (In case there's any ambiguity, I'm the one with the gray hat.)

And now the topic at hand.

Rather than spend a few days driving between numerous stores and restaurants asking for job applications, filling them out, and then returning them, I took the same path I took last summer, and went straight to a job placement agency, Diamond Staffing, and was able to get a job for my brother and I before the day was over.

We've been working there for about three weeks now. The place is a factory in Milford, New Hampshire, run by Saint-Gobain, a French-owned corporation with factories in many nations across the world. This particular factory is part of their ceramics division, and produces igniters for use in appliances made by such companies as Whirlpool, Amana, and Maytag.

My job is fairly simple. After the ceramic igniter has been cemented in place inside a larger ceramic block and sent through the oven to dry, I take the blocks off of racks, put on a metal shield over the delicate igniter part, and pass them on, a bin at a time, to the next part of the assembly line.

I'm not going to gloss over it; the job is mind-numbing. Between that and my inability to force myself to go to sleep at a reasonable hour, I'm having a hard time keeping my eyes open until lunch at 11:30. I can't really have an interesting conversation with anyone, since all the people I work with are southeast Asian immigrants, most likely living in Lowell, which has a large Cambodian and Vietnamese population. Most of them only know enough English for the bosses to be able to relay orders. Almost all the signs are written in both English and Vietnamese/Cambodian (again, not sure which).

At least at lunch, I can sit with my brother and we can talk. Since we both needed a job this summer, but we only have one car between us, we decided we'd work at the same place. We're going to try to work there all summer.

I think it's important for everyone in the country to work a blue collar job like this one. It makes you ask yourself a question: "Do I want to do this for the rest of my life?" It's motivation to get a good education, so you won't have to work blue collar. But also, it reminds you that there are people who have to do things like this. I think this is important because it could have an effect on white-collar crime: if a businessman understood what his workers have to worry about, he might not be as inclined to outsource people or cut wages, and we might prevent another Enron.
I think our president's failure to create ONE new job stems from his inability to understand that not everyone has had an education that includes prestigious names like Phillips Andover, Yale, and Harvard Business School. He just doesn't get the fact that they don't work at these places making minimum wage because they chose to.

And there's another thing: The minimum wage bill, proposed by Senator Ted Kennedy, failed 52 to 46. It would have raised the minimum wage to $7.25 an hour in three increments. We haven't gotten an increase to the federal minimum wage since 1998, and with gas prices rising to unimaginable levels, I think we need it. I don't specifically, since Massachusetts' state minimum is $6.75, with increases of $1.00 scheduled for september 2006 and September 2007. And the job at Saint-Gobain pays $9.25/hour anyway.

But I'm sure there's a family who's barely making rent right now, for whom an extra $84 dollars a week would be a godsend. Were those who voted against the bill thinking of them? I think they were thinking more of the businessmen whose votes they needed, for whom an increase in wages would constitute a decrease in the bottom line. One reason mentioned in an article
was that businesses would be more reluctant to hire people because of the prospect of increased cost of labor. I'm going to come out and say this now: Anyone who would not hire someone they need because the rest of their workforce is overloaded...is an asshole. I could come up with a more elegant way of putting it, but it's late and I want to get this post finished. If the company's bottom line is the motivation for denying someone a job, you're an asshole and you're going to lose more workers in the future.

My final thought on this issue: Democrats running for congress have a campaign issue now. "Such Andsuch voted against the minimum wage. Do you want him representing you in the Senate?"