Evolution, Singapore, Society, Religion

In the concluding section of Jerry Coyne's lecture, data was presented which suggests that the progress of a society is strongly correlated with its abandonment of superstitious beliefs.

This makes sense. When society is a painful place to be in, people resort to religion to soothe the pain, and to give themselves a hope. In advanced societies, in which citizens are secure and well taken care of, there would be less reason to resort to belief in religions which provide hope and a Ray of Comfort.

It is hoped that as Singapore progresses, that she can abandon the religions which she started off with. This can lead to a more enlightened society as well as a more caring one. A society which really cares for the people rather than one which merely provides ideology to soothe the pain.

This chart depicts the public acceptance of evolution theory in 34 countries in 2005.

Enjoyed Lawrence Krauss' lecture

Didn't really understand everything, but it was inspiring.

Or was it inspiring because I didn't understand everything?

I found his attitude honest, about the fact that there's still so much more that needs to be discovered, and so much that may never be known.

The stars are billions of light years away, and what we see is what they were billions of years ago. Imagine we can observe an alien civilisation a million light years away. As of this moment, they would probably have already died out. If we flew there in a spaceship, by the time we reached them, even the ruins might have disintegrated.

Oh, and The Hardon Collider! Very funny, Richard.

P.S. I'm glad Lawrence Krauss chose to lecture on this topic; it's another answer to my prayer, I mean question, which I posted in June.

Email from a Christian

Here's something I found noteworthy. In this message a Christian who no longer believes in God but still goes to church, explains why he's still a Christian.

Hi XXX,

I'm afraid you are mistaken. I have already shown that "accepting" the Nicene Creed does not have to mean believing in the entire thing. I have shown examples from the ruling of the Archbishop of Canterbury on this issue. Perhaps I didn't make myself clear and will strive to do so now. most Christians know that the Virgin birth doctrine comes from an error in translation. The Gospel of Matthew used the Septuagint which translated Isaiah to read "And a virgin shall be with child". Matthew then cooks up a whole lot of story to make Jesus appear to have been born of a virgin. But all scholars will tell you that Isaiah makes no mention of a virgin. The word "alma" which means "young woman" was wrongly translated as "parthenos" in the Septuagint which means virgin.

Everyone who's knowledgeable about the Bible knows of this mistranslation. Fundamentalists try now to pretend that "alma" means "virgin" but that's a lie. I can prove that "alma" does not mean virgin and can refer to Hebrew scholars and Jewish rabbis who know what their own Old Testament mean.

But in progressive churches like the Anglican and Methodist churches, the entire clergy knows of this and that is why the Archbishop of Canterbury has ruled that Christians need not believe in the Virgin birth. But did he change the Nicene Creed? No! We still say "We believe .... [Jesus was] born of the Virgin Mary..."

What does that tell you? It tells you that you don't have to believe the strict words of the Nicene Creed. You just accept the Creed by reciting it but as the Archbishop has said, you don't have to believe the virgin birth which is what the Creed says you believe.

I hope this is now clear. I have the stamp of approval from the Archbishop of Canterbury that you don't have to believe in the precise words of the Creed.

You see, the truth is belief is not an important thing. It's only important to fundamentalists. There are enough bishops and clergymen in the Anglican church and Methodist church who do not even believe in a real living God with independent thoughts. If belief were such an important issue, they should be defrocked and excommunicated.

Why then do all the atheists in this list and on many forums that I've been to insist that belief is so important in Christianity? That's because their experience of Christianity is largely from constant exposure to fundamentalists. Fundamentalists are usually the loud ones in any religion. They are the ones who will try to take over secular societies, as any Singaporean will be able to testify. In the AWARE incident, who stopped those fundamentalists? The clergy from the Anglican church spoke up against them. It's always the clergy who will stop the ignorant masses.

Your next point that we should all call ourselves Paulians instead of Christians. That is a valid point. But names depend on usage. You can't change these things overnight. Everyone knows that Pauline Christianity was very different from what was taught by Jesus and the Apostles (I mean the real apostles who walked with Jesus and not Paul). But we know from history that Pauline Christianity won the day. Bart Ehrman (that great New Testament scholar) gave very good reasons why Pauline Christianity won over Jesus' Christianity but I won't go into that. Today, even if real followers of Jesus existed, we'd call them Jews and not Christians. We just have to stick to the world's convention today and by universal convention, Pauline Christianity is the only Christianity now.

Cheers,

YYY

Birds and Dinosaurs

After reading Jerry Coyne's introductory chapter, I wonder if it would be more accurate to say that bipedal dinosaurs and birds shared a common ancestor than to claim that dinosaurs evolved into birds.

Karen Armstrong agrees with Richard Dawkins

Richard Dawkins has been right all along, of course—at least in one important respect. Evolution has indeed dealt a blow to the idea of a benign creator, literally conceived. It tells us that there is no Intelligence controlling the cosmos, and that life itself is the result of a blind process of natural selection, in which innumerable species failed to survive. The fossil record reveals a natural history of pain, death and racial extinction, so if there was a divine plan, it was cruel, callously prodigal and wasteful. Human beings were not the pinnacle of a purposeful creation; like everything else, they evolved by trial and error and God had no direct hand in their making. No wonder so many fundamentalist Christians find their faith shaken to the core.

– Karen Armstrong, Wall Street Journal

Yet another missing link has been found.

It's confirmed. The little birds you see outside your window used to terrify planet earth with thunderous steps.

Evolution is amazing.

Orang Swing

Went to the zoo the other day.

So this is how orangs play with their children.