Alright, that was a bit of a tongue-in-cheek, teaser headline to reel you in, but it wasn’t totally pointless. I wanted to make an analogy that will probably help you understand why it’s okay to not have all of the answers around the evolution of the universe and still not be religious. Most people that I know who are, by their own admission, "apathetic about religion, but still believe in god", do so mainly because they haven’t found the holy grail (pun intended :) ) of the evolution theory. While science has undeniable facts around the history of the universe and has very cohesive, albeit complex theories about how a universe can be formed and destroyed, it hasn’t tied every single loose end, like recreating the big bang (though, as we speak, the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) in Switzerland is trying to do just that) or dark matter, etc. And that gives these religious fanatics enough of an excuse to debunk the rest of the theories by saying that since we cannot conclusively prove or recreate this process, it must not be true.
That’s where our analogy comes in. Let’s say we have a chimp, which is the closest relative to man that we know of (clue #1 for evolution, but that’s a different topic). Let’s say this chimp is smart… smarter than his other chimp brothers. Let’s say he can do cool tricks and arrange colors and numbers and even do simple math. And then let’s say we try to teach this chimp calculus. Not just basic calculus, but the whole nine yards. We teach it every possible derivate, integral, limit, etc. Does anyone expect it to learn any of it? No… not possible. Not by the chimp as we know it today. The reason is that a chimp, even a smart one, is limited by it’s genetic makeup. It is incapable of understanding complex concepts like calculus.
But that does not mean that calculus is not real or cannot be understood by a higher intelligence (read man… well, some people at least!)
That’s the same reasoning I use for humans understanding and explaining all of cosmology and astronomy. Just because we cannot piece together every last piece of the puzzle doesn’t mean it’s not true. Maybe we are limited by our powers of understanding and we are incapable of conceiving of something as complicated as the creation of a universe! Maybe the secret lies in a new dimension that we are yet to discover or might never do since our 6 senses do not allow for this new dimension to be recognized or measured! Maybe we are the chimp trying to figure out the calculus of the universe and we are genetically incapable of doing so.
But it still does not mean that the theories of evolution that have been proved so far and the facts of the universe (and multiverse) are false or optional. The only thing limiting us from accepting these facts and using it to propel us forward is this dangerous, abysmal, controlling stories of religion and the consequences of not following "the rules". The sooner we recognize the dangers of believing in these types of backward ideologies, the better off we will be as a species.
Feb 27, 2012
Feb 9, 2012
Making decisions based on future inevitability
This topic applies to both politics and life in general. It may sound a bit confusing, but stay with me for a minute. Every day we come across people debating issues. Roe vs. Wade, gay rights, equality of pay for women, space exploration, etc. There never seems to be an end to these debates since each person is extremely convinced about their position. I’m not here to question the validity of each of these issues; I’m just trying to present a different approach to solving these issues.
Instead of arguing about what’s currently right and wrong or what currently makes sense and doesn’t, it’s very important to look forward into the future to see what the inevitable outcome of these issues will be. To understand this argument, let’s analyze the past for a second. Let’s take slavery or civil rights. There was a big debate (heck, an actual war!!) about whether slaves should be freed and later on whether blacks should have equal rights. Instead of arguing and fighting about it, if they had stopped and realized that this slavery system will not last forever and that eventually people will either rebel or there will be a majority who believe that they should be free, then they could have used that information to make their decision. It’s almost like having a crystal ball to see into the future and accept the eventuality of certain issues NOW instead of resisting it.
Take that principle and apply it to 2 big issues of today’s political diversity in this country: abortion rights and gay rights. Anyone with an ounce of common sense will tell you that these are the civil rights issues of the 21st century and that it’s only a matter of time before pro-choice and gay marriages become the norm and not the exception. The people who are opposing that today will be made fun of and ridiculed in a couple of decades. If they can see that now, maybe they can accept this eventuality sooner and save all of us a lot of time!
If you think about it, technology does that in almost every field. Most technological advances are made by looking into the future and coming up with ideas that are not currently feasible, but are inevitable and then working towards that. Putting a man on the moon is a classic example. Concept cars are the main drivers of future car technology. Sci fi movies have pretty much inspired most of the technology that we see today! It’s a practically proven technique; why can’t we apply that to make some of the moral decisions as well?
People who oppose the inevitable simply just have their heads in the sand. Unfortunately, there are enough of them.
Instead of arguing about what’s currently right and wrong or what currently makes sense and doesn’t, it’s very important to look forward into the future to see what the inevitable outcome of these issues will be. To understand this argument, let’s analyze the past for a second. Let’s take slavery or civil rights. There was a big debate (heck, an actual war!!) about whether slaves should be freed and later on whether blacks should have equal rights. Instead of arguing and fighting about it, if they had stopped and realized that this slavery system will not last forever and that eventually people will either rebel or there will be a majority who believe that they should be free, then they could have used that information to make their decision. It’s almost like having a crystal ball to see into the future and accept the eventuality of certain issues NOW instead of resisting it.
Take that principle and apply it to 2 big issues of today’s political diversity in this country: abortion rights and gay rights. Anyone with an ounce of common sense will tell you that these are the civil rights issues of the 21st century and that it’s only a matter of time before pro-choice and gay marriages become the norm and not the exception. The people who are opposing that today will be made fun of and ridiculed in a couple of decades. If they can see that now, maybe they can accept this eventuality sooner and save all of us a lot of time!
If you think about it, technology does that in almost every field. Most technological advances are made by looking into the future and coming up with ideas that are not currently feasible, but are inevitable and then working towards that. Putting a man on the moon is a classic example. Concept cars are the main drivers of future car technology. Sci fi movies have pretty much inspired most of the technology that we see today! It’s a practically proven technique; why can’t we apply that to make some of the moral decisions as well?
People who oppose the inevitable simply just have their heads in the sand. Unfortunately, there are enough of them.
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