Religion Versus Science: A Radical Departure

Religion and Science: A Radical Departure

 

When I was a child, my mother did a significant amount of baking.  I never saw the process, the actual work that went into a pie, cake or other dessert as I was at school much of the day, and before that too young to really understand.  I would come home from school and there would be an array, at different times, of cake, pies, cupcakes, cookies, platz, pasties and many more baked goods.  If at some point someone were to ask me how did that apple pie come into being.  My honest explanation would pure and simply have been it was made, or created by my mom.  To me it was a type of miracle, magic or the wizardry of creation.  The pie came from nowhere.  It just was.

This analogy of the maker of the pie reminds me of the Biblical creation story.  The world, flora, fauna Adam and Eve therefore,mankind came to be by an act of God. Just that there was no apparent methodology, in a week the universe was there.  People who buy into the literal interpretation of the Bible accept this on what they call faith.  Accepting on faith negates the need for facts or process.  Thing’s just appear, as did my mother’s pies.  They seemed to apparently materialize out of nowhere.

As I grew and became a sou chef of sorts and was able to handle recipes with ingredients or steps not exceeding 8, I began to realize in baking, food preparation and likely the creation of the Earth and its firmament, that they were brought into being via adistinct and definite process.  Later, I actually observed and then helped my mother bake and became part of that formerly mysterious process.  When I understood the steps, the process, the methods used it was no longer magical, just awe inspiring. I had greater love and respect for my mom the creator.  

Today we have a schism between the Bible and its literal stories that many people construe as historical fact.  Even stating that the Earth is not millions, or even billions of years old.  That the world-wide flood really happened and clearly implying that animals two by two were Fed-Exed from South America in order to survive the flood.  If there was no Fed- Ex or its equivalent in Biblical times was there at least a process by which animals in twos were delivered to the construction site of the ark?  

Faith would have us believe it just happened.  Even the tumbling of the Walls of Jericho had a process as did the linguistic changes surrounding the tower of Babble.  I suppose that if you deny the fact that the Universe may have come from the Big Bang and perhaps is the end of one universe and the beginning of another, that time is a man-made construct and is therefore meaningless in cosmic interpretations.  One must ask if the universe came from nowhere, where did God come from?  I digress.

I think the logic gets very confusing so my simple solution to bridge the faith/science schism is to accept that there is a God and, on most days, I’d like to believe that given my Mennonite background. Then maybe just maybe He/She used a process, if you exclude magic, or by just having things appear because he is all powerful.  Maybe, just maybe God set into motion the laws of physics and used them as a tool as He/She might have done with biology and evolution. 

My mom didn’t magically make pies and cakes appear.  She had a process and later a helper for what I was worth.  God (now a mother figure) used all of the laws of quantum mechanics, physics, biology, evolution to, over time, more than 4000 years, create the cosmos and the natural world in which we live. As a topical aside it takes man much less than 4000 years to totally ruin much of this work but that is material for another essay.  

My conclusion is that basically, God and science are but one or at least two sides of the same coin.  God did not make or develop science as a discipline.  Man did that part, simply over time and with great patience with God given talent studiedsystematically, using the scientific method, developed what we call the process and body of knowledge that we call science today.  It explains everything from gravity, evolution and smart phones.

What God made is the reality of gravity, the principles of evolution and the physical laws which govern the operation of a smart phone or anything else.  Man, just figures out a small part of the master plan and is still assembling the pieces.  People will accuse scientists and say, “You got it all wrong or you changed your mind,” and that is because, from our point of view, from mankind’s perspective, we are the students learning from the master and things do change as we learn more.  Science will continue to change as it reveals new truths.  It will never be static.

There is no schism between science and religion if you don’t want there to be.  God who came from nowhere used the principles of science to create everything.  This allows faith and science to merrily co-exist, no need to be persecuted or be burnt at the stake for heresy.  But you most certainly have to have a leap of faith to buy the integration of creation and science.  God would have it no other way.

Shelf Life

Shelf Life

 

We are the consumers of Wonder Bread, Cheese Whiz

Chemical laden processed foods with soft drink

Chasers, followed by smooth sugar snacks,

Our constant dessert companion.

 

Fast food, take-out-dinners, breakfast or lunch,

Via Uber-Eats or Skip the Dishes,

Obesity, out of shape, then we

Vape, smoke and take our one-a-day edibles

To liberate our minds.

 

Pollute the atmosphere, the oceans, the land

We swear its only a natural cycle, we have

No accountability, responsibility or blame. 

We spice our foods with flavor enhancers, Red Dye #9

Or a tasty selection, a range of yummy sulphites 220 to 228.

 

Nor do we ever tire of monosodium glutamate or

The ever-popular sodium nitrates,

We then complain about Fluoride in our water

And the “forced” use of beneficial vaccines.

“Not in my system!”

 

We OD with high levels of “street-level” fructose, 

corn syrup,

BHA or BHT and a host of other drugs,

Then loudly complain about Yoga and Pilate lessons,

Or even going for a walk, sitting in

Comfortable solidarity

As couch potatoes ever

Consuming hours of screen time, improving our minds

And our apposable thumb dexterity, truly a

Gift from evolution still

While devouring pizza from a box with Coke Zero

To promote weight loss.

 

As a species how is it, we are still here

Walking this slack tight rope, we call free choice

and life style?

At what point does resilience have a shelf life?

 

Social Media

Social Media

It use to take me much longer to read the Washington Post

These days its more opinion, less fact, more advertising

Truth isn’t what it use to be, it is not absolute

 now merely an abstraction filtered from multiple sources

 then filtered over and over again until the homogenized product

 is spewed out in sound bites for beginner ears on social media

 pre-determined by algorithms placing each an everyone of us

 into isolation bubbles of so called information, in turn it makes us

 angry and serves to divide us and lash out in anonymity against

 more anonymous enemies in every direction.  

There is no accountability, we doubt science and hail the truckers.

 We all then become disjointed versions of ourselves

 in an environment of discontent.

 Influencers may beat their children and be haled as virtuous, but

 we are convinced we are fully informed and righteous in our

 cause. We adapt the corporate good-speak in which employees

 are now associates, but we can’t raise the minimum wage.

We know there are solutions to every problem

 but with the high level of division they remain elusive just beyond

 grasp ever creating a cycle of frustration.

 The memes promote fossil fuels, regression,

 and status quo while mocking innovation and change. 

 

Conservatives sell their fear and very souls on every street corner,

while the rich hide the not- for- profit

 social solutions, promote and finance a mock democracy

 even if the candidates

 are not real and the results can never be verified, 

They let you believe it is forever power to the people.

It will all trickle down.

Pierre Poilievre Does not Listen to CBC

Pierre Poilievre does not listen to CBC

Pierre Poilievre spoke at the Conservative National Policy Convention in Quebec City on September 8th as if he were the incoming Prime Minister of Canada and perhaps he is just that.  Justin has had his eight year rule and in Amercan terms that is a done deal; so maybe he and the liberals should be looking for a more viable alternative.  I mean don’t get me wrong I am a liberal slash NDP guy myself. Having a minority party status with the two parties depending on each other I find brings out the best in each party while keeping the conservatives at bay frothing about truckers and pronouns.

But it might be time as politics does go in cycles, voting liberal then conservative, back and forth and it may be the portion of the cycle whereby with a new leadership and with product or brand fatigue the liberals put out a new product for longer shelf life.  However, I am not recommending Poilievre. I do find however that once the inevitable switch is made from a liberal to a conservative government, more out of fatigue and protest, that within a year people/voters are saying across “well informed” social media sources “look what those nefarious conservatives are doing cutting social programs. How dare they!  

In the second official language...

Quelle Surpris!

I would add just like they promised they would. Conservatives and Liberals alike do actually want to balance the books, but it is the conservatives that will attack education, health care, research and development, infrastructure, environment, Greenbelts and the like some very foundational mainstays of society and send a wake up call that reverberates through society begging the question what’s so good about a balanced economy I can’t even balance my credit card?

Isn’t that the situation with Ford in Ontario, the liberals may have gotten a little stale made a few mistakes the voters take a knee jerk reaction vote in the conservatives out of spite or to make a point and all of a sudden there goes the Green Belt, health care, and education.  However, the ads I see on TV these days sure paint a different picture. If I wasn’t an educator and I just saw those ads I’d say the conservatives were also in love with education.  They are not.

In theory everyone wants a balanced budget Mulroney, Cretien, Martin, Harper and now even Poilievre is saying that is our standard of good government.  Wild guess, but I think our country started in debt with the railroads and has continued in debt to this day. Have we ever been out of debt? Just putting it out there.  I would say debt is the norm for must households, most individuals and all countries, maybe not Norway.  Liberals and NDP would also like to be out of debt but this is more a rallying cry then anything remotely realistic. 

When Poilievre says to his people and others “Bring It Home”. What is he actually saying?  At the policy convention it appears it means  there should be “no surgical or medicinal interventions for gender diverse and transgender children”.  He and his party are quite clear on that issue.  Gender always seems to frighten conservatives for some reason many of them by virtue of their conservative natures get their solace from the bible, well need I go further as that goes into anti-science, no vaccines, faith and all the rest.

“Bring It Home” is a call against crime and for public safety as apparently presently there is chaos in the streets.  I was unaware of the crime wave but again that could just be my sheltered life style and white privilege.  I think though that conservatives do like to play the fear card when they can.  Fear and emotionally based decisions rather than facts and analytical problem solving seems to be their “go to”.  

Poilievre has a lot to say about the cost of living but in reality much of that is out of the scope of the Canadian economy.  None the less he calls for, in his words, “a common sense conservative government that frees hard working people to earn powerful pay cheques that buy affordable food, gas and homes in safe communities, or the alternative is Trudeau’s costly coalition.”

Really who could disagree with such an emotionally charged motherhood statement as that, it would be like hating puppies.  It is so universal it is practically a useless statement other than its super charged emotional appeal created by the contrast at the end.  He gives an alternative implying that Trudeau, liberals and NDP stand for all of the opposites.  It shows a lack of respect for logic and his opponents.

He wishes to incentivize cities to build more houses, provinces to develop more resources while at the same time scraping the carbon tax a defunding the libtard CBC.  He seems to be moving in many directions, while some of these issues are hot ticket items and need to be done I’m still not certain as to how conservatives would handle environmental issues, or if its even on their radar. And why CBC? Is it simply too liberal? Conservatives don’t listen or watch it, or simply don’t relate to it or understand it? 

Pierre’s wife, Anaida, made an appearance at the conference as well making it apparent that the couple have simple roots and have struggled themselves. She particularly singled out her support for nurses and plumbers and of course TRUCKERS.  Red flag, the so called “Freedon Convoy”.  Pierre did not condemn, or criticize it in any way, in fact he went out of his way to support it.  The truckers and their supporters gave him a flood of support in return. I simply question a leader and a party who does not recognize science, in this case determines that the freedom of the individual supersedes the common good in terms of pandemic control.  Its likely the single issue that swept him into power so quickly.  He won’t let this gem drop. 

My fear with the conservatives, this leadership, the truckers and their supporters is that with the next pandemic, when it comes, it will likely be more powerful and because of the divisiveness created and the mind set developed through pick up trucks waving Canadian flags people will question, debate and fight before they do anything productive about protecting society from another virus.  But I guess if you drive a big rig and you lead a bunch of conservatives you also understand how to divide and conquer.

In the near future should you willingly or through a protest vote or otherwise vote conservatives into power and you subsequently observe education, health care, and green belts being dismantled science disregarded and there is no CBC to listen to as you drive to work in a more polluted world.  Just remember who brought it all home.  

But what do I know I listen to CBC.

Marty Rempel

Our Illiterate AI Future

Our Illiterate AI Future

 

Technology is in a constant state of evolution and change and we can either move with it and accept it or protest and rage against the machine.  However, I do think there is something to say for a smooth transition as well.  I look back to my own prehistoric past when programming was done using Fortran on decks of punched computer cards. One of the first real video games, Pong, was played by connecting to a large TV console which allowed players to engage in a crude version of tennis. I played my first “electronic game” with a suitcase size console connected with alligator clips to a traditional landline, in turn connected to a room-sized computer at my university.  It was a game of golf that gave me feedback via a dot matrix printer. It was amazing!

 

In my elementary grades I was required to learn multiplication tables, do long division and mental math problems and as a result, although never a math whiz, I could do mathematical estimations, and even do magical wizardry like give change when I worked as a cashier in a fast food restaurant. The pace of life has moved on at warp speed leaving my childhood in the technological dark ages. Toys and even computers I first played with are now artifacts and museum pieces.  It is a humbling experience.

 

Technology of course is instrumental in serving us up a certain quality of life, but I believe at an increasing cost as today the most recent changes revolve around progress in artificial intelligence (AI).  It is both invigorating and frightening at the same time.  As a student and now as an educator I know first hand that it has always been easy for students to cheat and plagiarize.  In this new era we as educators are open to new levels of threat in these arenas never before realized, so is this modern marvel of technology, AI, here to save us, or to destroy us?

 

Apps like ChatGPT and others like it can now generate reports, essays and any form of writing, and style within seconds utilizing any content implementing the collective knowledge and ignorance amassed on the internet.  To date it won’t engage on political or religious topics but it does seem to have strong “opinions” about “Flat Earthers”.  I have enjoyed my time engaging with and I don’t know whether to address AI as friend or enemy at this point.

 

Students have been using calculators, translators and other devices for years and as a result has this had the net result of strengthening, or weakening their math and writing skills?  In the final analysis are these new technologies just new tools  to play with in order that our students can be even better researchers and writers, or are they crutches that bring the whole academic system crashing down?

 

I’d like to say time will tell, but the fact of the matter is time, in this case, moves so quickly and change of this nature is so rapid we do not have the luxury to let this scenario idly play out and then one day,  from an armchair, casually and leisurely draw our conclusions.  By then fate has been sealed and AI may be calling the shots as it may be smarter than the collective by that time.  

 

My own impressions are that many of the new technologies that do the work for us, bring us information and “knowledge” at high speeds, in the end warp our education, influence our bias, slow our senses, cloud our judgements, pollute our politics, weaken our democracy, spread hate and generally act as the change agent that weakens and erodes.  Although, I hasten to add I have seen many funny cat memes.

 

I don’t wish to be labelled luddite and therefore recognize that AI is also an inevitability. Therefore, we must learn how to understand it and use it for a tool to expand our abilities.  I say this however reluctantly and with very little optimism.  My real fear is, as I look at a society that is presently mathematical illiterate, with its smart phones, social media and the rest and progressing towards being socially illiterate as we fixate on our devices and monitors for endless hours, we are about to enter the era of actual illiteracy in a written sense.  

 

As an aside cursive writing is long gone, now we will begin the much more important, real and rapid loss of the ability of writing actual sentences based on research, real thought, while personally formulating opinions with meaning on a range of relevant topics.  I doubt if we will be able to react smart enough and fast enough to integrate AI effectively into educational systems in such a way that we can adequately measure adapt and control standards of use and control it in acceptable ways before IT controls us.

 

This essay was written by ChatGPT, using a translator and spell check, or was it?

 

Marty Rempel

Live Artillery Shells as Metaphor

 

Live Artillery Shells as Metaphor

 

When I was a kid I didn’t know I was poor and I guess I didn’t really care.  I wasn’t truly aware of differences until junior high and then of course the high school years changed everything. But while engulfed in the glorious innocence of the elementary grades I think I was pretty much oblivious to differences and how kids played was a universal of outdoor joy especially in the summer months.  I do however remember wanting, and at a very early age, a metal pedal car like some of my affluent friends had a few streets over, where my mother would baby sit, at a dollar an hour, the going rate at the time.  

 

To compensate my father made me my own car totally out of wood complete with wooden wheels.  It was like a miniature version of the Flintstones’ car which ironically hadn’t been invented yet.  My friends, or initially on the maiden voyage, my father, pushed me along the sidewalk with me steering my little automobile with a makeshift rope steering wheel. My dad provided the forward muscle power using a long shaft from a broken hockey stick attached to the back of the car and away we went. Joy on wheels at a budget price made from scrap wood all from my Dad’s basement workshop.

 

My Dad also built us a huge playhouse, several treehouses, later when I was in track and field events he made me high jump stands, magically found a bamboo pole from somewhere and converted my sandbox into a sandpit for soft landings.  It may be that he just loved to build things or he really loved his kids, or perhaps a little of both. The point is we were happy.  I know I was crazy happy even without the metal pedal car.  

 

I think the other thing is as kids we also knew how to play.  My friends and I could amuse ourselves with very little, a cardboard box was sufficient for entertainment.  We didn’t get much for Christmas and so curiosity, inventiveness and a little trouble seeking were our options and incentives for entertainment and adventure.  We could organize team sports without parental assistance.  We pitched tents in the backyard and camped out while roaming the neighbourhood and beyond at night seeking high adventures. We went on biking expeditions to Niagara-on-the Lake and once even a week long trip to Lake Huron to a friend’s cottage whose family did own a cottage.

 

My father who grew up in the Ukraine had even less as a child to play with and likely he and his brothers did more with less because they had no choice.  They grew up during the Russian Revolution when life was tough and life threatening.  My father told me grim stories of growing up during that time that made me feel I was living in the wonder years.  He and his brothers’ idea of play or mischief was to wander on to a former battlefield and gather up discarded sabres, rifles and even shell cases and other souvenirs of war while meandering amongst the dead soldiers fallen on the fields.  Just as I never confessed my sins to my parents, nor did my dad and his brothers tell their parent’s about the collection of weapons they had accumulated and hidden away during “play”.

 

Its actually a miracle I was even born given the fact that as a kid my father and my Uncle Henry enjoyed the pass time of taking unfired, or so-called dead artillery shells and throwing them in a fire to see what would happen, or taking a rock and hitting them on the active end to see if they could get a reaction.  The fact that I am here and my dad and my uncles made it to Canada eventually tells of their lack of success with their experiments.  Given the circumstances it was their version of independent play, it did nurture curiosity and they did live to tell the tale.  Every generation has its challenges, its quirks and even near death experiences.

 

The other night two of my grandkids came over for our Sunday night family dinner.  They walked in made straight for the couch lay down, took out their smart phones and started up with their games. Today’s kids often define play as gaming and interacting or socializing as that time spent online.  Once I had finished the manly art of barbecuing the meat for our dinner I took the kids outside in order to show them “something” in the garage.  

 

The first response was,”Why did we have to put our shoes and stuff on to go outside to come into the garage when we could have come through the house?”

 

“Because I wanted to show you something”. I picked up my Tommy Bahama frisbee and said I thought we could go out front and toss the frisbee around.”

 

I got a reluctant, “Sure” for my efforts.

 

With some further reluctance we went to the street and began throwing the frisbee badly. 

 

“Snap the wrist”, I  instructed.

 

Gradually, we were getting it and only hit the neighbour’s car three times.  Amazing how much a frisbee hurts when your fingers are cold, but we were making progress.  The oldest one, 12, found three excuses to go in during our brief play, obviously a weak bladder, or he couldn’t relate to non-virtual play.  

 

Each time Grandma kicked him back out.  We lasted until dinner was called and just before the neighbour came to check on his car.  I think it was a marginal success.  But one battle does not win a war.

 

 

It is with some sadness as a parent, grandfather, and teacher I look to the current generation with a sigh and think they too have their burden to bare as well. I played with  home built wooden cars, my dad live artillery shells, perhaps a bad choice.  This present younger generation has their ubiquitous screens of every size shape and design, so perhaps not so much poverty they face or the shame of a home build toy or the adrenaline rush of a real bomb, but the frightening future of being robbed of real thoughtful, inquisitive, creative play in a society that routinely enables them.  

Gender and Geriatric Profiling in North Carolina

Gender and Geriatric Profiling in North Carolina

 

For the purposes of this article I define profiling as any action undertaken for reasons of safety security or public protection that relies on stereotyping based on race, colour, ethnicity, ancestry, age, gender, religion or place or origin.  It is quite different from criminal profiling in that criminal profiling is based on actual behaviour, or on information about suspected behaviour based on someone who meets the description of a potential suspect.

 

The call had crackled over the radio that a grey Outback with out of state licence plates from the province of Ontario had been seen driving erratically leaving Kitty Hawk heading north to Duck and Corolla.  Officers were advised to pursue, follow and apprehend suspects before they entered Duck.

 

As the driver of the Outback I noticed that a car had been following me for sometime and I found that quite annoying, but I also knew on this winding twisting road leading into Duck it was difficult to pass .  

‘

The radar at the side of the road told me I was actually going too slow so I sped up, but on approach to Duck the speed limit was only 25 so I slowed down again.  It was then that the car close behind for so long flashed its glorious blue and red lights indicating that I should pull over.  This I did as soon as possible.

 

There was a long pause before the officer emerged from his unmarked SUV cruiser and walked to Cheryl’s side of the car.  He was very imposing in his grey uniform with every conceivable belt, pouch, flashlight that a man could carry.  His service revolver was in plain sight across his chest and could come into quick play if needed.

 

He bent down with an air of authority and familiarity gazing in and noting our Starbuck’s cappuccinos, the navigational screen indicating our route, the rear of the car loaded with suitcases, then looking at my wife and I certain that he took in the details of our grey hair, our age and defenceless unassuming natures.

 

All this in three seconds and then in a masculine also authoritative voice he said, “May I have your licence and registration.”

 

I gave them to him without comment.  My fight or flight response long deactivated.

 

Officer Warren, he had a convenient name tag, said in his second exchange.  “I’ll just check these out on my onboard computer and be back shortly.”

 

I was hyper-ventilating slightly so Cheryl offered to do all of the talking when the officer returned.

 

“Yeah, won’t that look suspicious, what if he sees the out of date handicapped sticker? Is that a felony misdemeanour punishable my death in North Carolina?”

 

My attempt at humour failed as constable Warren returned and in a very chirpy friendly demeanour returned my documentation and proceeded to tell me why he pulled me over.

 

“It was really your erratic speed. You were slow than drove fast, then slow again so I got a little nervous about your driving ability and cognition, but then after I stopped you I noticed you were drinking Starbucks and your GPS show the Hilton; so I think we all all good to go here.  Have a good day, a good rest of your trip as I can see you are nearly at your destination.”

 

I paused for a moment thinking of my good fortune with not getting a ticket but the outrage of this blatant example of profiling just because we were old, white and middle class was no reason that a white cop should just let me off the hook for low speed erratic driving. This was an outrage!

 

I was thinking if any black or latino driver tried this shit he would probably have a citation or worse by now.  Confused and angry at the injustice of it all I drove off at low speed erratically showing my wild side, but Constable Warren was long gone, probably chasing down some other crazy geriatric driving slowly and erratically in the other direction.