The Great Debate

Several years ago I posted on this issue on Sarah's blog and now I'm bringing it to my own blog. It really doesn't have to do with politics but I haven't had politics on my mind lately. I've been thinking more about baseball and my work (in that order).

EVOLUTION!!

Here's what I mean by evolution - the change in the inherited traits of a population of organisms caused by naturally occuring alterations in the genetic component of the organism.

As a scientist I think about these things a great deal. Very little in the biological sciences makes sense outside of the context of evolution especially in my field of immunology and infectious diseases. As a Christian scientist I think about these things even more than most scientists I imagine. Why? I've been a serious student of biology for 12 years now. I have seen astounding evidence in support of organic evolution. I also have been taught, and sincerely believe, that God is the creator. I suppose I should feel some kind of conflict within my heart as these two ideas are presented as mutually exclusive explanations for the variation among species, but I just don't. I think the theories of evolution are not necessarily at odds with revealed truth. Many church leaders in the early 20th century (when this topic became hotly discussed) thought so as well.

One thing is simply not debatable. Evolution occurs. That is not open to question. Why else do we need flu shots each year? Where do drug-resistant bacteria come from? That's evolution. Evolution is a fact. I suppose alot of people have a hard time going from micro-evolution to macro-evolution, that the physical body of man evolved from a less complex species. I don't have a problem going from one to the other because the basic principles are the same. I'm not married to the idea but the evidence leans very strongly in that direction and I'm not offended by the idea because I know that this body of mine wasn't actually created by God in the literal sense anyway. And I know that this body doesn't represent who I really am. Plus, my body is going to undergo some pretty fantastic changes (yes, Sarah it will get even better) after its resurrection so why should I be insulted by the notion that my body represents a step in the evolutionary process?

Some people I know have used scripture verses as a basis for their opposition to evolutionary theory. That's foolish. The scriptures aren't a science text. God's purpose in showing the creation to Moses was NOT to demonstrate how he did it. Moses would NEVER have understood that. God's purpose was to let Moses know 1) God's omnipotence, and 2) mankind's relation to God. I don't like when people use scriptures to make a point that the scriptures aren't meant to make. Scripture is for answering the questions of 1) who are we?, 2) why are we here?, 3) how do we need to live to have a glorious resurrection. I love this quote from an official explanation of the church's view of evolution:

"Leave geology, biology, archaeology and anthropology, none of which has to do with the salvation of the souls of mankind, to scientific research."

The church is saying 'look, ultimately it doesn't matter whether evolution is right or wrong. As a church we're only concerned with what happens AFTER all of that.'

Now a little about the earth's creation. We know that the earth, as it appears today, does not resemble the earth that was formed "in the beginning." One thing that baffles me is that many religious folk have no beef with the idea that the Grand Canyon was carved out by a river and that the islands of Hawaii sprang out of the ocean originally as volcanoes. No, most people don't have a problem recognizing that natural processes account for the geology of the earth while continuing to believe that God created it. Yet, suggest that a natural occurrence, a "Big Bang", explains the origins of planet earth and suddenly you've blasphemed. Do these people believe that God waved His arms and the earth simply was? We know that's false. God does not create de novo, rather He created the earth out of matter that already existed. So if God leaves the earth to be shaped by natural occurrences now, why wouldn't he create it using natural occurrences? After all, isn't God the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow? See? I think evolutionary theory and the Big Bang theory are not only the best explanation for the origins of earth and life on earth given our current understanding but actually perfectly in accordance with what we know about God's characteristics and how He works. Besides, if you understand biology and find those things interesting then evolution is actually very beautiful and majestic. A God who can weave an intricate creation such that mankind is the end result of a process put into place billions of years previously is truly a God that is deserving of our reverence and obedience.

I find it interesting that the church maintains a position of neutrality on the issue of organic evolution. They are, on the other hand, adamant that we are literally spirit sons and daughters of God, a premise that I have no qualms with whatsoever. In fact, that supports my earlier point. My spirit was literally created by God in it's present form. My body? A completely different story. I don't imagine that during the course of earth's mortal existence God will see fit to reveal the method by which the human body came into being. I'm sure it will surpass even current evolutionary theory in its intricacy and grandeur but I won't be surprised to see that we humans had at least a few things correct.

A popular opposing view is intelligent design. Intelligent design has lots of flaws, the most prominent in my mind being that they use scientific examples of complexity (such as the eye or bacterial flagellae)to make the point that these systems couldn't have evolved independently. Well, science has successfully refuted both of those examples. The components of the eye and the bacterial flagellae have been demonstrated to have a role outside of their primary functions. The point here is that we do Christianity and God a disservice if we explain away very complex things by saying 'well, God did it.' That's true, but science advances very rapidly and will soon have a better explanation than 'God did it.' Does the scientific explanation mean that God didn't do it? No, but it does mean that God works with the laws of nature to accomplish His creative efforts.

Well, I've got alot more to say on this topic but I've got to save something for the comments.

Local Memphis Racism, ur, I Mean Politics

Memphis and Shelby County comprise Tennessee's 9th Congressional District. It's a heavily democratic district. Our current representative is Steve Cohen. He's the dummy who compared Obama to Christ because Christ was a "community organizer" (I wasn't aware of that) and he compared Palin to Pilate because they were both governors. Oh that Steve Cohen is so funny.

But his opponent in the district's democratic primary this month was loooooooong time Memphis mayor Willie Herenton. His nickname is King Willie because he was the mayor for so long. Willie is black man and Cohen is a white man. Those kinds of things are relevant in Memphis because the race card is really popular here. The former mayor Herenton is a scathing racist, he has made ridiculous remarks about whites and despite supporting Steve Cohen's first bid for Congress, he ran against Cohen on the premise that "only a black man can represent Tennessee's 9th district" given the demographics of the area. His campaign theme was "Just One", referring to the need for just one black man from TN in DC.

For the record Steve Cohen walloped Herenton in the primary, winning with nearly 80% of the vote. I was happy about that although I don't really like Steve Cohen at all. In November his Republican opponent will be Charlotte Bergmann, a Memphis native and strong business leader who has been named TN Business Woman of the Year both nationally and by the state of TN. Oh, yes, I should mention Miss Bergmann is black. Enter the race card. Steve Cohen who called out Herenton's use of the race card in the democratic primary has suddenly decided to try to use it to his advantage. Herenton refused to debate Cohen during the primary. A strategy which Cohen decried and no doubt led to his landslide victory. But suddenly Cohen has decided that HIS opponent is not worthy of a debate. Why would Cohen suddenly not want a debate? Remember, this is Memphis. The answer is race of course.

Here is Cohen's reason for not wanting to debate Bergmann:

"Neither she nor Sidney Chism understand the African-American voter. If she understood (them), she wouldn’t be running on an extreme platform that works totally against the interests of the African-American community.”

This is basically the same tactic of race-based politics that Herenton tried to use against Cohen. Now he's using it against his opponent. Only he's trying to get Memphis to believe that an African-American native Memphian knows less about the district that him - a white guy from New York.

So Cohen hate debate-dodgers and race-baiters when it worked for him and now has BECOME a debate-dodger and a race-baiter. I can't WAIT to vote against this guy.

I'm Feeling Old Today

In the late-80s to mid-90s I had three sports heroes. 1st baseman for the Phillies, Von Hayes, 3rd baseman for the Phillies (an incredibly classy guy and probably the greatest 3rd baseman EVER), Mike Schmidt, and catcher for the Phillies Darren Daulton. Mike Schmidt is probably my favorite baseball player of all time despite my current man-crush (and inspiration for my youngest son's name) second baseman Chase Utley.

The peak of Daulton's career was 1990-1994 and he was pivotal to the Phillies' run to the World Series in 1993. I can still name most of the players from that team that lost the Series in dramatic fashion to the Blue Jays. I can still see in my head the homerun blast to left field hit by Toronto great Joe Carter that ended the game and the Series. Mitch Williams was the inconsistent Phils' pitch who threw the fateful pitch. I was devastated. I was only 16.

Well Darren Daulton was inducted into the Philadelphia Phillies hall-of-fame over the weekend and I realize how strange it is to see the baseball greats from my youth getting inducted into halls-of-fame or go on to become coaches/managers. For the record, Daulton wasn't great enough to be enshrined in Cooperstown but he meant a whole lot to the Phillies. By the late 90s, his knees had begun to crap out (as they do most catchers) and he moved on to play for the Florida Marlins. He even won a World Series with them in 1997. I'm getting older I suppose and seeing Darren Daulton honored in Philly brings back memories of 1993. 1993 was a gem of a year for a young Phillies fan. Kids today are growing up at a time when the Phillies are a very successful organization. When their lineup is peppered with superstars. They've been to two consecutive World Series, having won one of them. It's exciting. But when I was a kid the Phillies were a joke. Their stadium was the laughing stock of the league, their fans were awful, and the team was very poor. So 1993 was one moment of glory for me. Then came 2008. The Phillies had been improving year-by-year between 2005 and 2007 so that by 2008 expectations were huge. And they delivered with a World Series championship. It felt like 1993 all over again to me and I remembered those old days. Yes, baseball is inextricably connected to memories of my youth and it's got a way of making me feel how quickly the years fly. Long live the great game of baseball! And long live the memory of Darren Daulton even if he is a freak who can't "remember" to pay speeding tickets and he believes that he has "skipped through time" and that he will someday "blast into space."

When Fascism Came To America

Let's first define fascism as it rose out of Italy in the early 1900s and spread across Europe and even into the US. Before Mussolini was a hated tyrant he was quite popular even here. Fascism was an ideology that was sweeping the world; it was all the rage. Before I define it I will be clear in my denunciation of fascism as extreme evil. Fascism is an authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists believe that a nation requires authoritarian leadership and a collective identity. Cultural ideals are what give individuals identity and thus they reject individualism. They justify totalitarianism as a means of representing the collective will of the nation. They believe that the ability and will to commit violence and wage war is what keeps a nation strong. War regenerates the national spirit and vitality. Fascist movements have often held social Darwinist views, believing that nations must be purged of socially and biologically weak individuals in order for the nation to advance. Eugenics, euthanasia, and abortion are all used by fascist states to mold society. Fascist nations have pursued policies of social indoctrination through propaganda machines. Education is designed to glorify the state and purge ideas that are not consistent with the fascist movement and to teach students to obey the state. Therefore, fascism is anti-intellectual. Facists implemented price controls, wage controls, and other economic interventionist policies. FDR, himself, implemented price and wage controls before the Supreme Court thankfully saw that for what it truly was. Fascism has been implemented all across the world and the specifics have varied from place to place but those are some of the common traits.

So did fascism ever get a footing here? Oh, you know it did! Our fascist dictator's name was Woodrow Wilson. You've probably heard alot of good about Wilson. He is often ranked as one of our 10 best presidents. Hardly. Never has a man sat in the Oval Office who had such disdain for the Constitution and Declaration of Independence. History has been conveniently omitted.

Let's read some of Wilson's own words. These date from the 1890s through his presidency:

"I cannot imagine power as a thing negative and not positive."

"No doubt a lot of nonsense has been talked about the inalienable rights of the individual, and a great deal that was mere sentiment and pleasing speculation has been put forward as fundamental principle."

"The President is at liberty, both in law and conscience, to be as big a man as he can. His capacity will set the limit."

"The competent leader of men cares little for the internal niceties of other people’s characters: he cares much–everything–for the external uses to which they may be put…. He supplies the power; others supply only the materials upon which that power operates…. It is the power which dictates, dominates; the materials yield. Men are as clay in the hands of the consummate leader."

Do you hear the fascism in those words? Oh there's more. Wilson created the nation's first propaganda machine, the Committee on Public Information. But Troy, you say, public information is good. Sure it is. However, the mission of the CPI was the "engineering of consent" and "conscious manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses.” Do you hear the fascism there?

Remember Liberty Bonds? Propaganda. A popular liberty bond poster declared "If you have money to buy and do not buy I will make this No Man's Land for you!" Hear the fascism?

Wilson pushed for the passing of a Sedition Act that forbade Americans from criticizing their government or military. Citizens could not "utter, print, write or publish any disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language.” The Postmaster General was given the power to revoke mailing privileges for those who disobeyed. Seventy-five periodicals were shut down by the government. The Department of Justice arrested an estimated 175,000 individuals for speaking against Wilson or WWI (even within their own homes). A letter to federal attorney declared that citizens have nothing to fear if they "Obey the law; keep your mouth shut." Do you see the fascism there?

The 1913 Federal Reserve Act created our good friend "The Fed." The federal reserve is an unconstitutional authority of monetary policy in the US. The federal reserve has unrestricted power to print and release money as it wills. Thus, the federal reserve floods the world with US dollars, creating a false sense of the dollar's value as well as a misallocation of resources. The constitution grants to the US House of Representatives the authority to coin money and regulate the value of currency. It does now authorize them to turn that authority over to an independent agency. This manipulation of our economy has eroded our standard of living, placed monetary poicy in the hands of a private organization, devalued the dollar, and enriched well-connected elites who have been able to take advantage of the artificial monetary cycles created by the Federal Reserve Bank. The recent financial reform bill has actually expanded the scope of the Fed's power, which only expands the power of a handful of large banks which own most of the federal reserve notes.

President Kennedy, our last truly good democratic president, with one stroke of his pen attempted to end the Federal Reserve by ordering the government to return to its constitutional mandate to control monetary policy. Three weeks later he was dead. Fascists will not so easily relinquish their control.

Wilson was a leader of the progressive era. Progressive was the American term for fascist. So when Hillary Clinton, during her presidential campaign, defines herself as a progressive in the early 20th century meaning of the term either she is ignorant as to what that really means or she thinks that we don't know what that really means. Well, I know what it means. And now you do too. You're welcome.

Columbus vs. Memphis

At 3:00 in the afternoon of August 2, 2010 the temperature in Cordova, TN (where I live) is 101 degrees. The heat index (that is what the air temp actually feels like based on humidity levels) is 121 degrees. This reminds me that I've been planning a post on how life in Memphis stacks up to life in Columbus (where I lived previously).

Let's get right to the point, the summer weather here alone is enough to make me want to finish this postdoc and move somewhere else. In Columbus we would get 5-10 ninety degree days/year. Here in Memphis I lost count a long time ago. We had two days below ninety in July. June was probably the same. Most of those days the heat index is above 100 and it shows no signs of slowing down. Every day this week the temp is supposed to flirt with 100 with heat indices near 120. It's terrible. You go outside and, no kidding, stand completely still for 3 minutes and you can wipe sweat from your brow. There have been 8-10 heat-related deaths this summer. Just the norm for Memphis.

Winter weather is a different story though. This past winter was a "rough" winter by Memphis standards. We had a two week period in February with temps in the low 30s. So do mild winters neutralize the oppressive summer heat? No. Weather advantage goes to Columbus despite the bitter winds and ice storms of the midwest winter. Then again, the variety of trees and blooming plant life is fantastic down here. There's always something in blossom even this late into summer. But that's different. Weather advantage still goes to Columbus.

Traffic. Traffic isn't terrible in Memphis but it's heavier than in Columbus. The interstate system worked better in Columbus and Memphis drivers are the worst I've ever experienced. Traffic advantage goes to Columbus.

Dining and entertainment. I haven't yet eaten at any of Memphis's Korean restaurants so I can't compare them to Columbus's amazing Restaurant Silla. However, Memphis has BBQ. Real BBQ and lots of it and it's really good. I'm almost more impressed with the diversity of dining establishments here. Columbus has the Blue Jackets (at least for now) and Memphis has the NBA's Grizzlies so professional sports is a wash. Columbus had great Broadway shows, Memphis has great Broadway shows at the historic Orpheum Theater. Memphis is the home of Elvis and blues. Columbus doesn't have the music heritage that Memphis has (Memphis is chock full of great music sites and live music venues). Memphis has a minor league baseball team. Columbus has a minor league baseball team. I'll give the advantage to Memphis there because their team is consistently better and they are the farm team for a much better major league team. Memphis has more and better museums. Dining and entertainment advantage goes to Memphis.

Cost of living. Advantage Memphis.

People. Besides being horrible drivers most people here are pretty friendly. Granted, I've never been in those neighborhoods where I am likely to get shot just for showing up but we'll get to that later. Friendliness advantage goes to Memphis. This category doesn't matter much to me as I like to be a hermit. I try to avoid talking to other people.

Radio. Big advantage to Columbus here. The local shows on ESPNRadio here are awful. The local issues/local politics show on AM600 is really good though. I don't remember hearing as much about local issues in Columbus on the radio. But that ESPN thing really scores the points for Columbus.

Recreation. I'm talking here about libraries, rec centers/YMCA, parks. Big, big, big advantage to Columbus. The Memphis libraries aren't horrible but it's hard to compare to Columbus, whose library system is among the best in the nation according to magazines that rank those sorts of things. As far as I can tell so far Memphis doesn't appear to have rec centers that offer a great variety of free courses for kids the way the Columbus rec centers did. YMCA's are few and far between and nothing here even comes close to the awesome Metro Parks system in Columbus. Sorry Shelby Farms but you're a wannabe, the sheer size of your boundaries does very little to make up for your lack of quality.

Farmer's Market. Advantage Memphis. We've only been once and it was early in the season but it looks great. Besides, we bought a 3-lb. tri-tip. Shelby Farms does have the Farmer's Market going for it. Have yet to make it to the downtown farmer's market.

Let's see, so far the score is 4-4. I think overall I liked Columbus better. The categories that Columbus scored well in are more important to me than the ones that Memphis scored well in. I'll leave it at that for now and maybe you guys can suggest some other categories for me to score.