The World Is Full Of Tools

So, what with the fact that I have uploaded all of my pictures from Istanbul, Cappadocia, and my tour of the South Aegean region, and typed in descriptions of each one, not to mention the other day's post and now this one, you might think I seem to have more time on my hands than a traveller should. Well, I'm back in Istanbul with a few days to kill, and while I'm still making it out there everyday, I have seen most of the city, and so I'm taking advantage of the good internet and downtime to catch up on a bunch of stuff.
One thing I've noticed online in the last few days is an upsurge in the scientific community against religion, starting with a really thoughtful post over at Cosmic Varience, and then today an article on NY Times which I just finished reading and is the cause of this out-of-travel rant.
Of course, we've been hearing alot of this noise from Richard Dawkins recently since the publiction of his book, but it seems to be stepping up a notch in the rest of science-land as well.
In the post on CV, Natalie Angier basically states her disatisfaction with scientists who wail about the whole Darwin/Creationism controversy, yet fail to step up to the plate against the scientifically ludricrous Virgin Birth. She feels that it's Science's duty to tackle all forms of such preposterous false beliefs. Have some balls, labcoats! Put Occam's Razor on Mary and see what theory you can dredge up there!
Then today, the NY Times article discussed a forum that occured earlier this month at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, Calif., where a bunch of scientists brought out the idea of spearheading a movement to Evangelize science against religion. There were differing views among the scientists attending, with Dawkins and like-minded god-haters basically wanting to have Christian Concentration Camps along with Bible, Koran, and Book of Mormon burnings laughing all the way, while other more even-keeled scientists wish to press forward with the age old technique of testing hypothesis, re-testing, then showing the world proof of the veracity of science with cool toys like paved roads, penicillin, rubber gloves, and home theatre systems, and eventually staging a remake of the 'ol Baal vs. God play, where Elijah (I think it's Elijah, someone else will have to fact check for me 'cause I'm on a roll!) mocks the Baal worshippers and says ok, if Baal is so great, tell him to make it rain! So they pray to Baal and weep and gnash and of course no rain comes. Then Elijah says, "Yo! Yahweh! Bring on the water!" And it dumps buckets of water and the Baal freaks freak out, only this time the scientists will be all like, okay God and Allah freaks, you guys pray to your grand high poo-bahs for a better video digital compression format than DVD, and we'll apply our science, and see who gets one first.
The reason behind all of this recent push for science to begin a more active fight against religion is, of course, due to the recent outbreak of the evils which religion has caused in the world, not to mention the very many evils caused by religion in the past. People like Dawkins think that if religion were done away with, the world would go all shiny and everybody would have spacecars and candy and live for a hundred years.
Here's my problem with all of that. Now, I am a great believer in science. I will agree with Dawkins insofar that if you're not, you're retarded because even the Amish need to churn butter, a very scientifically advanced dairy farm achievement. Well okay, it was advanced several hundred years ago or whatever, but it's still science. If you really believe that science is evil, go live in Cappadocia, but away from the main population of more advanced cave-dwellers, please.
The problem is, that in reality it is NOT religion which causes the larger of the world's evils. Oh sure, witch burnings, being afraid to sail off the edge of the flat Earth until thousands of years after the Greeks already knew the world was a ball, yeah. Totally religion. But the real problem isn't religion. Religions generally ask their followers to be nice to each other, it's just that their followers usually miss the point. "Each other" means, you know, everybody in the world, not this thing where it's taken as only your fellow Sunni muslims, and kill all the rest. The problem is people. People screw up religion, starting with people who only want to use religion as a means to power. The catholic church probably needs to be abolished. I despise the catholic church. Not because I hate god, but because the catholic church hates God; they've totally obliviated everything that Jesus had to say about real spirituality. They are the Pharisees reborn.
I'm afraid that getting rid of religion, much as Jesus abolished the old rules of Judaism, and Mohammed made a few addendums, and then so did Joseph Smith... well you see my point. There will rise up a science cult and people will still kill each other for scientific heresies. As long as there are people in the world who desire power over other people, there will be a way for them to get it, and if not religion, than something else. Religion is a tool, just like Science or Democracy or Communism. They all sound good at the beginning, but they can be used however the user wants. It's a baser human nature to be very very nasty to other humans in order to get to what they want.
I'm not saying that science shouldn't shed some light on some of mankind's fuzzier notions... Evolution is, I'm afraid, a fact, and I think it's important to teach it over Creationism... it's an old argument, but Evolution doesn't rule out God. I don't think that Science can or ever will. Science is the greatest, most effective tool we've ever come up with for understanding nature, but to a spiritual person, God is above and beyond the reach of nature. God's tool to make the universe could easily be Evolution.
But a war against religion is sort of self-defeating. What science really needs to concentrate on is George Bush's brain, and how it got that way. Also the Pope's. Rush Limbaugh's. Osama what's-his-face's. Michael Moore's. And Richard Dawkins'. And how to weed this us vs. them mentality out of the human race, you know? Make sure everybody gets up above that spinal cord thinking thing which Einstein pointed out as our main problem these days. Or at least make the Us, smart, creative, compassionate people, and the Them, power mad, intolerant, blind  freaks. Weed 'em out, yo.

Comments

[hooligan]

I read the exact same article a couple hours ago, and it struck me in much the same way. I still have her book "Woman" and I thought it was great; I don't believe her telling it the way she thinks it is detracts from the way I think it is. But she does, which strikes me as more than a little ironic. Vive la difference! Until some scientists burn me at a stake, I'll keep saying that. I just don't know why she, as a writer, is so comfortable disposing of the literary and historical significance of Biblical narratives, whether she takes them for foolishness or not. There aren't replacements for them, besides which, any time they want to destroy a civilization, they start with the libraries, so she should watch that rhetoric, in my humble opinion. Because any English major worth her salt knows that the only reason you and I are sitting here blogging is because hundreds of years ago, monks were locked in towers transcribing Bibles. It's beyond ungrateful for someone who makes a living writing. Rant over. Gad! Sorry.

[messiestobjects]

Hey don't get me wrong; While I realize that the evils of the world are man's own problem, not God's (We all make our own choices), I still hate the fact that religion is a very heavy handed system that has been used to perpetrate many of the world's most heinous acts... If there were a way to keep man's spiritual freedom and abolish religion, I'd be all for it. Being a part of a club has always struck me as suspicious activity, and when that club thinks that all other clubs are going to hell, well, that's just asking for trouble.
But again, people who join those clubs because they truly believe in the principles of good over evil, or even just truly understand the difference between right and wrong, and have actual compassion for all creatures and not just a desire to convert them, well, those types are allllright.
It's those like Christian Republicans on the far right, or that closeted gay meth-head preacher from that church that spent a large part of his career bashing gays until his gay hooker friend got tired of his hypocrisy and outed him, or that crusader guy who famously said "Kill 'em all, and let God sort 'em out", or Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell, who are using religion to spread hate that need to be stopped. I mean, does anybody really think Mama Theresa was spreading evil across the world? No. She understood the meaning of her religion better than any of the aforementioned people and the world needs more like her.

[hooligan]

Well, you're not busy. Get started.

[messiestobjects]

Get started on what? I'm not Catholic. My plan is to weed out evil by studying George Bush's brain. As soon as I get the grant, it'll be all go team.

[hooligan]

Get started changing the world. It appears you've got a plan in place, so run with it.

[hooligan]

Though not to point out the obvious, you can't study things that don't exist. You might want to change the focus of your grant research.

[messiestobjects]

Hey Captain Genius, I told you what my plan is for changing the world, and if you don't like my obvious plan, keep it in your shirt!
But seriously, My plan involves weeding out an entire section of the population that thinks mainly with their spinal cord. How, exactly, would you suggest I start going about that, hmmm? Using concentration camps? I mean, voting them out is nice. But that's a group effort, and anyway, unfortunately those types of folk often look like real human beings in the everyday world, no tell-tale spinal tails sticking out of their butts or anything, so it would wind up being a very messy extermination. Not sure I'm prepared to take on that Godly role just yet, which means I'm probably not the Antichrist, after all.
Well I'll tell you the answer: Evolution. Loads of stupid hippies think we've been on the verge of some sort of new phase in human evolution since the Age of Aquarius (which, incidentally doesn't actually start until the year 2600, damn fuzz brained hippie freaks. So the Age of Aquarius must refer to all the stoned retards of the 60s and 70s) so if you want to give me grant money to speed up evolution, I've got a bridge I can sell you, also.

[hooligan]

This is nice and thought-provoking, containing facts and figures as it does. Speaking of eugenics. http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1121/p09s01-coop.html

[hooligan]

Also, I only answer to "Queen Genius" or "HRH Genius". Happy Thanksgiving, turkey.

[messiestobjects]

You know, I read your last comment several hours ago, and I even totally comprehended the actual words... it's just that, it didn't hit me until just this moment that it actually is Thanksgiving day. I suppose I was thinking, you know, Happy Thanksgiving as in, Happy end of November, much as people go around wishing each other Merry Christmas a ludicrous amount of time before the actual day of Christmas. But nope, it's really Thanksgiving day, and you know what? I totally missed it, because it's about 20 after midnight here in Istanbul, and so it's the day after, for me. Although, I suppose since it's an American holiday, I can get by on the technicality that as it is currently Thanksgiving on American soil, I haven't really missed out. Although since I'm about to go to sleep, I suppose that's thin comfort. And no turkey... WAIT!!! I'm IN TURKEY!!! How sweet is that?! Now if only I was HUNGARY enough to carve up some TURKEY, and I've got nowhere else to go with that stupid line. I got nothin'.
Hey...sort of serves me right for bashin' on the church, I suppose, being all stuck and forgetting major holidays and staying up too late to make really stupid comments in order to compensate for my lack of a big feast. I had sweet and sour chicken and fried ice cream at a posh Chinese restaraunt on Istiklal Caddesi (posh street in Istanbul) for dinner, which was good, really good actually, but not Thanksgiving good. Dumb 'ol Turkey.
Right-e-oh, then. Way past my bedtime.

[hooligan]

Also: Sadducees = mega-churches. And I totally saw a sign at Hooters yesterday that said "Shopping Makes You Hungary." I knew them girls was smart.

[Gary]

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/27/opinion/27Shweder.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

If John Locke, Hooligan and the majority of the population of the United States all say I'm no good then it must be so.

btw - that Ministry clip plays way too much, I like it but damn I have to just for the volume control all the time. ;)

[messiestobjects]

Good stuff, that article. Obviously I am not a religious person, at all, but neither can I ever be comfortable with being an atheist. Agnostic is more my speed... I know that I know nothing; It's nice and Socratic, and middle of the road, which is something both sides tend to hate. But I firmly believe that Science is wholly incapable of ever proving/disproving God, at least in any sort of actually productive manner, and neither do I believe that the beliefs of any religion are strong enough to be emotionally capable of handling the truths that Science discovers, at least not in their own age. It took a long time for the Pope to concede that the Earth is round, like a ball, so maybe in one or two hundred years they'll acknowledge Evolution, too.
God belongs to the individual, and that scares authoritarians, such as religious leaders. Science belongs to everybody, which also scares them.
And about the Ministry clip... I really like it, but I'll put it to a vote; If people overwhelmingly think I should lose it, I totally will. Let me know! But seeing as how this is like, comment 13 on my not-most-recent post, in all fairness if I get an unsatisfactory response, I ask for a recall in a future post.

[hooligan]

I like the fact that you qualify "round" as "like a ball". Outstanding.

[messiestobjects]

Just to avoid confusion. You know.