quality of being brave: the ability to face danger, difficulty, uncertainty, or pain without being overcome by fear or being deflected from a chosen course of action.
That is what it takes! I just showed Part 2 of The ZEITGEIST Movie to someone close to me and he asked me, "So what can we do", a very courageous moment, but short lived. He then said, "You know what, I think it's best that we all just live out our lives, there is nothing we can do."
I understand it's hard, so I'll leave it at that. As for me, I refuse to sit idle by. I'm not sure what I can do, but I know I can start by sharing what I've seen and see if my peers see this as something serious. Now that I'm aware of the mere possibility of lies, lies everywhere I can begin to recognize if the lies are truly there or not.
As a homosexual atheist I admit I greet anything that makes the Christian Right look bad with open arms. So when Chris Hedges put the Christian Right in the same sentence with the word Fascist, my ears perked up.
This short interview with him on his new book, American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America, is incredible. Their attempt to legislate their hatred towards scientific fact and homosexuality is just the beginning according to Chris.
In my discussion with my co-workers, they made the common mistake of calling a theory, "just a theory", meaning it has no factual standing. They even had the audacity to say that the "theory of gravity" is just a theory, which is true, it is a theory. LOL. It is a scientific theory, which makes a world of difference.
So for anyone reading this with some skeptisism, please check out Theory on Wikipedia
In science, a theory is a mathematical or logical explanation, or a testable model of the manner of interaction of a set of naturalphenomena, capable of predicting future occurrences or observations of the same kind, and capable of being tested through experiment or otherwise falsified through empirical observation. It follows from this that for scientists "theory" and "fact" do not necessarily stand in opposition. For example, it is a fact that an apple dropped on earth has been observed to fall towards the center of the planet, and the theories commonly used to describe and explain this behaviour are Newton's theory of universal gravitation (see also gravitation), and general relativity.
I take a personal interest in understanding the universe I live in. There is much I don't know, but I want to know and that is very important to me. I believe I have a higher than average understanding of cosmology, physics and other scientific bodies of knowledge.
This common misconception of gravity is just a theory, minimizing it's scientific value can best be seen on an interesting article I found written by a proponent of Intelligent Design, Warning: Gravity is "Only a Theory". I can understand how someone with limited knowledge of gravity can be easily persuaded in believing the absurd assertions made in this article.
A quote from Baron d'Holbach, a German French Author/Philosopher most famous for being one of the first self-described atheists in Europe.
If we go back to the beginning we shall find that ignorance and fear created the gods, that fancy, enthusiasm or deceit adorn them, that weakness worships them, that crudity preserves them, and that custom, respect and tyranny support them in order to make the blindness of men serve their own interest.
If the ignorance of nature gave birth to gods, the knowledge of nature is calculated to destroy them.
I read the most interesting article that is really the push I need to buying a telescope. I'm officially going to start looking!
According to this article back in the day, Galileo was able, with his child strength telescope, to discover that the moon has mountains and Jupiter has moons, and that the Milky Way is made of individual stars rather than a single continuous substance.
On a dark night, the Milky Way actually casts a shadow! That's crazy!
Lately my friend Antonio and I have been trying to better understand what we as a species understands about the makeup and structure of our universe.
I believe I understand general physics and general relativity pretty well, but when it comes to quantum physics I don't know up from down! From what I can tell Quantum Physicists are in the same shoes I'm in.
As soon as we decided to log into our world (atomic) vs looking out into the world (astronomic) things get totally haywire.
This is a cool article Antonio found. Crazy freakin' shit!
Very well written article comparing religion to a stubborn puzzle placeholder that has create a life of its own and refuses to be replaced with scientific understanding.
