God, why?

This issue of New Scientist is called the God Issue. I read it because I have issues with the idea of a God, since I believe human kind uses the existence of a God as an excuse for its failings, rather than taking responsibility for the things that we do. Let me say now I am passionately against religion and the idea of a God, but am open minded enough to concede that if the evidence exists for any religious argument I would be prepared to listen. Having said that I do agree that some of the ideas that form the cornerstone of many religions i.e human kindness, love, equality, friendship, appreciation of our world, are all things I do endorse as they help us function together. These things do not need magic (religion) to be important and do not need indoctrination (brain washing) and control to be relevant. I find most religions are not open to discussion or argument. That’s my point of view, now to some of the articles.

In the end I neither want nor need a God. I don't need an after life, what I need is to live the one life I have as fully as possible. Or as Rudyard Kipling put it  "To fill every unforgiving minute with sixty seconds worth of distance run"

I believe Carl Sagan said  You can’t convince a believer of anything; for their belief is not based on evidence, it’s based on a deep seated need to believe.

Finally if you are interested in this type of debate, here are a few youtube offerings from    Stephen Fry

Just a pigment of your imagination

Here's a quick one for all you lovers of the colour magenta (including pinks and purples). In reality it, the colour does not exist. Unlike all other colours of the visible light spectrum, or electromagnetic radiation there is no wavelength of light that corresponds with magenta - hence the reason it's not in a rainbow. It appears that this colour is made up in the software that runs the organ we call our brain. The reason it does this is because magenta falls between red light and blue light and is really the absence of green - our brain does this to cope.

Look at this minute physics lecture on youtube it explains it really well

While on this sort of subject I have really been getting into the minute physics lectures along with many from the Royal Institution and listening to the infinite monkey cage hosted by the it's amazing Brian Cox.

Finally here's a thought about the Voyager space probes that have now left our solar system and the suns influence. As they travel on their interstellar journey think about the gold plaques on their side - these are there as an introduction to mankind, but maybe more importantly to give hope to humanity. The whole venture was the work of Carl Sagan. If you think how insignificant these space craft are, that they are unlikely to ever be found by any species - since they are so tiny in the Universe - and yet they will outlast humanity and will one day be the only evidence we ever existed.

The things you can do with maths

Is this proof that 2 = 1?

If x = 1 and y = 1 then x = y

STEP 1

Multiply each side by x

x² = xy

STEP 2

Subtract y2 from each side

x² - y² = xy - y²

STEP 3

Factor each side

(x + y)(x - y) = y(x - y)

STEP 4

Divide out the common term (x - y)

x + y = y

STEP 5

Substitute the values of x and y

1 + 1 = 1

so,

2 = 1

Curiosity takes one more step for Neil

What a terrific moment today when Curiosity Mars Explorer landed successfully. The people at NASA involved in this project must be very relieved and extremely proud. Lets hope the results from this achievement spur humanity on to greater efforts to explore the solar system. Maybe the example of CERN and the LHC will serve to show what can be achieved working together and that the international community will finally get together. I’d love to see humans stand on the surface of Mars.

While writing about great endeavour and achievement it is great to see all these Olympic athletes (winners and other competitors) giving their best efforts. As someone who has worked at my various sports for all my life I understand the effort and sacrifice. Having watched rowers finish a race, to see how much of themselves they have given and the disappointment and feeling that they had somehow let people down, this upset me when I then thought about the ignorant,arrogant waste of space students I often encounter at work.

Finally I was saddened to see that Neil Armstrong had died recently. He was one of my hero's and an inspiration. One of my first memory's was getting up early in the morning to watch that first moon landing on the TV. Just think that in the whole history of humanity only eleven people have stood on another planet and looked back at our small and insignificant dot that we call home. Neil Armstrong was the first human to ever stand on another planet (well moon actually), what courage must that have taken. Yet when he returned to Earth he remained the quiet, humble man he always was. Maybe we could do with more like him, maybe we could do with people asking why we have not moved further after all it was forty years ago when the last man Eugene Cernan stood on our moon (it's all politics and it's all garbage - mankind needs more than our small planet to survive and to do that we need to be together and the thing holding us down are politics, greed and relgion.)

Here are some quotes from Neil:

It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth. I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. I didn't feel like a giant. I felt very, very small.

The important achievement of Apollo was demonstrating that humanity is not forever chained to this planet and our visions go rather further than that and our opportunities are unlimited.

I fully expected that, by the end of the century, we would have achieved substantially more than we actually did.

I think we're going to the moon because it's in the nature of the human being to face challenges. It's by the nature of his deep inner soul... we're required to do these things just as salmon swim upstream.

All of these quotes say something important: humanity can be great, certainly so much more than we are, when we allow ourselves to be. That we live on a small part of the Universe, nothing special and that we need to reach for more. That we have not allowed ourselves to move on from those days of Apollo.

Who is Yossarian? Is it me or is it you?

Try the search engine YossarianLives to get a different take on the world and your own knowledge. Rather than give the Google view of the world, telling us what the world already knows, YossarianLives gives metaphorical results designed to spark creativity, thought and new knowledge. I dare you to give it a try.             If you don’t know who Yoassarin is then Google it

A quick post

8/10/11 New Scientist

The ozone hole over the arctic was the largest ever recorded. The hole was actually twice as large as the previous largest and lasted for a substantially longer period than normal.

25/02/12 New Scientist

Interesting article about the often held belief that climate change is in fact a myth, something made up by the science community. Part of the problem is related to lack of understanding and our apparently less informed cousins in the U.S. It appears that anti-climate change groups (deniers not sceptics) are slowly getting a foothold in the US classrooms where children are beginning to be taught that climate change is either not related to mankind, or not occurring at all. Many of the intrusions of legislation into the classroom suggest that a more balanced view about climate change is to be taught. Now I understand that a balanced view is good, but when the overwhelming evidence is for climate change, it is hard to see how anybody can justify teaching anything contrary. If this ability that the majority of humankind has for self delusion continues, we may find that it’s too late to control.

That Reminds me

With the release of the Edgar Rice Burroughs inspired movie of John Carter (based on the John Carter on Mars series of books) I have been reminded of how much I really enjoyed these books as a kid. Well having been re-informed about them I intend to make time to reacquaint myself with them - well Just as soon as I have finished reading Stewart Lees book about his time as a stand-up comic. If you haven't watched Stewart Lee let me suggest you search him out.

Here's a link to John Carter trailer and another for Stewart Lee