Rather frequently my Dad sends me a link or article that is well worth reading. (My mom does too, but they are frequently of a much more personal nature) He recently sent me this one, on why faith is both intelligent and relevant. Wilson’s most important thought was this:
Materialist atheism says we are just a collection of chemicals. It has no answer whatsoever to the question of how we should be capable of love or heroism or poetry if we are simply animated pieces of meat.
I have been waiting a little while to weigh in on this one. My good friend Matt, not to be confused with other Matts, who has become my most regular commenter here asked my thoughts on this. For those who don’t know about it, Canada’s minister for Science and Technology, Gary Goodyear, refused to say he believed in evolution. His response was that he didn’t feel the need to discuss his religious beliefs. As someone who has spent 88% of his life in secular education I can understand playing your cards close to the chest when it comes to a question like this. There are two fundamental issues with his answer though. The first is that evolution is an undisputed fact of science. The (legitimate) dispute is over degree. This is where clarification over macro and micro evolution comes into play. As someone who is not in science I can only say that I sit somewhere between the camp known as Intelligent Design* and a secular understanding of evolution. The fact that Goodyear didn’t have an appropriate answer for this question means that he had not thought about the question except to decide against evolution.
The second issue is that Goodyear has now given ammunition to those who think Christians are a bunch of idiots. This is unfortunate on a large scale because there are theists, atheists, and many in between who are not happy with where evolutionary theory is being used. Where Popper’s idea of the ideological revolution has replaced the scientific revolution it rightly was. On a smaller scale this story is unfortunate because it ends up downplaying Goodyear’s credentials as a chiropractor (who go through the same anatomical training as doctors), and his studies in Biomechanics and Psychology at Waterloo. By not thinking through his position he ended up allowing himself to be cast as antiscientific. There is a lesson in this for all of us.
*Intelligent design is not the same as creationism. If you haven’t bothered understanding the difference it breaks down quite simply. Creationism sees the world as 6,000 years old, static, and divinely ordered on a literal biblical model. Intelligent Design generally encompasses viewpoints from Macroevolution to Creationism, focusing only on the difficulties of accounting for the beginning of life, the cambrian explosion, and complexities of the cell as happy accidents and instead explaining them as the products of intelligence.
I had been thinking about this a lot recently. Some of the more right wing people I read from the States have been arguing that this crisis does not mean that the markets need to be regulated. While I have tended to agree with this I’ve often wondered about what regulations mean. Then I read this article from the Globe and Mail and could not help but think maybe I’m wrong.
Former central bank governor David Dodge agrees. Canadian bank executives keenly remember that period, “and there was therefore perhaps a degree of prudence, a lack of aggressiveness, in comparison with major banks around the world,” he said.
And he gives top marks to the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions, Canada’s banking regulator, for being more conservative than those in the U.S. or Britain. “I think that, from a regulatory point of view, you can say that the Canadian banks were more appropriately regulated.” (Emphasis mine)
The idea of the free market only really makes sense if you do not have powerhouses, like the American banks, that can manipulate the system. When it comes to corporations or the Government having controls I’ll choose the Government; at least when they screw up the little guys can fire them.
It has been almost three years in the making. We had planned to release an album a long long time ago and wrote, recorded, and then worked on a number of songs for what felt like eternity. Well the first of those songs has finally appeared online. We will be releasing them over the course of the coming months at www.purevolume.com/substanceoverstyle, myspace.com/substanceoverstyle and on our facebook page (Become a fan!). I’m really excited about this new stuff (new to you at least). I hope you will be too.
Now here is a place that can use a regime change. The government in Khartoum has definitely lost its right to rule. First there was the genocide of Christians in the south, but now there is Darfur. A government that blatantly funds and willfully contributes to attacks on its own citizens has forfeited its right to be a government.
I just had the opportunity to watch a student presentation on Darfur here at St. Francis Xavier. Here are a few things I learned.
Over two millions people displaced.
In 2006 the UN approved 17,000 troops for Darfur. The catch? It was only if Sudan allowed it. Another example of the ineffectiveness of that particular body.
The presence of oil in Sudan is causing countries such as China and Russian to directly and indirectly fund this genocide. What’s worse? Our trade with these nations contributes to the Genocide. We are indirectly responsible.
So what can you or I do? The list of websites I got from the presentation were:
participate.net
sdcanada.org (Save Darfur Canada)
takepart.com
It’s time to do something.
I’m bad with the blogroll. Just like I’m bad with the actually reading blogs.
To be honest I mostly read blogs that my Dad points to and the news. Which is why I usually don’t add a whole lot to the blog roll.
However recently there have been two blogs I have been checking with regularity apart from my Dad and Brant Hansen. Those are nakedpastor (David Hayward) and Asbo Jesus (Jon of no last name in his about page). Both are quite hilarious and profound cartoonists and artists. David Hayward also has wonderfully honest commentary from the other side of the pulpit.
In other news I plan on blogging more, as I always do, just busy with midterms and distracted by shiny things.
I’ll also reiterate that I’m always looking for more blogs to read. So you are welcome to recommend some either by email or in the comments.
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