First off, I want to start with this quote by Charles Darwin that I found very much true today:

"Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science."

This statement holds much value today as it did in the 1800's. And it is ironic that in this day and age, in this great country of ours we are still fighting a battle against rationality, especially within the realm of science.

Those who are so quick to judge are those who are so slow to understand.

I went to a speech given by the Dr. Sean Carroll (a colleage and very good friend of his is on my thesis committee) today (Brian has been kind enough to list his book: The Making of the Fittest, on the right of the screen under the list of goodies) and I want to give you a brief synopsis of his speech, but more importantly I want to stress how ignorance of the subject matter, interjected with fundamentalist faith, is going to ruin not only this country but the whole world.

I want to continue on with another quote. Tom Delay said that "Our school systems teach the children that they are nothing but glorified apes who are evolutionized [sic] out of some primordial soup."

He also mentions at some point that there is no proof of evolution. I want to leave you with Tom Delays words in mind as you read this because, he represents (well...represented) the leadership of this country, but more importantly he represents the very foundation of irrationality that will lead this country into a disastrous ending.

So...keeping Tom Delay's words in mind, I'll go on.

Outside the obvious (we did not evolve from apes), there is so much proof out there on evolution that it is beyond reconciliation. It is an open-shut case.

In his book, Sean Carroll starts out talking about a pale ghostly looking fish around the small island of Bouvet (about 1600 miles southwest of the Cape of Good Hope (Africa) and almost 3000 miles east of Cape Horn (South America) called an "Ice Fish". What's interesting about this fish is that it is the ONLY vertebrate to lack erythrocytes (red blood cells) and hemoglobin. How could an animal survive without the necessary life giving protein called hemoglobin? The answer is simple....evolution through natural selection (Darwin's theory). Around the time Antartica split from south america (ca 25 mya), the waters around antartica started getting colder and colder....thus exerting selective pressures on animals that lived around that area. Now, as you probably know, in very cold weather, viscosity becomes a problem in a circulating system, so this fish based on selective pressures has evolved to do without blood cells that would slow down circulation. How do we know this was evolution and not, say, Intelligent Design? Well the answer lies right under our noses, for those with the curiosity and the rational mind to look. Thanks to the advancements of molecular biology, we are now able to use the very foundation of life to prove evolution. DNA.

There are two genes that make up hemoglobin the Heme gene and the globin gene. Well in the ice fish, the globin gene is completely missing while the heme gene is there but as a "fossil" or vestigial code. In other words at one point in time this fish had the genes capable of producing hemoglobin, but today we only see "fossil" remnants of these genes.

This is proof, of Darwins' theory that selective pressures cause changes in species. PROOF. You cannot deny this fact. And this is just one simple proof.

Fossil genes are seen everywhere, remnants of once useful characteristics but are now useless and never to return. Natural Selection does not think about the future. It is only active in the present. Once we loose these genes, they are gone forever, until other selective pressures may lead us to return to these traits.

The science does not lie. It is evident. It is indeed ironic how DNA evidence is used in courts without any doubt, but when used as a forensic tool to prove evolution, it is still disputed. How can this double standard be allowed? Especially in THIS country? We have become the laughing stock of the world. Spoiled, ignorant brats with big toys.

Think about our leadership, think about how religion and emotions are taking over rationality and science and where is this going to lead us? Why is it important to understand evolution? It goes beyond the science itself. It tests the very foundation of progress. We are seeing the effects of irrationality and religion in government with stem cell research being stymied. We are seeing it with thousands of women suffering around the world because of religious dogmatism and intolerance that stems therefrom. Think about the potential for progress if we castrate the dogma from our minds and embrace logic, rationality and objectivity.

Look at your politicians and see what their best interest is. How can you trust a politician who embraces ideas that are so archaic that even 9 year olds have enough sense to not believe without proof.

Ok..a side note here and then I'll sum up. My soon to be step daughter whose 9 years old is obviously hanging around me too much.... She lives with her father (an ignorant man, and I do not mean this as an insult, inasmuch a reality) who is poor and goes to a church to get free groceries once a month (and this, for a churhc, is respectable). Here's the funny part. My soon to be stepdaughter was watching one of the church volounteers placing a box of cookies in the bag. She goes to grab them out of the bag, and the man says to her "No sweetie, you have to leave those in the bag". She looks at him in an unaprooving way. And then he looks at her and says "God wants you to wait till after dinner for those". So, she replies "There is no god, there is no easter bunny, there is no santa clause, there is no tooth fairy. If you think they exist, proove it old man."
Even though, I have to teach her respect and good judgement, her grandmother's attempt at doctrination have been overshadowed by rationality, and for that I am proud of her. Now, the harder part. Teaching her manners.

But anyway I digress....

In ending: I repeat the quote mentioned above from Charles Darwin:
"Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science."

Do not let emotions rule your thinking. Education yourself and educate others. Only with education and rationality can we move and see progress.

I have been busy with my research as of late, and have not been posting as much as I would like, however, I had to spend a bit of time here and write this. cheers.

In Rationality,
Left of Larry