Thoughts Before The Alarm Sounds

There is considerable controversy at the present time between the competing “theories” of natural selection and intelligent design. This disagreement has several roots, but I believe one of the most important ones has to do with a misunderstanding of what it is that scientists do. Even many scientists seem to have forgotten.         When a scientist is doing science, he is testing a theory and reporting his observations. For example, he may have a theory that if he mixes vinegar and baking soda, he will observe that oxygen will be formed. To his dismay he finds that when he actually performs the experiment carbon dioxide appears instead. He must retest and update his theory under all conceivable conditions.         But when he issues a report of his findings to other scientists, he will not say that carbon dioxide is “caused” by mixing vinegar and baking soda; he will report that mixing the two is followed by the ap...

     Despite the goings-on in Washington, it is possible for people to disagree substantially on a given subject, and still discuss it openly and civilly. I know our fractured society indicates otherwise, but I attended two events yesterday which supported my contention.     Event one was lunch with a small group of men, seven to be exact, with whom I worked many years ago. Most of them lean toward the conservative side, although I do not think any of them would consider himself to be a “tea party” member, although one of them did state that Obama is the worst president that has served during his lifetime of, here I am guessing, 85+ years. Disappointed as I am with Obama, I am not ready to go quite that far, although I was unable to muster any argument which I thought would change his mind.      But I did mention that I thought Senator Mitch McConnell's statement, “The single most important thing we want to achieve is for Presiden...

      Although ten years have elapsed since 19 people from Saudi Arabia, at the bidding of Osama bin Laden, murdered 3,000 Americans in an attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, conspiracy theories about the event still persist. Today I want to examine not only those theories pertaining to the 9/11 attack, but a couple of others which have been around for some time.      The World Trade Center Attack: The “9/11 truthers,” as they call themselves, claim that the U.S. Government either knew of the attack in advance and did nothing, or else actively orchestrated the attack in order to justify launching wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, curtail civil liberties, and consolidate and extend the powers of the Bush Administration.       One of the more vocal organizations has been the group Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth . To support its claims, the group points to the "free fall" pace of the collapse of ...

      According to an old joke, a Missouri mule-skinner was called in to train a very recalcitrant mule. The first thing the trainer did was to take a 2x4 and hit the mule over the head. When asked why he did that, the trainer replied, “Well, first I have to get his attention.”      If it served any useful purpose, the “tea party” managed to get the attention of the American public regarding the national deficit. Although the timing is bad, the concept of deficit reduction has been accepted by the majority of people. That's “the concept,” but according to a recent Gallup Poll there is very little agreement on the details. In fact, the only item which garnered a majority of public approval for cutting spending was foreign aid.      The pollsters asked the persons in the sample to “please say whether you favor or oppose cutting government spending in each of the following areas.” Here are the results: ...