Science Doesn't Require Faith!

Every couple of years it seems I have a conversation with a religious person about some scientific principle or theory. Now, I'm not a scientist myself, but I do enjoy learning about the world and what scientists have discovered and what they continue to find. And even when I was religious, I never equated "believing in science" with "beliving in God". I believed what science said, because I could really review the evidence for myself. I believed in God, well because I wanted too and had reasons for doing so that had everything to do with magical thinking regarding interesting coincidences in my personal life and a great amount of confirmation bias that caused me to only "see" the things that confirmed my faith and to ignore the things that contradicted it. Of course, I didn't see it that way at the time.

So I can't for the life of me understand why, when the topic of evolution comes up, religious people often end conversations on the topic of evolution vs. creationism with "well, you have faith in evolution and I have faith in creationism - it all comes down to faith." It doesn't.

Let me put it this way. I actually do think the bible defines faith quite well in Hebrews 11:1

"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."

Faith is all about hope and a substitute for understanding the things that can't be seen. Science, on the other hand, can be described as this:

Science is the process of asking questions, and testing hypotheses through observation, experimentation, and data collection, which produces evidence to discover and explain what can be seen.

I really think that if science classes in primary and seconday school focused more on scientific process rather and memorization of scientific facts, people would see that scientific "facts" are grounded in observable evidence and do not need to just be taken on faith. Enough ranting for now.

In related news, the children's book Evolution: How We and All Living Things Came to Be by Daniel Loxton has been recognized as the Best Canadian Science Book for Young Readers. I highly recommend it!

Things Strangers Say

So I've been able to get out with the baby a couple of times now and one thing I wasn't prepared for was all the people who stop me to admire my little Bebo. She is adorable, if I say so myself, and so far everyone who sees her confirms my opinion (or they are being polite).

Anyway, I was in Zellers the other day and a old lady stopped by my cart to admire little Bebo. I have to admit that I totally didn't know how to respond when she said, "I don't know how anyone couldn't believe in God, when babies are such a miracle."

For a moment, I wanted to say, "Well, I don't believe in God, but that doesn't mean that I don't marvel at the life of my little daughter."

But that seemed a little snarky and I didn't have time for a debate. So I just said, "Well, everyone is entitled to their beliefs."

I do believe that, it's just that I don't like it when people assume atheists do not experience awe and wonder in the same way that religious people do.

Having been both a believer and now a non-believer, I can honestly say that awe and wonder has always been a powerful perk of being human and has nothing whatsoever to do with whether I believe in a supernatural power. Instead of attributing the miracle of life to a God I`m not sure exists, I can marvel at the complexity and rareness of evolution and our genetic closeness to all living things - very apparent in the inborn reflexes of newborn humans.

In fact, I am even more amazed at the "miracles" of life than I was when I believed everything was designed by God - because it appears all this beauty happened by chance.

Why I am grateful to be of this world...

One of my favourite people expressed some curiousity about why I chose to title my blog "Grateful to be of this World".

Well, I think that gratitude/appreciation is one of my top values - and I have ALOT to be grateful for. I consider myself to be a very lucky human being in many areas of my life. I also believe that as a human being, and having accepted the scientific evidence of evolution, I am definitely "of this world" and when I die I will return to this world - dust to dust and all that.

Expressing my gratitude and nuturing my feelings of gratitude brings meaning to my life. My gratitude is not only for the good things in my life that are just plain luck (like being born in Canada to great parents, my good health, etc.) but also for the people who have influenced the trajectory of my life.

Growing up I always believed in God, and as a young adult I was quite religious. Gratitude is a common value among many believers that I have and do associate with. As a believer, my gratitude for the good things in my life (and even the hard lessons) was often directed to God. Sometimes, I remembered to thank others as well, but other times thanking God was enough for me. As I let go of my belief in God, those feelings of gratitude did not go away. Finding other ways to show gratitude takes some thinking and effort now - and that is rewarding. Now I try to thank the people who were most often at the root of the very things I was grateful for. I find this action is not only rewarding to me - but also to those who recieve it. Below I will outline two example of things I am grateful for and how I express it.

I have excellent parents who provided all the necessities of life for my sister and I growing up. Although, everyone in my family would agree that we are not perfect and definitely not without flaws, we loved each other and we knew that we all loved each other. Genetically, I come from a fairly healthy background - there isn't a lot of cancer and disease in our family medical history. On the whole, we tend to live average to long lives without a lot of pain or discomfort. While this carries no guarantees, I know that others are not as lucky in this area - and I hope my luck continues. In the meantime, I thank my parents for getting married, having children, caring about me, encouraging me, attending to the things I needed to be successful, teaching me, and everything that goes into raising me into the independent, caring adult I have become. It may seem conceited to say, but I really like who I have become and the family I was raised by has ALOT to do with who I am. So I express gratitude to my family whenever I can. I know my mom and dad appreciate that a lot. This also helps me to remember not to take my family for granted (not always an easy task).

I am also grateful for the beauty of this earth. As a believer I used to credit God for it. Although I don't anymore, I am in no less awe of the processes of evolution, geological shifts, and other natural phenomena that make this planet so beautiful in its natural state. Instead of directing my gratitude to a being I'm not sure exists, I support people who try to preserve our natural resources, and support the scienctific discoveries that help us understand and take care of this planet better. This is the only world we, as humans, can comfortably live on right now; so we better learn and take care of it as much as we can. I am no environmentalist, but I care about, admire, and support and thank those who have taken up this cause. I show my appreciation and gratitude with words, and sometimes through giving. Whenever convenient, I try to participate in daily activites that will also preserve the beauty, utility and sustainability of our home - the world. This planet is uniquely situated, and was uniquely able (as far as we know) to allow life to seed and blossom as we know it today. It is quite the natural miracle. 

Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. ...Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

...There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.

-- Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, 1994

This was some of the rationale for the name of my blog. 

Truly, as a human being, I am "of this world" - all living things are. I am grateful for it. Gratitude brings meaning and joy to my heart.