GUNS DAMN IT
Writing about guns is scarier than writing about religion. You never know when you’ll hit a nerve. But what’s a science writer to do? This study (American Journal of Public Health) is the first to show a strong relationship between the number of guns in a state and the number of homicides. The more guns, the more homicides.
Make of it what you will.
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Drawings are mine.
KEEPING IT RESPECTFUL
I received a letter from a reader.
Dear MisterScienceAintSoBad,
My sister’s mad at me because she says I pick pick pick. Can’t help it though. She’s like my grandmother. God this and God that. God? Don’t I have a right to challenge her dopey ideas? A-Boy
Dopey ideas? A-boy, (I’m hoping the A stands for atheist and not a certain orifice) believers aren’t idiots (exceptions exist). They just believe in God.
It’s not a sin.
Doesn’t mean they DENY reality. They just have an extra one.
Most educated believers aren’t trying to prove Darwin wrong. Mostly, they know about fossils and other stuff that show how life evolved. Maybe they even know how the earth was formed out of cosmic dust over millions of years.
What about God? What about Genesis?
That too.
But you said..
Believe it or not, it is perfectly possible for an educated person to “get” the Big Bang – even string theory – and still open a bible once in a while. The interior of the human brain isn’t made for consistency.
Prayer and plain geometry. They can get along. Ask Isaac Newton – Hey – Ask his spirit. Most people believe in God or something like. Even in Europe where religion’s less popular. Why is that hard? People believe. They want to. It feels good. It’s comforting. If I were you, I wouldn’t mess with it.
This makes me MISTER Science IS So Bad? I don’t think so. I’m just saying that it’s possible to be too literal minded. The human brain CAN have two different ideas at the same time. Most minds do. This is what we are and I’m sorry it’s messy.
This isn’t an apologia. There ARE plenty of zealots who say that the bible’s got all the wisdom we need and science just gets in the way; and there are uber-rationalists who wanna smack bibles out of the hands of the misguided.
A curse on BOTH their houses.
Or whatever.
Discussion about religion vs science can be exasperating but it’s a chance for “worlds to collide”. Which isn’t such a bad thing if it’s done with respect. Science-minded folks need to have some respect for the very evolutionary processes that they defend. As human intellect evolved, there was a strong need to make sense of the world on a personal level. Science didn’t show up to add understanding until very late in the game. In the meantime, we needed something to make sense of the world. Religion did that for us. Today our religious heritage coexists in a delicate but, often sweet, tension with rational scientific thought.
MISTER ScienceAintSoBad says that’s okay.
Note to regular readers. Yup. This article has been recycled with a fresh drawing (which is also a little recycled). For technical reasons, I had to reformat it so it could be found. Look at it this way: It’s not like the subject matter is suddenly out of date.
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Credit for above drawing to myself.
RANDOM IGNORANCE
DON’T LIKE SUPERSTITION? MAYBE THAT’S DANGEROUS.
Narendra Dabholkar was a 67 year old doctor who thought religious extremism, black magic, superstitious ideas, and general ignorance were holding India back. He called out people who exploited the poor. So – that’s right – of course somebody shot him. Why tolerate a loose canon who cares about others and tries to educate?
His scientific colleagues hit the ceiling when they heard about his murder. They’re furious and they are speaking out about it, decrying the act and trying to get some new laws. Maybe Dr. Dabhoklar will wind up a reluctant martyr but MISTER ScienceAintSoBad is very sad about this. If the authorities in Pune are trying to figure out what to do with his assassins, I have an idea. Why waste lab rats when we have the real McCoy in a cell?
The details are in an article in The Guardian by Maseeh Rahman.
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Image above is by me
ANGEL OF SCIENCE?
I received a letter from a reader.
Dear MisterScienceAintSoBad,
My sister’s mad at me because she says I pick pick pick. Can’t help it though. She’s like my grandmother. God this and God that. God? Don’t I have a right to challenge her dopey ideas? A-Boy
Dopey ideas? A-boy, (I’m hoping the A stands for atheist and not a certain orifice) believers aren’t idiots (exceptions exist). They just believe in God.
It’s not a sin.
Doesn’t mean they DENY reality. They just have an extra one.
Most educated believers aren’t trying to prove Darwin wrong. Mostly, they know about fossils and other stuff that show how life evolved. Maybe they even know how the earth was formed out of cosmic dust over millions of years.
What about God? What about Genesis?
That too.
But you said..
Believe it or not, it is perfectly possible for an educated person to “get” the Big Bang – even string theory – and still open a bible once in a while. The interior of the human brain isn’t made for consistency.
Prayer and plain geometry. They can get along. Ask Isaac Newton – Hey – Ask his spirit. Most people believe in God or something like. Even in Europe where religion’s less popular. Why is that hard? People believe. They want to. It feels good. It’s comforting. If I were you, I wouldn’t mess with it.
This makes me MISTER Science IS So Bad? I don’t think so. I’m just saying that it’s possible to be too literal minded. The human brain CAN have two different ideas at the same time. Most minds do. This is what we are and I’m sorry it’s messy.
This isn’t an apologia. There ARE plenty of zealots who say that the bible’s got all the wisdom we need and science just gets in the way; and there are uber-rationalists who wanna smack bibles out of the hands of the misguided.
A curse on BOTH their houses.
Or whatever.
Discussion about religion vs science can be exasperating but it’s a chance for “worlds to collide”. Which isn’t such a bad thing if it’s done with respect. Science-minded folks need to have some respect for the very evolutionary processes that they defend. As human intellect evolved, there was a strong need to make sense of the world on a personal level. Science didn’t show up to add understanding until very late in the game. In the meantime, we needed something to make sense of the world. Religion did that for us. Today our religious heritage coexists in a delicate but, often sweet, tension with rational scientific thought.
MISTER ScienceAintSoBad says that’s okay.
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Credit for above drawing: Stick Angel by VergilsBitch
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
SCIENCE AND RELIGION
A-Boy: (I’m hoping the A stands for atheist and not a certain orifice.) Religious people aren’t idiots. They just believe in God
It’s not a sin.
It doesn’t mean they DENY reality. They just have an extra one that you don’t see. The majority of educated believers aren’t trying to prove Darwin wrong. Mostly, they know about fossils and other stuff that show how life evolved. Maybe they even know how the earth was formed out of cosmic dust over millions of years.
What about God? What about Genesis?
That too.
Believe it or not, it is perfectly possible for an educated person to “get” the Big Bang – even string theory – and still open a bible once-in-a-while. The interior of the human brain isn’t made for consistency.
Prayer and plain geometry. They can get along. Ask Isaac Newton. Hey. Ask his spirit.
Most people believe in God or something like. Even in Europe. Why is that hard? People believe. Maybe they can’t explain why but it has a great explanatory force for them. Besides. It’s a layer of comfort. I were you, I wouldn’t mess with it.
This makes me ScienceIsSoBad? I don’t think so. I’m just saying that it’s possible to be too literal minded. The human brain CAN have two different ideas at the same time. Most minds do. This is what we are and I’m sorry it’s messy.
This isn’t an apologia. There ARE plenty of zealots who say that the bible’s got all the wisdom we need and science just gets in the way. But don’t tell me you don’t know some uber-rationalists who wanna smack bibles out of the hands of the misguided. You think THAT’S a tolerant attitude?
Science-minded folks need to have some respect for the evolutionary process that they defend. We evolved with a strong need to make sense of the world on a personal level. For modern humans, that seems to coexist in a delicate but, often sweet, tension with rational scientific thought. MisterScienceAintSoBad says you shouldn’t pick, pick, pick.
Thanks to Eoin O’Mahony for the image. 
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic License.
Image by
In 1920 Dr. Duncan MacDougall weighed dying patients before and after death. He thought that the difference in weight was the soul. There was even a film about it – 21 grams. Others weren’t able to repeat the measurement and, from a scientific perspective, the soul remains unproven.
MacDougall took an idea that was (and still is) widely believed – that a mysterious organ called the soul is the seat of human cognition – and attempted to prove it using scientific principles.
What he did may sound silly to some, but it was an authentic search for the truth. He didn’t seem to recognize that his measurements were small compared to the error in his equipment but Science Ain’t So Bad applauds his effort.
How many today still believe in the acceptance of the elusive bit of tissue called the soul? Hard to say. Because what people believe is complex. Many people do believe in souls. And most would worry about a scientist or a doctor who showed them one in a jar.
Real. And not real.
Most Americans believe in the existence of a “Higher Being”. And pray at least occasionally. And believe there’s a “better place” to “pass on to”. But most also believe the evidence of their own eyes. And want their kids to study science. And believe in logic.
Is religion an impediment to science?
In this country where approximately 85% of the people believe in “something or other”, rapid developments in science and technology are the norm. Us poor bloggers can’t keep up. If this is how religion impedes science, I would hate to see the unimpeded version.
It is true that some religious individuals seem fixated on science in a bad way. And some adherents of science don’t trust religion. But the neighborhood’s gonna’ be OK.
So.
You know those studies which show that praying can help you if you’re sick? People who get prayed for do better? It’s called “intercessory prayer”. A study published in The Journal Of Religion says that even the best of these – the ones that try to do everything right – don’t.
Conclusion. These studies aren’t getting us anywhere. Pray if it helps your heart. Don’t forget the pills.
Parallel Universes:
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