Last night, I went to something called a "Science Pub" last night in Hillsboro, Oregon. I had seen the event on Facebook by the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) and was intrigued by the name, as well as the cost - just $5. OMSI is a very expensive place in downtown Portland and quite a schlep from my house, so this seemed like something not to be missed - cheap and nearby. I rode the bus - the venue was just 25 minutes from my house - so I could have a beer while doing whatever it is one does at a "science pub." I really had no idea what it would be.
It turned out to be a slide presentation where the audience gets to drink beer and wine while listening. And it was PACKED - I didn't reserve seating and, therefore, had to be on a waiting list. I was one of the last people that got in.
The presentation was terrific: about the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOPHIA) project - an infrared telescope in that flies around in a Boeing 747 and helps us understand space. Dr. Ralph Shuping, an Oregonian and a Senior Research Scientist at the Space Science Institute, gave an introduction to infrared airborne astronomy that even I could understand and talked about the importance of SOPHIA, which is now in its seventh year of operations. SOPHIA is a partnership project between the USA and German space agencies.
Dr. Shuping is a fun presenter - I love a good lecture, with no bells and whistles, just a really compelling speaker with great information to share. And as I sat there listening to the amazing content, sipping my Pilsner, I started to get emotional: it was a Tuesday night, and here were about 150 people happily listening to a science lecture, making noises when they were awed by some cool information shared. The audience was intrigued and inspired - even excited - by what they were learning. And I was a part of it. It was yet another moment when I realized the universe is so much bigger, so much more complex and so much more wonderous than anything I ever learned in a church or Sunday school.
I think I need more science pubs in my life...
Showing posts with label science. Show all posts
Showing posts with label science. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 29, 2018
Friday, April 28, 2017
The Demon-Haunted World
I just finished The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark by Carl Sagan a few days ago. It's amazing - and it's shameful that it took me this long to finally read it.
In addition to destroying the "logic" of anti-science movements and new age movements, he also explores the glory and hope that science studies can give us. I watch Nova on PBS almost every week, and walk away from most every show full of wonder and hope and inspiration. Sagan's book begs network television to do that in its presentations of science - as well as to give equal time to science as it does charlatans: psychics, naturopaths, homeopaths, alien abductees, vaccine deniers, climate change deniers, etc.
But I was stunned at so many of the history lessons of the book, like Sagan's recounting of the mass murders associated with the European witch trials. I had no idea so many thousands and thousands of people, mostly women and children, were murdered by Christian authorities all across Europe for centuries. Chapter 7, which shares the same title as the book, was eye-opening and heart-breaking regarding the witch hunts in Europe in the 1400s through the 1700s. Authorities found every way possible to bankrupt the victim and her family before murdering her: all costs of investigations, trial and execution were borne by the accused or her relatives, down to the travel expenses for private detectives to spy on her, expenses for her guards, travel expenses of a messenger sent to fetch a more experienced torturer from another city, all the equipment to torture and kill the accused, etc., was all borne by the accused and her family. The misogynistic elements of the hunts and murders, I was aware of, but not the erotic obsessions of the male-dominated Christian society that couldn’t stop investigating things like the quality and quantity of orgasms in the supposed copulations of defendants with demons or the Devil.
And then there is the chronicle of those murdered by fire - burned alive - just in the single German city of Würzburg in the single year 1598. Here is the list excerpted in Sagan’s book:
The steward of the senate named Gering; old Mrs. Kanzler; the tailor's fat wife; the woman cook of Mr. Mengerdorf; a stranger; a strange woman; Baunach, a senator, the fattest citizen in Wiirtzburg; the old smith of the court; an old woman; a little girl, nine or ten years old; a younger girl, her little sister; the mother of the two little aforementioned girls; Liebler's daughter; Goebel's child, the most beautiful girl in Wiirtzburg; a student who knew many languages; two boys from the Minster, each twelve years old; Stepper's little daughter; the woman who kept the bridge gate; an old woman; the little son of the town council bailiff; the wife of Knertz, the butcher; the infant daughter of Dr. Schultz; a little girl; Schwartz, canon at Hach... The little daughter of Valkenberger was privately executed and burnt."
This is in ONE year, in ONE town. These murders by Christian authorities were happening all over Europe, not just in 1598. And the belief in pseudoscience, coupled with greed, drove it.
It’s not in the book, but it's worth noting that Anna Goeldi, a maid in the small alpine region of Glarus, was the last person in Europe murdered by Christian authorities for witchcraft; she was beheaded in 1782. Goeldi was employed by the family of a rich married politician, who after having an affair with her denounced her for witchcraft claiming she made his daughter spit pins and suffer convulsions. She insisted on her innocence but confessed after being strung up by her thumbs with stones tied to her feet.
Some of my favorite quotes from the book:
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
Abandoning science is the road back into poverty and backwardness.
The values of science and the values of democracy are concordant, in many cases indistinguishable. Science and democracy began - in their civilized incarnations - in the same time and place, Greece in the seventh and sixth centuries B.C. . . . Science thrives on, indeed requires, the free exchange of ideas; its values are antithetical to secrecy. Science holds to no special vantage points or privileged positions. Both science and democracy encourage unconventional opinions and vigorous debate. Both demand adequate reason, coherent argument, rigorous standards of evidence and honesty.
The tenets of skepticism do not require an advanced degree to master, as most successful used car buyers demonstrate. The whole idea of a democratic application of skepticism is that everyone should have the essential tools to effectively and constructively evaluate claims to knowledge. All science asks is to employ the same levels of skepticism we use in buying a used car or in judging the quality of analgesics or beer from their television commercials.
The book talks about the origins of the Book of Deuteronomy - I had no idea it was magically "found" by Josiah, at the exact time he was wanting those exact same reforms in Judaism! How convenient...
I was also thrilled to learn of Robert Allen Baker. He's cited in the book as being a professor at the University of Kentucky and, of course, I had to look him up. He was a psychologist, professor of psychology emeritus of the University of Kentucky, skeptic, author, and investigator and debunker of ghosts, UFO abductions, lake monsters and other paranormal phenomena. He was born in 1921 in Blackford, in Webster County, Kentucky. He graduated from Hopkinsville High School in 1939. I'm always so thrilled to learn of a great Kentucky scientist or artist.
The book also gives a shout out to James Randi, whose legendary debunking stunts have never been matched - and that's a shame, because we need someone to undertake those very high-profile stunts now.
Carl Sagan died in 1996. I can only imagine what he would have made of the proliferation of anti-vaccine movements among well-off white people in the USA - and the harm these movements have caused to children. Thank goodness we still have Bill Nye and Neil deGrasse Tyson.
If you haven't read it, please do, at least the first seven chapters. Sagan talks way more than alien abductions than you might think necessary, but those myths were super widespread at the time he wrote this book, and the way he debunks them could be used for a whole host of other pseudoscience crap.
In addition, if you aren't following BionerdNess on Facebook, you need to be. It's a page by a friend of mine, a biologist and professor, and she focuses BionerNess on debunking a lot of science myths middle and upper class white people believe and promote. A perfect page for getting material to share on your own social networks - to continue the work of Sagan!
Also see this hilarious pro-vaccine video from Bill Nye (unfortunately, only available on Facebook).
Finally: I haven't written since February. I haven't written more because, quite frankly, I've been busy attending public meetings with elected officials and what not, trying to be more involved in our democracy, trying to stand against the growing nonsense and dangerous practices of the current presidential administration and state legislators across the USA. I hope you are just as busy.
In addition to destroying the "logic" of anti-science movements and new age movements, he also explores the glory and hope that science studies can give us. I watch Nova on PBS almost every week, and walk away from most every show full of wonder and hope and inspiration. Sagan's book begs network television to do that in its presentations of science - as well as to give equal time to science as it does charlatans: psychics, naturopaths, homeopaths, alien abductees, vaccine deniers, climate change deniers, etc.
But I was stunned at so many of the history lessons of the book, like Sagan's recounting of the mass murders associated with the European witch trials. I had no idea so many thousands and thousands of people, mostly women and children, were murdered by Christian authorities all across Europe for centuries. Chapter 7, which shares the same title as the book, was eye-opening and heart-breaking regarding the witch hunts in Europe in the 1400s through the 1700s. Authorities found every way possible to bankrupt the victim and her family before murdering her: all costs of investigations, trial and execution were borne by the accused or her relatives, down to the travel expenses for private detectives to spy on her, expenses for her guards, travel expenses of a messenger sent to fetch a more experienced torturer from another city, all the equipment to torture and kill the accused, etc., was all borne by the accused and her family. The misogynistic elements of the hunts and murders, I was aware of, but not the erotic obsessions of the male-dominated Christian society that couldn’t stop investigating things like the quality and quantity of orgasms in the supposed copulations of defendants with demons or the Devil.
And then there is the chronicle of those murdered by fire - burned alive - just in the single German city of Würzburg in the single year 1598. Here is the list excerpted in Sagan’s book:
The steward of the senate named Gering; old Mrs. Kanzler; the tailor's fat wife; the woman cook of Mr. Mengerdorf; a stranger; a strange woman; Baunach, a senator, the fattest citizen in Wiirtzburg; the old smith of the court; an old woman; a little girl, nine or ten years old; a younger girl, her little sister; the mother of the two little aforementioned girls; Liebler's daughter; Goebel's child, the most beautiful girl in Wiirtzburg; a student who knew many languages; two boys from the Minster, each twelve years old; Stepper's little daughter; the woman who kept the bridge gate; an old woman; the little son of the town council bailiff; the wife of Knertz, the butcher; the infant daughter of Dr. Schultz; a little girl; Schwartz, canon at Hach... The little daughter of Valkenberger was privately executed and burnt."
This is in ONE year, in ONE town. These murders by Christian authorities were happening all over Europe, not just in 1598. And the belief in pseudoscience, coupled with greed, drove it.
It’s not in the book, but it's worth noting that Anna Goeldi, a maid in the small alpine region of Glarus, was the last person in Europe murdered by Christian authorities for witchcraft; she was beheaded in 1782. Goeldi was employed by the family of a rich married politician, who after having an affair with her denounced her for witchcraft claiming she made his daughter spit pins and suffer convulsions. She insisted on her innocence but confessed after being strung up by her thumbs with stones tied to her feet.
Some of my favorite quotes from the book:For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
Abandoning science is the road back into poverty and backwardness.
The values of science and the values of democracy are concordant, in many cases indistinguishable. Science and democracy began - in their civilized incarnations - in the same time and place, Greece in the seventh and sixth centuries B.C. . . . Science thrives on, indeed requires, the free exchange of ideas; its values are antithetical to secrecy. Science holds to no special vantage points or privileged positions. Both science and democracy encourage unconventional opinions and vigorous debate. Both demand adequate reason, coherent argument, rigorous standards of evidence and honesty.
The tenets of skepticism do not require an advanced degree to master, as most successful used car buyers demonstrate. The whole idea of a democratic application of skepticism is that everyone should have the essential tools to effectively and constructively evaluate claims to knowledge. All science asks is to employ the same levels of skepticism we use in buying a used car or in judging the quality of analgesics or beer from their television commercials.
The book talks about the origins of the Book of Deuteronomy - I had no idea it was magically "found" by Josiah, at the exact time he was wanting those exact same reforms in Judaism! How convenient...
I was also thrilled to learn of Robert Allen Baker. He's cited in the book as being a professor at the University of Kentucky and, of course, I had to look him up. He was a psychologist, professor of psychology emeritus of the University of Kentucky, skeptic, author, and investigator and debunker of ghosts, UFO abductions, lake monsters and other paranormal phenomena. He was born in 1921 in Blackford, in Webster County, Kentucky. He graduated from Hopkinsville High School in 1939. I'm always so thrilled to learn of a great Kentucky scientist or artist.
The book also gives a shout out to James Randi, whose legendary debunking stunts have never been matched - and that's a shame, because we need someone to undertake those very high-profile stunts now.
Carl Sagan died in 1996. I can only imagine what he would have made of the proliferation of anti-vaccine movements among well-off white people in the USA - and the harm these movements have caused to children. Thank goodness we still have Bill Nye and Neil deGrasse Tyson.
If you haven't read it, please do, at least the first seven chapters. Sagan talks way more than alien abductions than you might think necessary, but those myths were super widespread at the time he wrote this book, and the way he debunks them could be used for a whole host of other pseudoscience crap.
In addition, if you aren't following BionerdNess on Facebook, you need to be. It's a page by a friend of mine, a biologist and professor, and she focuses BionerNess on debunking a lot of science myths middle and upper class white people believe and promote. A perfect page for getting material to share on your own social networks - to continue the work of Sagan!
Also see this hilarious pro-vaccine video from Bill Nye (unfortunately, only available on Facebook).
Finally: I haven't written since February. I haven't written more because, quite frankly, I've been busy attending public meetings with elected officials and what not, trying to be more involved in our democracy, trying to stand against the growing nonsense and dangerous practices of the current presidential administration and state legislators across the USA. I hope you are just as busy.
Monday, January 13, 2014
The entire universe in a glass of wine
"If we look in glass of wine closely enough we see the entire universe."
Theoretical physicist Richard Feynman earned himself the moniker “the Great Explainer” and his lectures at CalTech became, in the words of Maria Popova, "a cultural classic, blending brilliant yet accessible explanations of science with poignant meditations on life’s most profound questions."
This blog by Brain Pickings about one of Feynman's most famous lectures is a treasure. It focuses on a lecture titled “The Relation of Physics to Other Sciences,” in which Feynman, "eloquent and enthralling as ever, illustrates the connectedness of everything to everything else.
Read the excerpt, or listen to it (there's a link on the page), and be inspired!
Theoretical physicist Richard Feynman earned himself the moniker “the Great Explainer” and his lectures at CalTech became, in the words of Maria Popova, "a cultural classic, blending brilliant yet accessible explanations of science with poignant meditations on life’s most profound questions."
This blog by Brain Pickings about one of Feynman's most famous lectures is a treasure. It focuses on a lecture titled “The Relation of Physics to Other Sciences,” in which Feynman, "eloquent and enthralling as ever, illustrates the connectedness of everything to everything else.
Read the excerpt, or listen to it (there's a link on the page), and be inspired!
Saturday, June 1, 2013
Stephen King knows horror, but not how Atheists think
I decided to start this blog when a Christian blogger I thought was a pretty decent guy, and often downright reasonable, posted a blog entry called What Atheists Have Dead Wrong About Religion.
As I read the blog, it dawned on me that he really has no idea what an Atheist is. None. I started reading his previous posts and further realized that, as much as I didn't want to believe it, this guy is just like most other Christians: he lumps all non-Christians, including Atheists, into one category -- and we're all secretly miserable because we don't share his faith in his particular magical, invisible friend.
I responded to his blog specifically in my own blog, What Religious People Have Dead Wrong About Atheists.
That blog from two years ago came back to me when I heard Stephen King talking to Terry Gross on her show. You can hear it for yourself (around the 15:45 mark) or read it here:
Mr. King, the stars, sunrises, sunsets, bees pollinating crops and flowers - this and more brings me, an Atheist, joy and wonder and amazement. I marvel at all of the variables that have brought the world to this point - the forces of evolution, the forces of plate tectonics, the forces of physics in the universe. And I marvel at the specifics and the generalities. I marvel at what I understand and, even more, what I don't, when it comes to all of the beautiful thing in the world. And I became so much more in awe and wonder of it all when I embraced my Atheism - it freed me from the oh-so-limited thinking of people such as yourself.
I no longer wonder how a God can allow babies to be raped every day - every minute. How a God can allow people to be slaughtered, en masse, by other people or by a storm, a hurricane, an Earthquake, etc. That's the downside of choosing to believe in God - you have to believe that he or she or it watches all that horror and does NOTHING. You have to believe your God is a perverted sicko. I was washed clean of that confusion and anger when I embraced my Atheism. While you and others say sickening things at those moments such as, "It's all a part of God's plan," things that must tear apart those who hear such and are in so much pain, I look for ways to help, ways to respond, and ways to prevent. I accept that I cannot prevent every horrible natural act that the Earth or the cosmos may throw my way, but I don't accept man's inhumanity to man. I look at what I can do, what I can influence, and I do my best to act. I don't wait for an invisible magic friend to decide, based on people's desperate prayers, that maybe he'll do something about it. Instead, I embrace my responsibility as a part of the human race to do all I can.
As Hemant Mehta said in his blog on this same subject, "Letting God take credit for all of that just cheapens it all — it makes everything just a part of someone’s blueprint instead of something that turned up naturally yet came together beautifully."
Indeed.
Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Deists, whatever - please stop lamenting about what Atheists don't get, don't understand, don't enjoy in this incredible world of ours. Stop telling me I don't feel joy or wonderment. Stop telling me I don't enjoy life and the world. Stop telling me that there is no mystery or poetry in the world for me. You're wrong - on all of these points. Life is a rich tapestry for me, an Atheist - a tapestry of mystery, wonder, joy, poetry, excitement, confusion, pain and comfort. Unlike you, however, I have no borders in how I have to think about it all.
As I read the blog, it dawned on me that he really has no idea what an Atheist is. None. I started reading his previous posts and further realized that, as much as I didn't want to believe it, this guy is just like most other Christians: he lumps all non-Christians, including Atheists, into one category -- and we're all secretly miserable because we don't share his faith in his particular magical, invisible friend.
I responded to his blog specifically in my own blog, What Religious People Have Dead Wrong About Atheists.
That blog from two years ago came back to me when I heard Stephen King talking to Terry Gross on her show. You can hear it for yourself (around the 15:45 mark) or read it here:
Here we go again...“I choose to believe [in God]. … I mean, there’s no downside to that. If you say, ‘Well, OK, I don’t believe in God. There’s no evidence of God,’ then you’re missing the stars in the sky and you’re missing the sunrises and sunsets and you’re missing the fact that bees pollinate all these crops and keep us alive and the way that everything seems to work together. Everything is sort of built in a way that to me suggests intelligent design. But, at the same time, there’s a lot of things in life where you say to yourself, ‘Well, if this is God’s plan, it’s very peculiar,’ and you have to wonder about that guy’s personality — the big guy’s personality.”
Mr. King, the stars, sunrises, sunsets, bees pollinating crops and flowers - this and more brings me, an Atheist, joy and wonder and amazement. I marvel at all of the variables that have brought the world to this point - the forces of evolution, the forces of plate tectonics, the forces of physics in the universe. And I marvel at the specifics and the generalities. I marvel at what I understand and, even more, what I don't, when it comes to all of the beautiful thing in the world. And I became so much more in awe and wonder of it all when I embraced my Atheism - it freed me from the oh-so-limited thinking of people such as yourself.
I no longer wonder how a God can allow babies to be raped every day - every minute. How a God can allow people to be slaughtered, en masse, by other people or by a storm, a hurricane, an Earthquake, etc. That's the downside of choosing to believe in God - you have to believe that he or she or it watches all that horror and does NOTHING. You have to believe your God is a perverted sicko. I was washed clean of that confusion and anger when I embraced my Atheism. While you and others say sickening things at those moments such as, "It's all a part of God's plan," things that must tear apart those who hear such and are in so much pain, I look for ways to help, ways to respond, and ways to prevent. I accept that I cannot prevent every horrible natural act that the Earth or the cosmos may throw my way, but I don't accept man's inhumanity to man. I look at what I can do, what I can influence, and I do my best to act. I don't wait for an invisible magic friend to decide, based on people's desperate prayers, that maybe he'll do something about it. Instead, I embrace my responsibility as a part of the human race to do all I can.
As Hemant Mehta said in his blog on this same subject, "Letting God take credit for all of that just cheapens it all — it makes everything just a part of someone’s blueprint instead of something that turned up naturally yet came together beautifully."
Indeed.
Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Deists, whatever - please stop lamenting about what Atheists don't get, don't understand, don't enjoy in this incredible world of ours. Stop telling me I don't feel joy or wonderment. Stop telling me I don't enjoy life and the world. Stop telling me that there is no mystery or poetry in the world for me. You're wrong - on all of these points. Life is a rich tapestry for me, an Atheist - a tapestry of mystery, wonder, joy, poetry, excitement, confusion, pain and comfort. Unlike you, however, I have no borders in how I have to think about it all.
Sunday, March 18, 2012
Is your religion strong enough for science?
I subscribe to Carl Sagan Quoted on Twitter. Every day or so, a quote from Carl Sagan gets sent out. Here was one recently that I really loved:
“Any faith that admires truth, that strives to know God, must be brave enough to accommodate the universe.”
This quote really struck me, because it's something I've been thinking about a lot:
Fundamentalist Christians, fundamentalists Muslims, and fundamentalist anything, must say in their minds, "Oh, I trust this medicine that has been developed using the science of biology, and I will get on this plane and fly because of the work of people that applied the science of aeronautics, but I reject evolutionary biology, plate tectonics, and the laws of physics beyond the sphere of the Earth."
While I did, indeed, grow up in the Bible Belt, I was never discouraged from ignoring or rejecting science. It's one of the reasons I continued to attend church for so long despite not having the faith I was supposed to have - I didn't feel a God, but nothing was said against science in most of the churches I attended, and the pot lucks were so delicious - religion continued to accommodate the reality I experienced and everything I learned in school, and since I had no idea there was a viable alternative to attending church, I kept going. Maybe if it hadn't I would have embraced my Atheism much sooner.
I'm not worried about any religion or faith that embraces science. But the ones who don't absolutely terrify me - and defy all logic.
“Any faith that admires truth, that strives to know God, must be brave enough to accommodate the universe.”
This quote really struck me, because it's something I've been thinking about a lot:
Fundamentalist Christians, fundamentalists Muslims, and fundamentalist anything, must say in their minds, "Oh, I trust this medicine that has been developed using the science of biology, and I will get on this plane and fly because of the work of people that applied the science of aeronautics, but I reject evolutionary biology, plate tectonics, and the laws of physics beyond the sphere of the Earth."
While I did, indeed, grow up in the Bible Belt, I was never discouraged from ignoring or rejecting science. It's one of the reasons I continued to attend church for so long despite not having the faith I was supposed to have - I didn't feel a God, but nothing was said against science in most of the churches I attended, and the pot lucks were so delicious - religion continued to accommodate the reality I experienced and everything I learned in school, and since I had no idea there was a viable alternative to attending church, I kept going. Maybe if it hadn't I would have embraced my Atheism much sooner.
I'm not worried about any religion or faith that embraces science. But the ones who don't absolutely terrify me - and defy all logic.
Friday, January 6, 2012
Be careful what you ask for
This commentary from Christine Jenkins of the Yahoo! Contributor Network is awesome. It's called "The Implications of Teaching Evolution as Atheism." Wasn't quite what I thought when I clicked on the link. Excellent!
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Picking & choosing morals?
A Tweet I read today:
Pope says atheists pick & choose their morals. Today I will be frowning on child abuse & not having a problem with homosexuality #atheism
And I laughed and laughed...
Even the Dali Lama says we can be good without God.
In case you don't want to, or cannot, listen to the video, here is an except of the text read with the video:
From this distant vantage point, the Earth might not seem of any particular interest. But for us, it's different. Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
The earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and in triumph they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of the dot on scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner of the dot. How frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. 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. It is up to us. It's been said that astronomy is a humbling, and I might add, a character-building experience. To my mind, 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 and compassionately with one another and to preserve and cherish that pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known."
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Recommend: John Day Fossil Beds National Monument
A while back, my husband and I took a two week motorcycle trip and, near the end of it, we found ourselves at the incredible John Day Fossil Beds National Monument in Eastern Oregon. The monument designation protects one of the longest and most continuous records of evolutionary change and biotic relationships in North America. It's internationally-known for its well-preserved layers of fossil plants and mammals that lived in this region between the late Eocene Epoch, about 44 million years ago (long after the dinosaurs), and the late Miocene Epoch, about 7 million years ago. The site has produced such a huge amount of fossils, all preserved in perfect layers that show exactly when they lived, that paleontologists from all over the world use the finds at the monument to date their own finds from these periods elsewhere.
If you go, don't miss the film that's shown in the visitor's center; it's relatively short and it explains, in really easy-to-understand language, why this site is important, and what the climate of the land mass that is now called John Day Fossil Beds was like during various periods in the Earth's history (and how it lead to the development of the animals and plants from those times - and, ultimately, their demise).
It's a great place to truly understand the wonder of evolution and the natural, real world. In fact, it does such a good job that I asked one of the staff members if anyone ever tries to dispute the facts with claims that the Earth is only 6000 to 8000 years old (depends on which fundamentalist you are talking to as to how old they think the Earth is), that none of the animals that the fossil records prove existed really did exist, etc. She said, indeed, every so often, they do show up, but that they go after much more well-known targets, like the Grand Canyon - and even have alternative descriptions posted at that site regarding how it came to be, disputing the scientific facts and asserting their literal interpretation of their creation myth as true.
I do enjoy reading indigenous creation myths when visiting a site - they are lovely stories that say so much about what humans value, about hopes and fears. But such are NOT fact, and should never be portrayed as such. I'm bothered by the bullying religious groups do to get their creation myth portrayed on the same level as scientific fact at national parks and monuments. Let's NOT let this happen at John Day Fossil Beds!
If you go, don't miss the film that's shown in the visitor's center; it's relatively short and it explains, in really easy-to-understand language, why this site is important, and what the climate of the land mass that is now called John Day Fossil Beds was like during various periods in the Earth's history (and how it lead to the development of the animals and plants from those times - and, ultimately, their demise).
It's a great place to truly understand the wonder of evolution and the natural, real world. In fact, it does such a good job that I asked one of the staff members if anyone ever tries to dispute the facts with claims that the Earth is only 6000 to 8000 years old (depends on which fundamentalist you are talking to as to how old they think the Earth is), that none of the animals that the fossil records prove existed really did exist, etc. She said, indeed, every so often, they do show up, but that they go after much more well-known targets, like the Grand Canyon - and even have alternative descriptions posted at that site regarding how it came to be, disputing the scientific facts and asserting their literal interpretation of their creation myth as true.
I do enjoy reading indigenous creation myths when visiting a site - they are lovely stories that say so much about what humans value, about hopes and fears. But such are NOT fact, and should never be portrayed as such. I'm bothered by the bullying religious groups do to get their creation myth portrayed on the same level as scientific fact at national parks and monuments. Let's NOT let this happen at John Day Fossil Beds!
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