You may have thought that gratitude comes from the heart but according to this MSNBC report, scientists now think that thankfulness has its source in our genes. Science aside, I cannot personally think of a more callous report to make at Thanksgiving time or a more sure way to rob the holiday of its festivity. But the march of modernism must continue until the spirit of man is crushed and destroyed! Let there be no mistake oh you superstitious masses, you are programmed to do good because if you do good then you will be more successful and more likely to pass on your 'goodness' genes to your progeny.
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Serving turkey sandwiches to the poor one day out 365 could very well be explained by evolution... but true selfless love cannot be explained so easily. For these Berkley scientist's it does not exist. As the school teacher / sociologist said to a group of kindergartners, "The big question is, what makes people happy?"
But true love does not have its source in man but in God. And neither does joy. I have seen this sacrificial love and joy in the lives of others. Their testimony speaks much more strongly than any scientific paper.
Just as a final note, one has to wonder how they get away with calling it science? How can one possibly falsify their conclusions?
Happy Thanksgiving everybody!
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Serving turkey sandwiches to the poor one day out 365 could very well be explained by evolution... but true selfless love cannot be explained so easily. For these Berkley scientist's it does not exist. As the school teacher / sociologist said to a group of kindergartners, "The big question is, what makes people happy?"
But true love does not have its source in man but in God. And neither does joy. I have seen this sacrificial love and joy in the lives of others. Their testimony speaks much more strongly than any scientific paper.
Just as a final note, one has to wonder how they get away with calling it science? How can one possibly falsify their conclusions?
Happy Thanksgiving everybody!
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
I listened to a lecture by Richard Dawkins tonight in which he equated those who believe in special creation with holocaust deniers. According to Dawkins, all intelligent men must accept that they have descended from turnips. As I listened to him, I couldn't help thinking of Antiochus IV preparing to sacrifice a pig on the holy altar in Jerusalem. I know that sounds strange but it is Hanukkah and the arrogance of Dawkins lecture provides some basis for comparison with Epiphanus. I for one feel fairly insulted by this association with a turnip. However, in the spirit of our age, I have tried to focus on the positive aspects of his message and to find some common ground. I think I've succeeded. Both Dawkins and I both believe that a vital connection exists between human beings and turnips - that we both need each other. I will try to explain...
The turnip, of the leafy green variety, a tuber, excluded from high society, has the ability to harvest light energy from the sun and use this energy to split one of the most stable molecules in existence... water. It accomplishes this tricky and dangerous task with the help of a complex molecular machine called the chloroplast. Even my textbook can't hide its admiration for what the chloroplast can do.
It is good that turnip plants make turnips because most of us aren't photosynthetic. We need to get our energy from a different source and it so happens that a turnip contains a lot of energy... if we can get at. But reducing a turnip back into usable energy is not easy. It requires another kind of cellular power plant... the mitochondria.
The mitochondria is a close counterpart to the chloroplast and uses a similar series of chemical reactions, except in reverse. Rather than splitting water and releasing oxygen, it uses oxygen to reassemble a molecule of water. In the process it releases CO2. Just as it was tricky for the chloroplast to split water, it is also tricky for the mitochondria to put the water molecule back together again.
1. Carp, G. Cell and Molecular Biology: Concepts and Experiments, 2010 Wiley and Sons
The turnip, of the leafy green variety, a tuber, excluded from high society, has the ability to harvest light energy from the sun and use this energy to split one of the most stable molecules in existence... water. It accomplishes this tricky and dangerous task with the help of a complex molecular machine called the chloroplast. Even my textbook can't hide its admiration for what the chloroplast can do.
"...the splitting of water is the most thermodynamically challenging reaction known to occur in living organisms. Splitting water in a laboratory requires the use of a strong electric current or temperatures approaching 2000 deg Celsius. Yet a plant cell can accomplish this feat on a snowy mountainside using only the energy of visible light." 1By splitting water, the turnip plant takes what it needs from water (the 2H+ ions and 4e-) and releases what is left over... oxygen. In addition to light, the turnip also absorb CO2. By absorbing CO2 and releasing O2, the turnip does a great service to those of us who need O2 and release CO2. But the turnip plant does much more than scrub the air. It uses the energy harvested from the sun and the carbon absorbed from the air and makes turnips!
It is good that turnip plants make turnips because most of us aren't photosynthetic. We need to get our energy from a different source and it so happens that a turnip contains a lot of energy... if we can get at. But reducing a turnip back into usable energy is not easy. It requires another kind of cellular power plant... the mitochondria.
The mitochondria is a close counterpart to the chloroplast and uses a similar series of chemical reactions, except in reverse. Rather than splitting water and releasing oxygen, it uses oxygen to reassemble a molecule of water. In the process it releases CO2. Just as it was tricky for the chloroplast to split water, it is also tricky for the mitochondria to put the water molecule back together again.
"A major challenge for investigators is to explain how [oxygen is transformed back into water]. Most importantly, the process must occur very efficiently because the cell is dealing with very dangerous substances; the "accidental" release of partially reduced oxygen species has the potential to damage virtually every macromolecule in the cell." 2These two little power plants, the mitochondria and the chloroplast, use the waste products and the final products of the other. One splits water and release oxygen, the other uses oxygen and reassembles water. One uses CO2 to create a sugar or starch (ie. the turnip) The other uses sugar or starch and releases CO2. The complementary nature of the mitochondria and chloroplasts and the way they are designed to make use of water, carbon and oxygen demand something that the theory of evolution is unable to provide... a reasonable explanation - preferably one that doesn't include turnips.
1. Carp, G. Cell and Molecular Biology: Concepts and Experiments, 2010 Wiley and Sons
I was at a small village in the West Bank a few weeks ago where four soldier were kept posted for security reasons. The soldiers came over to the house where I was staying for the Shabbat meal. It turned out that they were part of an intelligence unit who were at the outpost on a "... mans vacation", as they put it. They usually spent their days at a desk working as programmers but once a year they are given a week of active duty. "What kind of programming did they do?" I asked. And that was about as far as that conversation went.
I thought of them when I read about this Stuxnet worm that is designed to take control of the electronics which regulate the rotation speed of motors. From the report I read, it was almost certainly designed to sabotage nuclear centrifuges. Interestingly enough Iran is having difficulty keeping its centrifuges running and has confirmed that it is battling Stuxnet. Imagine steel cylinders full of costly plutonium spinning wildly out of control and disintegrating...
This was not a program created by a 16 year old kid bored with his homework. Many think that it was designed by a state... possibly Israel. Of course Israel has not confirmed one way or another although, according to the article, several Israeli intelligence officer break out in a big grin when the subject comes up.
The story makes one wonder about what goes on behind the scenes. There was an article in Time about the cyber-battles being fought between the US and China. It seems that in any future war, we may be as reliant on a shadowy group of hackers able to hack into servers and remain there like a bug on a wall, a wrong keystroke betraying their presence to the enemy. And of course, just recently, China hijacked 15% of the worlds internet traffic for 18 minutes, apparently putting secure connections at risk. I am not sure what that means, but you have to wonder that, having become so reliant on the internet for business and gov'n services, what would happen if the internet were compromised? Isn't the very nature of the world wide web - that it is open to all and unregulated - also place it at risk? Or is the internet somehow immune from the Inverse Law of Security and Freedom (ILOSAF)- an increase in security must result in a decrease in freedom.
This discussion is above my pay curve but I think I will buy some gold and short the Nasdaq anyway.
The story is from here
I thought of them when I read about this Stuxnet worm that is designed to take control of the electronics which regulate the rotation speed of motors. From the report I read, it was almost certainly designed to sabotage nuclear centrifuges. Interestingly enough Iran is having difficulty keeping its centrifuges running and has confirmed that it is battling Stuxnet. Imagine steel cylinders full of costly plutonium spinning wildly out of control and disintegrating...
This was not a program created by a 16 year old kid bored with his homework. Many think that it was designed by a state... possibly Israel. Of course Israel has not confirmed one way or another although, according to the article, several Israeli intelligence officer break out in a big grin when the subject comes up.
The story makes one wonder about what goes on behind the scenes. There was an article in Time about the cyber-battles being fought between the US and China. It seems that in any future war, we may be as reliant on a shadowy group of hackers able to hack into servers and remain there like a bug on a wall, a wrong keystroke betraying their presence to the enemy. And of course, just recently, China hijacked 15% of the worlds internet traffic for 18 minutes, apparently putting secure connections at risk. I am not sure what that means, but you have to wonder that, having become so reliant on the internet for business and gov'n services, what would happen if the internet were compromised? Isn't the very nature of the world wide web - that it is open to all and unregulated - also place it at risk? Or is the internet somehow immune from the Inverse Law of Security and Freedom (ILOSAF)- an increase in security must result in a decrease in freedom.
This discussion is above my pay curve but I think I will buy some gold and short the Nasdaq anyway.
The story is from here
