Science (2) Successes and Mistakes

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Science is not just made up of mistakes.  It is about formulating a hypothesis and systematically testing it.  In the end, the scientist looks for evidence that supports this hypothesis.  But to Jules Verne's point, mistakes (e.g. misstated hypothesis) that occur within a well designed methodology and well conducted study can be just as illuminating of truth as successes (e.g. supported hypothesis).
 

Science (1) One Way of Thinking

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To Carl Sagan's point, science begins with an inquisitive, even skeptical frame of mind and it goes about answering that query and resolving that skepticism in a systematic, logical way.

Atheism Community Weighs In (3)

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What is rhetoric?

Rhetoric is the art of discourse, an art that aims to improve the capability of writers or speakers to inform, persuade, or motivate particular audiences in specific situations.  As a subject of formal study and a productive civic practice, rhetoric has played a central role in the European tradition. Its best known definition comes from Aristotle, who considers it a counterpart of both logic and politics, and calls it "the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion."

Reference: Rhetoric.

: language that is intended to influence people and that may not be honest or reasonable

: the art or skill of speaking or writing formally and effectively especially as a way to persuade or influence people

Reference: rhetoric.

The above image is powerful rhetoric, and it accounts for both the learned (academic) and the layperson (common) meanings of the word. The above image is also dangerous rhetoric, in that it grossly simplifies a crowning but complex achievement of humankind as well as a tragic but no less complex event in human history. 

Even if we are to acknowledge science as pivotal, even tectonic in reaching the moon, science is merely the enabler in this case.  Instead, it is more about human ingenuity, inspiration and persistence.  Similarly, even if we are to acknowledge religion as the calling card for the September 11th attacks, some fanatic people bent on destruction were actually the drivers of that tragedy.
 

Atheism Community Weighs In (2)

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In the Google+ Atheism community, Michael Meridius asks the following:

What's #God? 

Here is the interview of Neil deGrasse Tyson, in which he articulates the context for the quote above:

"If that's how you want to invoke your evidence for god, then god is an ever-receding pocket of scientific ignorance."

After explaining that all of the physically understood matter accounts for only 4% of observed energy and gravitation in the universe, Neil Tyson is asked to reconcile the unexplained.

The God we invoke in an article or conversation is, whether we intend to or not, often a human construct.  In other words, we have an understanding of God that is inviolably human in nature, so to draw on Him to make an argument, or to refer to Him to rebut an argument, is to come back to that understanding.  Therefore, as science builds on our knowledge of the world around us, and the broader universe, that human construct is actually the ever-receding pocket of ignorance. 

So what is God? 

I'm not sure that anyone, from any discipline, school or belief, truly understands what God is.  However, I'd like to believe that that is part of the world and the universe we are in a collective effort to understand, even though we may disagree vehemently or argue pointedly.  In saying this, I emphasize that we as people are part and parcel of that world and universe, so I also hope that we are in a collective effort to understand, that is, to empathize, each other's perspectives, beliefs and arguments.  We have the sciences as well as the arts and, yes, even the religions at our disposal for such empathic understanding.
 

Atheism Community Weighs In (1)

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Michael Meridius posted the following note in the Google+ Atheism community:

I don't need saving, servitude or reward. I'm naturally empathic. 

I commented:

Whether we call it religion or psychology, morals or ethics, or whatever else, we have the privilege of choice and the responsibility not to judge.
  

Grant Snider (3) Why We Write

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So why do you write?  Why do you create what you create, or why do you create when you do create?  If you don't create at all, then why not?
 

Grant Snider (2) The Creative Processor

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"All that work for [just] this?"  Yes.  We creative sorts have to work at, and revel in, the simplicity, the seamlessness, and the distillation of a long, sometimes messy effort into one brief performance and modest artistry.