Science, and other Myths

An Apple a Day, and Other Myths - NYTimes.com:

The NYTs discovered in February that mammograms are not the slam dunk we once thought they were, now they seem to have realized that a ton of the "well, isn't it obvious" diet pronouncements on red meat, fats, fruits and vegetables, etc, etc are at best questionable.

This really ought not be news -- folk wisdom that has been around for at least 100s if not thousands of years tends to be MUCH more reliable than any late breaking science on a whole host of things relative to being human.

Why? Because the universe and the world is either "a random phenomenon" over such huge periods of time that humans have no chance to getting any big picture on what we are looking at with our tiny and also randomly created brains. Or it is designed by a being that is so much beyond our power of thought that the amazing thing is that we can even get some short-term localized hypothesis that SEEM to hold for some period of time -- maybe even a few decades, or as much as 100 years sometimes.

My belief is randomness and time are just other tools in the Creators toolbox and I have none of the qualms that Einstein had about "God playing dice". Yes, there is "order", but it is God's order, not mans. Let's face it, it if it IS all random as the atheists believe, then it is purposeless -- and understanding that for which there is no reason is best done with a shoulder shrug and a malted beverage.

We step into this physical realm for at most 100 years -- the first 20 we are not yet mentally developed enough to really know much of anything. For the next 50 or so we have "a decent chance" to learn a lot -- hopefully humility most of all, and maybe even believe that we got to know a couple people somewhat well.

I'm convinced that we are pretty much wrong on that actually knowing anyone else, but maybe that doesn't matter either. Maybe we just try to balance kindness and truth with as many people as we can. And focus on the long part -- eternity. If it is all meaningless, then so what -- pleasure is nice, but one doesn't usually have to make it all the way to their 50's to know that the best kinds of that as well are more focused on that hope of eternity. Church, family, friends, history, art -- maybe a big bike and the open road. Not all meaning has to be really meaningful.

Cancer, heart disease, stroke, Alzheimers, accident, etc. Our exit is really the only certainty -- if you are in good enough standing with "The Party" (Democrat-TP), I'm of the opinion that taxes are no longer certain. Tom Daschle, Geitner, etc seem to be too much of a "sample" to believe that we all have to follow the same rules. Why should we? It's a pretty small step from breaking the Equal Protection Clause on "progressive taxation" to exempting "the right people". Why treat people equally? TP believes they are much "better" than that.  It looks to me that the payment of taxes has become yet another politically based uncertainty.

But not death -- so far. The Party may well start hastening the deaths of those that fail to get enough of the memos, but that is OK. Even the "members in good standing" are more and more ready to sign their own ticket to eternity.

So you know death is certain -- right now the #1 cause of injury death in the US is suicide, so apparently our Godless pseudo-socialist  nirvana isn't completely appealing to a pretty good segment of our population. Suicide along with addictions of all sorts and "mental health issues" is growing like crazy, but for some reason it is a lot easier for someone like Bloomberg to limit the size of folks sodas and try to take their gun rights away.

Bloomberg probably figures suicide, like abortion, increase in number of gay relationships and people not having children is GOOD -- we know that in the random world of natural selection, not having any offspring is a sure fire WIN! Right? Have we thought that completely through?

I often think that the 2nd half 20th century Western Civilization deserves the millennial cultural Darwin Award for voluntarily removing ourselves from the gene pool. Perhaps a crescent and a mushroom cloud would be a proper shape for such award?

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