...I have been thinking a lot recently about spirituality , which as somebody does a few RE lessons is probably quite handy. For those of you who know me well, I have been baptised or christened, shit I should really know the difference, is there one? I was also very close to being confirmed. I decided at that point that I didn't believe in god and instead devoted my life to researching the paranormal and planning for the inevitable alien invasion, except that there isn't going to be one. Alien life exists; statistically that is almost a certainty. However unless the theoretical science of wormholes etc. is actually true, the only way we will ever see an alien is if an extremophile is discovered locked in an ice cap on mars, or perhaps in the black spots in the gas clouds surrounding Venus. They will likely be very simplistic and consist of very few cells, maybe even be single celled. You have more chance of surviving a Chuck Norris roundhouse kick than being anally probed by a silver skinned fella from Zeti Reticuli.
That sounds like the words of a man who speaks with some degree of certainty. Well for once I feel certain, you see, when I get the inevitable nightly telephone canvasser on the blower and some lovely Indian lady tells me I have a guaranteed timeshare in Florida and that all I have to do is give her my credit card details, my bull shit detector goes crazy. I know with all certainty I am being scammed. Now this may seem like a bit of a tangent at the moment, but stick with me I am getting to a point. Recently when a religious person talks about their beliefs the same buzzing light comes on that flashes when I’m on the phone to *insert ethnic sounding name here* you see, I admire the passion of these people who put faith in a higher power and I admire their faith too. But when held to scrutiny they are saying things that myself, as a fairly open minded guy, can't really believe.
Let me delve back in to the world of analogy: Water is boiling, science tells us that this is because the water molecules are being charged with heat energy and are therefore able to move around more freely. But what if Mr Religion came and said that “a supreme being is drinking it"? Their proof would likely be that they believe and have faith (I still admire it) that god is drinking it therefore it must be true. Occasionally I hear some evangelistic extremist Christian (usually American) and think they should instantly be committed. I just want to ask them where they kept the T-Rex on Noah’s ark - that one has always bothered me, I’d love to hear a creationist’s explanation for the mass of dinosaur bones, they just don't really seem to fit do they? (That’s not even me being flippant, genuine curiosity!)
I do want to get something straight though, this may seem like I am showing a scientific bias here and just trying to score points on religion, and I’m not! But here is why I lean towards science: If a scientist had proved years previously that the previously mentioned water turned to steam because, I don't know, heat created bubbles and those bubbles carried water with them in to the air. It would recognise it as fact until, and here is the vital part, somebody proved otherwise. Scientists for the most part try and learn the truth, they find evidence to support their theories and when their theory is proved false they change their mind, it might not be as powerful and romantic as faith, but surely the fact that it develops and changes means that it is as near as we can get to truth?
Or so I sometimes think. Truth be told I am a romantic and science has holes in it too. Plus a lot of what they do is theoretical. I watched a pretty interesting documentary on time travel, it featured a bunch of really "out there" scientists who obviously watched too much quantum leap as impressionable children. Watching them set my bull shit alert in to overdrive. It was just all hippy crap, it was worse than the ‘god drinking the water’ theory (could be true!) So now I’m in a quandary, I don't have the faith that some people do, I need to see proof and apparently without faith you don't get evidence. I sometimes feel like there is religion on one shoulder and science on the other pulling me in opposite directions. But which is the devil and which one the angel? Or perhaps they are both pretenders?
Maybe one day I will choose a side and go out to bat for them. I mean I do genuinely envy people with faith, in science or religion, the only thing I have that much passion for is KFC - In the colonel we trust! But for now I will keep enjoying the internal monologue inside my brain and watch the documentaries and listen to the people with passion fight for their causes. I do know one thing though, if a big rock was heading towards the planet, science would try and stop it, but I wouldn't be praying to Hawking or Einstein.
