A religious argument, -Free of charge.

There is one specific thing in this world that opens me to the possibility of God.

I am a scientist, if not yet professional (still working on that master thesis), I am in heart...so I do truly believe in evolution and the laws of nature. I, for instance believe that we fall in love for the purpose of procreation. As humans invest so much time in their offspring, -a method that has shown to pay off for our species, we need to be picky as to whom we decide to breed with. -As the person you rub units with may be in your life for a while. Obviously when it comes to fish or rats this isnt as important as they invest none to very little time in their offspring. They can play with the first chap that comes along and have babies which are, after just a few weeks, left to themselves in the big world.

Now, even if I have this very scientific view on the concept of love or falling in love and having a crush, I still get just as carried away with it as anyone else. I am human after all. I just cant get myself to believe that we fall in love because a higher being or spirit or whatever one wish to call it has taught us to...or given us the ability to. At least if God made us able to fall in love, He or She must have done so to make sure we have enough sex to maintain the human species....which I admit could be a possibility.

However, there is one thing I cannot find a scientific explanation for;

Irony.

I was faced with this concept no later than yesterday. Picture this:
-Stressed student in the lab. 4 tubes with algal culture. A desperate need to have at least one tube with a synchronous culture.

That was me yesterday. I examined my tubes to find out that ONE of the 4 tubes might become synchronous within the day...something that was absolutely one hundred percent necessary if I was going to be able to do any work at all this week in the lab...and with an approaching deadline... Safe to say I was desperate.

I put the tubes in a rack and placed the rack in the window post, carefully making sure they were stable. I turned around to have another look in the microscope, just to hear a crashing sound of the rack tipping over. One of the tubes fell out of the rack and onto the floor, spilling all the algal culture across the floor. Now, you have probably already guessed which tube it was that fell down...

Of course out of all the 4 tubes, the single one I might be able to use had to drop.

I cussed. Then I had to laugh. It was just too ironic.

Its the same thing that happens every year in May. I cannot tell you how many times Ive spent weeks and weeks indoors in beautiful weather, preparing for an exam, just to walk out the door after my very last exam of the season, getting drenched in rain...And people wonder why Im pale...

Irony could very well be the proof of the existence of God. I am actually a little surprised that hasnt been used as an argument before. Ive heard all kinds of strange arguments to why evolution is crap...and they all show evidence of lack of knowledge... but irony... -How the hell do you explain that scientifically? It cannot be coincidence. It is too predictable for that. It cannot be entropy. The pattern is too obvious.

-Its the result of someone's, or something's, bad sense of humor. Thats what it is.

I guess the next time someone tries to preach to me, I will see if they can give me an explanation for irony, and if they can...then who knows. Perhaps you'll see me in church every Sunday some time in the future.

Romance

”I love you” she said, gazing into his deep blue eyes.
“I love you too” he said, running his hand through her blond hair…pulling out big chunks of it as his hand moved down towards her back.
“I think perhaps you should lay off the hair bleach for a while, baby” he said, removing the locks of hair from his fingernails.

He never saw her again.

Ive been thinking about romance lately…I find it odd what members of both sexes do to attract a significant other. I noticed getting off the bus the other day that 80% (give or take a few) of all the girls between 10 and 19 had long platinum blond hair, two sizes too small jeans (often with a nice accompanied fat-roll over the belt) and a low cut cleavage. I also noticed that the guys of the same age group all had short gel-styled hairdos with highlights and huge “diamond” ear-studs in both ears. I couldn’t have told them apart from each other if you held me at gunpoint in a snake pit.

What Im wondering about is who it was that inspired this look…Who decided that this is the ultimate sexy appearance? Who told these kids that this is the way to go if you want to be attractive? My initial thought was the media obviously. I find the media very easy to blame, as its always there and doesn’t target one specific person. All over the place you hear people talking about its influence on the young souls of today…and perhaps there is some truth in it. Perhaps the young boys have been watching P. Diddy and 80 cent or whatevertheFok that guy is calling himself with huge studs in their ears…and perhaps the girls have been watching the same music videos with half naked women dancing…or strutting around. And the kids copy it. But still…why is it sexy? Or is it sexy at all? -Cause I really cannot see it.

And another thing…why does the hair have to be blonde? And more so, why does it have to be white? They walk around with hair so white they look 90 years old from behind…you find yourself praying to the weather gods to keep the wind away…knowing that one small gust of air will blow locks of hair off the scalp on the girl in front of you. It scares the crap out of me…

Don’t get me wrong, I understand the need to look attractive. I, for instance, understand womens need of showing cleavage while enjoying a night out with friends. You try to show off just enough to draw attention from the opposite sex (or same sex if you’re into that). And we all know men love boobs. Just as women love a good man-ass.-Not to be mistaken for an ass-man (somehow I find boob-men easier to handle…at least you can see the hands coming)….or asshole for that matter…The clue is knowing exactly how much to show off, without showing off too much. Too much can send out the wrong signals.

I don’t think guys understand this issue…knowing when too much is too much. After all…as a man you don’t really have to worry about that, do you? Pants don’t show off much…you can accentuate a nicely shaped ass…but that’s about it. A shirt, if tight, can show off muscles…but no one will react if you wear a loosely fit one. We ladies have bigger issues; is the cleavage too big? Is the cleavage too small? Is this top too tight? Is it transparent? Are these pants too big? Are the pants too tight? Do I have a fat-roll? Sometimes I think being a man is way easier…

Personally I suspect men of not caring…I’ll bet they never even think about whether or not a cleavage is too small…they’re probably just happy its there. Is the top transparent? -Wooo-wee! Men are simple that way. They believe if the pants are expensive, they’re stylish. No questions asked.

I guess we’ll never fully understand why men do the things they do…and why we women do the things we do. Somehow it must work…’cause all over the place I see white-haired girls in yeast-inducing pants holding hands with diamond-studded, pimpled boys…And I see worried women in great clothes holding hands with men in over-prized, poorly designed jeans…

It’s a strange place this world we live in. -But intensely fascinating.

Hands Held High

Turn my mic up louder, I got to say something
Lightweights steppin' aside when we come in
Feel it in your chest, the syllables get pumping
People on the street then panic and start running
Words on loose leaf sheet, complete coming
I jump in my mind, I summon the rhyme I'm dumping
Healing the blind, I promise to let the sun in
Sick of the dark ways we march to the drumming
Jump when they tell us that they wanna see jumping
Fuck that, I wanna see some fists pumping
List something, take back what's yours
Say something that you know they might attack you for
'Cause I'm sick of being treated like I had before
Like it's stupid standing for what I'm standing for
Like this war's really just a different brand of war
Like it doesn't cater to rich and abandon poor
Like they understand you, in the back of their jet
When you can't put gas in your tank, these fuckers
Are laughing their way to the bank, and cashing their check
Asking you to have the passion and have some respect
For a leader so nervous in an obvious way
Stuttering and mumbling for nightly news to replay
And the rest of the world watching at the end of the day
In the living room, laughing like, "What did he say?"

Amen

In my living room watching it, I am not laughing
'Cause when it gets tense, I know what might happen
The world is cold, the bold men take action
Have to react to get blown into fractions
At 10 years old, it's something to see
Another kid my age drugged under a Jeep
Taken and bound and found later under a tree
I wonder if he had thought 'the next one could be me'
Do you see the soldiers that are out today?
They brush the dust from bulletproof vests away
It's ironic, at times like this you'd pray
But a bomb blew the mosque up yesterday
There's bombs on the buses, bikes, roads
Inside your market, your shops, and your clothes
My dad, he's got a lot of fear, I know
But enough pride inside not to let that show
My brother had a book he would hold with pride
A little red cover with a broken spine on the back
He hand-wrote a quote inside,
"When the rich wage war, it's the poor who die"
Meanwhile, the leader just talks away
Stuttering and mumbling for nightly news to replay
The rest of the world watching at the end of the day
Both scared and angry, like "What did he say?"

Amen

With hands held high into a sky so blue
As the ocean opens up to swallow you









Photo: Corbis


http://www.linkinpark.com

The end of the world as we know it...

Here's a thought;

Why worry about our planet?

Ooooo...I can feel your resentment towards me now. All the way through your computer, across the world wide web, into my computer and out through every pore in the plastic covering my laptop. Give me a chance to explain. Please. I am not insane. Nor am I arrogant. I am simply realistic.

You see, the world is changing. We know this. We also know that it has changed before. Some people claim the recent changes is due to natural oscillation in temperature…that it was and is to be expected and nothing to worry about. Others claim it’s a change due to human influence. -One theory which removes responsibility from the hands of humans (“it’s simply no ones fault!”) and a second theory which gives humans galactic destroying capabilities. We can argue about which theory is correct till the end of our days. The fact of the matter is; the planet is changing. I am guessing the change is a combination of the two aforementioned theories. But that would be a third theory and a third theory makes it all more complicated…and it also renders it impossible for us as humans to push the fault over on someone or something else.

Get to the point you say. I will. I just had to explain the issue a bit before I start answering my own question of worry.-or lack of it.

Planet Earth as we know it has been in existence for roughly 4.5 billion years. Obviously if you are deeply religious you may disagree with that number, but either way our planet has been here for a shit-load of years. It is also huge. Perhaps compared to other planets its not so big, but if you compare it to…lets say a Hollywood mansion (which are quite a lot bigger than what Im used to), its pretty f-ing big. Now…what exactly is it about us humans that make us believe we are in the position of destroying this ancient as well as enormous object we inhabit?

As humans we are granted the ability to adapt to our environment without including genes and tedious evolution. Obviously we have evolved, but we can go on winter holidays to Aspen or the Swiss Alps without going through millennia of evolution first (-That would seriously suck by the way). We can manipulate the environment around us in order to increase our fitness. –And since survival is based on fitness (remember Darwin and “survival of the fittest”?) humans have been able to “take over the world”. Obviously this is an illusion since there are far more insects in the world than there are humans…but you get the idea.

So, what does this have to do with environmental problems? It is actually very simple. By treating the world the way we treat it today…polluting the air and the water, building houses where there should be forests, fishing the oceans empty, we simply reduce our own fitness. –And low fitness results in low survival rates. Did I lose you yet? Think of it this way. If you throw a rat into the water in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, you drastically reduce the rats chance of survival.-Or its fitness. It won’t die right away, as rats are pretty decent swimmers, but its chance of survival is based on how close it is to land and solid ground…and how far away the sharks are.

So when we pollute the air, the average temperature gets higher. This in turn leads to changes in weather. Tropical storms destroy villages and crops. People die. Water rises and takes out Denmark, Holland and any other low leveled area. People die. Drinking water gets polluted and makes people sick. People die. Certain crops can no longer grow where it used to due to the change in temperature. People die. The people who used to live in Denmark, Holland and other low leveled areas will be forced to move to higher land. It will get crowded and diseases will spread more easily. People die.

See my point?

We are not destroying the planet...We are destroying our ability to inhabit it. –And it doesn’t worry me. If it gets to the point where it is too late…well, then we just get what we deserve.

My only worry is the species we will take down with us. But hopefully it will be with the planet as it is with forest ecosystems after a fire. -The perfect opportunity for a fresh start.

I guess only time will tell.