Not really. I just wanted to see if my signature shows up.

I'm starting silver membership tomorrow.

Adam

Thanks so much to Brian and Kelly for giving me a tremendous amount of time to speak about what's going on in Missouri about stem cell research.

If you all have any questions don't hesitate to ask and I will do my best to get back to everyone them.

Joe
www.joerhea.com

I made a rather surprising dicovery today. I learnt that there are, in fact, not one Pope but TWO! That's right, there are 2 Popes. How can this be? Surely this just highlights the ridiculousness inherent in the catholic Church.

One of these Popes, Joseph Ratzinger/BenedictXVI, does indeed live in the Vatican. He's the one you probably all know about.

The other Pope, or Earl Pulvermacher as his parents named him, has no given address although there is a Post Office box number you can reach him at if you really need to send some money. It's in Springdale, WA. (isn't that where Bart Simpson lives? - Oh, no that's Springfield). I digress

The Third Revolution

If we were to ask someone randomly what the most important discoveries in biology have been in the course of its history, the answers we would most likely receive are (1) The Darwinian theory of evolution by natural selection and (2) the discovery of the structure of DNA. Indeed, these are both perfectly correct answers. Yet there has been a third crucial revolution in biology, which has occurred only in the last 30 years or so, and is just as tremendous and important as the two mentioned above, but is perhaps overlooked outside the community of specialists because it is not the result of a single monumental event but is rather an amalgam of discoveries, improved techniques and scientific reasoning. This is the third revolution of biology.

The achievement I am talking about is precisely this: A complete formulation of the properties of biological organisms in terms entirely of chemistry.

I don't think I've ever posted a blog on here before.

Also, I haven't been here lately, so I'm just going to link to my new blog from MySpace.

Please give it Kudos, if you have an account.

Thanks, guys.

I'm growing more resistant to the deist/pantheist position. It always comes down to a handful of tiresome dead ends that beg the question. The "god of the gaps" keeps moving further off into the distance, scientific understanding nipping at its heels. As it always has, and will continue to until such nonsense is ruled out by our understanding of reality, or people come to their senses. Or maybe "everything" is "god": the insufferable redefinition of words, where a universe with "god" can't be distinguished from one without. The needless pantheist inference of a divine somethingoranother that did something for some reason, and one is and the same with all existence.

The final week of my 11th. year of public schooling is here. The final week is always a bit odd. There is a sense of urgency, but then there is a pervading laziness about everything.
I'm currently setting up my German final. It is a 4 minute monologue of various, sometimes random things. My math final is Wednesday, I think. I'm already done setting up for my Computer Apps. class. In Computer Apps., we had to come up with a project; do the project and then present the results. I chose to learn my way around Rhino 3D and model a turbofan engine. It was actually somewhat easy and the presentation will be a breeze. I'm planning to just do a quick demo of modelling techniques in Rhino; I actually look forward to this. It is something I like to do.

Religion. It's been getting me down recently. Really down.

Thanks to an unxpectedly large dose of LSD I have managed to rearrage some thoughts in my brain and now I'm going to do something about it. Religion, that is.

Actually, I've found that it's not religion that's the problem. Religion can be a useful thing. The worshipping of a higher power is what enabled us to domesticate dogs and cattle. A religion is merely a pursuit or interest to which someone ascribes supreme importance.

So now religion isn't getting me down. Religion is, in fact, the very thing that I think we have to use to tackle the real issue, which is the faith in irrational concepts.

The original OP-ED piece,

I just read the final chapter of "God is not great" by Hitchens and although it was hard to read for me (english beeing my second language and all), it was one of the most interesting books I've ever read about anything. His facts always win against old superstitions even in my own mind and he's got a brilliant kind of "british humor" that pushes you after a few "only-fact" chapters.

There are two of my own superstitions it destroyed or better yet debunked. And I was an Atheist before, so that is not one of them The first is the myth about Gandhi, that he was a saint and saw every men and women equal and hated violence. Turns out, he hated black africans, he slept with teenage girls and he was a fanatic hindu. Not that it makes him any kind of lesser man or that freeing India a lesser thing, but he doesn't deserve the "Mahatma" or saint in front of his name.