When Six Days Mean Eternity December 26, 2006
Posted by soniadomain in : Uncategorized , add a commentVancouver columnist Douglas Todd presents an intriguing view on the creation theory from the scientific prospective (”"Science-based spirituality”, Vancouver Sun, 12/23/2006). He interviews Jack and Alice Newton - a couple of amateur astronomers, who spend their winter months in Arizona Sky Village running 10 high powered telescopes. Some of these telescopes are located on site in Arizona and the others in their summer home in Osoyoos, BC are operated remotely. Jack Newton is a widely published author whose articles and photos appeared in Newsweek, Canadian Geographics, Life and Astronomy magazines and a popularizer of the astronomy worldwide.
Comparing the scientific theory of the Universe creation also known as Big Bang to Genesis in Bible, Jack Newton does find an agreement between the two. “Scientific understanding of creation”, he notes, ” just changes dates a bit”. Indeed, who cares if the Creation lasted 13.7 billion years or six days. The main point is that we are humans and citizens of the earth live now and should do something with a time alotted to us given the means we have.
What fascinated me the most is comparing living and non-living things based on their survival instinct. On this scale a fish can not be compared to a tree for example. Jack also explains that “ordering principle” that stops Universe from spinning into the chaos is guided by some form of intelligence. The question that is left unanswered from my point of view is how that great intelligence is bridged with a survival instinct of living things. Both a science and a theology agree that a supernatural intelligence created living creatures and these are in turn have a survival instinct. But what part is a core of survival in living creatures?
A simplistic answer for that question would be a heart.
I dived into Wikipedia to find out more details. Apparently humans’ cardiac muscle is very special in a sense that it can relax and contract on its own whereas sceletal muscle requires some kind of stimuli. The same goes for fish gills. But an earthworm does not have a heart for example. Another observation is that a heart rate changes by doing exercise or due to a perception of a danger.
So, to summarize we can conclude that the first words G-d said to Adam were:” Have a heart and get to work now or I will punish you”.
“What about brain?” some people may ask. “Isn’t a brain a reason that humans superior by far beyond all living creatures?” First of all, studies showed that some sea mammals, such as dolphins have even more developed brain organization than humans. Second of all a human intelligence is not given at birth, but developed during the lifetime as a result of a life activity. According to Wikipedia, a newborn child brain mass is only 25% of the adult. Brain controls many finest motor functions, such as hand movements. Who knows, may be that was the reason that for ages men offered a heart and a hand to women of their choice. That offering must have symbolized their vitality as well as a highly developed brain organization.
Gold rush December 3, 2006
Posted by soniadomain in : Uncategorized , 1 comment so farWhat a day was on Thursday. There was a white snowing for the past couple of days and I had to attend to my car a bit earlier to dig it out of snow. I was almost half-way done when I realized this pile of anger growing inside me. I threw my cleaning tool (apparently a car water brush can be used as a snow scraper) and then I used my shoes to bump my car tires out of snow. After three trials me and my car were all cleared up and ready to go. I called #TAXI that readily informed me that since I’m not at my place, but on an intersection, they won’t be able to provide the service. The receptionists acknowledged that fact by handling a call in a professional manner and hanging up on me. So I arrived at doctor’s office and parked at my usual spto. Not to mention that this time an appointment was half-an-hour later than a sign on the side of the road had to say. What happened was that my car got towed again. I rushed back to the office looking for a toll-free number to call. Then I rushed back again to look for the number on the meter. After all set was done I got connected to the right towing office that offered for me to attend their lot under Granville bridge. I started walking towards the bridge scoring points a long the way just to discover that I was losing time. I needed a northern end of the bridge to attend. But then I spent some time in a washroom in Arts Club stage Lounge, which was nice. So I got to see my car back at merely $54.06. This is much cheaper than in San Francisco 6 years ago where I had to pay $120. It feels good to tell you that all.
