Hot To Trotter

Both the Torah and the Bible tell us scientists are right
When they say creation happened only once.
So they clearly are compatible, and never ever fight;
Any moron who thinks differently’s a dunce.

The creation of the universe, all sources now agree,
Came from something that’s outside of time and space,
With the power to create (as any idiot can see),
And we’re pretty sure it had a holy face.

We can say “In the beginning”; we can call it the Big Bang
Scientific or religious points of view;
We can say that life’s first moment was a note the angels sang—
Pretty much, that’s just what science says is true.

If both science and religion say it’s fiction, then it is
There’s no truth there to be found in Harry Potter
But if God should be life’s author, then the narrative is His
And admitting this… is how you win the Trotter.

Jump: [Read more…]

Not Bugs–Features

So in my travels here and there around the internet, I ran across “Five Problems with Atheism“, written by a “Spiritual Traveller”. Seems a nice enough person, just pointing out some ways to perhaps heal the rift between believers and atheists, by pointing out some things atheists get wrong:

[T]here are some fundamental problems with atheism. I’m not nailing these five thesis to the door of a church, because there isn’t one. That isn’t the problem. There are problems with atheism a wider view could possibly bridge, or at least decrease the polarity between atheists and non-atheists. These persuasions are intended to reach across the aisle of a doorless structure.

Again, I see he has the best of intentions. But the way I see it, what he sees as problems, I see as misunderstandings on his part. Understandable mistakes, but mistakes nonetheless. I’m sure he did not intend to insult atheists, and I write in the same sense of open communication, with no malice aimed at the Spiritual Traveller. continues… [Read more…]

Sonnet 116.1

Let me not to the scientists studying love
Concede authority—love is not yours,
To alter or reduce the scope thereof,
Or tend with the specimens in your drawers
O no! It is a never-fixed mark
That brings forth tempests, in chaotic fashion
It lives and dies by show or want of spark;
Its worth is known and measured by our passion.
Love’s not its parts, though hearts and even brains
Are called upon, love’s details to depict;
Love, explored in shards across domains,
Too often its description will restrict.
If this be error, prov’d to be untrue
It never will survive the peer review

Apologies to Will, of course. Short rant, after the jump. [Read more…]

A Reproductive Message To You (Science Valentine Repost)

It’s a reproductive message
And I’m passing it along
I read it in my DNA
And wrote it in this song
It’s just a reproductive message
A reproductive message to you

It’s an imperative of nature
It’s not just my excuse
There is no greater calling
Than “survive and reproduce”
It’s an imperative of nature
A reproductive message to you

I’m enamored of your phenotype
I’d love to share your genotype
I never thought I’d see no type like you
Your lovely physiology
Has triggered my biology
And now, no simple “golly gee” will do

So now my message is embedded
In meter and in verse
With music as the medium
I guess it could be worse
So long as someone gets embedded…
A reproductive message to you

We all are in the bidness
Of reproductive fitness
But now I fear I’m witnessing the end
Biology is boom or bust
And when it comes to love and lust
No future comes from being just a friend

And that’s the purpose of my singing
You’ve probably deduced
The music is irrelevant
Unless you’ve been seduced
And that’s the purpose of my singing
My reproductive message to you

Stuff, after jump: [Read more…]

Heart In A Jar (More Science Valentines)

It’s made the news a couple of years ago–researchers at the University of Minnesota “created a beating heart in the laboratory“. Basically, they used the protein fiber matrix from one heart, stripped of muscle cells, as a scaffold upon which to grow a new heart, using a solution of cells from another rat. Since it is February, I return to the romantic view of the heart as the foundation of love, with a trio of little verses inspired by the heart in the jar. I can see it now… the picture above, on the front of the Hallmark card, with one of the following verses inside…
[Read more…]

Is It Sacrilegious To Believe In The Big Bang And Evolution?

Oh, the question was exquisite
(if a bit annoying): “Is it
Sacrilegious to believe a thing that evidence supports?”
While that wasn’t quite the phrasing
Still, the query was amazing,
Like accepting evolution is a mystery of sorts!

If a claim like resurrection
Is presented for inspection,
You accept it without question, cos the bible says you must
Is it really worth defending?
Could be yes or no, depending
If your view is all or nothing; if it’s literal or bust

But then, what of evolution?
Would you make some substitution?
Would you throw out settled science for an ancient holy book?
And existence’s beginning—
Is the Big Bang really sinning?
If they offer you the evidence, please tell me, will you look?

If a deep religious yearning
Is an obstacle to learning—
If the certainty of “gospel truth” leaves little room for doubt
You hear two conflicting voices
And you’ve got to make some choices
One’s religion, one’s reality; it’s time to throw one out.

First jump, then rant: [Read more…]

The Evolutionary Biology Valentine

This one made it to The Open Laboratory one year, but has yet to show up in a Hallmark card.

In sociobiology,
Why I love you and you love me—
Which anyone can plainly see—
Is mostly in our genes.
No, not the ones you buy in stores,
But what a scientist explores–
I like the way you look in yours,
And you know what that means.

What subtly-coded stimulus
Takes you and me, and makes us “us”
And makes us feel ‘twas ever thus?
The list of suspects narrows.
No longer are we all a-shiver
From some Cupid with a quiver
Out of which he might deliver
Fusillades of Eros.

Nor Dopamine, nor Serotonin
Tell us why our hearts are moanin’
Though they serve to help us hone in
On–not why, but how;
The parasympathetic blush,
Adrenaline to bring a rush,
Are how, not why, I’ve got a crush
On you, my darling, now.

But if old Charles Darwin’s right,
The reason that the merest sight
Of you will always give delight
Is…reproductive fitness.
Throughout our species’ family tree,
Producing proper progeny
Is what determined you and me
And Darwin was the witness.

Is thinking that you’re oh so sweet
And how you’ll make my life complete
Some trick to make our gametes meet?
It seems it may be so.
I feel the way I feel today
Because some bit of DNA
Sees your genetics on display
And wants to say “hello.”

But think of this, for what it’s worth:
Millennia before my birth
That DNA had roamed the earth,
In residents thereof;
The neat thing is, it’s really true,
The feeling that I have for you
Although, of course, it feels brand-new
Is truly ageless love.

Teaching The Controversy (Hopper’s Folly)

Evolution is offensive, cos it tells us we’ve evolved,
From a monkey, from a lungfish, from a worm!
Now New Hampshire’s Gary Hopper think’s he’s got the problem solved
So we’re doing something differently this term.

He’d require science teachers, when they’re speaking to their class,
To instruct them not to stick with any theory—
Cos today it’s evolution, but tomorrow that will pass—
All this change in science makes a man grow weary

We should teach the controversy! There are several points of view!
Evolution’s merely one belief in many!
There’s alternatives aplenty, like creationism, too,
If we’re lucky, then we won’t have time for any!

While we’re at it, let’s see challenges to gravity as well,
And the theory that the earth is truly round
And the notion of a “molecule”, an “atom”, or a “cell”,
Throughout science, we see challenges are found!

While the scientists will tell us that one theory is the best
There are others they consider not so nice
Which the children should attend to, thanks to Hopper’s new request
And New Hampshire’s reputation pays the price

[Read more…]

Biblical Inerrancy

Science and the Bible, any fool can plainly see,
Are always in agreement, save for when they disagree.
There are, rarely, those occasions when they don’t see eye to eye—
Such that one must be a metaphor, or parable, or lie,
Or a plain misunderstanding of the meaning of God’s Word;
Cos to think that it’s inaccurate, of course, would be absurd.

The Bible is inerrant; every word of it is true,
Any misinterpretation is the fault of me and you
It’s a perfect single textbook, and the only one on earth,
It’s the story of our planet, and it really shows its worth
On those very rare occasions when the two don’t get along
You can bet your bottom dollar, it’s reality that’s wrong.

Context and amusing stuff, after the jump: [Read more…]