The Dawn Treader

Take a good long look at it. Stare at the dot for any length of time and then try to convince yourself that God created the whole Universe for one of the 10 million or so species of life that inhabit that speck of dust. Now take it a step further: Imagine that everything was made just for a single shade of that species, or gender, or ethnic or religious subdivision. If this doesn't strike you as unlikely, pick another dot. Imagine it to be inhabited by a different form of intelligent life. They, too, cherish the notion of a God who has created everything for their benefit. How seriously do you take their claim?

~ Ann Druyan, widow of Carl Sagan.

I love this photograph taken by Voyager 1 twenty years ago when it was 4 billion miles from earth.  Earth is that beautiful, exquisite pale blue dot.

To answer Ann Druyan's question, I would take their claim no more or no less seriously than I take any of her claims.  If I fail to take a claim seriously, by the way, does that make it false?

Two questions follow from any claim.  Is it true?  How do you know?

Whether Ann or myself take a claim seriously is irrelevant to the truthfulness of the claim.  So is the likelihood of the claim.

In fact, it is unlikely that out of billions of earth's inhabitants, and the billions of things they could be doing, that any of them would be reading this blog post right now.  Yet, here you are.

Let's be honest.  There are far more unlikely things that have happened than that.  Unlikely things can and do happen.  Just because they were unlikely, it does not follow that they did not happen.

While we are at it, from 4 billion miles away, Ann or any of us appear as a speck.  Does the fact that she appears as a speck of dust mean her claims or my claims are false?  Or, that we ought not take them seriously?

One question.  The answer makes all the difference.

"How do skeptics refute the argument that by knowing nothing they know something?"

I was asked that by one of my students.  Since I have some friendly skeptics who read this blog, I thought I would pose the question and see what feedback I get.

Here is some background.

We discussed skepticism in class.  Skepticism is a philosophy that questions everything.  Full blown skepticism is similar to agnosticism in that everything is questioned and unknowable.

The problem is, of course, that full blown agnosticism is self-refuting.

If you claim to not be able to know anything, then how can you claim to know that agnosticism is warranted?  How can you know you are agnostic if you can't know anything?

Likewise, how can skeptics escape being skeptical about skepticism?

Isn't skepticism an exercise in logical suicide?

So, if there are any skeptics out there who want to step an answer her question, I would be happy to pass it along.

"The country has become divided into people who find Palin's question flesh-crawling creepy, and those who do not. "

~ Jeff Schweitzer, Huffington Post

Schweitzer of the Huffington Post has had it.  That's it.  No more Mr. Nice Guy towards Sarah Palin, whom he calls a staph infection.

Phew.  I was wondering when the Huffington Post was going to stop being so hopey-changey towards Ms. Palin.

"Just as in 1861 we can no longer solve our differences by meeting half way. One side must prevail, and the only way to precipitate that victory or defeat is to engage in the battle. So let's rumble. Bring it on, and let's give the American people a clear, stark, unambiguous choice for what this country will become."

Ten hut!  Hopey-changey is over.  Fort Sumter has been fired on.

I guess politics has been civil up to this point, but get ready.  Exit civil.  Enter civil war.

The Green Police ad was clearly the funniest, though I guess some people did not think so.  C'mon folks, lighten up a bit.

The underwear commercials were the dumbest.  The Tebow ad was the most brilliant in terms of bang for the buck.  Focus on the Family got amazing mileage out of a harmless little mother son moment.  Simple.  Inexpensive.  Amazing publicity.  Brilliant.

Weigh in.