Friday, February 29, 2008 |
Open reply to This Week in Science (twis)
I received a comment from Justin (the co-host of This Week in Science) on my blog post of my Open Letter to This Week in Science. I really like what he wrote and I followed up with another comment. Since I know there is no reason for someone to continually check one of my old posts I wanted to bring these up in a new post so that anyone who reads my blog will know that This Week in Science has replied.Dear BibleBoy, Thanks for the open letter! I appreciate that you are speaking out against views you don't agree with, even if that view happens to be mine... I do understand that all christians are not cut from the same cloth, and that all religion is not at odds with science. You like Barack Obama for the same reasons i do... You’re a christian, i'm an atheist... And if JC came back, believe me, he'd get both our votes too! Not because it would prove I was wrong about God (it would prove most Christians views about him to be wrong too), but because he spoke about peace, about helping the least amongst us, amongst other things that i agree with completely. (I think he’d agree with separation of church and state, universal healthcare… I wonder what his economic plan would look like… he’d be some form of socialist that’s for sure) The groups involved in public creationism are doing so by attempting to discredit science, not by following evidence to a truth, but by starting with a belief and attempting to cherry pick the evidence for truths that will fit. It is strict doctrine religion masquerading as science and it makes a mockery of both. With the Dover case is still fresh in my mind, this is more than a matter of personal opinion or belief… It is part of a movement that seeks to destroy the credibility of science, and to put it’s own message in it’s place. A Christian message… but one even you may not relate too. The number of people they reach, whose minds are thereby closed to truth, who are trained to reject facts, to suspect science, who internalize ignorance of evolution… i often feel that science goes undefended, and i am attempting to stand up for it… and yes, i have a snarky toungue, a lack of politeness filters, and a real knack for turning water into gasoline… Well, anyhow, i have been offensive to you and i apologize for that… -TWIS Minion -j- ------ My Reply ------ Justin, Thank you so much for your response. I have since realized that I over-reacted a little bit. I think that I was more hurt than I was upset. I mean, I hear the things you said many times and I will continue to and they dont ever tend to phase me but I think what happened is that I became such a fan of TWiS and developed a lot of respect for you an Kirsten both it hit me in a much different way. Everything you wrote is absolutely true. I don't believe that Christians do anyone a favor by trying to bend the rules to fit what they believe. That would be the opposite of faith. And, quite honestly, no matter which side of the fence you are on it does ultimately get to a point of faith. Everything can be interpreted differently depending on who is doing the interpreting and in ALL cases its going to be slightly skewed because of the way the person thinks. If you've ever seen the "spinning lady" graphic to test whether you are using your right brain or left brain then you know what I'm talking about. Two people can see things completely different and it doesn't mean either of them has to be wrong. I have respect for every human being and I feel that is the most important thing that everyone needs to work on. I have faith in God and I believe that God created everything.... on that same note I do believe that evolution exists to a point because all lifeforms do adapt over time. What complicates things is when "evolution" becomes a swear word inside the Church and any mention of it means your tagged as a sinner. This is the opposite of respect and a true representation of how not respecting someone will hurt BOTH sides. On the other hand, many atheists begin treating concepts of creation in the same way. I appreciate what you and Kirsten do and I am glad you have the beliefs that you do because each week they work in to a podcast that helps me grow in understanding of how aspects of the world work and, while it may seem odd, help me increase my own faith. No matter which side you are on, everyone has to agree that there are some incredibly amazing things that we may never come even close to understanding. If anyone isn't awestruck then he obviously has lost any kind of joy in life. Oh... and GO OBAMA :) Labels: christianity, discrimination, religion, science, this week in science, tolerance, twis (C)2003-2008, Bob K Mertz - Some Rights Reserved |
Thursday, February 28, 2008 |
Honoring Mr. Rogers on March 20th (Fred's 80th Birthday)
I am proud to have come from Pittsburgh. I also have always said that the 2 people I looked up to most were Walt Disney and Fred Rogers. March 20th, 2008 would have been Fred Rogers' 80th birthday and in conjunction with Pittsburgh's 250th anniversary, this day is being declared "Won't you wear my sweater" day.Labels: fred rogers, mister rogers, pittsburgh, sweater (C)2003-2008, Bob K Mertz - Some Rights Reserved |
Wednesday, February 27, 2008 |
Do I even exist anymore?
I really don't know whats been going on with me recently but something just isn't right. One of the biggest oddities that is occuring right now is I constantly feel dehydrated. It doesnt matter how much water I drink I still have that dry mouth feeling, the sucking impulse, and eventually the dehydration headache. I know, I know.... go see a doctor, right? Well, I am.... but here is the problem. The doctor won't refill my prescriptions without a checkup so I have to go and pay $120 to say hi. Tell him about the dehydration? Sure, I could.... but I'm more affraid of that because that will result in him wanting to do tests.... tests that I just simply can not afford. The $120 office visit is going to kill me as it is..... I can't afford for there to be something wrong with me so the only thing I can do is pretend that nothing is.There is probably a good chance that all of that links in to the other stuff.... but some of it is also the fact that I feel like I don't exist. Aside from the fact that I feel emotionally (and sometimes even physically) numb, it seems that anything I say just doesnt get heard. It started on Twitter when I noticed that none of my friends that usually reply to me were doing so.... but Twitter has been having issues so I write it off as that. Then it goes to emails not being responded to.... then text messages..... then phone calls...... anymore, I can't figure out if every communications device I own is broke or if people just simply don't care anymore. Even in the people that did pay some attention to me recently it seems that the majority of all of that was just when they needed something. Overall? I just feel drained. I'm not overwhelmed or anything.... I don't feel stressed out.... I just don't feel like me. I'm functioning incredibly well doing the consulting work that I've been doing so at least its not something my clients have to worry about..... but when I step outside of the "work zone" I just don't know who I am..... and more importantly, I don't know if who I am even matters anymore since there isn't anyone to share that with. I don't know if you'd call any of this depression because it doesnt really have the footprint that depression has.... but at the same time I can't say that I'm happy. So I guess there is an awaited "bob update" for anyone who actually still cares enough to read my blog. Sorry it wasn't happy.... but at least it isnt the deep depression driven blog posts of 2003 and 2004..... I'm sure things will turn around.... I'm sure that God has His hand on me..... I just am really hoping that there is some breakthrough soon. Labels: emotional pain, emotions (C)2003-2008, Bob K Mertz - Some Rights Reserved |
Is T-Mobile broke? (And I don't just mean Twitter SMS)
I just attempted to place a call and received "Call Failed" .... I tried multiple phone numbers with the same result. I rebooted my phone, and the same thing occurs. I do, however, have data services such as web and email but phone services and SMS is completely dead. I also have a backup T-Mobile phone that I popped my SIM card in and it shows the same results.Worse yet.... I just had a friend call my phone number and she received "That number is no longer in service"...... Oh... and to top it off I call T-Mobile and they are closed until 6am EST?! (C)2003-2008, Bob K Mertz - Some Rights Reserved |
Vote Different
Labels: obama, politics, presidency, primaries, usa (C)2003-2008, Bob K Mertz - Some Rights Reserved |
Monday, February 18, 2008 |
Lisa going outside
Today was a really beautiful day and I had recently got harnesses for each of my birds so I thought I'd attempt using at least one of them. I started with Cracker which didn't go so well. Surprisingly she really bite me hard at all - well at least considering she probably has the strongest beak of my 3 birds but its thankfully dull. I had it on her twice but couldn't get it adjusted right so I figured if let her relax. I brought Lisa into the living room and wow that went even less smooth. Fortunately I got it on her after about a half hour and after another 15 mins she was.... Well, tolerating it. We headed outside and she was real alert, of course. She really started relaxing and enjoying it. We went for about a 45 min walk. It was actually a really great afternoon. I took this picture which I absolutely love.
Labels: animals, birds, lisa, pets (C)2003-2008, Bob K Mertz - Some Rights Reserved |
Thursday, February 14, 2008 |
We are one
Labels: obama, politics, primaries, unity (C)2003-2008, Bob K Mertz - Some Rights Reserved |
Wednesday, February 13, 2008 |
Icecapades on Blue Mountain
I don't think I can even begin to explain the experience that I just had. I think the best possibility of explaining it is to just post my twitter log:
Labels: ice, twitter, weather, wow (C)2003-2008, Bob K Mertz - Some Rights Reserved |
Saturday, February 09, 2008 |
MySpace deletes hacked Web site for atheists and agnostics - cleveland.com
MySpace deletes hacked Web site for atheists and agnostics - cleveland.comYes I am a Christian and yes, I have to stand up for these guys. Despite that fact that I (obviously) don't agree with the ahteists viewpoint, MySpace does not have the right to discriminate against them. Any time we let any (public) organization decide who should and shouldn't be allowed on their network we *ALL* lose a bit of our rights. This is absolutely terrifying that MySpace is doing things like this. If the group was terrorizing others and threatening people on the MySpace service then they could have an argument. This doesnt seem to be the case, however - and that is just wrong. (C)2003-2008, Bob K Mertz - Some Rights Reserved |
Friday, February 08, 2008 |
An open letter to This Week in Science
Dear Kirsten Sanford and Justin Jackson,I began listening to This Week in Science in December and it didn't take more than 2 episodes to have me completely hooked. Being able to hear news about things I am interested in with it being presented in an extremely entertaining way is a difficult thing to find and it seems to be exactly what the two of you do every week. During the couple of months that I have been listening I have noticed a somewhat anti-Christian overtone which is something that I could easily deal with simply because I understood that point of view. Before I go on, let me tell you who I am. I am a person who certainly is a Christian by the actual definition but someone who is sometimes affraid to call himself a Christian because of the stereo-type that I seem to constantly be faced with. I am someone who had devoted his life to helping people and respecting people for exactly who they are. I am someone who does my best to hear what every single person is saying because I have a strong belief that I am able to learn something from anyone whether they are like me or not. I am someone who is irritated how most of the Christian Churches preach love and then practice hatred by denying people such as homosexuals the respect. As this person, I am understanding of the way people feel about Christians in general but it is very hard for me to understand people that have a closed mind and I think when it's someone who deals with the sciences, I find it even harder to believe. While I can understand there may be skepticism I can't understand and I can't support someone who completely denies someone the chance to be heard simply because of their religion, race, nationality, and so on. Growing up I learned that in order to move beyond the mediocre and investigate the sciences you had to have an open mind and be able to listen to everything no matter where it was coming from. I think back to Christopher Columbus's era. The entire world believed that the world was flat and would completely denounce anyone who believed as such. I often wonder how many people wouldn't even heard Columbus's reasons for saying the world was flat simply because he was a believer in a round earth. The episode that was released today has me extremely upset and personally hurt. It hurts me even more because the beginning of the show had a rather large endorsement of my favorite presidential canidate, Barack Obama and then later in the show many supporters of Obama were attacked because they didn't believe everything that another supporter believed. Personally, I am a strong supporter of Obama because he is all about bringing people together. He does not draw the line at any group of people but says we all need to come together. His slogan "Yes We Can" doesn't say "Yes most of us can".... The contradictions infuriate me. To be completely honest, the group of people that you are attacking with the peer group I am not familiar with and, as seems to be evident, you are neither. I am not, in any way, defending this group of people because I just simply don't know what they stand for -- but that's just my point. I am not able to judge until I hear what they have to say and weigh their words for myself and investigate such. Even if the group of people are entirely off their rocker maybe they will make one point that makes sense that none of us would have learned unless we listened. My point is this: Any person who denies another person the right of being heard based on their religion, race, etc is someone that should not be honored. The words you said tonight were absolutely no different than the racist bastards who say a black person can't do anything except violent crime. Those words contradicted the spirit that you are fighting for -- both as a scientist and a supporter of Barack Obama. I sincerely hope that the points I made will make sense to you. I'm not meaning to defend anyone or anything but I am asking that you think about the words you said and how they may have really hurt a large group of people -- especially those people who are trying their best to spread the message that everyone deserves respect. Sincerely, Bob K Mertz For my readers who are not familiar with This Week in Science, they are a weekly podcast that reports on scientific issues facing our nation and the world. Their website is www.twis.org. The episode that is referenced in this post is the Feb 5th edition. If you would like to hear a snip of the section in reference, please use the following link: TWiS - Feb 5th 2008 / Answers in Genesis Segment Dr. Sanford did say that she wants to expose the flaw in the scientific process which is certainly a respectable thing to do but the attitude that was presented was obvious that there was no interest in hearing what these people had to say. Labels: christianity, discrimination, religion, science, this week in science, tolerance, twis (C)2003-2008, Bob K Mertz - Some Rights Reserved |
Wednesday, February 06, 2008 |
Google+Twitter Election Map
Visit the full size map Labels: elections, google maps, live, obama, politics, primaries (C)2003-2008, Bob K Mertz - Some Rights Reserved |
Monday, February 04, 2008 |
Not just a computer, a big ass table!
This had me cracking upLabels: microsoft, parody, surface (C)2003-2008, Bob K Mertz - Some Rights Reserved |
Sunday, February 03, 2008 | |||
My Jung Personality (And why I'm single?)
Jung Explorer Test Now it all makes sense.... I am in a group that makes up only 8.1% of the population and I'm attracted to a group that makes up only 4.4% of the population. Interestingly enough, my disfavored career list includes "Computer Technician" .... I have to somewhat refute that because Computer Technician is a very broad term. I am quite specific about the things with computers I like and dislike. Most of what I like to do with a computer involves huge amounts of creativity. I think one of the coolest things is how similar I am to who I want to be.... I think this is something that people struggle with a lot but I think it boils down to people just not being content. If you are content with what life brings you then you'll generally be able to accept hardships because, at the root, you enjoy the person you are. Labels: personality, psychology, relationships (C)2003-2008, Bob K Mertz - Some Rights Reserved |
Saturday, February 02, 2008 |
Does he have a name?
(C)2003-2008, Bob K Mertz - Some Rights Reserved |
(C)2008, Bob K Mertz - Some Rights Reserved
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