In the last post, I said that I believe in evolution, in the same way I believe the sun is bigger than the earth. I should explain that in my mind, I was arguing against one of my friends who told me that evolution is "true for you", whereas creationism might be "true for someone else". She seemed to mean that there is no objective truth about evolution. In my fantasy, my last post completely persuaded my friend that the sun is objectively bigger than the earth, and that I am objectively related to my cat. In reality it would probably only strengthen her opinion that I am being a jerk about this evolution thing, and I should just drop it already.

Along with evolution, I am almost completely certain that none of the amazing miracles in the bible, or any other holy text, actually happened. I believe that the world is basically made of atoms, or superstrings, or whatever, bouncing around according to impersonal laws of motion. The point of miracles is to suggest that it is also guided by God, who is best understood by concepts like morality and love, not by equations.

Put that way, my belief sounds rigid, limited and sad. For example, I believe that the beauty of a piece of music is a manifestation of patterns of neurons firing, each following laws of quantum mechanics. I think people find this appalling because I seem to be saying you could write a computer program that would just follow certain chord sequences with certain probabilities and come up with something as moving as Handel's Messaiah. In fact, there are so many neurons involved that it would be stupid to try to understand music in such a reductionist way. I do not consider a high level process emerging from millions of neurons following impersonal laws of physics to be a cheap trick in the same way a simple computer program would be. Ironically, most of the miracles in the bible do seem like cheap tricks to me.

So here's my personal dilemma. Can I have access to the things I like about religion without any of the false beliefs that are so often a price of entry?

Let's start with something non controversial. I know for sure that the sun is larger than the earth. In theory, some shocking new evidence might one day show that the sun is actually very small. Then later it could turn out that we were wrong again for some even more outrageous reason, and the sun is actually very big after all. However I'm certain that no matter what people think, the sun is actually bigger than the earth. People say things like "99% certain", but I doubt that anyone really thinks in terms of percentages. In practice, I feel 100% certain. I could change my mind, but it would take a lot of evidence, and a long difficult process of readjusting my whole system of beliefs.

It's hard to give direct evidence that the sun is larger than the earth. I have some vague idea of what measurements you could use. However the main reason for my belief is that if our astronomy was that out of whack, then our scientific method would have detected something amiss by now. So I'm deferring to the collective opinion of others. A popular sentiment says that you should figure things out for yourself, but nobody actually has the time or expertese to do that.

I feel the same way about other scientific facts. For example, I am certain that I am related to my neighbor's cat. It's not obvious, and I'd have trouble proving it, but I know it is a central part of a large theory that holds together and is supported by a massive amount of evidence. Evolution has no direct effect on my life, but I do think about it and I care about it very much.

I still haven't said anything controversial, except to some fundamentalists. Mayb'e next time.

A belated yay for president elect Obama. What a relief to have somebody competent and intelligent in charge.

Boo for Proposition rip-the-rings-off-the-fingers-of-legally-married-gay-couples in California. A big part of the anti-gay campaign was based on fear of children being taught about gay marriage, and I think they  have a point. As homosexuality becomes more acceptable, it becomes harder to raise homophobic children. This is a good thing, and it's about time. 

Yay for the failure of the parental-notification proposition. Like most liberals, I am in favor of sort-of killing babies. Pro choice people don't usually think of it that way, but I say just before it's born it is clearly a baby, just after it's fertilized it is clearly not a baby, and in between it is sort of a baby. If morality is logical and clear-cut then abotionists are equivalent to serial killers. Of corse it's not and they're not. Having said that, of course I prefer condoms and sex-ed to abortions.

A tentative yay for Proposition be-nice-to-chickens. I'm worried that suddenly changing the way we make food could have unexpected consequences. I'm also upset that, as has been frequently observed, many people must have voted to give rights to chickens and take them away from people. Despite being a heterosexual vegetarian myself, I would prefer it to have been the other way around.