Science Discoveries Unlock Life as We Know and Perhaps Don't Know It

It was reported today on National Public Radio (NPR) in two separate but equally important stories, that scientists working in specific disciplines are unlocking secrets of nature in both big and small ways. I do laugh about the term "secrets" because nature really holds nothing back.

All of the apparatus and mechanics of the universe are waiting to be discovered by human intellect.  Nothing is actually hiding from us.  It is only our ego and ignorance which informs our language when we say something in nature is a "secret." It just means that science hasn't figured out a way to partially or completely understand a phenomenon, or invent some method to do or see things in the natural world more clearly and cleanly.

But here is science informing us through exciting discoveries how both our bodies and the universe actually work.  It is wonderful to know that great minds are using the techniques of science to create and use technology all to uncover the natural world which then benefits our common humanity. That is, if we are willing to accept scientific truth and also accept that such truths could change over time if better knowledge is discovered.

The first story involves a deeper understanding of stem cells and how those cells can be manipulated to cure a range of terrible ailments such as diabetes, cancer, Alzheimer's, ALS and a host of other genetic breakdowns of the body. Basically, scientist can now extract the original DNA in those cells and replace it with the genes of the person needing to grow new organs or repair other damaged DNA. Since stem cells can be grown into almost any organ, tissue, or body apparatus, they will become incredibly vital for the repair of the body's ailments from horrible genetic diseases to just plain aging.

Manipulation of stem cells do bring up ethical concerns. However, the religious one's usually come from those who view human life as starting at conception as per the interpretation of their theology. However, while this is a theological argument it isn't an accepted legal one as no law in the U.S. at least uses such a definition as the standard for labeling human life as actual life.  Besides, what about ethics concerning the health of those who could use the stem cell treatments to live longer and remain vital? Don't we owe it to people who are already here and are sick an equal opportunity to continue to be essential and expressive members of our communities.

In the second news report. Scientists have found water encased in rocks which contain living organisms which are more than a billion years old. Apparently, the water entered into a steady-state system and did not evaporate. The bacteria and other organisms found in the specimins shed light on what exactly was living on the planet and how those species actually existed in their own time.

This is the equivalent of animating a species thought long gone which is frozen in ice or covered in amber. Except, the water-borne species found in these ancient rocks actually never expired and do not require any external animation from humans. These finds have shed a great deal of light on the evolution of animals from their earliest known oxygen-based lifeforms.

As the report points out, the amazing thing is that if the natural mechanics for preserving water in rocks occurs on other planets, like let's say Mars, then we could theoretically uncover ancient species of Martian life, or for that matter life found on planets outside our solar system.

What a wonderful time it is to be alive and to see all of these discoveries being made by science in our own lifetimes. It is amazing to think that we can investigate and use our knowledge of the smallest bits of the genome to save the lives of millions who are currently ill and potentially save millions of people in the future if we harness the technology to do so, and if we make the right policiy decisions regarding ethical use of cloning and stem cell research. 

And then of course, to see how our own planet's evolution in the rocks (the rocks we pass every day but pay no mind) tell us truths not only about our planet but perhaps thousands of others, it is simply inspiring. Science continues to evaluate and redefine with every new discovery all that we know about the natural world.

For me, each of these stories are so much more interesting than any particular theology. Science profoundly reveals so much more about the human condition, the mind and our human ability to make to world a richer place because of the knowledge we uncover using the tools of reason.

As woody Allen stated best, "Between the Pope and air conditioning, I'd choose air conditioning" Same for me in terms of prayer or medicine, its medicine; or believing the Earth is 6,000 years old versus 4.5 billion (yes, 4.5) or if we were essentially invented versus having evolved (firmly on Team Darwin). 

On Religious Violence

"They burn our homes in the name of religion."

                                    - Pakistani Christian Woman

BBC radio just completed an excellent expose on the trials and tribulations of select Christian communities in predominantly muslim Pakistan. The title of the program is "The Trouble with Pakistan's White Stripe." Christian groups have recently come under attack by their Muslim neighbors for alleged insults towards the prophet Mohammed and for violations of other state established blasphemy laws.

While the program is disturbing, you can listen to it here, we know as part of human history that inter-religious and extra-religious violence is a fact of our human condition. Believers of all sects and denominations have been using both mob or state violence to reach their specific religious, political or socio-economic agendas for generations.

Every faith has blood on its hands. Which is why so many people today disconnect from organized religion. While most faiths at least preach the concepts of love, forgiveness and acceptance, in reality few if any maintain such a stance or achieve those goals and objectives.

While Christianity has become somewhat more docile, we know that when the Vatican Empire and European imperialism were at their height that holy wars and world domination through violence was part of a condoned and coordinated set of expansive military and economic policies by patrons of the monarchies. This included priests, popes and the faithful who hoped to save souls while also bleeding native cultures of their history, language and life-ways as well as their natural resources and mineral wealth.

Certainly, in modern times, the Vatican as well as many evangelical groups continue to use bible-based concepts to inform their health care politics related to abortion and contraception in very obvious attempts to limit or deny access to healthcare. This is nothing more that the Church's oppression towards women's reproductive choice and freedom as well as the civil rights of protected classes of citizens in numerous nations hoping to live and love freely in open and secular society.

The attack on cognnitive development and critical thinking is also another form of violence. By teaching Intelligent design or creationism, those whose faith inform their view on the natural history of the universe by enforcing and maintaining ignorance as a lofty postive instead of rejecting fiction and biblical opinion in favor of science and reason, do so at their own peril in our modern society where scientific knowlege is key to not only standards of living but future competitiveness.

But other faiths have equally turbulent histories. Jews and Muslims have a unique and shared experience both living in relative harmony and also sadly as sworn enemies.  Jews lived in relative peace and were free from persecution under Muslim rule during the Crusades when Islam held Spain. In modern times, there is evidence which shows that individual and community acts of kindness appear within and between these groups.

However, since the 19th Century and through today the land claims based on faith in the Sinai region have overshadowed dialog. The ongoing violence continues based on two ideas. The first is, whose tribe has ancestral rights to the the land and the second is who's god has chosen which people to live on the land. Ancestral rights should not be confused with human rights because depending on how we define "ancestor" every human owns every piece of land everywhere on the Earth.

Of course, the religious and political left have already chosen sides and hence they become part of the problem rather than solution. Seeing the strife in purely geo-political terms rather than peeling away the layers of dogma and theology and seeing the battle for what it actually is - a clash of religious faiths (or just ignoring it for the sake of Marxian narrative) and people ready to wipe each other off the map if given the opportunity in the name of their faith and deity.

We also see Jewish on Jewish violence occurring in Israel. Orthodox male Jews barring women from praying is just as repugnant to western democratic culture as women not being allowed to drive in some Muslim nations. And the idea of honor killings, or forcing women to cover up in both Jewish and Muslim culture is not considered freeing by most Western standards.

We have also seen violent wars occurring between the Sunni and Shia and also between Protestants and Catholics in differnt parts of the world. In both cases, the battle for one's soul within the different sects commands submission without giving much thought to the idea that all faith is an illusion and a form of cognitive dissonance. Or that there really isn't proof of a soul to begin with, nor an eternity encompassing a heaven and hell for which to fight or kill someone over.

Even Buddhists are not immune to the idea of forsaking their religious and spiritual philosophies for the taste of blood and nationalism. Just this past April, mobs of Buddhists killed religious minorities including Islamists and also destroyed whole communities in the name of their religious faith. And this violence certainly isn't new. Buddhist intimidation of ethnic and religious minorities has been occurring in many Asian counties for decades.

It appears that any perceived attack on faith, whether it be from another religion, a sect or from the point of view of the secular, creates its own level of division and disconnection by and between people.

So how do we solve the seemingly never-ending violence? Is it possible to impose a cease and desist order on those who take or otherwise interpret their faith as enough justification for killing or otherwise harming others? Is there much difference between extra-religious and sectarian violence if the outcome is harm to the civil or human rights or others up to and including ethnocide and genocide?

The answer is perhaps but not likely and no. Not because religious people do not have the capacity to live life in peace and harmony. In fact most people, religious or otherwise, do want to live in peace. But the problem sits on the shoulders of those with a vested interest in perpetuating hatred and objectification through theology and the fear of loss of social and political power within their religious communities if they were to stop preaching such hate and objectification. We know that power does not relinquish itself freely. So if you have religious leaders who preach hate and dogma, those who follow these leaders will continue to hate for no other reason other than because they are told it is the best and only way to live and serve the justice of their theology.

Which is again why the acceptance of secular humanism is essential for our human condition. Such acceptance will lead to peace. Perhaps it will not end all conflict but it will serve to stop those who have religious, tribal or ethnic hate in their heart from harming others. That is the line in the sand we rationalists must make and it is essential we make it now. The planet and every carbon-based life form on it depends on our ability to define community not based on arbitrary lines on continents, or tribal and religious affiliation. But on enjoining a common humanity which supports and values every life for its own sake while also firmly establishing democratic and secular law and values.

Perhaps it will take a new species of marmoset to make this happen?

The Library as the Ultimate House of Worship

"The People's University"
New York Public Library in Manhattan

As a librarian and anthropologist, I am frequently thinking about how people come together for individual and community purposes. As another chapter in my career is about to turn (more on that later this month), I find it rather easy to expound upon the reverential nature believers in faith-based communities have with their house of worship in much the same way lay people, intellectuals and academics have to their libraries.

As a non-believer, this is certainly how I come to respect and applaud libraries as places of knowledge - unabashed storehouses of information - spanning decades and centuries and millennia. Existing as physical places and also virtual spaces in the ether which harness modern technology to share ideas over much distance and time.

When seeking solace, the faithful will seek a holy person who is sworn to lead a flock or save a soul. This person exists to proselytize and give comfort to those seeking religious guidance. But what happens in libraries when a lost person seeks guidance? They find their librarian and collections of materials gathered, described and made available by caring, dedicated and educated professionals whose goal it is to do something very noble in its own right. That nobility is to deliver to the user the information they need to make their own world better, safer and perhaps richer in some way.

The difference here is that a holy person isn’t necessarily needed to ensure democracy and free access to all information – in fact there is much religious persecution and censorship out there in the bibliographic and real world. But for democracy to work, we need librarians and library staff. They are the arbiters of facts which are sometimes lost or perhaps never known by individuals within a culture. They are the ones who can reach back into time and connect people to the answers they seek; they are the ones who are guardians of institutional and cultural memory. They are the ones who breathe life into ideas from poets and philosophers and scientists and artists and historians and mathematicians and healers long gone and from every part of the world.

If the purpose of house of worship attendance is in part to use ritual as a form of action for seeking guidance from a holy person in a holy place to commune with the sacred, then we can certainly secularize that process when people look for information. When a student or researcher, regardless of age, demographic of identity seeks the library, they are performing a ritual dedicated to seeking access to ideas and information that they cannot find by themselves. Certainly, a different form of communion but one which is vital and essential to sustaining both life and liberty.

Granted we have Google and Wikipedia out there, but the Internet is actually a very lonely and scary place when you need deep information. And for this your need a guide! A person trained, educated and dedicated to connect you with the right information at the right time, regardless of where and how that information can and is found. That’s why you need a librarian.

Ironically, the most exquisite and decorative of early books in the bibliographic universe, the incunabula, are those dedicated to religious belief and written as a testament to faith. But we find a striking coincidence in the growth of availability and access to books and the growth of secularism and democratic movements. In fact, we know that the Dark Ages ended and the Enlightenment began at almost the same time as books could be published in greater number and universities could be established to share information on a scale never known by humanity before the invention of the printing press.

Fast forward and we find whole democratic social movements occurring because of the distribution of the written word as a way to spread democracy. Books lead the way. So true is it that when one censors access or burns books, one is actually taking away democracy and instituting forms of tyranny. Whether it is for religious or political purposes, the moment one group decides to censor access to information they are essentially betraying the right of every human citizen to live freely and to learn freely.

Where do we find such censorship today? Clearly it is in states with high proportions of religiously in the United States, but also in nation-states that use religious rather than secular law to guide their societies and where past or present Marxian totalitarianism lingers.

That is why the role of the librarian is so vital to democracy and to secularism. Librarians in many ways are guardians of information that inform and create the “truths” that people seek when finding such truth elsewhere leads to intellectual or dare I say, spiritual dead ends.