Its still me

So I'm still here, but forget to post all the time.

I got a new rattie. She was looking at me cutefaced in the store and she was all alone and had been alone in her box for like two weeks. I felt so bad that I caved and bought them and brought her home. I named her Biscuit and she gets along well with Flip, Flop, and Toggle; they snuggle up all four in the nest together, and even seem to be getting along better than usual. When I stick my hand in the cage Biscuit attempts to grab it in her little hands and then noms me.

I saw part of that movie Expelled, as much as I could watch before Ben Stein's voice put me to sleep and made me drool. (Okay, so less than five minutes). From scanning through it, it seemed really disappointing; I had really hoped they would at least make an effort to be relevant in today's society without droning on about 'a loving God', which to me is a deal breaker in any science lecture. It didn't seem like he had a good concept of what his own theory was, much less the one he was competing against. However, I must reserve judgment until I actually watch the movie. Consequently, I may have to judge this movie in five minute increments between naps.

Also: I have a sudden desire to watch old episodes of "Win Ben Stein's Money". I loved that show ^.^

I remembered I had a facebook account. I should do things with it like... I don't know. What do people do with facebook accounts? I sent virtual plants to people and this was somehow suppose to save the environment. I will join some random groups I like too.

Intelligent Design vs Evolution... OR IS IT?

One thing that bothers me most about the ID vs Evolution debate is that people assume they are mutually exclusive, both sides creating a sort of false dichotomy. The fact is there are people who believe in Evolution via Intelligent Design (like several Popes oddly enough, also many Deists, some scientists ) and people who believe in Intelligent Design without believing in an 'almighty' Creator(s) (like Raelians and some other scientists ). Intelligent Design's main enemy, of course, is not Darwinism, since concepts like natural selection and micro-evolution are valid in both theories. Its the religious fanatics who try to 'help' by throwing their holy book at scientists, claim that the Earth was created in only 6 days, or use it to try to push religious indoctrination into schools, which gives the whole thing a false image because the actual theory doesn't support any of those things. I came to the realization that most people I have personally spoken to on the subject haven't actually looked into the science behind either side, even their own side. Most ID people believe it simply because they fear their religion will be invalidated if they do not. Most Darwinists believe it simply because they fear mainstream religion (rightly so), and think any attack on macro-evolution must be an attempt to take us back to the Dark Ages. Alternately, because they did a head count and want to follow the majority of scientists. That's fine and no harm done, but the majority of scientists used to believe in the theory of spontaneous generation. The important thing is to realize that there are legit scientists on both sides, both sides have both religious and non-religious people, and both sides have idiots that speak in all caps or use profanity and lolspeak to get their point across. Religion shouldn't be part of the debate and we shouldn't judge either side by the dumbest proponent, in my view.

Anyway, I have been reading an article by a scientist, but I haven't finished the article yet. Its here. It has a lot of scientific jargon and references so I am sometimes needing to read paragraphs two or three times or stop and check other references to be sure I understand what they are saying and it that it follows. If anyone actually reads that, they can tell me what they think of it. And hell, its a public journal, you can tell me what you think of anything you want whether you read it or not :p