gambitch - now available in blue

Tuesday, December 27, 2005

I recently got into a little bit of an online mental joust with a man who seemed to take Intelligent Design/Creationism rather seriously. Actually he was having a bit of a joust with one of my lawyer friends. I chimed in for nothing but fun; I didn't even take the whole thing particularly seriously. But the other guy sure did.

So, it went on for a little while, and now it's supposed to be my turn to talk back. The only thing is, I'm hesitating on whether there's any value in talking back. You see, things that are a matter of faith operate on the golden rule that whatever you believe in must be axiomatically taken as the truth. Religion is an example of that kind of thing. Ultimately it's an axiomatic issue whether you believe in God (not just the existence of one, but the whole identity package as prescribed by the religion in question). Suffice to say that most of the modern American pushers of Intelligent Design/Creationism aren't exactly known for being Muslim. There's plenty of pushing of that identity package around, as the jouster (one medical doctor by profession, incidentally) is pushing upon me. Don't just take my word for it; go check the blog for evidence!

I had put off typing back in reply, partly because it was getting rather long and I was losing the energy to do it - I do have real-life work to do, and it keeps me up at irregular hours doing research. Now it's just come to a point where I don't know whether to bother saying, "Hey, it's been fun, but I wasn't here to argue."

Don't get me wrong - I totally liked invoking my favourite creation, the fictitious Vladimir. As has been noted by others, this was a most irritatingly hilarious piece of genius (and rare, too; I don't do this all the time). But I wasn't here to make opponents, and I wasn't here to be persuaded because, in the context of the greater scheme of things, this isn't my business. My business is writing about football; I'm happy sticking to that.

But anyway, I raised the issue with a friend over dinner. This friend, one among my tight cluster of fiercely atheist/agnostic buddies, recently converted to Christianity. His family previously practised what can be loosely described as traditional Taoist deity worship, I guess. Nothing cultish, though. But anyway, he is familiar with our thinking, and doesn't try to convert us. (Not an evangelical, then.)

His take on the whole thing? He personally cares not a jot about Intelligent Design/Creationism, is happy to disregard it since it doesn't personally matter, even on a religious level, and quite straightforwardly told me not to bother replying, since it's unlikely to change the other party's mind.

So Doc, if you're reading this, here's what I've got to say in closing. It was fun talking to you, and I'm glad I gave my humour-producing organs a good workout, but I'm sorry I'm a mathematician by training and I can't take your position as plausible, much less certainly correct, in the absence of proof that has succeeded in swaying me. I'm sure you think the same way about the stuff I presented to you. The difference is I was thoroughly casual throughout the whole thing, because I love my life as it gives me enough else to do. Maybe you'd like to take the same approach and focus on advancing medicine rather than evolutionary biology.

Amen. (Yes, that was meant to be casual too.)

gambitch [ 12:33 AM]

Sunday, December 25, 2005

All I want for Christmas is just three decent goals. Three decent goals is exactly what I get, plus an own goal to boot.

Well, the pickings were good. And it rather beat what I would have experienced had I done the stupid thing and gone downtown on Christmas Day, joining a crowd whose partying insanity I do not share.

gambitch [ 10:57 PM]