geekoloideon

I am about to reveal something extremely personal and excruciatingly embarassing. But simply because I vanish into anonymity amidst the abyss of bloggers, I shall openly admit my weirdness to space...dark matter and otherwise (as if I haven't already *exhibited* enough of my geekness). The truth is, if you've watched too much criminal minds, you can somewhat interpret your own psyche (or maybe I'm just imagining things)...

Many of the things I've pursued in my life are based on TV shows. How nerdy-to-the-nth power is that? Almost pitiful.

- I desperately wanted to start my own kiddie band when I was going through my 'Beatles' phase. It was in the early 90's when a certain local TV station would show Beatles music videos non-stop for 2 hours daily! Ask anybody who knew me in grade school or high school who my favorite band was and they'd all say the 'Beatles.' I memorized all their songs and the chronology of their albums! I tried to forge their signatures! Plus I wrote Paul McCartney a letter when he was knighted (but didn't get any reply).

- I fell hard core in-love with CSI and so I majored in entomology in graduate school...only to find out that they didn't offer classes on forensic entomology because it wasn't feasible to experiment on fetal caracasses to breed maggots. But hey, I discovered my interest in mosquito wrigglers and these critters were super interesting! Grissom had a huge influence on me and I admired Sara. I even wrote Jorja Fox and received an autographed picture! I'm still not over the fact that Warrick was killed on the show. (You can stop cringing now)

- Criminal minds....Penelope Garcia rocks my world! She's the epitome of ultra-coolness! And now I want to learn code. So I asked my husband to teach me C++, but I have no idea how
it's relevant to anything I do at work. I even asked him to teach me binary and he's like, "what for?"

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My husband and his colleague are programming Bioloids to do a choreographed traditional dance so they can represent their institution in an international contest on Bioloids. I don't think I can ever be as nerdy as my husband. He puts the capital N on the word...sigh. He's hot.
Hehehehehe! Can't help it. My blog.

evolution

A student emailed me and wanted to know how Christianity and evolution can coexist. I assumed that he implied how a person can support both ideologies. Whenever this issue comes up, and it frequently does due to the nature of the course I'm teaching, I state my opinions and leave it up to my students to formulate their own ideas. I'm Roman Catholic and it's very difficult to teach empirical science without considering my own beliefs. Not to say that I have to always inculcate my beliefs in my lessons because that would be proselitizing and even though the institution I work for does not explicitly prohibit that, it would be unethical.....inconsiderate even.
What I'm trying to say is that I want to be a consistent person. I cannot leave a part of who I am at the door once I enter my place of work, in the same way follow my religion blindly without considering reason at all.

This was how I answered my student (obviously, I got somewhat carried away at the last part; atheism was not really an issue for him):

What a question...as Christians, we believe that God created the universe and all that exists in it. The Bible is a book written by men who were inspired by the Holy Spirit. Even though Genesis describes how God created everything in one week, we shouldn't focus on the ultraliteral meaning of creation. What we should be meditating on as Christians is the reason why the universe was created in the first place, which is God's love.

Now, natural selection and Darwin's theory of evolution has been constantly tested through all the evidences that have come up from scientific research. What with fossil evidence, the human genome project and all the advancements in biology, we cannot deny that speciation may have occurred although we have not really actually observed it. We are not saying outright that evolution did happen. Evolution could have occurred and will continue to be scrutinized and tested. Kind of like saying innocent until proven guilty....or acceptable until proven otherwise.

I find theological fundamentalists hypocritical when they say that evolution is anti-Christian or anti-God. I also think atheist/hard core evolutionists (if there is such a word) are extremely arrogant when they say that religion and God were just created by man to fulfill that insatiable inherent thirst to understand what he cannot explain....and that evolution happened or life existed because of a series of spontaneous occcurrences that commenced with the big bang.

The big bang is still a theory. And I think they're going to try to test it in Europe through this contraption that will attempt to replicate the big bang. How about finding out what caused the big bang? Nothing? And there is still no plausible theory called the pre-big bang.

The point is, if you believe in an Almighty God with Whom nothing is impossible, then why make evolution an exception? Isn't an Omnipotent supernatural Creator incapable of creating man through evolution? Just because Genesis is stated in a certain manner? Or is it because humans are just incredibly arrogant and cannot accept that we are ever related to other animals? I mean, even plants and bacteria talk DNA/RNA. Humans and mice have about the same amount of genes. Humans just have more junk DNA. But we cannot make any conclusions right now because even though the human genome has been sequenced, we don't know what all those nucleotide bases stand for (Francis Collins wrote a nice book called 'The Language of God'...He's a non-Catholic Christian who headed the Human Genome Project).

I am not saying that we should reduce the Bible into a simple text. It is a sacred gift. It is supposed to be an inspiration. A guidebook or map back to God. Let us not forget the context of how it was written. If it was stated in Genesis that creation happened in 7 days, let us remember that by "days" we do not necessarily mean 24-hour units. After all, man created those units for convenience (and God is beyond time...or the universe...God cannot be bound or limited by His own creation). And when only fishes of the sea, birds of the air were created, that doesn't mean that viruses, bacteria, fungi, amphibians and protochordates are unacceptable animals because they were never mentioned in the Bible (well, you have leprosy of course...but not as Mycobacterium leprae infection but as a disease of sinners...which Jesus can easily heal prior to the discovery of penicillin and antibiotics! ^_^Anyway, any skin disease that resembles leprosy could have easily been considered as leprosy...like, I dunno, severe acne?...and then these people who have leprosy-like lesions or weird-looking skin are banished to the land of the lepers...and eventually contract M. leprae). I'm pretty sure God is a bit frustrated that some people have reduced Him to whatever is written only in the Bible (even if our own eyes observe other things).
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It's easier to reason with theists than atheists.
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It would've been harder for me to reason with you if you were an atheist.
Atheism is a decision. A comfort zone for people who don't want to be answerable to any higher authority in an attempt to erase or ignore guilt. Atheists do not WANT to believe in God. They ask: Why should there be death? Why should there be suffering? Why are some people born lucky while others aren't?

Humans cause human suffering. Humans tend to focus on the negative. Humans manipulate religion. Religion is a lens that tries to fathom God. Religion is a means for us to fathom, appreciate and thank our Creator. Some of us tend to focus on religion---the superficialities. Instead of wasting our time comparing religions or trying to make one religion less credible than others, why don't we all focus on our attempt to use religion as a means to understand the Truth?

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The contraption I mentioned earlier is known as The Large Hadron Collider.
And because I was having an adrenaline rush while typing, I noticed that I considered bacteria and fungi as animals. Sorry

filler

Watch this show. Humans are the fiercest, scariest animals the ever existed.

why Jesus is one cool dude

...apart from being the Son of God and incredibly wise? He knew of perfect timing. He's my idol.

I mean, there were many instances in His life when He could've simply manifested His omnipotence just to instantly prove that the Sanhedrin's authority was basically self-imposed. Or He could've easily done what the devil was tempting Him to do during those 40 days and nights in the desert. But no. That's not how everything will be fulfilled. He had to completely humble Himself and do what He was supposed to be doing at the precise moments. Because His goal is to save mankind. His goal was to lead as many people back to God. He didn't want to amaze everyone, particularly His enemies, with His abilities and power. He knew that these abilities and power were entrusted to Him for a higher reason. He knew that it was not about Him. It was about everyone else.

His humility is a bit difficult to imitate, especially the dying on the cross part, which uh, just a bit too painful. Especially since it's human nature to be a bit self-centered. But it would do a bit of good to do what you have to do at the right time...

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The mountain peak is nice but there's only room for a few. Climbing changes you to someone completely different (better or vice versa). You are so keen on getting to the top as fast as possible by clumsily bumping or stepping on others (you were probably unaware). Upon reaching the top you see how beautiful it is only to realize that you actually forgot to bring someone to share the feeling with.

so near and yet so far...

The semester is almost over and I can't wait for sembreak! I need to start my field research asap plus I really would like to finish reading Ulysses...I'm tingling with excitement--it's brilliant! Its raw and vulgar depiction of ordinary people going about their ordinary lives is entertaining. James Joyce completely veered away from how fiction is normally written by not including a narrator. You know you're reading the perspective of one character based on the writing style---so style is the marker.

And the story has nothing to do with Greek mythology. He could've entitled it: Brad or Angelina or Hamlet or Joan of Arc or Girls Gone Wild. That's how much of a nonconformist James Joyce is. Rebellious literature. It's weird how the snubbish literati have elevated it into a complicated piece of text (that can't even be considered as a novel since it doesn't even have a freaking plot) that can only be appreciated by the high and mighty ultra-intellectuals when in fact it's a messy Mad-TV kind of book! I urge everyone to start reading it because it's crazy (it's just a bit thick).

I once read that James Joyce sort of complained about how his book was critiqued by saying, if only someone commented how the book was so damn funny! One review blew me away: reading it is like swimming in your own vomit...or something to that effect.