Subscription: $15 / year

Membership: $15/year

All correspondence to:

Editor: Joyce Bates

All correspondence to:

P. O. Box 5552

Greenville, SC 29606-

5552

May, 2012

 

The Voice of Sanity

THE NEWSLETTER OF THE PIEDMONT SECULAR HUMANISTS

                 Visit our web-site for current and back-issues at:

                               www.piedmonthumanists.org

                              e-mail:  uscshgvl@yahoo.com   

 

 

                                                                            CALENDAR

 

Second Saturday Brunch, May 12th, 10:00AM to 12:00noon, at Denny's restaurant, 2521 Wade Hampton Blvd.

 

Fourth Friday or Fourth Saturday get-together to be announced by email.

 

The Non-theist group get-togethers are 2:00PM every Sunday afternoon at the Brew and Ewe; 108 West Broad Street; Greenville.

 

Socrates Club group meets the first and third Wednesdays of the month 7:00PM at Earth Fair; 3 Pelham Road, #3620; Greenville.

 

The Free-Thought group meets every other Thursday (May 3rd, 17th, and 31st); 7:00PM at Bailey’s; 2409 Laurens Road; Greenville.

 

The American Humanist Association will have their 71st annual conference June 7th 2012 in New Orleans

 

Annual Upstate Humanists Picnic will be at Shelter 30 in Cleveland Park (East Washington and Cleveland Park Drive, Greenville), Sunday August 26th from 1:30PM to 4:30PM

 

                                         ------------------------------------

                           

Thoughts after reading:

“Making of the Fittest” by Sean B. Carroll (2006; W.W.Norton)

 

It would take a major shift in thought for a believer in intelligent design to even consider the concept of evolution. Ignorance of the scientific method and its accumulated data keeps him from appreciating how such a thing could occur. He has to believe that life cannot exist without a creator to order the universe and dictate its existence. Indeed, the past 150 years’ research has shown evolution to be a sloppy process at best. It doesn’t even result in the conveniently branching tree of life at the top of which humans should sit. Recent observations show that even microbes can reproduce in such a way that very distant genes can be exchanged. This creates a path of very confusing evolutionary direction, if there is direction at all.

 

Two things are required if one is to embrace the research presently being done in evolutionary biology. One is that there is no notion of progress in evolution and therefore we are definitely not at the top of any evolutionary tree. The other is a question: Why are there characteristics in the genetic code of all life forms so contradictory, showing both common relatedness, and at the same time, evidence of change? Our own genetic makeup indicates that we are missing an awful lot of handy working genetic material to do things other species simply take for granted. On the other hand, we have “immortal genes” binding us to all other forms of life.

 

The “immortal genes” mentioned in Making of the Fittest constitute a total of about 500 genes. They have been observed in all forms of life so far examined. The text of their DNA has not changed significantly over the past two billion years in spite of the steady pressure of mutation and environmental change. This does not mean the genes have not mutated at all because there have been minor shifts in their make up. But, despite the shifts, they still consistently code to perform the basic processes of the cell. The processes include decoding DNA and RNA and manufacturing proteins.

 

Mutation is a random process and it happens because, like everything else, nothing is perfect. Unfortunately, every living thing has to make a living on earth using its genetic inheritance. If that inheritance isn’t good enough to lead to reproduction, it doesn’t survive. For example, if a climate in a certain area changes from wet to dry, a tiny drought resistant part of a population of petunias might survive to go on into the future. We don’t realize that in following generations large parts of that little population will still die without reproducing because the new mutation won’t be in every individual. But, the new environment, will select the mutant form in mathematical rates akin to compounding interest. The new plants will not only survive, but will expand their territory because of room left by those individuals no longer able to compete.

 

The above is only one simple example. Mutations happen constantly and at random. Only the most useful will be selected by the environment to have a future at all. The rest will be dispensed with. On the other hand, the environment changes, too, and only the genes that can negotiate the change will be successful. Immortal genes have possessed the strongest basic accommodation to earth’s changing environments during the last two billion years. Although these genes have been successful, the total variety of genetic material in present-day species suggests there has been awful lot of weeding done by past environments. Many scientists think it’s possible that 99 percent of species have lived out allotted times and become extinct over the long life span of earth.

 

There is another familiar argument for the supremacy of intelligent design. That is the notion that complex organs such as the eye could not occur through the process of evolution. The idea here is that mutations would be too random to result in complex “designs”. Surprisingly, the gene that codes for eye formation has been found in both simple and complex eyes of all animals so far investigated. The gene codes for two types of cells: photoreceptors (light-detectors) and pigment cells called opsins (these angle the part of the color spectrum to reach the photoreceptors) All are found in the simple two-celled eye of the marine ragworm as well as the many celled eye of the human being. And, it does not matter whether the eyes are the compound eyes of insects or camera eyes of mammals, the same two cells are used. Furthermore, our eyes are not so “advanced” as those of some birds that have opsins able to ultraviolet light as well as red, green and blue.

 

There will always be doubters of new scientific advancement and they don’t have to be religious. Thirty years after Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. suggested hand washing as a prevention of infection, women were still dying of “childbed” fever, because physicians simply did not believe it would be effective. The Soviet Union suffered disastrous consequences in agriculture because T.D. Lysenko refused to recognize genetics as a science. 

 

We cannot allow ignorance of evolution to go on. Our arrogance about our importance in the scheme of things and our stubborn resistance to face what scientific examination has shown during the past century, have caused us to bring to the brink of extinction, species which we might need for food, medicine and shelter in the future.                                                                                         JB

 

                                         -------------------------------------

 

 

“THE TEN COMMANDMENTS OF EVANGELICAL CAPITALISM” RESURRECTED

 

The Easter Sunday holiday of just three weeks ago reminded us that, according to Scripture, on the third day Christ resurrected from the dead and ascended to heaven. Since it has also been about three years since the publication of my “The Ten Commandments of Evangelical Capitalism: A Challenge to the Fairness Principle of Secular Humanism” in the December 2008/ January 2009 issue of the Council for Secular Humanism’s Free Inquiry, recent events prompt the resurrection of those commandments.  That piece, my first attempt at satire [I am by training and inclination a professional research sociologist (now retired)], was actually inspired by:

(1) my admiration and appreciation for the work of Paul Kurtz, who has been referred to as “the father of secular humanism,” who is the author of “The Affirmations of Humanism: A Statement of Principles” and The Humanist Manifesto 2000, who founded Prometheus Books publishing company, who served as founder and Chairman of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, the Council for Secular Humanism, the Center for Inquiry, and editor-in-chief of Free Inquiry.  Dr. Kurtz’s editorial in a 2004 issue of Free Inquiry, “The Principles of Fairness: Progressive Taxation,” was particularly inspirational for my ten commandments satire; and

(2) the disastrous presidency of George W. Bush.  Both sources of inspiration are evident in the commentary that accompanied the original publication of my Ten Commandments.

 

Events of the past three years, especially the antics of the Republican “party of NO,” committed to the preservation and expansion of the privileges, wealth and power of the rich (upper 1% or upper 5%) at the expense of the rest (and just forget about the poor and disadvantaged), the privatization of everything public (schools, the military, social security, Medicare, roads, etc.) and to the defeat (at any and all costs) of our nation’s first president of African-American heritage (racism, anyone?), absolutely necessitate the resurrection of my Ten Commandments of Evangelical Capitalism.  My inspiration is of such magnitude that I am inspired to dedicate them as well, specifically, to “The Holy Trinity” of the Republican Party:

 

Bitch McConnell, “God the Father,” a.k.a. Senator Mitch McConnell (R) Kentucky, Senate Minority Leader;

 

John Boner, “God the Son,” a.k.a. Representative John Boehner (R) Ohio, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives; and

 

Eric Can’t or Won’t, “God the Holy Ghost,” a.k.a. Representative Eric Cantor (R) Virginia, House Majority Whip.

 

Here are my resurrected and newly dedicated commandments.

 

 

“THE TEN COMMANDMENTS OF EVANGELICAL CAPITALISM”

 

I

I am PROFIT, thy Lord and God.

Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

II

Thou shalt not make for thyself an idol,

excepting paper and coin currency,

precious metals and stones, and stock options.

III

Thou shalt not make wrongful use of the name of the

Lord, though the phrase “In Profit we Trust” or similar

sentiment may be printed on thy currency.

IV

Remember the Sabbath, but keepeth

thy retail establishments open.

V

Honor thy father, Greed, and

thy mother, Selfishness

VI

Thou shalt covet thy neighbor’s spouse, cars, swimming

pools, and other possessions to a degree that is in direct

proportion to how much thou feeleth unfairly deprived.

VII

Thou shalt exploit the environment

and labor in my name’s sake.

VIII

Thou shalt protect, preserve, and promote

increasing levels of income inequality.

IX

Thou shalt not redistribute wealth.

X

Thou shalt ignore the poor

and disadvantaged.

 

 

Yours in freethought, perpetual mischief and occasional satire,

 

R. Georges Delamontagne

 

 

Last thoughts from the internet:

 

A Jew, A Catholic, and an atheist are rowing in Lake Erie when their boat springs a huge leak. The Jew looks skyward, and says “Oh, Adonai, if you save me, I promise I’ll sail to Israel and spend the rest of my days trying to reclaim the land you gave us.” The Catholic looks skyward, and says, “Oh, Jesus, if you save me, I promise I’ll fly to the Vatican and spend the rest of my days singing your praises.” The atheist says, “Oh, guys, if you pass me that one life preserver, I promise I’ll swim to Cleveland.” “And how will you spend the rest of your days?” the Jew and the Catholic ask. “Well,” says the atheist, “I’m not sure, but I can tell you one thing: I’ll never go rowing with other atheists.”

 

http://nomorehornets.blogspot.com/2007/05/atheist-jokes.html