Godless Heathens vs. Silly Made-Up Stories

When discussing religion and/or spirituality, I seem to run into 3 predominant types- 1) those who are religious (to a greater or lesser degree), 2) those who are not (in no uncertain terms) and believe it’s all a bunch of silly made-up stories, and 3) those who don’t have a strong view either way. Type 1 often misunderstands or misrepresents the views held by type 2 (and vice-versa) while type 3 is usually more than happy to avoid the subject. The virulent negative sentiment expressed by various religious folks toward anyone who doesn’t believe the exact same things is enough to make most sane people steer clear, and the “outreach” (missionizing) practiced by slightly more well-meaning folks doesn’t exactly make a good case for faith either.

Perhaps it’s human nature to polarize with regard to certain things. As with politics, though, if you decide not to polarize you might find a richer world opening up to you. The religious folks who refuse to accept scientific findings are probably using the results of earlier scientific findings every day, and it’s easy to ridicule them. But the people who only believe in the (currently understood) laws of physics aren’t necessarily making the smartest choice either. The “placebo effect” is well known among researchers, but not well understood- the fact that a certain number of test patients recover using a fake version of the drug being tested might possibly be one of the greatest discoveries in all of medicine, but for the moment we don’t know how to quantify it. What we can say with relative certainty, though, is that people who are happier also tend to be healthier, and enjoy life more. Pragmatism isn’t reserved for any particular group or school of thought.

What makes people happier? A bazillion things, no doubt, and it isn’t for me to say what any of those might be for someone else. Among those things is sometimes faith. Which isn’t a binary, contrary to the assertions of certain “type 2” folks when debating the subject- believing in Jesus (or whomever) doesn’t automatically mean the believer thinks they know what awaits them at the end of life, or thinks a deity of some sort is watching over them to keep them honest. Atheism isn’t necessarily binary either- rejecting any or all theologies doesn’t automatically mean an atheist rejects the mystery of love, or the idea that we don’t end at our extremities, or that there is an energy flowing through living things.

If you want to polarize there will be lots of support (go team!)… have at it, but please don’t knock on my door unless you want me to point out your arrogance in thinking your faith is superior to mine. If, on the other hand, you want to find your own path you might not feel as safe at first, but it’ll probably be more interesting and you might find yourself somewhere workable, even if you can’t fully explain it to anyone else.

The “shuttle” which really wasn’t

On this day in 2003, the space shuttle Columbia broke apart over Texas, killing commander Rick Husband, pilot Willie McCool, and mission specialists Kalpana Chawla, Laurel Clark, Michael Anderson, David Brown and Ilan Ramon. The subsequent investigation found that, during the launch, some insulating foam had broken off from the large rocket booster which Columbia was attached to, causing significant damage to the ceramic tiles used to shield the shuttle from extreme heat during reentry to the earth’s atmosphere.

Tiles had been damaged during other shuttle flights, but by whatever stroke of luck, not enough of them for the heat to destroy the spacecraft. Despite the Challenger disaster in 1986, NASA had, for years, presented the public with the picture of a relatively safe and reliable machine which could easily head into orbit on a busy schedule of satellite deployments, scientific research, etc. (“Shuttle” being the operative term)

The reality was much different, with each mission actually being carried out in extremely dangerous machines that, on a good day, made the 737 Max seem like a real gem in comparison. Add to this the ozone layer damage with every launch, and the shuttle program doesn’t come out looking quite as good as the PR folks told us. Space travel is inherently dangerous, but the shuttles lacked even the basic crew escape systems their predecessors had. I hope future astronauts have something better to fly in.