Watched the State of the Union last night. If you didn't get to see it, you can read it here. One of the most interesting things about watching the speech is seeing who gets up and claps for what. Most of the time, either one side of the room(republicans), or the other (democrats) gets up to clap. One particularly funny moment was when Bush said, "Congress did not act last year on my proposal to save Social Security," and the democrats all got up to clap, mocking him. At least it was funny to me. Some of my conservative friends didn't think it as funny.
All in all it was a pretty good speech. He talked a lot about the military, which of course got a him tons of applause from most of the people in the room because no one wants to look like they don't support our troops. I think the best way to support our troops is to bring them home, but that's just me. Other than that, Bush said a lot of things I disagree with, and a few things that I agree with. There was at least one policy initiative that I thought was particularly a good idea. Unfortunately, the media commentators said there were very few policy statements in the speech that actually could make it through congress. Fortunately, reforming corruption was one of them.
I'm looking forward to watching the Daily Show for commentary about the speech...
In other news, Justice Alito was confirmed yesterday. Don't like him much. Fortunately five of the nine seats on the Supreme Court are still occupied by Justices I would label as "reasonable."
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Woh there, just got sucked into a conversation about Intelligent Design. The hypothesis that some biological structures on this earth are too complex to be explained by Evolutionary Theory and therefore had to be created by some intelligence, either alien, or supernatural. That's where I can't make the leap of faith. Just because something can't be proven by Evolutionary Theory doesn't mean that divine, spiritual or extraterrestrial intelligence is the only other explanation for it. That's just scary. Many have accused the creators of this hypothesis (some call it a theory, but it's untestable, so I don't give it that kind of respect) using it as a mask for creationism in order to get it into public schools. I tend to want to agree with those people. It does seem to be very creationist. If these are two competing Theories, it would be hard for Evolution to compete. How can science compete with faith. Creationism is something you really have to believe in and won't fall apart no matter how much supposed "testing" you do. Evolution, on the other hand, is something that has been truly tested many times, and will continue to be tested. That makes it science.
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Theory: a concept that is not yet verified but that if true would explain certain facts or phenomena
Therefore all theories of how man came to be should technically be considered equal, including the one where we are an alien race which can from a spaceship following a comet (this was in our biology book). Our professor did mention a lot of scientists have turned to religion because the whole creation thing got too complex to explain through science, I find it very interesting.
I like that you were able to admit you agreed with some things the president said instead of being close minded like most other people and bashing it all.
-C
Hell I'm so disconnected that I didn't realize it was State of the Union time until someone at work mentioned it.
A surprising amount of brilliant scientists (and writers I love) are atheists. Of course a lot of the writers love the "mythology" of the Bible and use it a ton. I know I like it.
I think it is a scientific (not dictionary) rule that theories have to be testable.
And personally, I think just chalking everything up to God and not trying to figure out things via science is intellectually lazy.
When I first heard of intelligent design I thought, "Finally!" because I thought it meant that evolution is true but God started the whole wheel spinning. That's the religious "out" I always thought of before. But that's not what it means at all. It's just creationism with a fancy new package.
Man, I think it'd rock if there's a God and s/he's just a scientist-type who gave the wheel a spin and is just kind of peering down, not touching anything, fascinated. Ditto for being an alien science experiment.
Kinda makes you wonder what'll happen after the science fair. Especially if the aliens get an F. Especially if it's because they chose a totally uncreative project. Like if creating life on a planet was the baking soda and vinegar volcano of cosmic science fairs.
And I miss the Daily Show! :( and the Colbert Report! Dang getting out of work too late! Though I mostly miss watching it with my Dad, so that can't really be helped.
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