Billions & Billions of Neighbors

Most everyone knows that I absolutely love Carl Sagan. A brilliant human being, I celebrate him as one of those people that give you hope in humanity regardless of the rest of the world. Of course, he has been dead for quite a while. His ever so well spoken words live on today, shining as bright as the stars in the sky. Science has come a long way since his book (and subsequent TV series) Cosmos, but even now the information and philosophical commentary are pertinent to today's pale blue dot inhabitants.

I discovered Carl Sagan late in life, having only one encounter with something resulting from his writing: the movie Contact. To me, Contact was a thrilling, compelling movie. True, today I still love this movie, but I am a bit more capable of giving it an accurate rating. At the time, I didn't know who Carl Sagan was. I had no idea that later in my life, his words would be as powerful as Richard Dawkin's in swaying my beliefs from theism to science. In a way, I feel like Cosmos was the Mister Rogers Neighborhood I never had after Mister Rogers had become less interesting due to age.

I don't remember if I ever learned anything from good ol' Fred Rogers. I didn't have to learn anything from him to adore the TV show he hosted, he was a distant friend that would talk kindly, show videos of things being made, and let me join him in visiting his puppet friends. Now that I think about it, it was a nutty show, although not nearly as nutty as Lamb Chop. It stimulated an area of my brain that remains active to this day. Whatever part of the brain that produces that amazing brain chemical called "wonder." That and an ever present reminder to feed the fish. I don't have fish.

Even with dated information, I feel that Cosmos will be the upgrade for my kids. Carl Sagan may not have had a train set, or a strict routine for when he enters his quaint home after returning from what had to be a sweater convention. He may not even have a strange puppet land full of moral stories. What Carl Sagan did bring to TV was that same sense of wonder, just a little more matured. And he definitely rocked a sweater more than once. Most importantly, he has the ability to make you believe in the amazing intricacies of the scientific world in which we all live. He had that ability to describe intense scientific theory in a way that was not only powerful mental stimulation, but very easy to swallow.

Yeah, from Sesame Street to Mr. Roger's to Cosmos. My kids are going to rule.

"Now Remember..."

Child birth. It is our future, the reason we are still here generation after generation. For thousands upon thousands of years, mankind as we know it has lived as a civilized organism. We hunt together, work together, live together, fight together. Above all, we mate together and produce the very vessels that will keep our genetics moving on into whatever may come next. There are many ways that we protect our young. We guard them against what we believe may be harmful to them. My parents told me to not play near the old wood stove we had. That was the first line of defense in my protection, the next was my nervous system sending me a jolt of pain when I inevitably touched the hot stove.

That was when I was already capable of moving myself, making decisions to protect myself. So what about the time before that? Currently Alicia's body protects our child. We avoid things that will enter our child's developing body by changing diet, avoiding alcohol, and limiting contact with harmful chemicals. Anything that could harm newly forming cells or alter the strict genetic code charged with the task of building every aspect of its body. Cradled in the warmth of mother's womb, the child is relatively safe from harm so long as the parents observe simple caution. What could possibly go wrong?

Well, for one, an expectant mother should never reach her arms above her head. Ever! The fear is instilled with the idea that doing this could somehow wrap the umbilical cord around our dear child's fragile neck. OH NO! Certainly the doctor would have told us this! The truth is, no, there is no evidence that a pregnant woman should be the slightest touch concerned about reaching above her head. This is a prime example of the long standing tradition to pass on "Old Wives Tales" to the next generation of mothers. There is nothing particularly wrong with most of these tales, and some can have enough of a placebo effect for the mother to make them almost worth it. In other cases, the exhausted parent will try something that would seem completely out of the question under any other circumstance. It is my sincere belief that the following story was the result of a prank formulated by some conspiring grandmother long ago. Without further ado, a story from a friend that she shared with me on Facebook. I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I did.

"You are going to think I am a total idiot. I'm not gonna lie, I have my days! Anyway, Jake had been showing signs of teething since he was 3 months old. The crying, screaming, fussing, drooling, chewing, etc. was just about all I could take. I had tried everything (except liquor on the gums.) My mom told me that she heard several people mention that hanging an egg in one of your baby's socks over his door would ease teething pain. I thought it was the stupidest thing ever. After months and months of this teething, I was at my wit's end! Let me be the first to tell you, teething sucks! Hopefully, you'll have one of those kids who just "wakes up with a tooth". I wasn't so lucky. Anyway, one night while mom was over here, Jake was fussing excessively, and she mentioned it again. In a moment of weakness, I got a hammer, an egg, and one of Jake's socks, jumped in a chair, and hammered away. Needless to say, it didn't work. A week later, I was still left with a fussy baby and one stinky egg. Jake didn't produce a tooth until he was almost 7 months old. I don't recommend trying this at all!"

I don't know about you, but I died laughing when I read this. This intrigued me to look at some more "remedies" related to pregnancy. Some of them are absolutely off the wall. Almost as off the wall has nailing a sock with an egg in it over your baby's door. ;)

(Fairly common. Thanks Kevin for the link to the effect.) To predict the sex of a baby: Suspend a wedding band held by a piece of thread over the palm of the pregnant girl. If the ring swings in an oval or circular motion the baby will be a girl. If the ring swings in a straight line the baby will be a boy.

(Ha! I imagine a one-eyed, white haired woman reciting this while petting a hairless cat. Really, I do. I don't know why.)

Monday's child is fair of face;
Tuesday's child is full of grace;
Wednesday's child is full of woe;
Thursday's child has far to go;
Friday's child is loving and giving;
Saturday's child works hard for a living.
But the child that is born on the Sabbath day
is fair and wise, good and gay.

(Or just have a complicated birth) A baby that is born feet first will have healing abilities.

(Well, that would be a change for the better at least.) Everything planted by a pregnant woman will grow well.

(WTF...) Do not wear high heels during pregnancy or your baby will “fall out.”

So what merit do these suggestions have? You would think they have no merit at all, but what if? It's natural for our curious minds to question the limits of our reality, if we didn't there would hardly be a reason for science. Would it be fair to say that humans want to push the limits of our reality to try and have a better grasp on the protection of our offspring? I believe so. To say that you even have an idea about something that could dictate any parameter of the child's wellbeing, that's one step closer to being in total control of what is indeed a frightening concept. Still though, there are some things which rocket well beyond the limits and end up in The Twilight Zone.

Have the groom carry the bride over a pan of burning coals when entering his home for the first time. Doing this ensures trouble-free labor.

Oops... Sorry Alicia.

To Soul, Or Not to Soul

A very clear divide can be seen between the religious and non-religious concerning the presence of a soul. If you're religious, chances are that you believe you have a soul. It is necessary for most religions that have a belief in an afterlife. For non-religious, most a quite comfortable with the idea that there is no soul. Scientifically, there is no need for a soul. Our current information concerning the mind and body fill the gaps without needing some mystical energy to make the gears turn. Our understanding of the brain is certainly not complete, but it is extensive enough to show no evidence of a soul.

Of course, there is no way to prove that we have no soul, or that such a thing as a soul does not exist. However, there is no way to prove it. I have seen a video debate on whether or not humans have souls. The creationist claimed that there were current scientific theories suggesting a form of background energy in the brain gave evidence of a soul. He felt confident that this was proof enough. Unfortunately for him, he forgot that he had discounted the theory of evolution because it was only a theory, not a fact. Plain and simple, whether or not souls exist may be one of the many unprovable theories in our universe.

So why the concern over it? Can't we all just shrug and say "Ahh, there is no reason to worry about something that we cannot prove or change." Hardly. For many, the 'reality' of a soul is essential to give their lives meaning. It gives them something beyond mortality, something that indicates that things are not over after death. Whether the soul is unconscious energy, incorporeal intelligence, some deity granted self, or something else, the need is almost always based on hope for afterlife.

I remember what it was like when I was religious. The concept of having no soul was horrifying. To think that once my body stopped functioning I would be sucked into an infinite darkness, never to feel again, never to see anything or anyone again. It was a palpable fear. There was nothing worse than imagining that once I died, that was the absolute end. Obviously things have changed since then. I no longer fear that overwhelming darkness. As far as we know, there either is or isn't an afterlife. If there is, I doubt it's the eternal heaven. With free will, there is no perfect place to spend eternity. Eventually the inevitable boredom would set in and one would crave the darkness. If we have a soul, what if it does pass from our body to another body? You wouldn't carry your memories with you, so it still doesn't matter. If there is no soul and you simply end, there is still no reason to fret about it. You would be incapable of considering your situation.

Again, with science there is no need for a soul. Afterlife is a silly concept, an attempt to alleviate the pains of mortality and nothing more. Do I believe my unborn child has a soul? No, I do not. Shock! Horror! Devil speak! I don't believe in a god, so why should I believe in a soul? Does having a soul suddenly add worth to what is already a life? If so, shame on you. This comes back to the problem of "how can you have morals without religion?" How could I not? It's part of my genetic wiring by this point. The ancient humans that raped and killed to get ahead died out as a result. Working together proved to be the stronger selection, advancing those successful genes to further improve an already select gene pool. It is difficult to say that people are naturally good or bad, but it's very easy to point out that we tend to want to mate with nice people. The fact that we are conscious has greatly altered how natural selection works. We can choose against the gene pool, we can choose to kill, choose to have a choice. Morality does not require a god, nor a soul.

So I believe my child doesn't have a soul and I believe that evolution made us favor being moral, and that is how it came about. Now, depending on your beliefs, you'll either think I'm a horrible person, wrong, or maybe just 'lost.' You may even think that I'm going to be a bad parent for believing what I believe. I don't know what kind of parent I will be, but I know one thing: there are vast portions of the Bible that my child won't know until he or she is older. And even then it will be to demonstrate why I believe what I believe. I will tell him or her that I don't feel a soul is necessary or that a god is what makes us good people. We make ourselves good people by treating or fellow man right, treating ourselves with respect and dignity. Knowing that just because a large group condone a certain action, it does not make it moral or right. A true god would never command genocide, rape, pillaging. A true god would never burden its creations with an immortal soul that could be forever tortured.

A soul is not necessary to have worth. A human life is not priced by its ethereal contents. Life is precious because it is conscious, it feels, it is made of the same atoms of the universe that supports it.

Smokin'

I'm an occasional smoker. I got in the bad habit of smoking at work on my breaks. That was a bad, bad idea. I'm trying to quit completely now and it is much more difficult this time around! If I don't smoke on break, it feels like I'm not even having a break! Haha, worse than that, if I do smoke I have that horrible nagging feeling that I'm betraying my future children. Terrible feeling guilt is.

I've known people, some close friends, that had parents die while they were relatively young. Regardless of my feelings on death, I have to deal with the fact that now there is one more person that will be directly effected by my health. That is an uncomfortable notion for me. As much as I would like for everyone to have no fear in death, it is a fact of life that we all care to some extent about the death of someone or ourselves. I can say I am unafraid of death, but I cannot say I am unafraid of the effect my death would have on those that love me.

So why all this talk of death? No reason really, but it has been crossing my mind the more I realize just what is happening in my wife's body. I knew smoking was a risk to my health and I've thought about quitting. It wasn't until finding out about my unborn child that it really hit me. Suddenly I want to scrub my lungs clean, take back all the cigs I smoked, and rid my body of any cells that could be copying the wrong information from cell to cell, thus sealing my demise.

Morbid, depressing, and bleak. Not at all how I view death. Not at all how I want our child to view death either. Death can come at any moment, by chance, by intent, by one's own doing. There are steps one can take to potentially prolong life, but when the clock is up, it is up. Being careful is good, not being paranoid. Quitting smoking is being careful. I am not admitting defeat to death and the fear of it.

I want my child to understand that everything that lives does, in fact, die. I want that understanding to include a cautious comfort with the idea. Not because of some deity, not because of religion or the shallow concept of an eternal afterlife. Even though death is frightening, unknown, and uncomfortable, it is just one of the infinitely beautiful systems in this universe. Birthdays are fun because they don't happen every day. Concerts are a blast because they don't last for years. Life is what it is because we all know it will eventually end. All the molecules that came from the very universe in which we live will eventually cease to be our bodies. What we are now will return to the universe that formed it.

"Star stuff contemplating the stars." - Carl Sagan