Tuesday, December 29, 2009

End of the Decade

So, how were the noughties for you?

Coming to the end of this year and having a look back through this blog has made me decide to be a little more active in the future. I'm hoping to churn out at least 1 post/week from now on and some of them might even be of interest (this one isn't).

I'm also going to diversify a bit and talk about some of my other passions that aren't science or religiously connected; movies, music, politics, life, the universe and - you know - the like... we'll see how that goes.

For now, I'd just like to say that I hope everyone had a very, Merry Christmas and I wish you all the very best for the new year - roll on 2010!

Regards,

Matt

9 comments:

Brazen Hussey's said...

Sweet.

I haven't posted in ages..

Your friend,

Lissie

ExPatMatt said...

I thought you had like 18 posts ready to go!?


Hope you had a great Christmas, Lissie.

Cheers,

Daniel (Da Pilgrim) said...

And a merry Christmas to you too Matt!

Daniel (Da Pilgrim) said...

I think posting on lots of topics is a cool idea.

Sometimes I try to but I always gravitate toward a bias of topic that interests me :)

So do we all I guess.

ExPatMatt said...

Yep, I'm just sick of the creation-evolution thing at the minute. There's so much other stuff that I find interesting!

I'm sure I'll be back on it again at some point though...

Susannah said...

Happy New Year to you as well.

For 2010? I'm doing a little 'something new,' like training to be a Yoga instructor. Yippee!

btw, here's my take on the 'Creationism vs.Evolution'
thing.

ExPatMatt said...

Susannah,

I've got to say, I didn't see anything to do with either evolution or creationism in your post!

There was a fair bit about atheism and the origins of the universe and the idea of there being a creator (or not, in the case of the guy you were talking to), but nothing to do with evolution or creationism.

To be clear; evolution is the biological process that leads to increased biodiversity in living organisms.

Creationism is the belief that God created everything, as described in the Bible.

Those are how those two terms are generally understood in internet discussions as I've seen them.

Now, you can say that you believe, for example, that God instigated the Big Bang and then everything happened in the way that science describes it after this event (all under God's invisible, guiding hand and according to His cosmic plan, of course) but I wouldn't count this as being 'Creationism' per se.

For starters, it's far more reasonable!

Anyway, that aside, I must say that the comment that started it all (from Christina M's blog, if I recall correctly) was just a bit of fun being poked at atheism/naturalism and there's nothing wrong with that. But she did go on to demonstrate her ignorance of science in the comments where she conflated evolution with abiogenesis - a rookie mistake.

I've been around these sorts of sites for over three years now and I've yet to meet an evolution-denier who actually knew what evolution was; strange that.


Good luck with the Yoga instructor stuff, my sister's big into Yoga (she went to India a couple of years ago to learn it firsthand from some insanely flexible Indian dude) and it does wonders for your state of being and general health.

Regards,

Susannah said...

Matt~ I appreciate your sincere interest. This is the part of that linked piece to which I was referring:

"See, I don’t tend to partake in arguing the 'How it happened' of Creation/Evolution. To me, that’s a frustrating, circular dispute, resulting in one party’s presumed intellectual superiority, & the other party’s presumed spiritual superiority. I’m more of a mind to insist that the 'Who' discussion is the most important part. In other words, Creation could have taken God 7 days or 500 million years (which to Him may have been 7 days…). It doesn’t really matter to me, because 'How it happened' was God’s prerogative (& His Mystery), not mine. But the 'WHO' of creation is absolutely critical."

I find evolution a perfectly plausible theory, perhaps even more so than 'literal creationism,' frankly. My point to you earlier was that I find the argument rather fruitless. It just doesn't matter enough to get into some shouting match, & it certainly doesn't threaten my faith either way...

That's all.

ExPatMatt said...

Susannah,

That's a perfectly reasonable point of view to take.

Although, I think Ken Ham of Answers in Genesis would take you up on it!


The main reason, as I see it, that people get into the debate is because there's a real danger of creationism (young-earth-style) getting into science curriculum and so there is a real, tangible impact that leads from this debate.

I also find the evolution of life to be a fascinating topic and enjoy discussing it even outside of the debate arena.

Cheers,