www.congress.org brought up in an alert that Congress is discussing funding for stem cell research. Of course, I expressed myself. An expanded version of my message is:

In principle, I am against both the death penalty and any degree of destroying the unborn. The decision of life and death should be between the person and God. Opening that decision to anyone else sets a precident that is unacceptable and dangerous. And, as a scientific type person, I respect the miracle of our DNA and the molecular reproduction process. Life starts at the first bunch of cellular divisions. But, the killing of folks who have a medical problem that could be cured by stem cell treatments also falls under this principle. A true dilemma. Which is murder and who is the murderer? And then there is the treatment of the severely disabled. My decision in this case is that we – including the Federal government - should support medical research, including stem cell. It leads to new and miraculous things, and this holds much promise. Let's support stem cell funding research.

In the history of science, the explanation for the events of our world that has worked for so many centuries is mysticism. Too briefly, mysticism is using magic or religion as the reason things occur. For example, the reason that planes and ships disappear in the Bermuda Triangle is because aliens are abducting them. There is nothing wrong with mysticism, it served civilization well – as long as it gives way when a reliable and tried scientific explanation comes along. The prime example of “wrong” mysticism is Galileo's imprisonment by the Pope for not renouncing the scientific data proving the heliocentic “world” (world meaning the scope of human comprehension).

Apollo carries the sun across the sky every day in his golden chariot. Of course there is a good scientific explanation. But does it make any difference whether we rely on Apollo or Copernicus? The corn will grow and life will go on anyway. Actually, it does make a lot of difference. One of the main ones is the chain of concepts based on this from Copernicus to Galileo to Kepler to Newton which gave us Newton's Laws and our modern society.

Modern science has dramatically and definitely proved evolution. It is a miraculous gift from God. Mysticism must give way in its face. Our next generation must not be imprisoned by the wrong use of mysticism.

About a month ago, I tried my first venture into blogging. Also started an experiment. My Verizon service offers a free site so I started with that one. Googling blog services led to blogger and blogstream. So I started the same posts on all three, just to see the attributes of each. My three blogs are: Verizon's http://scdiv.spaces.msn.com/, blogger's http://sinannblog.blogspot.com/, blogstream's http://sinannblog.blogstream.com/. The Verizon one was the easiest to do. It also has a neat map that shows the country which recent blog entries come from and a link to see that blog. Photos are easy there, too. The blogger and the blogstream have an easy way to publish the blog to Google blog search. After a month of making a variety of different kinds of entries, the Verizon site has received no responses, the blogstream one five (three from the same person), and the blogger one (a response to a comment I made on someone else's).

It is time for the experiment to go to another level, I must do some promoting. Both telling friends and family about my blogs and responding to interesting blogs I run across. The best part of blogging is just the writing of them but it is gratifying to see that someone out there reads my stuff.

A recent Newsweek had an article about summer camps – for the next generation of creationists, evolutionists, atheists. As a science teacher, I always wonder about the intellect of both the creationists and the atheists. Creationists can wait for a later entry. Today, it is the atheists that stick in my craw. Do I have a “craw”? Some have accused me of being a crustacean.

I am a particular proponent of the proof of God that Stephen Hawking has in “A Brief History of Time”. Every good science student and atheist should read it. He compares the odds that the universe is either a random event or has a Creator. The same general concept that Copernicus called “The Artisan”, Galileo “The Author”, Kepler “The Founder”. The odds come out to an astronomical number (even larger than the odds that O.J. Simpson is guilty) in favor of God. But even if the universe is a gigantic number of experiments and we just happen to be on one of the ones that work, there must be The Experimentor.

Believe in God? Does one believe in something (Something) that is a fact? It is just there, not a “belief”. Of course, this argument skips over a multitude of issues. But I fail to see how anyone can not acknowledge the existence of God. Is that the definition of “atheist”?

Yesterday, I received a note from www.congress.org that they were conducting a “virtual hearing” regarding the immigration hearings in Congress. Of course, I responded:
“As part of Congress.org's virtual hearing on immigration reform, I wanted to offer my own views. Security at the border is definitely important. The United States has a great wealth in its immigrants, however. They add so much at all levels. There should be a means for them to earn their citizenship; a means to attract those good, bright, hard working folks to continue our great country's growth and heritage toward them. Let us learn from the failures of our European friends who do not do this.”
I know that there are perils – drugs and bad folks. There must be an administrative means of protecting America from them and doing it quickly and forcefully. In my sheltered environment, however, all the immigrants I have had the occasion to run across have been as good as or better than us “born heres”. Amnesty, to me, is giving something for nothing. Earning citizenship is what we all had to do and what we should be doing every day. That is not amnesty. Our European allies are missing the message. Their economies are difficult and there is rioting in the streets – because they do not allow citizenship. To quote Newsweek,”The United States is the only industrialized country that will not experience a workforce or population loss in the coming decades, thanks to immigration.”
Immigration may not be easy, good things often are not, but it is our heritage and one of our strengths.