Iron Soul

A Bit of Self Discovery

2011-07-28T09:39:00.000-07:00

There have been two fairly major events for me in the triathlon scene in the last month. First, was the Coeur d'Alene Ironman, where I was able to watch my cousin finish the most inspiring athletic event I've ever witnessed. The second, was the Chelanman where I did my first Olympic triathlon.

Experiencing the Ironman was one of the coolest things I've done in my life. From the thrill of the group start where 2800 competitors hit the water at the same time, to the determination on the faces of the last swimmer out of the water before the course closed. And of course the joy and accomplishment on the faces of the racers at the finish when they heard their names called followed by "you are an Ironman". To be there was both inspiring and humbling.

My own event - the Chelanman was a different sort of learning experience. The day before the race I injured my back. (I later learned via MRI that it was an L5-S1 herniation with nerve impingement) I spent about 24 hours debating whether I'd be able to participate at all let alone finish. The lowest moment was when I took my bike of the car to go set up my transition. I hopped on to see how it felt to ride. The pain was bad enough I almost put the bike back on the rack to go home without even picking up my race packet. I decided I would start and abandon the race when the pain was too bad when ever that happened to be.

On race day I was feeling okay thanks to some pharmaceutical intervention. The swim went great. The bike started out rough, but got more comfortable. I never was fast and didn't have much power in my legs, but overall it was fine. It was the run portion that was the most difficult. I started out very slow and had to walk the first hill on the course. After that I was able to maintain a slow pace that felt pretty normal. It seems my stride didn't look very normal, however. Somewhere around mile 4 of the out and back course I met a guy running with a prosthetic leg. He looked at me trying to run and asked if I needed his leg. (In my opinion the best line of the day)

In the end I finished, which was more than I expected. And I think I learned something about myself. I've always pictured myself as kind of soft mentally. I've thought that I never had the reserve to push myself hard, to work through discomfort. I was truly surprised that I wanted this bad enough to keep going. It kind of felt good to know I've got a little toughness in me somewhere.

Now if I can just rehab my back in time to get in one more race this year.

Blog Reboot

2011-06-20T09:35:00.000-07:00

It has been an appalling amount of time since I've posted anything. The only thing this blog has been good for is collecting spam comments. And it has been over three years since I had anything substantial to write about other than the occasional SDA clash with good science. I sort of grew bored with that whole topic. Not that it has gone away, I just lost my ability to care now that I have the appropriate time and distance from the source of my frustration.

So, it was a few years ago that I though being a bodybuilder would be a fun thing to try, and I wrote a lot about that experience. The "iron" part of Iron Soul. My effort was good for a below average result, and I never really worked up the passion for another attempt to see if I could improve. The gym rat part of my soul never withered away though. It is just much more fun without the extreme dieting, fake tan and speedos.

Starting last summer I was inspired by my Superstar Wife to try a new way to torture myself. I faced down fear of swimming and got into the triathlon game. I did two sprint distance events last summer, that I enjoyed a lot. Now I'm trying to take it up an notch. I signed up for the olympic distance at this year's ChelanMan.

Life and weather have not cooperated in my training so far, but I had a good weekend where I swam a mile on Saturday and did a 25 mile - 4 mile bike/run day on Sunday. That has given me confidence that I can complete the distance. Don't know yet if I'll be able to turn in a time that will satisfy me, but so far even the training has been fun. Looking forward to race day July 16.

Dangerous Reason

2010-08-18T09:40:00.000-07:00

When your worldview is built on a foundation of ignorance, there is no greater threat than critical thinking skills. I think most believers, if they took the time to think honestly about this, know it to be true. They often get so close, but fail to take the final step. They can recognize the danger of reasonable, critical thought, but choose to avoid thinking rather than question their foundation.

I came across a beautiful example of this in the latest Westwind (Walla Walla Univeristy's alumni journal). In Ginger Ketting-Weller's (vice president for academic administration) interview with Dan Lamberton she asks this question:

I'm not ready to get into Professor Lamberton's responce. It is a bit better than the question, but still unsatisfying. He at least admits that core tenets such as the virgin birth are unbelievable, but then seemingly retreats behind an amorphous shield of the sense of wonder this produces.

For me it is the question itself is what is interesting. Intelletually fulfulling belief is not something to be valued. The implied goal of this educational institution is to shelter students - to strengthen indoctrination. This creates a house divided. It is impossible to provide real education and shelter ignorance. Reason is dangerous to cherished delusions.

Reality vs. Dogma: Adventist Education

2010-06-09T08:45:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Tim for passing the latest on this story along to me. As I've become increasingly detached from my Adventist past I've failed to keep up with the controversy about evolution allegedly being taught at La Sierra University. I've also failed to devote much attention to the blog (probably also a result of my increased detachment).

Recently, however, there has been a little action involving the La Sierra biology curriculum. First, a pair of articles in the Adventist Review briefly covering the pro-evolution accusations and the resulting board action. Actual details are few though the school is careful to stress its young earth creationist position and distance itself from Professor Gary Bradley who bravely says "It's very, very clear that what I'm skeptical of is the absolute necessity of believing that the only way a creator God could do things is by speaking them into existence a few thousand years ago." That is the one bright spot in the entire affair. Things rapidly go downhill with Dr. Ricardo Graham, president of the Pacific Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, and chairman of the Board of Trustees at La Sierra University prioritizing Seventh-Day Adventism over education.

From there things get absurd and somewhat entertaining. As of 1 June 2010, the Michigan Conference will no longer provide employee subsidy for students attending La Sierra. Money quote from the memo released:

" Resolved: To encourage each Seventh-day Adventist college and university to continue to strengthen the principles of biblical authority and faith. In support of these principles we urge continued development of educational strategies and faculties which would move these institutions to becoming centers of excellence in promoting, cultivating and defending creation science. We define creation science in the context of the recent creation week of seven ordinary, literal, historical, consecutive, contiguous twenty-four hour days of divine creation and rest as described in Genesis ".

As I've said before, I feel like I got an excellent education (not in biology) at an Adventist school. And I'm sure that the Michigan Conference is not representative of all US Adventists. But I don't see how an Adventist education can continue to be relevant when dogma is given institutional support in the face of contradictory reality.

Avatar: Story of the Satanic Blue Cat People

2010-02-26T17:18:00.000-08:00

This article was on the top banner of the Seattle PI website at lunch time today. Mars Hill pastor Mark Driscoll says Avatar is the most demonic movie he has ever seen. Regardless of what you think of the movie, I love this story getting exposure. I think it make him look ridiculous. Not that this tactic of using pop culture icons as a rallying point is new. As was pointed out I in the comments, it used to be the smurfs that were evil.

Auburn Adventist Academy Sex Scandal

2010-02-22T17:15:00.000-08:00

A bit of excitement locally over the weekend. Bible teacher at AAA was allegedly fooling around with a 16 year old exchange student. See the Seattle PI article and comments. At least one former student posts there. If two students hold hands they get put on social restriction, but apparently unescorted visits to the teacher's place on the weekend doesn't get any attention from the other faculty. Nothing on the Auburn Website, but Scott Spies is no longer on the list of faculty.

Evolution Fallacy Seminar

2010-01-16T14:54:00.000-08:00

I wasn't able to attend the Seminar that mentioned earlier in the week, but they were kind enough to post the audio on the church website very expeditiously. I haven't heard it yet, but I may give it a little listen if I get time.

This Weekend: Creation-Evolution Seminar

2010-01-12T10:25:00.000-08:00

I just found out last night that the local SDA Church is having a 2 day Creation-Evolution seminar. It will be a presentation by the pastor John Kurlinski, who considers himself an expert on the subject, with a guest speaker Stan Hudson. The two have collaborated before. For example this program for Life Talk Radio charmingly called Sink the Beagle (page 9 of PDF). I have no idea who Stan Hudson is but he claims to have a Ph.D in "science" and maybe the author of this ranty little Spokesman Review article. Money quote:

Evolutionism is a faith-based theory of origins, just like creationism, and as such it is adhered to with religious fervor.

I doubt I'll be available or inclined to attend any or all of the seminar, so I can't comment on the content. I will say that I don't worship Charles Darwin and the Theory of Evolution is not a religion.

Evolution is based on the scientific method. There are tests that can determine whether or not the theory is correct as it stands, and these tests can be made. Thousands of such tests have been made, and the current theories have passed them all. Also, scientists are willing to alter the theories as soon as new evidence is discovered. This allows the theories to become more and more accurate as research rogresses.

Most religions, on the other hand, are based on revelations, that usually cannot be objectively verified. They talk about the why, not the how. Also, religious beliefs are not subject to change as easily as scientific beliefs. Finally, a religion normally claims an exact accuracy, something which scientists know they may never achieve.

Some people build up religious beliefs around scientific principles, but then it is their beliefs which are the religion. This no more makes scientific knowledge a religion than painting a brick makes it a bar of gold. So the answer is no, evolution is no more a religion than any other scientific theory.

They Never Give Up

2009-11-25T20:44:00.000-08:00

Just for fun, pharyngula poll crashes Educate Truth. That was the group I wrote about earlier regarding the biology department at La Sierra University teaching evolution.

Fear of the Beast

2009-11-25T20:42:00.000-08:00

Despite their claims to have the 'truth', confidence of salvation and hope in the soon return of Jesus, Adventists are still terrified of the Catholic Church and end time events. This is of course a puzzling contradiction. Are you looking forward to the end of the earth or not? I don't really expect it to make sense, nor do I feel like dwelling on it. I was forwarded an email with the latest chapter that is fueling the conspiracy fears. Of course President Obama is involved.

Apparently when President Obama met with the Pope at the time of the G-8 summit he mentioned his latest encyclical which is was summarized by Hope TV as follows:

1. A Global Government. The pope is calling for a "true world political authority" to fix the problems that plague the world. (page 67)

2. Church and State. The pope says this new political authority will make its decisions based on spiritual values. (Chapter 5)

3. The Papacy at the Head. These spiritual values cannot be derived from just any religion, since not "all religions are equal." (p 55)

4. Religion, Politics and the Economy. The church must influence all areas of society since God must have "a place in the public realm, specifically in regard to its cultural, social, economic, and particularly its political dimensions." (56)

5. Power to Enforce Law. This "political authority" must have real teeth" and "be vested with the effective power" to enforce its laws around the world. (67)

6. Control Buying and Selling. The new world governing power will institute socialistic policies for government to redistribute wealth. (chapter 3)

7. Resurgence of Labor Unions. Labor Unions are to be empowered to "play a decisive role" in the new world order. (23)

8. The Church's Goal. Pope Benedict says that this encyclical is to help achieve "The goal of the history of the human family" - to build "the universal city of God ." (7)

9. Redefining Religious Liberty. While claiming not "to interfere in any way in the politics of States," the pope redefined "liberty" as happening when the world obeys laws shaped by the Roman Church's spiritual values. According to the pope, as the church influences states to enforce its view of "truth" on others, people are set "free." "This mission of truth is something that the Church can never renounce." (9)

10. Immortal Souls. The non-biblical belief that man has an immortal soul helps to insure the pope's global agenda. "Man is ... God's creature, whom God chose to endow with an immortal soul." (29)

Better start stockpiling your food and guns now. This is clearly a more dire warning of the end times than all the previous 'sure' signs /end snark/.

SDA Creationism: The Origin of Young Earth Creationism in the USA.

2009-11-03T16:58:00.001-08:00

Last weekend there was a big Evolutionary Biology conference at the University of Chicago. Among the speakers was Ron Numbers a former Seventh-Day Adventist. (Summary of his talk on Pharyngula) He mentioned something I had not known before. According to the talk the old earth creationism ideas of day/age and gap theory were the standard positions in the United States outside of Adventism until the 1960's. At the time there was a book written called The Genesis Flood which borrowed the SDA idea developed by Ellen White follower George MacReady Price - the Noah's flood was responsible for the entire geologic column. Since most of Christianity regarded Adventism as a cult, the SDA notion of a young earth wasn't widely accepted until introduced to mainstream Christianity by the non-Adventist who wrote The Genesis Flood.

Maybe this is common knowledge and I wasn't aware due to the fact that I was on the inside of the Adventist system. I just had know idea that the SDA church was the lone reservoir of special pseudo-science for so long.
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On a related note there was a special Creation Sabbath sermon here on October, 24. I didn't get to stay and listen, but I was hoping the audio would get posted. Looks like maybe I'll never get to see what I missed.

Yes on R-71

2009-10-19T17:31:00.000-07:00

Awhile back there was a law passed in Washington State (SB 5688) that would give same-sex partners the same basic civil rights as other married people just not the name 'marriage'. There was really scandalous and disturbing stuff in this law. Things like inheritance rights and visitation rights {eyes rolling}. Obviously it was met with heated opposition by bigots terrified by the fading power of their patriarchy. The law was supposed to have gone into effect in July 2009, but the haters managed to get enough signature - due in part to dubious tactics - to put it back on the ballot for the November election.

My voters guide came in the mail last week. I read the arguments for and against R-71. I found it interesting tough not surprising that the only organizations listed as being in opposition are religious.

I'm mailing my ballot today marked Yes on R-71.

My Atheism is Complete

2009-09-06T23:23:00.000-07:00

So, for a shot time this weekend I thought there was a chance I had a serious medical condition. I had some indeterminate symptoms that could have indicated something serious or been nothing much at all. Fortunately, it appears to be nothing, but for a few minutes I found myself contemplating my mortality in ways more seriously than I've done before. I've done the normal mortality facing that happens when you are 30 years old. And the things you think about when you have kids, but this was a little more personal.

I was pleased to notice that not once did I fear for my soul. I wasn't afraid that maybe I was wrong and I'd end up in hell after all. I didn't worry that maybe I should try to get right with Jesus just in case. I didn't even feel the need to meditate and align my chakras. I didn't waste any calories thinking about any make believe magic stuff. I did think about my family and my hope and dream and goals in life. These are things that I consider important and useful. In fact the only time anything religious came to mind was when Lori told me that I'd better be okay because she didn't want to deal with all the people that would tell her "that is terrible . . . it's so sad he turned away from the Lord".

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If anyone is curious, I was having lots of muscle pain and trouble using my hands. The closest it got to a serious condition was when I couldn't get my pants off to go to the bathroom. Had a blood test and the diagnosis was Rhabdomyolysis. I must have exerted myself too much at the gym this week. The other thing I'm proud of here - besides my lack of religious guilt - was my ability to combine my major themes of atheism and body building into one post.

SDA Creationism gets Wider Notice

2009-09-01T21:05:00.000-07:00

I've always believed that I got a quality science education at Walla Walla College, an Seventh-Day Adventist school. That is because I was fortunate to have some excellent professors that honestly thought science. Recently principled faculty members at some other SDA schools have been getting heat from the fundamentalist from their honesty. I stumbled across one of these crackpots awhile back.

Now, this little internal doctrinal squabble is getting some wider exposure. Since this whole thing was thoroughly covered on Pharyngula, I don't need to say more. I'm off to find that fresh topic I hope to write about someday.

Belief #6: Reality is Fatal to Fundamental Adventist Beliefs

2009-08-27T16:39:00.000-07:00

I feel like I've been stuck on one topic for awhile. I'm not exactly sure why that is. It might be just because I have less time to write on things that are only sort of interesting to me. That the Seventh-Day Adventist church has chosen to highlight creationism this year has definitely provided plenty of material. In the future I'll try to diversify, but this is just too easy.

This month's topic in The Adventist World's series on fundamental beliefs is belief number six - creation. The official position is stated as:

6. Creation:
God is Creator of all things, and has revealed in Scripture the
authentic account of His creative activity. In six days the Lord made
"the heaven and the earth" and all living things upon the earth, and
rested on the seventh day of that first week. Thus He established the
Sabbath as a perpetual memorial of His completed creative work. The
first man and woman were made in the image of God as the crowning work
of Creation, given dominion over the world, and charged with
responsibility to care for it. When the world was finished it was ``very
good,'' declaring the glory of God. (Gen. 1; 2; Ex. 20:8-11; Ps. 19:1-6;
33:6, 9; 104; Heb. 11:3.)

Which leaves a slight bit wiggle room, to adapt to scientific reality. You know, the moderate Christian position of symbolic time periods with a special 'ensoulment' of humans at some point in the recent past. However, fundamental Adventism cannot accept a moderate interpretation -
even of this easily falsifiable claim. The reason is probably clear to almost everyone, but for some reason only came into sharp focus for me after reading this article. It is this: young earth creationism is like a keystone. If it slips, it starts a cascade of failing fundamental beliefs and dearly held doctrines.

"Special creation preserves the integrity of Scripture, safeguards the loving, praiseworthy character of God, establishes the reality of the atonement and redemption, and the soundness of the seventh-day Sabbath. These reasons, and more, show why a special creation worldview matters so deeply to the Adventist message and mission."

Most important is the seventh day Sabbath, which is the nearly the entire identity of Seventh-Day Adventism. The other beliefs specifically mentioned in the article that are threatened by reality are "authority and inspiration of Scripture", "the biblical teaching of the
loving character of the Creator" and the "literal fall" of man.

This last is significant because absent a literal fall and a historical Adam who transfers sin to humanity, we no longer require atonement and redemption. No need to for Jesus to die, no need for Christianity. Clearly no religion is going to acknowledge and embrace its own obsolescence.

Although creationism is demonstrably false, I'm sort of in favor of the SDA position of holding firm. It seems to be fairly benign in practice. I don't think my science education was irreparably damaged. But, it serves to underline the ridiculousness of the religion and hopefully decrease its influence and relevance in the culture. As PZ Myers eloquently put it.

"When fundamentalists tie their faith absolutely to a claim that is easily refuted, that contradicts the evidence, and that requires them to constantly escalate their denial and delusions in order to sustain their belief, it makes it really easy for atheists to demolish their religion. We don't even need to attack religion in the classroom at all - we just calmly lay out the facts, let the students work out the conclusions, and sometimes...it's epiphany time! They realize their pastor lied to them, or was just really ignorant, and suddenly their respect for Christian authority begins to crumble away. It's not the atheist's fault, though. The lesson should be, "Don't lie to your kids,"

Even More SDA Creationism

2009-07-13T16:26:00.000-07:00

I was poking around the internet to see if I could find some info on the new pastor here when I came an interesting group working hard to destroy good biology instruction in Adventist Schools. I always thought I got pretty good education in the SDA system, in every area but biology. Hopefully their little petition (which the new pastor here signed) doesn't get much attention.

Not that the general conference needs any help focusing on creationism. Two articles in the latest Adventist World are devoted to focusing on literal biblical creationism. In addition to the links I posted earlier. This one is especially disturbing. It encourages parents to confront teachers and report them to the administration if they disagree with the things they teach. This could be ugly.

Oooo Fairies

2009-07-06T16:03:00.000-07:00

I'm surprised I'd never heard of this before, but I guess I'd essentially moved out of the area before this got started. I had no idea that Twisp, WA was where "veil between dimensions is said to be thinnest". Though I guess I do remember that the area was popular with the hippies.

SDAs: Creationism emphasized

2009-07-01T15:34:00.000-07:00

It was my intent to post some links while they were relatively new, but I guess I've been too busy. Now I'm still to busy to write anything to go with them.

Nothing surprising just the usual anti-scientific creationist stuff of the literalist six day variety. This is of course the official position of the SDA church. It just seems like we'd be getting to the point where it would be considered wise to sort of stick that sort of thing in the back corner rather than emphasize it.

An Exersice in Frustration

2009-06-21T13:42:00.000-07:00

Over the last month we've had a lot of family visiting to help with the new baby. It has been really nice to have so much help, and now that we are on our own again we are doing are best to keep up with everything. When the family finally did leave they 'forgot' and left a book behind even though we kept reminding them not to forget it.

Any way I'm trying to be fair and so I've been reading Science Discovers God by Ariel Roth in some of my free time. First off, the book has been very predictable. All the usual subjects: Issac Newton was a brilliant scientist and a christian, living things are very complicated, some bad statistics, a few Albert Einstein quote mines and a really horrible understanding of evolution. Really nothing new. I can't decided if I'm going to feel sorry for the author or angry at him. This is a new book (2008) but he is still beating the 'irreducible complexity' of cellular flagella and the eye into the ground. Now Darwin's Black Box came out in 1995, and maybe some of these things could have been taken seriously at the time. But in the last 15 years the whole idea has been thoroughly debunked. That is in addition to the inexplicably bad explanations of how evolution is supposed to work. So, either Dr. Roth is decidedly ignorant and out of date or he is lying to influence those who don't know any better or would rather ignore what they do know. I'm leaning towards the latter explanation. Dr. Roth earned a Ph.D in Zoology. Even if it was over 50 years ago, I'm sure he had to demonstrate an understanding that surpass my slight self-directed learning. Based on that I'm convinced he is a lying scumbag. I'm also sure he is thoroughly deluded, but I do not think that excuses his deceit. Still nothing surprising here.

What is a little more interesting is the motivation for 'forgetting' the book here in the first place. I think I understand very well why it was left, and I can't blame those responsible for trying to do what they think is right. However, I also know that those that left us the book have not read it. Said it was 'over their heads' etc. So, since they aren't really sure what they are trying to convince me of and aren't interested in discussing, how do they think this is going to lead me where they want me to go?

Home on the Web

2009-06-13T09:31:00.000-07:00

This is a quick post that follows from a discussion Lori and I had this morning. Yes, Brewster does have a Wikipedia entry.

Expelled Rant

2009-04-30T17:04:00.000-07:00

It feels a little self indulgent to whine and complain in public, but I don't think I'm the first person with a blog to vent. So here I am crying, "OMG someone wasn't nice to me on the internet."

I'm facebook friends with some people I went to school with, but who I don't know that well. For some reason this last week I got several status updates and associated comments appreciating the movie Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. The timing is kind of strange since the theatrical release was over a year ago and the DVD was released last October. In the interest of full disclosure I admit I haven't seen the movie and I'm not sure I will. I do feel like I have a pretty good idea of the content from reading many blogs and reviews, including opinions from several of the people interviewed for the movie and from reputable mainstream sources like Scientific American, Roger Ebert and the New York Times. I'm also aware of some of the entertaining events that occurred at a screening. Anyway, back to the story . . . As I normally do when encounter some Expelled love, I posted a link to Expelled Exposed. Nothing more. A person that I don't know but somehow connected in the facebook universe replies with:

Seriously. Every thinking person should watch this film. Here is a pretty good collection of rebuttals to Expelled Exposed:
http://www.evolutionnews.org/2009/02/expelled_exposed_exposed_your.html

While it really wasn't anything to get excited about, I resent the baseless assertion that I am not a thinking person. I may not be a thinking person, but that is not evidence by the fact that I don't agree with this stranger's appreciation for dishonest and inflammatory film making. I did not reply, but I did go to the link provided to see the 'refutation' of Expelled Exposed. What do I find? Casey Luskin. Oh well, at least now I know which of the two of us debaters has bothered
to learn a little something about science.

End of rant. Hopefully both my readers will help my fragile ego and tell me I'm really not an unthinking Darwin worshiping Nazi so I can regain my confidence and carry on the good fight for good science.

TAM 7: Getting Closer

2009-04-25T11:10:00.000-07:00

I'm getting really excited for TAM 7. The JREF has advertisements on several podcasts I listen too, Penn did a Penn Says about it and I just got a flier in the mail. I've got my registration completed and my airline tickets booked. I just need to order a few books to get signed and I'll be all set.

I'm having a hard time figuring out what I enjoy the most about TAM. It is really fun to be around so many people who are rational thinking and pro-science. It is such a positive atmosphere. I know a lot of people who aren't aware of the skeptical movement view skepticism as a negative world view. They think all it is, is people sitting around saying 'moon landing hoaxers are morons, 9/11 truthers are idiots, etc.' Skeptics to generally hold those positions, but it is a secondary result of a skeptical outlook. In general skepticism is focused on understanding how the world works based on evidence and the scientific method. This is a positive stance that encourages learning all sorts of exciting things and is free from superstition and irrational guilt and fear.

Some SDA Anti-Science

2009-04-17T15:51:00.000-07:00

2009 is the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin and the 150th anniversary of the publication of "On the Origin of Species". The occasion is being marked by a year long celebration of science and reason around the world. It is also being used as an opportunity for promoting creationism.

Apparently the SDA church is planning a Sabbath for special emphasis on creation in October. Not much detail at this point, but it looks like they will be consciously avoiding uncomfortable details like facts and evidence.

"This isn't to enter into a debate on evolution versus creation, but to emphasize God as our creator"

I'll have to see if the local church gets involved with this. It might be worth checking out. I'm probably to timid to actually say anything though, but somebody should. In promoting their anti-scientific agenda they distort reality to an astonishing degree. "

The major influence of Darwin's work was to separate God from the world"

Spoken like someone who has little concept of evolution. I think that Darwin's work has had a major influence on modern medicine and agriculture, but it seems that those things are not significant.

In another example (scroll down) we see Adventist again misunderstanding or misrepresenting evolution.

"Evolutionism is not a physical science where you ... observe data and you come up with a hypothesis to explain what you have observed."

There is an extensive list of examples to
contradict this statement. Tiktaalik is just one. There are probably better ones I'm not aware of as a non-biologist. Just another instance of people changing definitions around fit their beliefs.

Surprise, More Religious Hate

2009-03-25T15:24:00.000-07:00

There was a plane crash over the weekend in Montana. A tragedy where 14 people died. A number of them were Seventh-Day Adventist, which brings the events somewhat close to home for me, but isn't really motivation to blog about it. What is somewhat interesting is the ridiculous about of religious hate and self-superiority that has come in the aftermath. Some smug, self-righteous, sad excuse for a human in Hanford, CA (also a location that hits close to home) is reveling is the horrible loss suffered by one family in particular. Irving M. "Bud" Feldkamp III an Adventist Dentist and businessman lost 7 children and grandchildren in the crash. The trigger for the hatred was that Dr. Feldkamp may be the owner of a chain of abortion clinics. His ownership is alleged by those rejoicing in his misfortune, but I couldn't confirm his exact involvement by what I considered to be a reputable source.

This is one flavor of Christianity raging against another somewhat different flavor. Add this episode to your file, for when someone makes claims for religion's benefit to society.

TAM 6 Review: Dr. Novella - Dualism and Creationism

2009-03-18T16:03:00.000-07:00

I've been meaning to do some TAM 6 blogs basically since last summer, and just never got inspired. But last night I wasn't sleeping or I was dreaming about TAM 7 in July so I guess I'm inspired now. Being the good little nerd that I am I took some pretty good notes during the talks last year, so I flipped through them and thought I'd recap Dr. Steve Novella's talk.

Dr. Novella is a neurologist and has spent a lot of time on his blog dealing with dualism. Dualism is a philosophy of the mind, that asserts that some properties of consciousness are not due to physical phenomena. This is known as Cartesian Dualism. Naturalistic Dualism holds that it is the brain that causes conscientiousness, but we don't know how.

Neuroscience supports the position that consciousness is an emergent property of the brain.

there is no mind with no brain.
brain development correlates with mental development
if you damage the brain you damage the mind
different states of consciousness correlate with different brain states
able to provoke specific mental effects by stimulating the brain (MEG)

So far the material model of consciousness is working fairly well as a description of the mind. Dualism is basically a 'god of the gaps' type argument. It is invoked to explain uncertainties in scientific understanding of the brain and mind. The purpose of dualism like creationism is to provide ideological cover for a belief system not to advance human knowledge.

And now for something completely different

2009-03-15T13:29:00.001-07:00

Just for Fun

2009-03-09T16:53:00.000-07:00

If you are one of those people that is immune to detecting sarcasm, you
probably shouldn't follow this link to 50 Reason I Reject Evolution.
(yes, I stole this from pharyngula)

TAM 7

2009-03-06T16:50:00.000-08:00

Last spring I was chatting with my buddy, Herb, who lives in Las Vegas. I hadn't seen him in awhile and wanted to visit. I also mentioned that I'd like to make it to a TAM someday. I was thinking it was just a wild idea, but Herb is better at pulling the trigger on those sorts of things than I am. I'm glad because attending TAM 6 turned out to be one of the coolest things I've done in awhile.

Now I'm looking forward to and making plans for this years TAM 7. This year's meeting will be July 9-12 at the South Point Casino in Las Vegas. There is going to be a good mix of returning and new speakers. Dr. Phil Plait, Lt. Col Hal Bidlack, Adam Savage, Dr. Michael Shermer and Dr. Steve Novella are returning presenters and I couldn't be more excited to see them again. The keynote speaker this year is Bill Prady, creator of the TV show The Big Bang Theory. This should be good though it will be incredibly difficult to equal Dr. Tyson's talk from last year. Overall it looks like a great mix of scientist, educators, journalist and entertainers.

This year I'm looking forward to knowing a few more people there, being a shameless fanboi getting books autographed and maybe getting in on some more of the afterhours programs like the Penn & Teller show.

Everyone Should Read the Bible

2009-03-02T16:40:00.000-08:00

For awhile now David Plotz has been writing a series for Slate called Blogging the Bible. From time to time I'd check in on it because I enjoyed his revulsion at some new atrocity that he had discovered. I also really like the honest searching that he, as a non-religious Jew, was doing into his heritage. I respected his hope for something noble to be found in the powerful cultural force that is the Bible.

Now that he has completed the project, he is releasing a book about it. Could be interesting. In the Slate article about the book, Plotz also makes a good argument for everyone reading the Bible. The Bible has had a profound and far reaching influence on western culture. It is
pervasive. We get everything form figures of speech "the writing on the wall" to a deep seated fear and loathing of homosexuality from the Bible. For those who are Biblically illiterate (this includes a huge number of nominal Christian) it could be enlightening to discover where these cultural features are derived from. If everyone was familiar with the details of the Bible it may even help to clear up the misguided notion that it is all beautiful, noble, lofty and ultimately moral.

This is one of the reasons that I don't resent my religious education. I'm no great bible reader, but I rarely come across something that I had no idea was in there. Because I spent so much time in church school I know the facts of the Bible better than lots of people who believe but have only a passing familiarity with what they say they base their beliefs on.

Seventh-Day Darwinists

2009-03-01T09:30:00.000-08:00

I found an entertaining blog post this morning. By entertaining I mean it consists entirely of the familiar rejection of science that I was raised around. Science is great as long as it isn't evolution. There are so many things that can only be true in the religious fantasy land that I won't bother to comment on them but I did find this interesting:

We see a significant number of professed Adventists denying Bible truth so foundational that nearly all Christendom agrees upon it.

Things like a literal six-day creation (seven if you count the Sabbath) or the literal worldwide flood of Noah's day.

I don't think that the majority of Christians these days are obsessed with a literal 6 day creation and world wide flood, and that is even for those who don't consider catholics Christian. This is a good sign that some realism is penetrating religion.

I did agree with the main point of the article however. I also think that Adventism and evolution are incompatible. I also agree wholeheartedly with his admonition to

Keep seeking with a fervent and honest heart

What I reject is the condition he put up on honest seeking for truth.

As long as you stick to the Bible (and Ellen White's books and articles) you will not go wrong.

I suppose if you already know the answer you want to get it is okay to limit the data you are willing to consider, but there is absolutely no way you can call that honest seeking. I thought I'd try to be unemotional about this post, but this pisses me off.

Goodbye Lucy

2009-02-26T17:17:00.000-08:00

It looks like Lucy is about to pack up and head out of town after a rather disappointing exhibition and the Pacific Science Center. It is a shame that more people didn't support this exhibit. As a result of the poor turnout here in Seattle, Chicago has canceled their scheduled display.

I'm really glad that I made the effort to visit as it looks like there may not be another chance here in the US. What a shame and embarrassment for Americans that one of the great scientific discoveries of our time can't even get 200,000 visitors in six months in one of the countries most pro-science cities. It was an amazing experience for me. I wish more could have shared it.

Reverted has a New Post

2009-02-10T19:29:00.000-08:00

Okay, I'm a few weeks late noticing, but Reverted is always worth a look when he posts something new.

Some SDA Anti-Science

2009-02-03T17:04:00.000-08:00

While I was flipping through the Gleaner (Feb. 2009) yesterday, looking to see if I knew anyone in the pictures or articles, I noticed an article about a Moscow, ID creationism series. The series was hosted by Stan Hudson, whose sole qualification is that he was briefly a geology major before switching to theology. He has hosted a program on LifeTalk Radio called Sink the Beagle. I wasn't able to find the program on the schedule currently, but it seems to be the typical creationist fare. Due to the utter lack of any positive evidence they are forced to flail futilely against legitimate threats to their emotionally help opinions. The creationist is left with nothing more than wishing that Charles Darwin had been lost at sea. However reliance on wishing rather than thinking frees them from having to understand any science. This is evidenced by the title of the first lecture in the series In the Beginning, God or Hydrogen which is purported to have "addressed the theory of evolution via natural selection." I'm uncertain what hydrogen has to do with natural selection specifically.

On a positive note, they gave out free dinosaur teeth at the second meeting, which has the potential to spur honest interest in science.

Thinking about Evolution

2009-01-13T17:43:00.000-08:00

I have absolutely no formal training in biology, and because of that there are tons of basic things I don't know. However, lately I've really enjoyed being a biology nerd and doing lots of reading mostly on genetics and development. Also, the Theory of Evolution is a major piece of my atheistic worldview, so the more understanding I can gain the better I can support my position.

Recently I was involved in a discussion with a creationist, which is why I ended up watching the Boonstra movie. One of the major portions of the Boonstra argument (and I think this is a standard creationist position) was that the theory of evolution doesn't explain the origin of life therefore god did it. In my discussion I repeatedly demanded that a distinction be made between evolution and abiogenesis. My point was that evolution works if life developed spontaneously, was seeded by an advanced alien race or was sneezed into existence by the Great Green Arkleseizure. I still believe that this is a correct understanding, but I need to be careful how I phrase the statement. For rhetorical purposes it is useful to make a distinction between origins and evolution, but based on the some recent research on chemical replicators (the the biology nerd in me gets really excited about) it would probably be false to say that natural selection had no part in the origin of biological life.

In the study reviewed on pharyngula and neurologica some enzymes were able to assemble themselves spontaneously from simpler chemicals. The researchers relied on natural selection to optimize the reaction. From PZ Myers:

"They started with a very rough sequence, one that inefficiently catalyzed an A + B → E sort of reaction, but that not only worked slowly, but also produced faulty products that eventually killed the reaction after a few cycles. Then they tweaked it to form a minus-strand enzyme, and then they subjected both the plus and minus strand forms to — natural selection! They made copies with mutagenic PCR (so they had a range of random variants), ran it through several cycles of in vitro selection for more efficient forms, and ended up with two RNA enzymes that were good at building copies of each other."

And from Steven Novella:

"Specifically, what they found was that when they added different versions of their self-replicating RNA with limited raw material to the same test tube, the different RNA “species’ competed with each other. The more “fit” RNA species, those better able to compete for raw material and replicate, dominated the resulting brew of RNA. Further, different RNA species combined together to form new versions of RNA - the molecules evolved - with more fit molecules being selected for."

While this is almost certainly not how life started on this planet, this is a nice proof of concept that more complex chemical structures can build themselves from simpler components.

Shawn Boonstra is a Slimy Liar for Jesus

2009-01-08T16:54:00.000-08:00

I confess. I couldn't leave well enough alone. The Out of Thin Air DVD was sitting on my TV and I watched the remaining 3 sessions during dinner last night. Not much to report. Just the expected quote-mining, logical fallacies and lies. And of course Goodwin's Law was confirmed. Dr. Timothy Standish was less slimy and more knowledgeable, but did nothing to stop Boonstra's lying. Nothing new was presented as I expected, and now I'm done with it.

It's Hard Out There for a Christian

2009-01-06T15:56:00.000-08:00

"Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say
all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad,
because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they
persecuted the prophets who were before you." Matthew 5:11-12

I have to admit I'm a sucker for Top 10 Lists and Countdowns, so of
course I couldn't let this list of the Top Ten Instances of Christian
Bashing in America, 2008 pass without comment. The list includes the
YouTube video "Prop 8 The Musical" where Jack Black plays Jesus,
Crackergate and Barack Obama defaming Christianity by not being
'Christian enough'.

In a country that won't elect an atheist to high public office, modified
a state's constitution to ban gay marriage, and has a healthy government
funded faith based initiatives program it seem to be a stretch to claim
that Christians are "treated like second-class citizens". Christians
have the majority, hold positions of power and are treated with undue
levels of deference, yet if anyone should want to disagree with them
they claim they are being persecuted or subjected to hate speech. I
guess I can see why Christians are desperate to be persecuted. That is
how they know that they are doing what Jesus wants them too. I just
have no sympathy for them and their over sensitive persecution complex
when it seem like they are the ones doing most of the discrimination.

Happy Monkey

2008-12-25T18:24:00.000-08:00

Since it is Christmas, I'll post a link to a nice godless Christmas article I read.

SDAs in the news again (a follow up)

2008-12-25T18:13:00.000-08:00

I guess the New York Times article that I referenced in an earlier post had a few facts wrong. Maybe the crashing economy isn't driving attendance at churches.

Happy Solstice

2008-12-22T13:49:00.000-08:00

I know I'm a few days late getting this post up, but I was too busy celebrating by building alter shaped mounds of snow along side my driveway to compose anything worthy of the occasion. Now that the time for celebration is past I thought I would stop and ponder the significance of the Winter Solstice.

The winter solstice occurs at the instant when the Sun's position in the sky is at its greatest angular distance on the other side of the equatorial plane from the observer's hemisphere. The seasonal significance of the winter solstice is in the reversal of the gradually lengthening nights and shortening days.

This simple result of orbital physics is marked by festivals celebrating rebirth in the religions of most cultures. The most pervasive and obscene for its displays of materialism is Christmas. Others holidays include: Amaterasu, Beiwe, Deygan and Midvinterblot.

So, while it is easy to get caught up in the hype of parties and shopping and desecrating nativity scenes, we should not forget the true reason for the season. That science has given us the ability to observe, predict and understand the changes in the seasons and that we can move beyond ritualistic appeasements to ill tempered divine figures so that they will cause the spring to come again.

SDAs in the news again

2008-12-15T12:00:00.000-08:00

I noticed another SDA reference in the news this morning. A preacher is finding joy in the suffering of others. A Texas State University study shows that evangelical churches grow when the economy is poor.

“I found it very exciting, and I called up that fellow to tell him so,” said the Rev. Don MacKintosh, a Seventh Day Adventist televangelist in California who contacted Dr. Beckworth a few weeks ago after hearing word of his paper from another preacher. “We need to leverage this moment, because every Christian revival in this country’s history has come off a period of rampant greed and fear. That’s what we’re in today — the time of fear and greed.”

Organized religion is ready and waiting to use the misfortune of others to their own ends. I guess I'd have to agree with Rev. MacKintosh. Greed and fear are religion's most effective tools.

Wow

2008-12-09T11:56:00.000-08:00

First praying over the golden calf in Manhattan and now this? Christians are really confused about their beliefs regarding idol worship. The whole power of prayer thing is getting bizarre as well. Oil streaked foreheads and SUVs on the platform at church. Again I say 'wow' and chuckle to myself.

Blog Roll Love

2008-12-03T19:20:00.000-08:00

I've added a few links to my blog roll recently. I'm really enjoying the Evil God series at Unreasonable Faith. And Debunking Christianity has some serious Bible scholars posting there.

Out of Thin Air [chapter 1]

2008-11-22T15:14:00.000-08:00

I just watched the first sermon of the Out of Thin Air presentation. Not surprisingly, I was unimpressed and unsurprised at the content. There was actually very little content. The main points I was able to pick up are:
- life is meaningless without god to give us purpose.
- Darwin is wrong because evolution does not account for the origin of life.

There is nothing new to see here. We all know that life's purpose is what you choose for it to be. And the theory of evolution does not pretend to describe the origin of live. Not that the origin of life is a fruitless area of study. These standard talking points were accompanied by the usual anti-intellectual lies. As we learn more the theory of evolution is weakened. Louis Pasture proved that life cannot originate from non-life. These are either the result of willful ignorance or deliberate prevarication.

The thing that bothered me the most was a quote from George Wald. The only place I could find the quote online was from conservapedia. Which means authenticity is questionable.

When it comes to the origin of life, we have only two possibilities as to how life arose. One is spontaneous generation arising to evolution; the other is a supernatural creative act of God. There is no third possibility...Spontaneous generation was scientifically disproved one hundred years ago by Louis Pasteur, Spellanzani, Reddy and others. That leads us scientifically to only one possible conclusion -- that life arose as a supernatural creative act of God...I will not accept that philosophically because I do not want to believe in God. Therefore, I choose to believe in that which I know is scientifically impossible, spontaneous generation arising to evolution." - Scientific American, August, 1954.

Assuming this is even an accurate quote, and I have my doubts since Wald has been quote mined in other fora. There are even several permutations of the quote sourced to the same article in Scientific American in on the conservapedia page. That is enough to convince me that some one has messed with Wald's words. This could ultimately be resolved by looking up the article. But as I said in my last post, one man's opinion is inconsequential to the theory of evolution. It doesn't matter if he won the 1967 Nobel Prize for Medicine. But just to give Wald the benefit of the doubt, the article he wrote for Scientific American in 1954 also includes this passage:

When one has no means of estimating the probability beforehand, it must be determined by counting the fraction of successes in a large number of trials.

Our everyday concept of what is impossible, possible or certain derives from our experience: the number of trials that may be encompassed within the space of a human lifetime, or at most within recorded human history. In this colloquial, practical sense I concede the spontaneous origin of life to be "impossible." It is impossible as we judge events in the scale of human experience.

We shall see that this is not a very meaningful concession; For one thing, the time with which our problem is concerned is geological time, and the whole extent of human history is trivial in the balance.

In other words the common conception of what is impossible is different from what can be understood scientifically. Based on this quote it would seem that Wald is not arguing for life originating spontaneously despite the evidence, but that the fact that there is life means that it must have happened at least once.

Here I Go Again

2008-11-19T15:26:00.000-08:00

I think I managed to start myself out on an intellectually frustrating path again this week. I apparently didn't suffer enough when reading those books on biblical astronomy. Anyway, here is the story.

An Adventist co-worker and Walla Walla classmate, sent around a snarky email comment on a recent news article regarding the recent sequencing of the kangaroo genome. He is aware of my pro-science and pro-reality worldview, but copied me because he thought it would be hypocritical not to which I appreciate. I briefly replied, to question him on a few of the more egregious distortions. I was curious to see what he really thought and what was for the sake of humor. Turns out he has just watched a presentation by Shawn Boonstra called Out of Thin Air. I remember hearing about this when it came out as a satellite broadcast last fall. I remember wanting to avoid it then because I knew I'd get too riled up. I'd don't care for Boonstra's style and I was quite certain that the content would be hopelessly twisted if it even bothered to contain anything factual. Now my friend has kindly offered me the opportunity to borrow the video. I've accepted the offer because, I'd hope for similar open-mindedness should the opportunity arise to suggest some source of information to him. If not I at least have the high ground of looking at the opposite position, and knowing the dissenters will refuse to do so honestly.

From the little bit of a description I have of the program, it seems that one of the main points will be quotes from

early evolution scientists where they blatantly stated that the facts didn't support evolution, but the were choosing to not believe in God and thus had to come up with something else.

I'm not sure who this is attributed to and am skeptical about the authenticity. Fortunately, the who and what is completely irrelevant. The alleged "early evolution scientists" are not prophets. The theory of evolution stands on its own merits based on hard evidence. Science has moved on and improved on the research of the "early evolution scientists." Finding a few quotes that make creationists feel good won't change reality.

Anyway, that is the preview. Look for a report coming in next week or two.

Happy Atheists?

2008-11-11T08:26:00.000-08:00

I didn't want to end my mornings blogging on a negative note, so I thought I'd post a link to this Slate article that I really enjoyed. It deals with a study that seems to indicate that American Christians are nicer than American atheists. This didn't sound quite right to me, but fortunately the author doesn't stop there.

He refers to Phil Zuckerman's research that shows the most godless societies are safest and most progressive. The difference is the community. In a mostly irreligious community atheists are not the denigrated minority. This could explain the results of the US study.

Expelled Still Giving Me a Headache

2008-11-11T08:11:00.000-08:00

I thought that I'd probably heard that last of Expelled. The DVD release was nothing more than a rumor, and I'd pretty much decided that I wouldn't have to watch it. Then one of Lori's old teachers saw it and put up a blog. Now I'm all worked up about it again.

I don't mind people having their opinions, but the ignorance and arrogance is disturbing. I have to say that Lori has been very cool in attempting to have a rational discussion with this guy. She sent him a link to expelled exposed. To his credit he at least clicked the link. He even seemingly read as far as the first half of the first paragraph. At that point he seemed unable to deal with the term 'anti-science propaganda' and gave up.

This is someone form Lori's past, so I don't feel like getting directly involved in the discussion. It has been amazing to see Lori exposing the errors in his thinking though. She isn't putting up with any of his distortions. Sadly, this guy is a text book true believer, so I doubt rational discussion will last too long.

The Clock of the Heavens [book report]

2008-11-01T12:08:00.000-07:00

I finally made it through my second Steven E. Behrmann Book masochist that I am. So, I thought I'd recap just a little . The Clock of the Heavens is about using the stars and planets to find dates for some major biblical events. I will give him credit for admitting to the tenuous nature of the dates he proposes.

Again, we want to give a word of caution. Such data connot be considered unassailable or proof worthy. But at worst, such a fortuitous configuration in the sky at the assumed time of Christ's death cannot be considered less than incredibly amazing!

In the end it boils down to more post hoc rationalization. He ignores heavenly bodies that were unknown before modern times, but is careful to point out the inaccuracy of modern secular astrology due to precession of the earth's poles which makes the dates of the horoscopes not align with their constellations.

In fact, his debunking of astrology begins by applying arguments that are well know to skeptics.
1. Thousands of people are born every day and have very different destinies.
2. Twins can be very different in personality.
3. Predictions made are very vague and deal with common occurrences.
However, he refuses to employ his true 'science' of biblical astro-chronology make predictions.

It will naturally be a temptation for the inordinately curious to consider if the future can be unveiled by a study of the heavens. For instance, should we search for confirmation of the time of Christ's return? I strongly recommend that no such theories be suggested or promoted. . . . God has never given us permission to rely on such methods.

This is not science if it can't be used to make predictions.

The first half of the book deals with dating events of Jesus' ministry, his birth and his death. The second half deals with the more distant topics of dating the flood of Noah, the fall of man, creation, and then tries to justify the dating techniques with a known significant date - 22 Oct. 1844.

Here is a sample of the positions of various heavenly bodies on the evening of the great disappointment:

First of all we find the sun between the constellations, Libra, the Scales, and Virgo, the Virgin. Because of the timing of this configuration, the sun already resides it he area of the heavens known for centuries as being associated with the Day of Atonement and biblical seventh month.

There are several mansions and decans in the constellations of Libra and Virgo. However, the sun on this particular date is positioned at the foot of the woman. What is interesting is that the sun is at the very place indicated in the lunar mansions as 'Caphir, the atonement.'

My overall opinion is that is sounds a little forced.

Lucy Visit

2008-10-28T16:55:00.000-07:00

I stopped by the Pacific Science Center on Friday to see the Lucy exhibit. I've got to say that it was very cool. The majority of the display was dealing with Ethiopian history and culture, but I'd expected that based on some other reports I'd read from the last stop of the exhibit tour. I'm probably as much a history nerd as I am a biology nerd, so I enjoyed the whole experience. I really wanted to have pictures, but there was no photography allowed. The Lucy fossils even had a full time guard.

The exhibit was really well done. There was information on how fossils are formed, how they are dated and how they are excavated and reconstructed. There was even enough hands-on touch-and-feel stuff to almost entertain the boy while I read every display. (Lori was super nice and kept him out of trouble so I could take my time.) The part I liked best (other than Lucy) was the progression of reconstructed skull casts showing all the known possible human ancestors. Another thing I enjoyed was the family trees comparing the state of knowledge in the early '70s when Lucy was discovered with what is known now. Huge progress has been made in our understanding of our evolutionary heritage.

Nissan Electric Car in 2010

2008-10-20T15:14:00.000-07:00

Nissan is reported to be releasing a 5 seat sedan all electric vehicle in 2010. The same time frame as the Chevy Volt. Nothing is solid yet on range, price or performance, but the plan is for this to be a practical car as apposed to the Tesla Roadster. I'm glad that a few major manufacturers are stepping up. Gasoline powered vehicles are a dead end. Honda and Toyota may have plug-in hybrids coming out around this same time. I'm thinking that 2010 is about the time I'll be in the market for a new car. We'll have to see if I'm brave enough to be an early adopter.

The Torah of the Heavens [A Book Report]

2008-10-16T16:21:00.000-07:00

This week I've been reading The Torah of the Heavens by Steven E. Behrmann, or as I've always known him - Uncle Steve. Despite the family connection and common religious background, this book has exposed me to something I'd never been aware of before. Apparently the constellations in the night sky tell the story of God's plan of redemption and Jesus' death on the cross to save us from our sins. Also, this is scientifically proven fact. The starting point for this line of thought is Psalms 19.

1 The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
2 Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they display knowledge.

From here the reader is told that each constellation of the zodiac together with its individual stars and sub-constellations is a visual summary of the great controversy. This is not to be confused with astrology which is " evil …" Maybe that is why this was all new information to me. Adventism shies away from divination in any form. This 'gospel in the stars' is probably not mainstream because of the apparent similarity to astrology.

I did a little outside reading and this is what I came up with on Biblical Astronomy

"The mission of Biblical Astronomy is to study and research signs in the heavens that are relevant to Biblical prophecy and make the research available for others to study and consider. In the next few years, there are many rare celestial events which clearly portray the "Great Tribulation" written of in the Holy Scriptures. If the events written of in the prophecies concerning the end times from the Holy Scriptures, particularly "Jacob's Trouble", unfold at this time, remains to be seen. Though earthly events seem to be heading rapidly in that direction."

It seems to me to be a bizarre mixture of Judeo-Christian prophecy myths and astrology. The names of the starts and the constellations are considered to have actual meaning in and of themselves. For example Virgo is literally the virgin that will bring forth a child. Or if a star has a name that can be translated as 'branch' that is actually a astral representation of Jesus himself, by reference to biblical imagery. I'm not real sharp on astrology but this seems like a simple remapping of symbols to have an apocalyptic Christian meaning rather than the standard astrological meanings.

Then there are all of the post hoc explanations rationalizations. Remember, biblical astronomy asserts that a star's or constellation's name has important meaning. If that stars modern name fits the preconceived notion (such as branch = Jesus) the ancient truth has been preserved. However, if the modern name makes an analogy difficult, that means that "they have been blurred and greatly adulterated by the heathen of every culture over the centuries." There is conveniently no way to lose if people agree to play that game. Never mind that the constellations are completely arbitrary patterns and differ from culture to culture. There is no truth about the future of humanity that can be discerned by all this flailing to interpret the archaic pictures in the stars.

One closing point from a paragraph of the book:

In many cases the formations of the stars do not in any way look like the person, animal or object they represent. But the symbol was intended to relay a message, and this message should not be lost or compromised. Unfortunately, these pictures are usually very poorly expressed, and it greatly damages the glorious figuratism intended. The artwork available is either crude, or even immoral, and is drawn largely fro the fanciful realm of astrology. This, unfortunately, is all we have. Therefore we are doing the best we can in what is included in this book, but recognize that the illustartions are significantly inaccurate to the task. The best illustrations should be formed in one's own mind, and this is exactly how God probably intended it in the first place.

That's right. The arrangement stars themselves don't actually look like the symbols historically assigned to them. You have to use the traditional drawings to know what they are supposed to look like. And some of those might have boobies (oh noes !!11!!!1) in them so they won't be shown in this good Christian book. (remember Christians are scared of boobies, vaginae, and women in general) It is much better if you just imagine you can see what you are supposed to see.

From what I've learned about this 'Biblical Astronomy' I'm wishing I had Christopher Hitchens' gift of blistering insult. The whole affair is completely blind and brain-dead.

Lucy!!

2008-10-07T16:57:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday (Oct. 4) the Lucy Exhibit opened at the Pacific Science Center in Seattle. This is the first west coast exhibition of Lucy

the oldest, most complete, and best preserved adult fossil of any erect-walking human ancestor. The 1974 discovery of this famous 3.2 million-year-old hominid yielded a new species, Australopithecus afarensis, and continues to have a major impact on the scientific understanding of our human origins. Through additional artifacts spanning over 200,000 years visitors will also experience Ethiopia, Lucy's homeland. With eight locales on the World Heritage List, Ethiopia is rich in history and culture and it holds a unique position in the study of paleoanthropology.

Lori said she is taking me to the exhibit for my birthday present. I could not be more excited. We decided not to go opening weekend, but I hope we'll get there soon. There was some controversy in the scientific community over exhibiting these fossils. Some people thought they were just too valuable to risk transporting them. I can understand that, but since they are here I glad I'll get to pay her a visit. A huge positive side to the exhibition is the amazing opportunity for science education. The Seattle PI has been running a series of articles, and there is a lecture series sponsored by the Science Center and KCTS/9, the local Public Broadcasting Station, are scheduled. This event promotes good science and displays the facts of human evolution. I'm hoping that by visiting the display I'll have a good conversation starter. Maybe evolution will be harder to deny when the evidence is in full view just down the street.

__________________________________________

Cool it looks like my blog has been spammed by Answers in Genesis. (10/9/08)

Ron Numbers about Palin

2008-10-02T16:47:00.000-07:00

Since Tim clued me in about Ron Numbers, I've been keeping an eye out for mention of him. And here on the day for the Vice-Presidential debate, he has posted a nice article about Sarah Palin's creationism. As much as I enjoy some inflammatory blogs and heated discussion, I think Ron Numbers uses an approach that is much more practical in real life. If you are actually hoping to persuade someone to examine your position with an open mind, you probably need to leave off the mocking, and ranting. Even if it is entertaining.

A Fine Example of Christian Love

2008-10-01T16:47:00.000-07:00

My wife has a great job where she gets to have stimulating conversations with a diverse range of people. Earlier this week she a talked with two of her clients who are highly educated public health professionals. With elections fast approaching (Washington State governor and US President) their conversation was about politics and the various candidates positions on funding for fundamental services like public health and education. As seems to be common among the highly educated, the wife's clients supported the Democratic candidate.

I try to avoid political discussions here, but part of Lori's conversation with her client intersected with some religiously motivated events that have been lighting up the blogs the last few days. I like to write about things that have a personal connection and this was it.

Lori's client has family in a swing state. They are also Democratic voters. During the previous week in this swing state there was included with the daily newspaper a DVD of violent anti-Muslim propaganda. It also made the outrageous and now tiresomely common far right assertion that Barack Obama is a Muslim. The clients family was very upset and spent a great deal of time on the phone with the newspaper trying to find out who had paid for this documentary. Turns out it was sent out by something called the Clarion Fund. A group that supports McCain, but whose source of funding is still not clear.

But it gets better. It seems this vile little movie is allegedly spawning violent reaction against Muslims. Some Christians, filled with the love of Jesus, gassed the daycare of a mosque. I know this is painting with broad strokes, but this is what happens with religion that embraces ignorance. These people are terrified of anything that is different from their narrow view of the world.

Star Trek Evangelism

2008-09-27T11:58:00.000-07:00

I used to be a pretty big Star Trek Fan. Maybe I still am, I just haven't watched for awhile. Now I find that there is a growing Christian movement among the Klingons. I didn't know that Christianity had that kind of interplanetary appeal. I may need to reconsider.

A Proper Skeptical Attitude

2008-09-25T17:24:00.000-07:00

I've fallen a little behind on my Skeptics Guide to the Universe podcasts. This morning I was listening to the Aug 26 episode with the Richard Saunders interview. This interview reminded me of something really important about being a skeptic. It is important to have the right attitude.

Skepticism is about a positive state of mind. It is about curiosity and open mindedness. It is about excitement and joy in the way the world works. I'd guess that most people don't see skeptics that way. I think that skeptics have a reputation for being fun wreckers. Boring, analytical, joyless and always contrary. I'm sure that some people that claim to be skeptics have earned this reputation. But my idea of skepticism is different. For me being skeptical means when you hear a claim that sounds fantastical, you obviously have doubts, but you don't stop there. You say, 'How cool would it be if that were true?' Then you ask for the data. You look at the evidence. Have your doubts, but don't have your mind made up. Be excited for the chance to learn something new and unexpected.

That said, I think one of the reasons that skeptics sometimes get a bad rap is that they often feel isolated and out-numbered. When you are the lone rational voice, it is important to be clear and unambiguous. People don't like to have their irrational beliefs questioned, so they label any well reasoned opposition as harsh. I'm not sure that reaction can be helped. So, be positive, curious, and open minded, but strongly defend the position that the evidence supports. That is being a skeptic.

Ron Numbers

2008-09-19T15:38:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, Tim sent me a link to a Ron Numbers interview. I actually hadn't heard of Ron Numbers before. Tim explains:

Ron Numbers, who is a former Adventist and now a big name in
history and philosophy of science at the University of Wisconsin at
Madison. He has written a book on EGW that got him kicked out of LLU
then more recently the major work on the history of creationism. Both really
good. I enjoyed them anyway. His EGW book was just re-issued, and I
found this interview referenced in the context of a shorter one he gave
Spectrum recently.

The interview is excellent, mostly focusing on creationism in the U.S. but mentioning this EG White book as well. I may have to add that book to my list.

I was reminded of the interview when PZ posted that Ron Numbers was speaking tonight.

Matters of Church and State (Reposted with Permission)

2008-09-11T20:10:00.000-07:00

Lori has an awesome post up on her myspace page. I wanted to repost it here in hopes of a wider distribution.

As feeble as my understanding of how the government and politics work, I am desperately trying to educate myself, especially in the issues that directly influence and affect me and my family. There is one classic buzz-phrase that I have been acquainted with my whole life, and that is, "Separation between church and state". As a kid, this term was used to entice fear of the impending Sunday laws...a time when the government would tell us when we had to go to church and, essentially, if we didn't abide, we'd be hunted down and....

During the past year I have mostly shed the remaining charred skin of those beliefs and cleaned up my belief system. However, the phrase "Separation between church of state" still grabs my attention, but for a differently reason now. Instead of fearing that the "correct Sabbath", ( the Seventh Day Adventist belief of worshiping on Saturday, a distinct and core value and that sets them apart and makes them feel that they are Biblically "correct" and contain more "truth" than other religions ) was going to be the end of my time on earth, I now am interested in protecting myself from the conservative, fundamental Christian sect that wants to make their religious views and values into law.

Frightening, isn't it? I mean, if you tend to be sensitive to my attacks on fundamentalism, just step back and try to put yourself into a a free thinker, liberal, or non-religious persons' shoes. What if the government wanted to make animal sacrifice a required family practice? Or, circumcision of women imposed on all baby girls? Radical, yes, but taking away a young rape victim's right to end a pregnancy when she is incapable of caring for a child because someone believes that her act of an abortion is "sin" is also disturbing. In the case of government, choice is always best, no matter what YOU believe.
In the book Parenting Beyond Belief-- On Raising Ethical, Caring Kids Without Religion, edited by Dale McGowan, Dr. Ed Buckner makes 4 very strong points as to the logic behind the Separation of Church and State.

1.) "Not all U.S. Citizens hold the same opinions on religion and on imporatant matters related to religion (like whether there is a God and, if so, what god's nature is; or, how or when or whether to worship God; or what God says to us about how to live). Everyone thinks her or she is right when it comes to relgion. But, not all citizens have the same beliefs on the important religious matters."

2.) "Human judgement is imprefect. For Cathlolics, the Popes is sometimes considered an exception with regard to officala matters of doctrine, but even Catholics, like all the rest of us, don't believe that human voters and human legeslators always know what God wants us to do. The Bible is quite clear on this point: "Judge not, that ye be not judged" (Mt 7:1) Most other books held sacred by followers of different religions also make this clear. The question is not whether God's judgement is perfect--only whether man's is. "

3.) " Relgious truth cannot be determined by votes or by force. In the United States, neither a majority of citizens nor the government acting on the majority's behalf can make relgious decisions for individuals. Anyone who might disagree with this idea should consider this question: If a nationwide vote were taken this fall, and 99 percent of U.S. voters disagreed with you on a religious matter, would that change your mind? If 99 percent of the citizens wanted this country to adopt Catholicism or Methodidsm or Islam or atheism (***though please note that atheism is NOT a relgion***) as the "Right" relgious point of view, would you accept ther decision? Woud that convince you? And it's not just the voting, it's the law itself, the power of government, in question here. One need only consider the poor guy in Afghanistan who was almost convicted and put to death in 2006 for the "crime" of chaning his religious beliefs. "

4.) " Freedom, especially religious liberty, is worth having and protecting."

To touch on a side issue, it is for these reasons that teaching Creationism, or excuse me, Intelligent Design, in public schools is kind of against our country's idea of keeping religion out of schools. Creation is not a science based theory. It is a folk myth taken from the modern religion of Christianity. If that makes you uncomfortable, it is probably because this is a religious issue, and a core religious believe to conservative Christians, making my point about it being a religious and not belonging in the classroom, especially the science classroom very strong.

When the elections roll around, though we are given so few options, and voting for someone requires a leap of faith in their character, please consider what makes us free, not what makes us more moral by someone else's standards. You can still have your morals and be free. But, taking away freedom is not a very moral thing to do.

An Unfamiliar Side of the Discovery Institute

2008-09-09T15:22:00.000-07:00

I'm an electrical engineer not a scientist. So, while I'm not overly qualified to argue evolution and cosmology, I try to do some civic duty by cultivating an interest in green energy. What specifically interests me is solar power and electric/plug-in hybrid vehicles. Naturally this article in the Seattle PI caught my attention. What I wasn't prepared for was the link to the Discovery Institute. (Seems I'm getting caught off guard a lot lately.) I'd never snooped around the DI site before. I thought I knew enough from their involvement in the Intelligent Design garbage. Now I'm worried that they are going to be putting some unscientific taint on conservationism. On the other hand they are based in Seattle, and there is the slightest chance that the Cascadia Center is legit. I'm skeptical, but I'll have to do some more looking around.

Evolution Denial Close to Home

2008-09-08T16:56:00.000-07:00

Friday evening my wife and I joined our regular group of friends for dinner. This a is pretty standard weekend arrangement for us. I try not to be very vocal about political issues, because I don't spend the time to be well informed on everything. One buddy of mine does tend to pay more attention than I do, and he usually is my polar opposite in view point. We hadn't talked since the RNC, so I wanted to get his take on the Sarah Palin speech. I expressed my opinion that she gave a good speech and seemed charismatic enough, but her stance on creationism, religion and abortion were troubling to me. All our friends are at least nominally Christian, so I qualified my objection to creationism as being required in science class. (People can believe creationism privately, but it isn't science.

This is where the stories gets good.

My buddy comes back with a response that included "the religion of Darwinism" and "absolutely no evidence for creationism or Darwinism" and "after 150 years there are no transitional fossils." I was halfway through a can of Joose, so my social filters weren't at their normally restrictive levels and I laughed out loud. This may not have been an appropriate response, though I'm still not sure if he was sincere or playing for a laugh. It was a perfect example of Poe's Law. In a matter of seconds he hit the three main bullet points of the uninformed evolution deniers. I'm used to seeing these kinds of comments shredded on various online discussions, but I was totally unprepared to encounter them in person. Sadly, I'm thinking that he was sincere and parroting the talking points of creationism. I must admit that is much easier than having to question and support your beliefs.

I was ready to stage an intervention right there, but I was out numbered. The conversation moved on to strollers and hardwood flooring. I'm not sure exactly what to do next, but I can't let him off the hook that easily. Maybe I should send him a link to the child theory of development. At least next time this comes up (and I think I'll make sure it does) I won't be shocked into laughter.

I think the best thing to do is to come to some sort of agreement with him. If he really is past being open to evidence, I won't try to discuss it with him. I'll have to move on to someone who has a hope of an open mind. Until then I'll keep hoping he is open to evidence.

Just as a matter of reference a few links:
Talk Origins Response
Whale Evolution
Hominid Fossils
Human Ancestry

Answered Prayer at the DNC?

2008-08-28T16:30:00.000-07:00

I need to post a quick follow up on the prayer for rain at the Democratic Convention. It looks like God's aim was a little off. No rain, but some fire sprinklers malfunctioned and soaked the Fox News press box. Maybe God isn't a conservative after all.

New Website

2008-08-22T17:16:00.000-07:00

In my reading this week I came across a great website. Edger is a student initiative run through the Center for Inquiry.

Edger presents hard-hitting and reasoned news, views, and event promotion on issues pertaining to secularism, atheism, science, humanism, and the cosmos, and actively promotes and celebrates international freethought activism. Written in a youthful tone, but mature in content, Edger is sure to be a driving force in the new intellectual enlightenment"

I haven't completely explored the whole thing yet, but there is lots of commentary on current events, news items and opinion pieces. I especially like the Events all around the World sidebar, listing upcoming events and activities. This is a wonderful presentation of freethought, secularism and skepticism that really breaks out of the nerdy stereotype. I think this would be the first place I'd send some one looking for more information on a godless world view. It seems more accessible than some more strictly scientific based sites. I'm adding Edger to my list of favorites.

Fear the Flames

2008-08-13T16:25:00.000-07:00

This last weekend I attended my first non-Christian funeral. It was for a kid in his 20's that died in a tragic accident. I had never met him, but was an acquaintance of his mother. Even though I didn't know the person it was a horrible loss and it did affect me emotionally. I can be slightly emotional and being a parent has accentuated that. At another level though I was curious how non-religious people would conduct the ceremony.

The ceremony turned out to be not that exotic. There were lots of wiccans involved, so I had imagined more ritual and pageantry. One thing I did find very nice was all the time spent telling stories. Stories about how one life impacts and brings happiness to another. In that sense it was a celebration of the person that was gone. I thought there was a lot of emphasis on how the happy memories could help deal with the crushing loss felt by those who knew him. There was grief and laughter. It was sad and funny. It felt therapeutic.

For me this was a contract to a lot of Christian services that I've attended. True there are often segments of sharing and memories, and rarely totally drab and dreary affairs. However, there is a element of denial at Christian funeral. The hollow reassurances that 'this is not the end' and 'he's going to a better place'. This doesn't seem healthy in working through the process of grief. There is also something darker. An unspoken implications that you had better appease the sky daddy so that you too can go to that better place. Rather than celebrate the a life and a memory, you leave burdened with guilt, fearing death and more firmly in religion's grip. Just the way it was designed to work.

While I was working through my thoughts on the topic of death this beautiful essay on death and the soul was posted by Danio over at pharyngula. I remember the fear of death was the hardest thing for me to deal with when I was coming to terms with my atheism. I already knew I didn't believe in any gods, but I didn't like what that left me with. There is so much I want to learn to see to experience to express. Life seems too short. Eventually I reached a level of acceptance, expressed well in this quote by Mark Twain:

"I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it."

What's more, the idea of immortality may seem neat on the surface, but it doesn't hold up to further scrutiny. Eternity is a long time. It is appealing to think about having time to explore all your interests, but really eventually the boredom would drive you insane. What will you do after you've skied every mountain in the universe a billion times, or had sex with every other life form a couple or trillion times? What will you do after you've experienced every possible thing so many times that you'd rather die than do any of them again, but you can't because you have eternal life? Not so appealing when you think about it that way.

So, I've come to accept that life is short and we are lucky just to be alive considering all the possible people that never did live. I do not really fear my own death other than the possibility of suffering, but I do fear the death of those who are close to me. My family and friends. I don't want to lose them. Unfortunately that is a fact of life, but it sure is better than eternal hell.

Prayer Power?

2008-08-08T16:59:00.000-07:00

So a few people have pointed out a news story to me. It looks like Focus on the Family wants to wreck Obama's speak at the Democratic National Convention. They are encouraging people to pray for rain since the event will be held outside. This got me to thinking about the power of prayer.

I've come to the conclusion that even the True Believers and Focus on the Family don't really think prayer is worth much. A little research tells me that afternoon rain showers an pretty normal for Denver in the summer. They are just playing the odds. The expected rain falls at some point during the day in question and they get to shout, "Look our prayers work, God hates Barak Obama."

Now if they really had faith in the power of prayer shouldn't they pray for Obama to just loose the election. Focus on the Family really wanted Mike Huckabee to win, but that already didn't work out. Were they praying for his campaign or not? Or, if what they are really after in a demonstration of their god's power, why not have him swallowed up by the earth or eaten by a swarm of bears? You know, something that isn't very probable.

And really, if prayer is so potent, couldn't they be focusing on the big picture a little better? What about genocide in Darfur? African drought and the resulting starvation? No, these petty and immoral nut jobs would rather have their jealous god piss on the democrats shoes.

Book Report:: There is a God by Anthony Flew

2008-07-27T11:21:00.000-07:00

I first heard of There is a God from a post on pharyngula when the book first came out last fall. The original post was followed by a few others. I'd never heard of Anthony Flew and the consensus of opinion was that he was an aging philosopher who was being manipulated by an unscrupulous fundamentalist nut job - coauthor Roy Varghese (see links for post and interviews). I I read PZ's posts, figured the book wasn't worth my time and carried on with out a further thought. Then, my parents mentioned that they'd read the book and asked if I'd take a look at it.

At first I thought I'd just breeze through it and then disregard it based on the reviews I'd already seen, but after further consideration I realized that wasn't a good skeptical approach. To reject the book before even considering it would be as dogmatic as any fundamentalist. So instead I read it carefully and took pages of notes for the purpose of writing a little book report.

First off Anthony Flew was a philosopher. I'm completely unqualified to read and understand philosophy, so I'm sure I missed some subtleties. On the other hand the book was written for a general audience so hopefully what I was able to understand most of what was going on.

Preface:
The preface was written by Roy Varghese. In my opinion he overstates Flew's significance. Yes, he was an atheist philosopher for a long time and wrote lots of books. He wrote more books than Bertrand Russell. Not a strong argument to my mind. He then proceeds to quote mine Stephen Hawking, Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris and uses those distortions question the quality of the reasoning employed by the "new atheists". He wraps up with two familiar assertions: Einstein believed in God and atheism is a religion. Of course what Einstein believed about a god is irrelevant. He had no special ability or information to base his belief on. And atheism is a religion like baldness is a hair style.

Section 1:
The first three chapters of the book deal with Flew's career and antitheological writings. He chooses to highlight three problems for theists. 1) How is god to be identified 2) How positive terms can be applied to god and 3) The problem of evil. He also asserts that the burden of proof for a deity is on the one making the positive claim - that there is a god. The theists should be the ones supplying evidence of god. Not expecting everyone to believe until proven otherwise. This is all pretty reasonable. Then things start to get a little off track. He finishes the section with a several familiar arguments against a naturalistic universe. DNA is complex therefore god. Monkeys with typewriters trying to duplicate Shakespeare. These are a result of flawed methods or poor understanding of biology.

Overall I found the first section rather dull. Lots of book titles and philosophical name dropping. No real discussions or arguments to be found.

Section 2:
Chapters 4-10 contain the arguments for theistic belief. They are built around "three dimensions of nature that point to god". These dimensions are 1) nature obeys laws 2) life exists and 3) there is something rather than nothing.

Flew begins by noting that the universe appears to obey laws, and claims that this requires an author of those laws. Related is that the universe and the laws of nature seem fine tuned for the kind of life we see in the universe. This is unconvincing. The fine tuning argument is dealt with nicely in this quote by Douglas Adams.

. . imagine a puddle waking up one morning and thinking, 'This is an interesting world I find myself in, an interesting hole I find myself in, fits me rather neatly, doesn't it? In fact it fits me staggeringly well, must have been made to have me in it!' This is such a powerful idea that as the sun rises in the sky and the air heats up and as, gradually, the puddle gets smaller and smaller, it's still frantically hanging on to the notion that everything's going to be alright, because this world was meant to have him in it, was built to have him in it; so the moment he disappears catches him rather by surprise. I think this may be something we need to be on the watch out for.

From the 'fine tuning' issue Flew moves to abiogenisis. This is where the god of the gaps is in full force. His claim is that since science as yet has not developed a good theory for the origin of life, it must have been god that started it all. There is no evidence for this position and science is not static. It is impossible to predict the future of science, but odds are on science to fill the gap and force theist to find another gap for god to fill.

Finally we get to the question of why there is something rather than nothing. The discussion here is essentially personal incredulity. The origin of the universe may always be a mystery. There are ideas like quantum vacuums and zero net energy. But those don't don't seem like satisfactory explanations to Flew. He doesn't find it compelling or he doesn't understand it. This doesn't make it wrong. Since this is a place where science hasn't come to definite conclusions, Flew says that makes it a philosophical problem rather than a scientific one. I think that is a bunch of garbage. Philosophers can sit around all day and wonder about hard questions, but they won't gather any data to answer those questions without doing science.

From here the rest of the book is lots of philosophical talk that sort of didn't mean anything to me.

Overall there was nothing new in this book that I hadn't seen before. A few weak god of the gaps arguments, and a bit philosophical hand waving. Not the kind of thing you'd hope for in a book that is supposed to make a convincing stand for the existence of god. What would be convincing for me might be some physical evidence or hypothesized mechanisms for how a god could answer the questions posed in the book.

Crackergate Wrap Up

2008-07-25T17:44:00.000-07:00

This was just to good to not repost on my own blog. The cracker has been desecrated.

Recent Thoughts on Bodybuilding

2008-07-23T18:14:00.001-07:00

It has been almost 3 months since I walked out on stage in my underwear. Most of that time has been filled up with my outside the gym activities. I went to TAM6, and Alaskan cruise. I did my best to support my wife's Triathlon training by baby sitting. And I've traveled a bit for work. The end result is that I haven't spent that much time in the gym. Something like 3 days a week with several interruptions of about 7 days at a time.

The difficulty I've had getting a routine gym schedule going this summer makes me wonder how I managed to put in the time before my show. I'm sure part of it was the motivation of having a goal I was working toward. I've definitely felt a drop off in desire and intensity now that I don't have anything concrete I'm trying to achieve.

I've also not felt the urge to try another show lately. That means another show this fall is not in the cards. I'm sort of thinking that trying to diet twice in the same year isn't the healthiest choice either. I've put on about 28 lbs over the last three months, so I'm weighing in just a hair under 170 these days. I don't know if any of that is quality muscle mass or if I'm just packing on the body fat with the summer ice cream I'm eating.

I'm starting to open my mind to other fitness pursuits, though I won't ever give up on the weight lifting. Seeing Lori do her triathlon was very inspiring as was the whole atmosphere of the event. I could see myself trying that once, but I'm still terrified of the swimming. I'm not the leanest guy around but I don't really float without a wet suit on. I guess we'll see where I end up. For now I'm enjoying shorter workouts and I'm playing around with my training splits. I've split my leg training up so I lift legs twice a week. The idea is that big muscles stimulate the release of more HGH than small muscles. Theoretically the whole physique an benefit from the extra leg work. That might not work for me. My legs are pretty small.

Yeah!!!

2008-07-21T17:55:00.000-07:00

Reverted has a new post. It is about time. He is a really excellent writer. Well worth the read. If he starts getting some comments he might post more often and that would be a good thing.

Atheist Literature in the Waiting Area

2008-07-17T17:21:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I found myself with some time to kill at one of Naval Base Kitsap's pass and ID offices. I have this habit that annoys my wife from time to time, where I find it impossible not to read something that is in front of me while I'm sitting around. I read cereal boxes over and over at breakfast or grocery store ads or Target receipts. So I was sitting in the waiting area flipping through mostly dull Navy magazines, when I discovered a fairly extensive set of American Atheist magazine in the rack. I have no idea who might have been responsible for getting the subscription there I was pretty happy. I'm used to hearing about the challenges of being and atheist in the military, primarily via the FFRF's Free Thought Radio podcast. I know the Northwest is supposed to be a very atheist friendly area, but I was still pleasantly surprised to see "a journal of atheist news and thought" on a military installation.

Spoon Science

2008-07-13T15:26:00.000-07:00

While at TAM6, as part of Dr. Richard Wiseman's presentation, we got to participate in a mass spoon bending trick that was recorded for YouTube. That video is finally up at SpoonScience.com . This was very cool.

Some Links

2008-07-10T17:19:00.000-07:00

I some times feel like the only thing this blog is good for is condensing pharygula down to the parts that are most interesting or entertaining to me. However, I do actually have a life of my own. I even managed to find out that Lucy was coming to the Pacific Science Center before PZ posted it . I just happened to be at the PacSci last weekend, and saw the posters advertising the Lucy exhibit. So, I do do thing other than read blogs.

However, the last few days on pharyngula there has been some stuff too good not to shamelessly steal. I just can't pass up reposting the ongoing uproar over the communion crackers. Some one walked off with a wafer from a mass in Florida. And then PZ's post about it got some people very upset. I must say I'm very entertained by it all.

Not all TV is a loss

2008-06-29T11:43:00.001-07:00

Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson was on the Colbert Report.

Wackos on TV

2008-06-29T11:16:00.000-07:00

It has been hot in Kitsap county this weekend, and my 15 month old has a case of Hand, Foot and Mouth disease. That means I've been home from work and staying inside watching more TV than normal. Unfortunately most day time TV is a vast wasteland of crap. Lori likes to watch Oprah from time to time. In her defense I think she mostly like to see the shows where she gives stuff away to people or helps disabled kids go to summer camp or something.

Well, this last Friday (June 27) we were home and tuned in to see if there was some feel good fluff to watch and instead we find "The Law of Attraction: Real Life Stories".
From the Oprah web site:

Acclaimed author Louise Hay is considered the mother of positive thinking. She is back to continue the conversation about the law of attraction, which is the basis of The Secret. "The law of attraction is that our thinking creates and brings to us whatever we think about," she says. "It's as though every time we think a thought, every time we speak a word, the universe is listening and responding to us."

I'm all for having a positive outlook. If you do, you might even be a little more daring try some new things and improve your life or at least enjoy it more. But this garbage about the universe listening and responding? I'm surprised they didn't try to use quantum mechanics to "prove" the "theory".

And of course if it doesn't work for you they have the ever present Cover-Your-Ass Clause.

So why is it that some people still don't get what they want? Cheryl Richardson, life coach and author, explains that negative energy could be the cause. "I think sometimes it can be exactly what Martha said—that we're asking from a place of desperation," she says. "When you put desperate energy out into the world, you don't get back what it is you want."

Oh, and don't forget the universe gets to decide the right time too

Cheryl says the items on your list may not come to you right away. "I know that there's something called divine timing," she says. "Some of the most amazing things that have occurred to me in my life took longer to occur than I wanted because I needed to grow as a woman. I needed to evolve in some way."

I suppose Oprah does try to do some good things. There is even a chance that she means well. On the other had, she may just care about ratings. This latest episode has just strengthened my belief that she is a menace to society for giving wide spread and uncritical coverage to woo-woo stuff like this.

Local Politics Quicky

2008-06-29T11:05:00.000-07:00

I don't like to spend much time on politics. I tend to be left leaning, but the whole mess is ambiguous for me. It stresses me out. I suppose that mean that I really should spend some more time learning about the topic. I just feel like at some level lots of things boil down to value judgment which means almost every one will disagree about something. Too contentious for me. I don't mind a good argument now and then, but also like the hope of some resolution. So mostly I keep my politics to myself.

Still this I found entertaining. Looks like Washington State republicans are trying to shed the stink of the neocons and theocons by not admitting to being republican on the state ballot.

What is a Skeptic?

2008-06-26T16:23:00.000-07:00

My first post-TAM weekend is approaching, and I'll be getting a chance to hang-out with some of my local friends. I found before leaving for TAM that several had basically no knowledge of what a skeptic is or that there was a skeptics movement. I'm thinking I'll use this blog post to organize some of my thoughts in anticipation of some questions about TAM and skepticism. If any one has suggestions, leave me a comment.

I guess I've already written about TAM, so I'll start on the skepticism. Basically skepticism is about encouraging good science and promoting clear, rational and critical thought. It is about finding the truth based on evidence. Skeptics provide a community service by exposing hoaxes, scams, and purveyors of snake oil. There are plenty of scammers that make money by preying on the uninformed. There are frauds like Uri Geller and Sylvia Brown that exploit loop holes in human brain function to convince people they have supernatural powers.

Then there are things like homeopaths and psychic healers that harm the credulous by telling them they can cure diseases by doing what amounts to absolutely nothing and discouraging the application of science based medicine. The skeptics mission is to resist the dangerous influences of these scammers and fraud. Some skeptics like James Randi expose the liars directly (like outing Peter Popoff on the Johnny Carson show). Others exercise skepticism by educating about science, logic and rational thought.

TAM 6

2008-06-24T15:27:00.000-07:00

I've waited a few days to blog about TAM 6 because I was just too excited to think clearly about it. I've calmed down a little now so I'm going to try to get a few thoughts down before the Blogger outage that is coming up.

I'll admit that leading up the the conference I wondered if two days of lectures were really going to be worth the time and the money I was spending to be there. Then, on Thursday morning on our way up Herb and I passed Jay and Steve Novella from the Skeptics Guide to the Universe in the mens room. I got all giddy and star struck and I knew I was going to have a blast.

Herb and I had bought books by most of the speakers, and our goal was to get autographs and as many photographs as possible. All the celebrity scientist and entertainers (Penn & Teller, Adam Savage, Neil deGrasse Tyson, PZ Myers and of course the host The Amazing James Randi) were so accessible and willing to interact with the fans is was great. Herb and I were even in the right place at the right time for Randi to include us in a mentalism demonstration which was very cool. He didn't clue us in on the trick though.

The next day the lectures started and I was just blown away. I took two notepads full of notes so I might discuss some of the content later. All I can say is that they were all excellent, entertaining, educational, funny. Richard Wiseman showed us the talked about is quirkology videos and had Teller come up and teach the 900 member audience how to do spoon bending. We did a mass spoon bending demonstration that should end up on YouTube sometime.

It was a great time. Now I better go before blogger eats my post.

Anti-Vaxers Reviewed

2008-06-08T15:24:00.000-07:00

My cousin who is an MD, visited us for dinner last night. We were having an interesting conversation about vaccination and the pseudo-science of the anti-vacctionationists. Lori mentioned the case fo Hannah Poling which my cousin was not familiar with. As a happy coincidence, when I pulled up Neurologica this morning I saw Dr. Novella's post about a new review in the NEJM . It gives a nice history of the US government's Vaccine Injury Compensation Program.

The VICP was created by the government to protect companies that produce vaccines from lawsuits. As a result of several lawsuits in the 1970's and 1980's fewer companies were production vital vaccines. The government as a public health issue is clearly interested in having everyone get vaccinated to promote herd immunity . It is also true that vaccines have a certain small percentage of bad out comes. The VICP therefore was intended to provide compensation to those legitimately injured by vaccines. According to the NEJM article, it seems like the justification for some recent payout (including Hannah Poling's) were shaky.

Furthermore, the Hannah Polling case was sensationalized by the media as supporting the bogus link between vaccines and autism. Hannah Poling suffers from encephalopathy that was caused by a mitochondrial enzyme deficit. The result was some cognitive deficits similar to autism. An important point to remember is that autism is a clinical diagnosis. You can't just get a blood test for autism. It is therefore possible to twist the facts in the Poling case because the symptoms resemble those of autism even though they have a completely independent mechanism.

On a related note a good take down of Jim Carrey, Jenny Mcarthy and their so called "Green Vaccine" movement.

More SDAs in the News

2008-06-01T15:56:00.000-07:00

Thanks to PZ I have another edition of Seventh-Day Adventist in the news. Nothing creepy or illegal this time. Just ineffective. I guess they are praying for lower gas prices in groups at gas stations all over. They started in April. I don't think the prices have been heading down since then. But, you know what they say. Nothing fails like prayer.

Clever Lizards

2008-05-17T16:13:00.000-07:00

I know this is a few days late (I was on vacation), but I thought this lizard was fascinating.

On a related note I just finished Sean B. Carrol's "Endless Forms Most Beautiful"(review). I've been working on improving my understanding of biology/genetics. I thought it was an excellent and informative read.

SDA offshoots in the News

2008-05-08T17:57:00.000-07:00

I'm surprised I had never heard of this. It looks like they started out in the Northwest. I'm not sure what is about Seventh Day Adventists that make them easy cult fodder. But the Lord Our Righteousness Church isn't the first.

Looking Ahead

2008-05-05T17:04:00.000-07:00

Well, some Empire Classic photos were posted at bodybuilding.com this weekend. It has taken a few days, but I'm getting over the embarrassment enough to post the link to my brief appearance. In my head I looked much better than I did in the pictures. I may have looked a bit better at the pre-judging as well. I'd had a few meals and some water before those shots.

Now a week removed from the event I'm somewhat uncertain about how I want to proceed. On one hand I have a NPC card that is paid for and good until the end of 2008. Which makes the Nov. 8 show in Olympia tempting. On the other hand is the fact that I was too tall for lightweight and I weighed 141, which is bantam weight, and I still needed to be leaner. I'd look like a beanpole next to a real bantam weight. Which makes taking a year or two off from competition to see if I can add some mass to my back and legs, seem tempting. I think I will get out the measuring tape and get some baseline measurements after vacation. Then come the end of Aug. I'll see if I've made any gains. Then I'll make the call on another show for this year.

Even though I didn't do as well as I'd hoped and I didn't look as good as I could have, I don't regret the experience. This quote popped up on my Google page today and I thought it applied.

The follies which a man regrets most, in his life, are those which he didn't commit when he had the opportunity.
- Helen Rowland

It is Good to Eat

2008-04-28T17:24:00.000-07:00

I have been eating completely with complete lack of restraint for the first time since Xmas, and it has been wonderful. I started with Thai food right after pre-judge. Finished the evening after the night show with Pizza Hut. Then pancakes for breakfast and party food with a beer in the afternoon. The only things I'm haven't indulged in are Mexican food and ice cream.

I know some people were worried that I'd have GI tract difficulties once I started eating regular food again. I was never worried based on talking to other competitors. And true to my instincts I've had nothing but joy in my reckless eating. Jalapeño poppers, BBQ, pizza no problems. The only problem is the fear that I won't be able to stop the binge. I've told myself that I won't worry about my diet much for the next 3 weeks until I'm back from vacation (cruise link), but I don't want to have gained back 30 lbs. either. I'm hoping to stay within 25 lbs of bantam weight until I figure out my future plan. So unless I'm packing on the muscle I need to be in the 170 lb. ball park. I know I've put on at least 15 lbs. since Saturday morning, but I hope the next few come a little slower.

One horribly depressing side effect of eating again. . . My abs are gone already. I'm crushed. I was hoping they'd be around for at least a week or two. Hard to take.

Empire Classic 2008

2008-04-28T17:20:00.000-07:00

Well, it is over. I made it through my first bodybuilding competition. I say 'my first' because I'm certain I will do it again. I'll probably have several posts about the experience as I have time to think and reflect on the whole thing.

First thing I guess would be the facts. I placed 6th in a class of six, also known as last. Hey, somebody had to be at the end. I comfort myself with the knowledge that the judges said it was a tight class outside of the top 2 spots, even though I got straight sixes on my score card. I weighed in at 141 lbs. Making me the tallest and the lightest guy in my class. I asked one judge, Gordon Myco, for some details after pre-judging. He said he could tell I was a first timer, and that I could stand to gain some muscle (my legs are small for sure), work on my posing, and most importantly I need to be leaner.

On the bright side, I got some encouragement from Brad. He said that I'd do well in a show that had a bantam-weigh class. He almost had be convinced to do the Bend OR show this weekend. I also learned a lot. I didn't get enough color on in for the pre-judge, so I was the palest guy up there. I also learned how much weight I can really loose. I lost over 40 lbs. on the diet and water drop. If I'd believed that I could loose that much weight a few months ago, I would have entered an event that had a bantam weight class to start with.

I think I've learned about some of what I did wrong as well. I was stupidly concerned about loosing too much weight. Once I was down to the 154 lb light-weight mark I started tapering off on the cardio work even though I was not lean enough yet. I knew deep down that I still was holding some fat, but I thought that maybe the water drop would bring out enough definition. When I dropped my water I didn't notice much changed at all because of the extra 2% body fat that I should have burned off on the treadmill the last two weeks.

That is why I know I need to do another show. Knowing I didn't do everything I could have done will bug me until I do. I can get into better shape now that I know a little more about what to expect. I can get some help and learn to display myself better. And hopefully I can add some size. Even a little would help. I really need thicker legs and a wider back. I'm under no delusions about my genetic potential. I'm trying to make my body do things that are against its natural inclinations, but I guess that is part of the fun.

I get asked a lot why I would want to be a bodybuilder. Why would I put myself through this. The main thing is I like lifting weights, but after all the years I'd been in they gym I needed a goal for some extra motivation. When I started out I never thought I could be a bodybuilder. I've always been skinny. But I managed to bulk up a little over the years and met a few competitors at the gym and got excited by the idea. I enjoy the challenge of making my body respond and grow beyond its natural inclinations. I like exerting the self control to stick to the diet and the cardio (both of which I hate). I love seeing the results. It is satisfying to know I'm in control of what is going on. I may not have many genetic advantages in this sport, but to me the sport is about what I can make myself do, how I can shape my own body. It doesn't bother me that I might be sharing the stage with guys on steroids and growth hormones. It might mean I'll never get a first place trophy. That doesn't matter. I don't need to compare myself to those guys, I compare myself to where I was before. I've made personal progress. I've learned things. I've experienced things. I've accomplished something that is hard to do. That is why I'm a bodybuilder.

2 Days

2008-04-24T20:31:00.000-07:00

I didn't work today. Just spent some time with the family taking it easy. Went by the gym to get some last minute instructions on my diet and posing. And tomorrow we travel to Spokane.

I'm doing well with my water drop. The day is almost over and I've only had about 20 oz. I did eat broccoli and cucumbers which upped that a little. Tomorrow is 20 oz. maximum.

I'm excited about tomorrow though. I get to eat rice cakes and and jam and sweet potatoes and yam. I weighed in at 150 lbs. this morning so I get to carb up. I'm sick of chicken and broccoli 7 times a day. I know the rice cakes are not that exciting, but it is a change. About 36 hours until I can eat a real meal!

5 days

2008-04-21T17:23:00.000-07:00

Just a quick update. Brad got third place at the Emerald Cup. I thought he'd be second, but it was a really tough class. Rumor is the winners secret weapon was General Tso's chicken. He though the MSG really dried him out. Something did because he looked tight.

My weight to day was closer to 152 lbs. I may get to eat some carbs after all. I'm getting really excited for the show. The week can't go fast enough. My enthusiasm was tempered a bit when I remembered that lots of guys from the Emerald Cup will be coming over for the Empire Classic since it is only a week difference. Could be stiffer competition than I was hoping for. I guess we'll see who shows up.

1 Week

2008-04-20T10:43:00.000-07:00

Just a few more days until I can be a normal person again. My friends and family are pretty much sick of me. Food is such an important part of most social gatherings, and I haven't really participated in that part of it for about 6 weeks now. But more than the food part I've been pretty low energy most evenings. Last night I left early to go to bed. Fortunately I made it through the last social week end before my show, so hopefully I'll be more fun to have around the next time I get to hang out.

Yesterday morning I went to the Emerald Cup, to see Brad my friend/mentor compete. The Emerald Cup is the biggest show in the region and there were lots of quality competitors. Brad has usually owned his weight class at the there, but there were two other guys who were in amazing shape. I haven't heard how he did yet. The expo was great too. I came away with a bag full of free samples. That alone was worth the price of admission.

Seeing a real show again was definitely inspiring. I'm very excited for my own competition now. I managed to pick up a few tips on the posing and get some advice on my last few days of dieting. I came home and worked on a few things with my posing before bed. I felt really good about it for once. I'm usually discouraged after posing. The key may be the lighting. I posed in a different room with less intense direct light from in front.

I'm a little concerned about my weight again. I'm stuck at 153.5 lbs. I'll make my weight class, but I need to drop a little lower if I'm going to carb up. I think the water drop will take care of that. I had some carbs yesterday too, and didn't do cardio so dropping the carbs and some more cardio sessions should get me back on track.

2 Weeks

2008-04-14T17:16:00.000-07:00

Time is getting short now. I think I should be a little more excited, but the diet is tough and the workouts are painful. I'll be a little more excited in a week I think. Or maybe just scared.

I've dropped a little more weight. Now I'm at 155 lbs. It is looking like I'll drop out of the 150s. Something needs to happen. I'm not really happy with how I look in this weeks pictures. I hope I look better on stage. Any way here they are. I'm off to do some posing research. I'm really liking some routines by Milos Sarcev. And since I can't seem to get the hang of a 3/4 back pose I need some new ideas.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Edited 4/15/08

I wanted to add a few more lines to this post now that I have a little more time. I spent the last week laying in my stockpile of distilled water for the flushing phase of the diet. I think I'll be switching over from tap water on Saturday afternoon. The idea is no minerals means nothing to encourage the body to hold the water. I have been drinking between 2 and 3 gallons of water a day. Hopefully when I stop suddenly, the I'll keep excreting the water at a high rate. I've also started supplementing with the dandelion root extract to encourage my body to shed water.

I'm not sure if I'm not sleeping well, fighting a cold or just feeling the lack of carbs in my diet, but I have been dragging so far this week. I carbed up on Sunday for my leg workout (which went well), but since then not much energy in the afternoons. I get through my workouts with some peanut butter, but posing practice afterwards is hard. No excuses though. I'll keep working on the routine.

Looking ahead, I need to figure out when to apply my ProTan, and a few other last minute hygiene things. Not much back hair to worry about, but I'll need help to make sure that is all in order. Then, drop my carbs, drop my water and hit the stage.

Teaching to Learn

2008-04-10T17:50:00.000-07:00

We took Jamie to the zoo Friday as part of the celebration of his first birthday. He has always enjoyed animals and seemed to have a great time. His favorite part was the aquarium where he could get right up next to the glass where the sharks and things passed by really close. It was exciting for me to see him so enthralled. Even though he is young, I'm very motivated to make sure that he has lots of opportunities to experience and enjoy the educational resources we have access to.

My parents and elementary school did a pretty good job of giving me chances to visit zoos, aquariums, and museum despite the fact that we lived pretty far away. I hope Lori and I can do even better for Jamie, since we are located in an area with lots of opportunities. Part of my personal philosophy on parenting, is to do my best to raise a well rounded and educated kid. I think frequent positive experiences with our educational/scientific resources is the best way to produce a love of learning and critical thinking. At this point all Jamie can do is point and squeak at the fish in the tank, but soon he will have questions to be answered. I can't imagine a more fulfilling feeling than seeing him curious about animal at the zoo or an exhibit at the Pacific Science Center; wanting to know more than I or the plaque on the cage can tell him and following up with a trip to the library for more research.

I don't know yet if Jamie will be that kind of kid, but he has the potential. I intend to do my best to encourage that curiosity in him. We'll be back to the zoo before long I'm sure, and to the Seattle Aquarium when the weather get wet again. After he is a little older there is the children's museum, the science center, the EMP and the Museum of Flight maybe we'll get to Sea World some day too. Sounds like fun to me.

3 Weeks

2008-04-08T17:40:00.000-07:00

Once again I'm a few days late with this week's post. I should just make my goal to post on Tuesday then I'd be free from guilt. Any way this weekend was Jamie's 1st birthday, so there were lots of guest staying with us and a party and party food. Saturday was a tough day to stay on the diet. I've also noticed that I'm fighting some irritability lately in addition to some noticeable energy drain. I kind of tore into Lori for wanting to make brownies Sunday night. In my defense she was taunting me just a little bit. Still, I'm over all a little touchy especially about forbidden food.

Dropped a few pounds again over the last week. I'm in the 157 range now and have been for a few days so it should be legit. I need to start getting the water out though. In the next few days I'll be switching to distilled water for drinking and I had the last of my multi-vitamins this weekend. I should be cutting the lunch time carbs by the weekend as well.

An item of interest: my wedding ring doesn't fit well any more. It fell off in the shower this afternoon. Didn't think I had fat fingers before.

Also got a few words of support from the owner of my gym. That was nice. He also said I can expect to grow like crazy once I start eating extra calories again. He thinks the first contest diet is as good as steroids for gaining some mass. I'm excited by that idea.

Expelled Exposed

2008-04-03T17:45:00.001-07:00

I just finished the Eugenie Scott interview on Skeptics Guide to the Universe. I thought I'd do my part and link to the Expelled Exposed website. The aim to to have the National Center for Science Education's official response at the top of a Google search for the movie. I'll do my part and add a link here.

It's in my Head

2008-04-01T18:03:00.001-07:00

I really must be obsessing about this bodybuilding stuff. I'm sure it is normal for a first timer to spend a lot of time thinking and planning and researching, but now I'm dreaming it too. Last night I dreamed that I was in a show and I was supposed to do an individual posing routine (something that has been on my mind a lot this week). The problem was I thought we were doing mandatory poses so I just stood there waiting for someone to tell me what to do next. Also, I'd forgotten my posing suit and was wearing some spare underwear instead. Interestingly, I got second place because another guy just walked off before the end.

I know I say this every time I post, but I need to spend more time with my posing practice. Maybe then it will be automatic and I won't be wasting dream time on it.

For Quick Reference

2008-03-31T17:50:00.000-07:00

Found this up on Pharyngula today. It was just too perfect to ignore. The ridiculousness of 'teach the controversy' is obvious when illustrated with a simple substitution.

4 Weeks

2008-03-31T17:22:00.000-07:00

I can't say that I really feel like posting today, and I'm not sure why. There is quite a bit to talk about, but I'm going to make it short.

On Friday I finally got down to doing some number crunching on the diet. I probably should have done that weeks ago. Any way now is the time where I need to keep close watch on my carb intake so I started counting. The good news is my intuitive seat-of-the-pants method had me eating about 150 grams of total carbohydrates a day based on the numbers from nutritiondata.com. Which seems to be a wonderful resource for calorie counting and such. The bad news is that might be a little low for everyday at this stage. I'm going to be doubling my carbs a few times a week (like on legs day) to keep the metabolism running fast.

I weighed in at a comfortable 160 lbs. today. I'm no longer worried about making the 154 lb. light weight class. Now I just have to worry about being in good shape. I still have a little squishy around the waste. I am stressed about the individual posing routine. I don't know why that has popped up all of a sudden. It isn't likely to influence my scores, but it does involve being a little bit creative. That part always gets me concerned. I need to spend more time on my posing overall. I'm sure that will help the anxiety. Oh yes, I've also managed to narrow my choices of music to 2 selections which I have edited to 60 seconds and burned 2 copies of. That part of the planning is finished at least.

With that here are the 4 week photos that turned out.

5 Weeks

2008-03-24T17:12:00.000-07:00

The days keep dragging by, but slowly I'm making progress. Last week was kind of tough. My weight fluctuated up and down every even though I was eating good and working my ass off on the treadmill. I was starting to get a little stressed about it. Then the weekend came and Lori made me take off my shirt and pose for our guests again. The general consensus was that I did look leaner than a few weeks ago. That helped a little. Then today at the gym I ask my bodybuilder friend to check my conditioning. He says I'm on track so I guess I can de-stress a little bit. The last bit of good news was the scale finally told me what I wanted to hear. I've been about 162 for consecutive days, so I call that progress.

On the diet front, I've dropped my evening carb. Only been doing that for a few days, but it has been fine so far. Sundays have been consistently hard on me. I don't know why but I'm always hungry. I was wishing I had about 3 weeks to go instead of five this weekend. I've been fantasizing about bowls of raisin bran and pancakes with maple syrup.

In other news I sent off my application last week, and the tickets I'd ordered showed up today. I guess that means I'm committed. My goal for this week is to get my posing music selected and CDs burned.

6 Weeks

2008-03-16T11:36:00.000-07:00

One more no cheat weekend down, though I must confess to half a glass of beer. It was a tough one because we went out to eat Friday and the service was slow. I was starving by the time everyone else's appetizer nachos came out, but I had to wait for my chicken salad. The rest of the weekend was pretty easy after that.

I'm one the home stretch now, but it will be the hardest part because I know I can't eat anything bad. I also have to start planning to cut out my carbs and sodium. I really don't think I can eat enough chicken to have that be my only depletion protein, so I'm going to have to have some eggs too. They have higher sodium that I should be eating, but I hope I can get around that by being really clean with my other foods.

I've been trying to keep my cardio workout over 1 hour every day, but it is hard to find that much time and lift and eat too. My weight loss has been sort of slowing down. 163 today. I need to drop more than that. At least my definition seems to be improving. I'd never be able to keep this up if I didn't see some progress.

I feel like the posing is getting better too. Still need to work on my timing and endurance. I guess that is it. I have some of this weeks photos as well. We tried shooting from a lower angle hoping that it would make my legs look a little better.

7 Weeks

2008-03-09T20:35:00.000-07:00

Not much interesting this week in the gym. I maybe loosing a little bit of strength. I was struggling on the incline bench presses today. I was kind of worried all week because I wasn't loosing any weight, but today I was 164. Sunday is always low for me though. I go earlier in the day and I think I drink less water. I'm upping my cardio time to be safe.

I survived my first no-cheat weekend. That was kind of tough. When it comes carb drop time I may need to curtain my social schedule. It is the worst watching everyone else eat the treats.

Beyond that I'm just getting tips on my posing and practicing that when I can. Lori made me de-shirt and pose for some friends on Friday. They were at least polite enough to say I looked okay. The feed back I get from Brad at the gym is less inspiring, but more constructive. Posing does not come naturally to me. And it sure is tougher than it looks. I need lots of practice.

8 Weeks Photos

2008-03-03T17:25:00.000-08:00

Finally, here are some more photos. I've just had a hard time getting a photographer to be available at the same time that there is enough light.

A small update: I forgot to weigh myself yesterday, so I was posting out of date information. Today my weight was 167 which I think is pretty accurate.

Based on these pictures I need more work posing my back. I'm hoping that it is just the camera angle that makes my legs so small. I know they are my weakest link, but they don't look very good. They need some more tanning too.

What do you think of the new posing trunks?

8 Weeks

2008-03-02T08:47:00.000-08:00

I just can't seem to have perfect training week. I got the back strain rehabbed nicely, and was feeling good when I had a tanning accident. I don't know if this is typical, but the stand up beds at my gym seem to be much hotter than the regular beds. I've been tanning for just over a week now, and I thought I'd try the stand up because it is supposed to help even the tan out. I'd been doing ten minutes a session and thought that would be safe. Nope. I'm still a bit pink on the hips, but not enough to slow me down. I really dislike having to tan and I think I was trying to rush to get it over with. I guess I'll just have to slow down and pace myself.

I had a big cheat day this weekend and went out to Mexican food. Sadly, I think that is my last major cheat. I'll allow myself some smaller indulgences from time to time, but no more all out gorging.

I haven't had much weight loss this week. I'm still hovering between 168 and 169, but I'm definitely not lean enough. I'm starting to get the abs to poke through the belly fat a little which is encouraging. The arms still look really soft and there is more belly fat to get off too.

On the up side I'm feeling good about my posing practice. I don't have the endurance for all the mandatories at once yet, but my technique is improving. I'm even narrowing my list of songs to pose to. I'm thinking it will be something by Joe Satriani, but I'm going to go through my Steve Vai collection too.

9 Weeks

2008-02-22T15:49:00.000-08:00

Yes I skipped the 10 week post. There really wasn't much to say and I was busy skiing so I just took the week off.

Over the last two weeks, I've ordered some supplies (posing trunks, ProTan), signed up for a tanning package at the gym, and begun working on my posing. So far I'm just practicing the mandatories and the symmetry poses. I did get an instructional video to help me out. Not sure it was worth the money, but it is somewhat helpful and has helped me relax about that part of the process.

I did pretty good sticking to the diet over the ski weekend. I was somewhat worried that I'd have a hard time, but I guess this is supposed to be hard. It has paid off and I'm now below 170 lbs. The weather has improved so I busted out the grill and cooked up some buffalo steak. Not too bad, but I'm still getting used to it.

The bad news is I've had an odd work shift this week and have had to commute into the city for classes. To get my workouts in I had to go at 0500. I'm sort of short on energy at that time of day and not as limber as I should be. I ended up with a strained back on legs day. So I haven't lifted much since then. I'm still trying to keep up the cardio, but walking is uncomfortable. I hope it clears up fast. At least I can still work on posing. that actually loosens me up. I'll try to take more photos this week.

11 Weeks

2008-02-11T13:38:00.000-08:00

Once again a few days late on this week's post. I'm short on new information as well. As always, I have good excuse. This weekend the baby's cold turned out to be something slightly more serious and we spent a few days in the hospital. That is why I'm not sure of my weight this week and I don't have any pictures. I didn't do too much damage to the diet though. The hospital has a pretty good cafeteria. I even tried my very first steak. While it wasn't the most exciting thing, I think I prefer it to chicken.

I am slowly progressing on the hair removal. No major incidents so far, though early on I nearly removed a nipple. I really do look pale with out the hair though. I need to get serious about the tanning booth this week. I also need to get serious about posing practice. That part definitely needs some work.

Hopefully I'll have no more major life event for awhile and I can get into a rhythm. Time is running out.

Taking Action

2008-02-07T15:40:00.000-08:00

This is a little off topic for this blog, but I guess it is my blog so I'll do it any way.

I was reading Pharyngula this morning, as I normally do noticed PZ had a post about something local. I guess Washington State has a bill on higher education working through the system. It has a line item about developing a procedure for students objecting to assignments that don't agree with their conscience. Maybe the spirit is not that bad, but is seems like trouble to me. Everybody can find something to object to.

Anyway, I was inspired a few days ago by Abbie's post about students taking action to defend science. While I have not been a student for awhile I still wanted to be a little active. So, I did write my senator, Derek Kilmer, who just happens to be the vice-chair of the Committee on Higher Education. Not much, but at least it is a start. Maybe it will be easier to get myself moving the next time.