Evolution Education Outreach journal

Evolution: Education and Outreach will promote accurate understanding and comprehensive teaching of evolutionary theory for a wide audience. Targeting K-16 students, teachers and scientists alike, the journal will publish articles to aid members of these communities in the teaching of evolutionary theory.
For now at least, all the articles are accessable FREE.

Purpose-driven life: evolution does not rob life of meaning, but creates meaning. It also makes possible our own capacity for creativity.

http://www.theamericanscholar.org/spring-2009/

Evolutionary thinking has lately expanded from the biological to the human world, first into the social sciences and recently into the humanities and the arts. Many people therefore now understand the human, and even human culture, as inextricably biological. But many others in the humanities--in this, at least, like religious believers who reject evolution outright--feel that a Darwinian view of life and a biological view of humanity can only deny human purpose and meaning.
Does evolution by natural selection rob life of purpose, as so many have feared? The answer is no. On the contrary, Charles Darwin has made it possible to understand how purpose, like life, builds from small beginnings, from the ground up. In a very real sense, evolution creates purpose. ....

A Readers Summary

Since August, 30th, 2009, I have been rather busy. I have taken on new challenges, some I've been hoping for a shot at for a long time. Busy, of course is a relative term. We are all busy. But we each have loads we hoist on our shoulders that challenge us more so than the day before. We are all Atlas's. Sometimes its worth noting that as we heave the world on our shoulder....nearby, there are 6 billion other worlds being held on respective shoulders.
That said...I haven't forsaken my mental food. The following are just brief snippets of tomes consumed for the betterment of my own health.
Christopher Hitchens Letters to a Young Contrarian [No. 869], is as the title claims a series of letters. Written to a hypothetical young mind who is in want of path of reasoning. And in our world of spin and victorious history writing . "One must have the nerve to assert that, while people are entitled to their illusions, they are not entitled" Hitchens professes "to a limitless enjoyment of them and they are not entitled to impose them upon others." And if one has ever read a Hitchens volume being the antagonist is something he seeks, for as he aptly puts near the end of this little volume: "Seek out argument and disputation for their own sake; the grave will supply plenty of time for silence.
Dan Brown's much anticipated sequel to The Da Vinci Code, The Lost Symbol [No. 870], is a let down. Possibly because of exactly that, that it was much anticipated. A sad reality of success. Let's hope that his next one will be more original. Not much can also be said of Claude Izner's Murder on the Eiffel Tower [No. 871]. Suckered in by a bookseller involved in a murder mystery, I was sorrily disappointed in this little tale set in the late 19th century of Paris, France where murder is afoot in a poisonous sort of way. Not even the scenery of the early days of the Eiffel Tower were all that alluring.
The works of fiction that are extremely entertaining are Alexander McCall Smith's trilogy, Portuguese Irregular Verbs [No. 862], The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs [No. 863], and At the Villa of Reduced Circumstances [No. 866]. The trilogy marks moments in the life of Professor Dr Moritz-Maria von Iglefeld, the purveyor of all that is known in Portuguese Irregular Verbs, a weighty tome that was the result of the realization that as "[t]he crudities of the modern world were simplifying or even destroying linguistic subtleties." The professor would save the day. McCall's tales, however, are not serious treatises. The three look at the humour of academia. The irrationality of a specialist hanging his hat on one so minuscule point of knowledge, and that as such, honor and awards must befall such a brave intellectual. Academic narcissism is all too prevalent and McCall takes perfect aim with style and grace. I would be the first to find humour in certainty or alleged certainty; and would be the first to take a shot at my own (I just have to remind my self to un-clench the fist when I take the shot). These books are highly recommended; the convergence of events in "The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs" nearly resulted in peeing the bed as I rolled over laughing.
The polar opposite of the above is Chris Hedges latest volume, Empire of Illusion, the End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle [No. 0867]. This is a brutal book. A step back to see the flamboyantly frivolous western culture has become...and continues to be directed. And it is so hard to step back when we are travelling at the speed of light, in a ship constructed by "oligarchs, corporations, and a narrow, selfish, political, and economic elite...". The intellectual sphere, born out of the Enlightenment, creator of much of the essence of the moral and ethical structure we hope is there, is continuing to be shattered and torn apart. It is easier to flick the next channel with the remote; it is easier to forgo reason and intellectual rigour for a glittered cardboard world that we are sold. We want others to be devastated by personal mishap. We want the trust broken by the next scandal. And we want it NOW. On our TV and computer screens. We see no reason to remember the past. "Those who suffer from historical amnesia, the belief that we are unique in history and have nothing to learn from the past, remain children. They live in an illusion." And they are everywhere. If one were to pause for a second and take a step off the train for a moment, would we want our children to live in an world where functional illiteracy becomes closer to the norm than not; or the commercialization of all that is life, and even death has a place on 'social networks'? Or that the word intellectual becomes a pejorative? Can we enjoy and absorb this train ride if we were in control? Or are we just passengers, blindly absorbed in our own belly buttons, occasionally hoping that someone is actually at the helm? Empire of Illusion is a burning book, one that not too long ago in our history would have been just that; burned.
Jesus, Interrupted [No. 0865] by scholar Bart Ehrman is a book about contradictions and reading. The subtitle is "Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible (and Why We Don't Know About Them)" and harbors the belief that most people read the Bible in a devotional manner, for that is how it is presented by church leaders. This is a linear reading, one page at a time, or at its worst cherry-picked for the flavor of the day. The historical-critical reading of the Bible, taught in secular seminaries and classes, is one of comparative analysis and literature, and in their original historical context. And there is much to say about the contradictions in the Bible (the separate creation stories for one). Ehrman is careful, however. "I should stress that scholars and students who question such passages are not questioning God himself. They are questioning what the Bible has to say about God." For Ehrman, like many other scholars, the Bible is a human construct, written by many, many authors over centuries of power, wars, and struggles. Ehrman's agnosticism, a growth from a very powerful believer in his youth, is tactful, and passionate. He does not want to offend those who hold the inerrancy of the Bible, but the only critical way to go beyond oneself is to be critical and thoughtful of your own footing. "For me" Ehrman says "it's just one of the mysteries of the universe: how so many people can revere the Bible and think that in it is God's inspired revelation to his people, and yet know so little about it."

"Holy Moly" by B. Rehder

A simple novel of a planned megachurch....an unpaid Las Vegas mafia team.....a paleontologist with another kind of secret.....and a collector of dinosaur bones with a sexual proclivity that is.....well, tied up in costumes.....the same old stuff.

I got the book as a inexpensive remainder copy....made more valuable because it was signed. As cheap novels....it was ok as a bedtime read, but nothing more.
# 0853

"The Reading Nation in the Romantic Period" by W. St. Clair

It is not a simple read, if one were to define a text by its mere volume. And at 765 pages, its a monster of a book. But even if you were to remove the hefty appendices, the breadth of research still comes to the fore with a fluid hand. "The Reading Nation in the Romantic Period" identifies a time of transition, between the mid-18th century, and that of the early to mid-19th century and how this would define not only a nation but the printing strategies and cultural, societal milieu to come. Not a simple book indeed.

The book industry was, for so long, a patronage/cartel run business for much of its early stages. "The romantic period was to see the last sustained attempt by the British state to control the minds of the British people by controlling the print to which they had access." In the manuscript age, where texts were manually produced, church and government had control, in terms of content, and to some extent distribution, and price. The print age created a strong tie with state and business. "Only those members of the [book] industry who were sworn members of the official English church, and whose loyalty to the state was unquestioned, were permitted to" engage in the industry. The steps to modern publishing, and intellectual property rights began, in essence, with the abolition of state censorship in 1695. From there it was still a troublesome path.

Once the church and state broke ties with the book industry it "was now effected by the weight, [and] price". Further "the industry, by building up vested interests in the supply of certain favoured titles, and by its constant awareness of the need to maintain the share price of these properties by rationing the supply, encouraged a tendency towards cultural as well as towards technological obsolescence." The industry, by its control and greed, froze a nation. This lasted for nearly a century, at least up to 1774 when further legislation was enacted; meanwhile other nations developed new printing technologies, and authors were less taxed or at least could be published in another country. This is perhaps the most troublesome discovery of St. Clair's book. In effect, "the losses", by limiting the variety of texts, and propping up the prices so only the higher echelons of society had access, manifested "less literature of all kinds being written and published, less reprinting, less reading, a slow-down in the pace of the diffusion of new ideas, less access to the discoveries of science and medicine by those at the lower tranches [levels] of the book market, less education, more obsolete education, more illiteracy, more ignorance, more unwanted children."

The relationship between author and publisher would evolve. But by looking back at the actually production numbers of books, one can gain a clear impression of the state of the author in his or her time, rather than rely on 21st century historians interpreting "the classics" [by the way, this term originated as a framework of considerate, tender titles and texts suitable for cultured women to read, not the anthological listing of our impressing of literary giants]. For St. Clair access the actual production numbers of works of Shelley, Byron, Wordsworth, Austen and such reveal that Sir Walter Scott "whose verse works were sold in the largest numbers." Shelley, Keats and company, works we now think of a canonical, actually had less of a societal impact when published.

Meanwhile, the United States were only mildly scorched by the brutal heat of the British system of industrial monopoly. Their production was wider [more titles] and less skewed toward aristocracy. A reading populace is an educated populace. "The post-independence intellectual property regime helped the United States to become one of the most modern countries in the world."

In all "The Reading Nation in the Romantic Period" is full of discovery and thought. How the book industry affects a nation is often only brushed over. St. Clair anchors this idea with multitude of facts, not anecdotal quips. If you want to bite into something a little more textually and intellectually engaging, and had a sense of history with a purpose, this not-so little volume would be fulfilling.
#852

"Melancholies of Knowledge. Literature in the Age of Science", M. A. Safir (ed.)

Frankly I have a limited knowledge base of "literature" and what is popularly considered the same. Sometimes I wonder if literary criticism, at times, is more about creating much ado about nothing, than simply enjoying a good book. That said, I do have some interest in how science is portrayed in the public sphere, as in literature. But who knows anything about Michel Rio and his assemblage of literary takes on science and how it plays in the broader human arena of experience? His books are not commonly in print in English, which makes it even more difficult. Yet, editor Margery Safir obviously does, assembling noted writers of culture, including a scientist or two, to pick apart a Rio's books to see how it all plays out - science and literature.

Frankly (again) I only read the introduction and one chapter. I agree with her that "Rhetoric, textual analysis, questions of style, and modes of expression are recognized in History and Philosophy of Science as crucial to the life of scientific concepts." Science is beyond white lab coats and test tubes. It is a human construct to understand the world around us. However, I disagree with Safir that science has special status in culture. That literature has to make up ground. "Are authors of fiction" she asks "seeking to share in the power and authority that contemporary society accords science?" Because of our collective ignoring of science, as a society, this is simply not true (a rant best saved for a specific essay).

Still, I wanted to hear what Stephen Jay Gould had to say. A follower of his, one who appreciates learning through his digressions on science and culture, I found his essay on Rio's Dreaming Jungles. Gould states the obvious of literature and science: "This form of "iffy" history [the incorporation of the two - I won't say cultures] can be so fascinating as a source of conjecture about alternative plausible pathways for our cultural lives." Where I found pause to concern is his final statement. "We need the integration of our disciplines, the end to false and extreme dichotomizations, the recognition that we cannot grasp human uniqueness unless we both practice art and understand science." That we as a society must all participate in art, but only understand and not participate in science. Here again a scientist has lofted science to a higher status. For this is a failure of society: to appreciate the technological and basic science that surrounds us, and a failure too of scientist in successfully translating and incorporating the ACT of doing science.
#0856

"Lempriere's Dictionary" by L. Norfolk

There are reasons books are remaindered, returned to their publishers for disposal. Some of these still are good works, with no fault to the authors. Others are obvious. And, after 152 pages, about a third of the book, I had no choice but to 'remainder' the book myself, thanks to the author. From the beginning, a thread was hard to pick up. There seemed no reasoning for the story....no pick up between the tales that were spun. You knew that somewhere there was a 'dictionary', something I had hoped that would start to tie the threads together (even loosely) .....but no. After 152 pages of abbreviated scenes...there was no choice but to find a dusty place on the shelf, and squeeze in another title. For this is my remaindering pile.
#0850

"Cemetery Dance" by D. Preston & L. Child

Not their best work. The two began this series with Relic, about things that go bump in the museum night, with a small character, FBI agent Pendergast. Reminiscent of an X-File case, the character has blossomed through nine books. Each one peeling away another layer of this mysterious, rogue-ish character, except for this latest. Cemetery Dance is a straight-on storey with cultish dimension, a story that could have been written on card board. Hopefully the authors will return in years time (usually in August) with a new tale with a strong subplot. One that suggest revealing another Pendergast layer.
#0851

"Thornton and Tully's Scientific Books, Libraries and Collectors", A. Hunter (ed.)

The vehicle upon which scientific ideas are delivered have changed somewhat over the centuries. This volume articulates this evolution from ancient script and scribe, through the earliest moments of "book" publishing, through to the 20th century. This may seem like a specialist niche of inquiry, and it likely is. Yet, it is an often overused cliche of "if it weren't for this" the importance and cultural nuance of the printed word would not be understood.

This volume contains jewels of discoveries much like the efforts of understanding nature and universe itself. Without dissecting each chapter, the breadth of science can be picked apart. Linnaeus's binomial creation in biology was done "originally as a means of economizing ... paper [my emphasis]." Anyone familiar with Linnaeus would have understood the economy of naming but they likely would not have understood the paper aspect.

Or Johannes Kepler usage of the book as a means to a less altruistic end, beyond the delivering of scientific ideas. "Kepler's willingness to give away copies of the book indicates that he saw the book's value not necessarily as monetary, but as an important tool in obtaining patronage and positions." Even as we move forward to the 19th century the characterizations are still valued. "The communication of novel scientific knowledge in the nineteenth century between scientific practitioners can be characterized, without overly great simplification, as the move from books to papers." Journals began taking over in the delivery of the scientific printed word.

There is still a significant diastema between historians of science and scientists as historians. I never understood this because as a practicum for my own learning, I learned through the history of science, and then through my own particular branch of science. I am fortunate, I guess, that my science is a 'historical science', never able to get away from the men (and indeed), women who created the parameters of my own activity. For that I am blessed (if I can use that term), for I am both. "Thornton and Tully's Scientific Books, Libraries and Collectors" satisfies my own inquisitive nature in this regard, and likely historians of science as well. Sadly, scientists as historians have the likelihood (based on one of the studies presented) of passing this up, for the basis of the history of science is 'the book', and scientists are less likely to collect 'the book' or understand its significance and role in the development of society. To me, this is a sad reality. And as we move to a more digitial age I worry for the printed word. Will the book be an article of inquiry like the natural history of the dodo?
#0849

"According to their Deeds" by Paul Robertson

My addiction is pretty plain and simple. It is books. It always has been, likely always will be. For that, if anything, is illustrative of some consistency in my life. I am enamoured with writing, how authors compose sentence structure and arguments. I marvel more so at the pre-20th century writers where conviction and prose matter most even if their words, in sum, amounted to only a hill of beans. Very dry, pruned beans at times. And yet, I wonder at how they do it.

My addiction, and there is no other way to explain it, leads me to buy and read books about books. Their history as an object, their evolution, their impact on culture and society. For this books are written about. But I also found a niche of fiction; of booksellers' unwittingly caught in a web of intrigue and danger. And this is harder to find. Yes, there are exceptions. There are a few authors who have capitalized on this genre, if it's meagre size qualifies as a "genre", and who have likely made some good coin on it. Paul Robertson, however, won't be one of them. According to their Deeds is a cardboard, thinly put together tale of a bookstore owner who discovers a few items in a book that lead him to discover and offer forgiveness to a blackmailers list and the soul of the blackmailer. For this to work the characters are in need of some depth beyond simple dialogue, in need of fleshing out, in need of forgiveness by the reader. And Paul Robertson sadly fails.

There was potential. A thread of flashback scenes between the saintly protagonist and the spider laying his web of deceit. Here they meet, unwittingly of one, across an aged chess board, the dichotomy of good and evil, in game, and in words. Philosophers are argued, their lives summed up, their worth measured and weighed. Here was Robertson's potential to explore and develop a heartful plot. Here, across a chess board, life and lives could have been explored. Instead, we endure the booksellers pun-ish nature with a past that would have been punishingly heavy if were allowed to unfold.

And instead, my craving moves on. Pleading forgiveness for my bookish sins (and there have been a few), now myself even wary of the absurdity of wanting to read everything I can. Something I couldn't say at a bibliophile anonymous meeting a few years ago. I have other titles to go to. And there certainly are other literary fictions in want of a reader. And I would certainly recommend others to avoid this one. Another sin awaits behind another dust jacket.
No. 0848

"Almost There" and "Are You Somebody" by Nuala O'Faolain

The O'Faolain books are wonderful diversion from the heady stuff in life. But only for a moment.

"Are You Somebody", her first autobiography, is a summation of who she was. A middle aged Irish woman, writer for the Irish Times among others, at the rim of celebrity status, as a writer only can. The title, "Are You Somebody" speaks to that position; on the rim of public awareness. Her life, from family and onwards, was trying for sure. Abandoned in spirit, anyways, by her father, a small "c" celebrity in his own right, and by a mother whose attachment to her was always suspect. Her savior in all this strict anti-woman Catholicism was her reading. "The most useful thing I brought out of my childhood was confidence in reading."
Breaking through the Irish stereotypes and maleness of 60s and 70s culture was no small feat. She explored the culture of writing and the arts with the uncertainty of belonging; of knowing that at any one moment, this was her life. One of her mentors, a historian Raphael Samuel, "was a pioneer of the interdisciplinary approach. He believed that anyone who had done a specialist degree had been trained in incuriousity about everything else. He believed in starting again, from ignorance. I was rich in ignorance" O'Faolain writes. "I count it as one of the great lucky things in my life...".
It is probably this complete lack of hubris that make O'Faolain interesting. If you Google her name you will inevitably come across some radio interviews she did. And the sense of wonder, humor, and the purpose of literature is beguiling. Her second autobiography, "Almost There" is more of the present journey to where she wants to be. "Middle age is the least talked about of all the seasons of life, and yet it seems to me the most exacting. It is adolescence come again at the other side of adulthood - the matching bookend - in its uneasiness of identity, its physical surprises and the strength it takes to handle it." The book is less literary and more personal. Excluding the numerous and numerous times pointing to her first autobiographical volume "Almost There" is about finding place; of having a bit of breathing room; and the societal clumsiness of not being wed or having (or wanting) children. "It has been shouted at us for so long that we're second rate if we're not in a pair with someone else, that we've come to deeply believe it."
The two books are as much a cathartic experience for O'Faolain as anything else, the "needing to shed ballast for the rest of the journey", as she put it. And likely so as most writers of self and fiction, and artist do. And yet, the purpose or hook for reading any one of these books might be suspect. Maybe there is no "hook". I would suppose if you were a young male with a preoccupied here-and-now view of life there would be no experience enjoyed in reading these. If you're middle-age (man or women), a woman of youth or experience, or cross both gender boundaries and are literary minded, then, the O'Faolain autobiographical volumes should be consumed.
#0844 and #0846

"Darwin's Sacred Cause. How a Hatred of Slavery Shaped Darwin's Views on Human Evolution"

The tandem of Adrian Desmond and James Moore have a lengthy history in deciphering the inner depths of archives, libraries, museums, and literature. Both have contributed with numerous books and journal articles to the workings of science and culture, specifically that one exists in the other. Their latest challenge is no different. "Darwin's Sacred Cause" is also, however, a significant challenge.

The premise is that evolution, particularly human evolution, as Darwin would come to understand it and contribute to, was in part do to his own misgivings of slavery, both in England, but also in America. "We aren't out to prove the uncorrupted purity of Darwin's corpus" they write, "...or indeed deify his corpse." "The real problem" they argue "is that no one understands Darwin's core project, ...No one has appreciated the source of that moral fire that fuelled his strange, out-of-character obsession with human origins."

Thankfully, Darwin provided much of the original material for this project as one of the most notorious note-takers of the 19th century; the authors reviewed over 15,000 letters, plus all the drafts of publications to be, as well as those of his close family. And it is here where it all begins. His family, and later the in-laws, many of whom were abolitionists in their own right, provided an atmosphere of the unity of all men and women. Emma (nee Wedgewood) was a singular force in Darwin's life and with religious piety helped center Darwin (but let's not forget, many of the arguments for the plurality of human origins comes from the same good book).

Much of the evolution of Darwin's abolitionist nature, from boy-hood, through the discomforting trials aboard the Beagle voyage, at times seeing humanity shredded, to his more reclusive days can be documented. The problem the authors face, however, is the certainty of the early influences on Darwin. Too often Desmond and Moore bridge suppositions with 'must haves' and 'likely's". Yet "Sacred Cause" is a thorough going of the relationship between British and American rationality and irrationality. Though racism was an integral part of both countries (the Brits through trade, the Americans, through labor), the sensibility, at least on paper, was born earlier across the pond than on American soil. And on this soil, the challenger to abolitionism (and evolution by natural selection, but more so sexual selection), whose "long arm unsettled Darwin", was in many ways headed by the renowned Harvard zoologist Louis Agassiz. And it is this interplay that is the most interested for much of the American 19th century racism rest equally so on the 'science of the day.'

"Darwin's Sacred Cause" is a wonderful tour of 19th century science and how two countries, one emerging, the other at the peak of its colonial game, began to intertwine. That alone is worth reading. How much did Darwin's abolitionism influence his views? The authors show time and again the Darwin spared the public with his views on the unity of humans until he was sufficiently armed with evidence and a mechanism. And the problem is that Darwin, even amongst his thousands of correspondence, never is sufficiently clear. And the problem with 15,000 pieces of authored paper is that it only fuels the need for more. More questions for the few answers.
#0845

"Against All Gods" by A. C. Grayling

For those of you who are familiar with this line of discussion A. C. Grayling's "Against All Gods, Six Polemics on Religion and an Essay on Kindness", a slim volume, should sit nicely beside Richard Dawkins "The God Delusion" and anything by Christopher Hitchens.


Grayling's premise and passion is obvious. That any form of religion is a special interest group, nothing more, just the same as a rotary club, or another; and that as a religion, belief in the supernatural is "...the negation of thought". Don't get him wrong. Even though those that are religious are given, without thought special status, it doesn't mean they deserve disrespect. It just means that "[i]t is time to demand of believers that they take their personal choices and preferences in these non-rational and too often dangerous matters into the private sphere, ...". And that [e]veryone is free to believe what they want, providing they do not bother (or coerce, or kill) others; but no one is entitled to claim privileges merely on the grounds that they are votaries of one or another of the world's religions."


One has to consider the specific words here; "providing they do not bother (or coerce, or kill) others." Grayling argues that coercion begins young, long before "mature" minds prevail. This is similar to Dawkins line of thinking.

"Against All Gods" is not strictly an anti-religion polemic. It is a statement of an even more stronger root. That if the supernatural is lifted (a category of all religions according to Grayling) a stronger unifying force can blossom. A humanitarian approach. For it is in this view that "we can have a proper discussion about the ethical principles of mutual concern, imaginative sympathy and courageous tolerance on which the chances for individual and social flourishing rest. We need to meet one another as human individuals...in a pubic domain hospitable to us all..." (p. 38).

Grayling makes many strong points but it comes down to this. Who am I to judge? And with the power invested in me by the evolutionary line that I come from, riddled with chance and circumstance, I have, in this 21st century, Youtube, hyped up sensationalism, the ability to finally turn the off the tube, or not read this book. Or, one can dare to read something outside their comfort zone.
#0847

"Up From Methodism. A Memoir of a Man Gone to the Devil"

It's hard not to like Up From Methodism. Well, for me it is easy. Yes, it was written in the 1920s (and recently reprinted in paperback), and yes there is a tinge of vernacular than would fall on the political incorrect list (and others certainly fell on the same list back then). But when you grow up in a strong, strong Christan community - that is Christian with a emblazoned "C" - he had some standing to counter his up-bringing, fraught with bigotry, hypocrisy, and irrationality - all of the religious kind. "I became increasingly annoyed not only by the mental mannerisms of these people" he twanged in that southern intellect, "but their physical mannerisms as well. Not only did they walk as if their soles were greased, sliding and slipping about, but they talked as if their tongues were greased also. Their language was oily; they poured out their words unctuously, with much roundabout phrasing and unnecessary language."

Growing up in small town Missouri was trying for many people. Jobs were hard to come by, communities harder to fit in. There were rules to living here or there, even if they weren't written. And if you didn't believe,...I mean BELIEVE...well, there was no hope for you; but not for want of trying. "Religion poured down my throat in dose that strangled me and made me sick of the soul" Asbury laments. What ever religion he had was soon choked out of him. Old time Methodism was at the fore for prim and proper to the nth degree. An atmosphere today we would describe as not only strict, but cultish as well.

Up From Methodism is a knee-slappingly painful (if those two descriptors can be slapped together) picture of a struggle for being. One full of preaching, sin governed by mere mortals, or hell fire damnation. With a smile and a twinkle, Asbury triumphs: "Without religion I thoroughly enjoy the business of living". And in that all so rare slap-stick repertoire familiar to readers of H. L. Menchken (commentator, among other trophy's, of the Scopes trial, another southern, rural debacle), Up From Methodism at least - the very least - provides the last laugh of irrationality. "[F]ew things can destroy religion quicker than a hearty giggle." Amen.
#0414

My Ignorance is No Longer Bliss

In Canada, we do not have “separation of Church and State”, but rather a mention in the Preamble of the Canadian Charter of Rights that states “Canada is founded upon the principles that recognizes the supremacy of God.” Is it the timidity of our Canadian culture that allows this? Can anyone say with a straight face that the God in this statement is not a Christian God?
Is anyone else affronted by mandatory prayer before public meetings? This is accepted in this country (see http://www.canlii.org/en/on/onsc/doc/2004/2004canlii13978/2004canlii13978.html). Is anyone else insulted by statements by public officials broadcasting their versions of religiosity onto others?
What if you were a Buddhist? Agnostic. Atheist, or even a card carrying member of any of the other traditional religions, that wasn't part of the 'Christian Nation”? You certainly wouldn't hope to win an election.
I've searched high and low to find some understanding. There really is none. At least none that define a secular humanist approach on a national level, never mind regional. But on this score, there are many counts of sabotage from the Christian right. Yes, we can certainly hear from that end of the spectrum. For the Christian right it is time “to stake out a clear Christian position, and to use this Christian position to take back confidently and relentlessly the ground stolen by Secular Humanists in their campaign to become the driving force and establishment voice in Canada” (see http://www.christiangovernment.ca/book_intro.php for a good laugh; people will have to assess whether this, and comments like this are only from an extremest view, or more closer to the norm that we could possibly admit).
For myself I am ashamed of my ignorance and timidity. I am sincerely despondent of the void beyond my simple ramblings, though for certain I know I am not alone. It is our collective acceptance and complacency without mature, healthy dialogue that worries me even more.

Passion for Collecting. Some thoughts.

I can not say I have much in common with Charles Darwin (1809-1882). The weight of his research has not only lasted 150 years (one of the two celebrated anniversaries this year with the publication of On the Origin of Species), but it has spawned all manners of research, far beyond his imagination. However, unbeknownst to me (at least I never put the two occurrences together before, until recently), we do share a passion at least in methodology.
In his Autobiography, he writes about this passion for collecting. “I will give proof” he writes “of my zeal: one day, on tearing off some old bark, I saw two rare beetles, and seized one in each hand; then I saw a third and new kind, which I could not bear to lose, so that I popped the one which I held in my right hand into my mouth. Alas! It ejected some intensely acrid fluid, which burnt my tongue so that I was forced to spit the beetle out, which was lost, as was the third one” (p. 21).
The use of the mouth as temporary storage containers likely has been 're-invented' many times. Since my earliest days collecting fossils, the sites that contain hundreds if not thousands of little bone and teeth fragments (called microsites) has always been exhilarating. Little pieces of the past just sitting there, each one likely representing a different taxonomic beast from the other bone fragment just inches away. Collecting these sites means literally crawling the surface on your stomach, watching out for cacti and other intrusions, your face just inches away from the ground. For me, because of strained sight, retaining as much focus as possible without the distraction of putting each little fragment into a plastic vial, I just pick up the fossil fragment, retaining focus on the ground for the next bit, and put it in my mouth. I do this until the site is fully scoured, or I need to finally regurgitate cheek-fulls of saliva coated fossils into a vial. Unlike Darwin, however, I have never put anything poisonous into my mouth, but that is not to say that over the years a few relatively modern gopher bones did get wedged between cheek and gum.
I reminisce about this because this year marks both the birth of Charles Darwin (the second of the anniversaries), and of his publication. I ponder the breadth of his idea, and how it has influenced all manners of life, from medicine, art, philosophy, literature, and of course all the various avenues of science. But a recent article in the New York Times has clearly stated, we have to separate Darwin from evolution. That Darwin created the modern idea [for in fact evolution is much older than Darwin], pulling together a mass of information (his zeal for collecting was knowledge base, not just life's trophies), and since then, since the publication in 1859, evolution has evolved. It has answered, through the endeavors of the scientific community all over the world, many of the questions that Darwin could not answer. Genetics, DNA, ecology, further fossil discoveries, have all enhanced the theory of evolution. Science has moved beyond Darwin. Thus “Darwinism” is a misnomer. As the New York Times article states “”Darwinism” implies an ideology adhering to one man's dictates ... And “isms” [like Marxism, Fascism] are not sciences.” What Darwin did was solely science.
So the question is, do we “kill” Darwin for the sake of evolution? Can evolution overcome the social connotations of Darwinism if we leave the old man behind? Or do we take the effort to educate ourselves, appreciating the distinction between the historical aspects of Charles Darwin [despite my hagiographical tendencies], and the current understanding of evolutionary theory? Do we make the effort?
The diversity of places, institutions, large and small, that are celebrating the Darwin anniversaries can be found at www.darwinday.org. Take note, however, besides the obligatory biographies of Darwin, many will highlight the current developments in evolutionary theory. Many will illustrate the separation between Darwin, and evolution, utilizing local examples, and the scientists responsible for that particular research. “Darwinism” rarely comes up. When it does, it is often in a social context (depending on which insitution is presenting the respective event), or in fractured light of those who have little sense of what science is. Often in the guise of “creationism”, they lack the "zeal" of collecting - specimens or knowledge - and understanding.

The Devil in Dover. An Insider's Story of Dogma V. Darwin in Small-Town America by Lauri Lebo

One can not but be impressed with Lauri Lebo. Small town reporter in Dover, Pennsylvania, in the midst of one of the more impressive trials in state history, weighing not only the merit of a new brand of scientific creationism, intelligent design, as it pertains to public education, but also the merit of her own town. “Dover”, she says “is like every small town. It has stories of startling beauty and secrets of profound ugliness” (p. 88). In The Devil in Dover, the reader witnesses both.
In 2004, the Dover School Board District, an elected group, decided to incorporate their version of religious doctrine, their brand of fundamentalist Christianity, into the local public education system. Of contention was the attempt to utilize “Of Panda's and People”, a religious text dressed up as science. Making matters worse was the public exclamation by some of its members (later to be denied despite the recorded evidence) to incorporate scientific creationism into the classroom. A nation defined, in part, by the separation of Church and State, upset the apple cart of small town relations; that casual howdy, passive existence paced by a sun dial rather than the digital clock.
Lebo takes as much personal risk as the local journalist documenting the affairs. Daughter to a myopic born-again Christian radio station owner, her own travails are on the table. “The truth is” she says, despite my religious ambivalence, I envy people of faith. I picture their sleep so different from my own – secure, uninterrupted by fear and doubt, unspoiled by images of our mortality” (p. 32). Her theological/scientific fights with her father only exasberated the situation further. Even as a reporter, pressure mounted, as the case unfolded, the deceit unveiled, that the exploitation of “fair and balanced treatment” also was challenged. “[S]omewhere along the line, we as journalists have gotten confused by a misguided notion of objectivity. It is our job to inform readers of the truth, not just regurgitate lies, even if it means the stories are no longer “balanced.” “(p. 158).
The idea of intelligent design goes back further than these recent legal events. Whereas some books only accumulate dust on the shelves, William Paley (1743-1805) does not have this disservice. My own copy of his Natural Theology is in a four volume collection, leather bound, published in 1819. His central thesis is:
“In crossing a heath, suppose I pitched my foot against a stone, and were asked how the stone came to be there. I might possibly answer, that, for any thing I knew to the contrary, it had lain there for ever...”
“But suppose I had found a watch upon the ground, and it should be inquired how the watch happened to be in that place; I should hardly think of the answer which I had before given...”
“...the inference we think is inevitable, that the watch much have had a maker; that there must have existed, at some time, and at some place or other, an artificer or artificers who formed it for the purpose which we find it actually to answer: who comprehended its construction, and designed its use.”
In other words....the complexity of life could only be motioned through the hand of designer. The premise, dressed up in 21st century scientific lingo, becomes “intelligent design”, fostered by the Seattle based Discovery Institute, and used as a wedge by all those in favor of a creator, literalists, or not.
Lebo's story, is her personal journey (unlike, I presume, Gordon Slack's The Battle Over the Meaning of Everything: Evolution, Intelligent Design, and a School Board in Dover, PA). She discovers the sincerity and grounding by those who search in reality, and those who are committed to intelligent design as an “airy confection, ultimately no more substantial or satisfying than cotton candy” (p. 153). She also wonders “What would it be like to go a week without being judged?” (p. 185), a product of living in a small community, enhanced by those who practice judgement as an action of belief. Of the parents who fought, the plaintiffs, she finds them a motley consortium, some more concerned with the private practice of religion, others not so, but together, united by a vast team of legals who see this clearly as not only a case of the intrusion of fundamentalist Christianity on the state, but simply anti-science (intelligent designers, failing their science, try to redefined what science is; if you can't beat them, change the ground rules).
The eventual outcome of the trial was brutal on the school board. “The breathtaking inanity of the Board's decision is evident” Judge Jones states in his ruling “...which has now been fully revealed through this trial.” [The Memorandum Opinion can be found in full at http://fl1.findlaw.com/news.findlaw.com/hdocs/docs/educate/ktzmllrdvr122005opn.pdf] Further “The Board brazenly chose not to follow the advice of their only science-education resources as the teachers were not included in the process of drafting the language adopted by the Board Curriculum Committee.” The school board lost on both counts: intelligent design is a theological argument; and as such, it infringes on the guardian of the U. S. Establishment Clause.
For the many months while arguments were laid in court as well as across Dover's picket fences, Lebo understood that “this was about this country”, not just Dover. This is between “The believers and nonbelievers.” Meanwhile “Neighbors turned their backs on each other, pretending not to see each other from across their backyards. Others stopped taking evening walks to avoid the cold stares and unreturned waves. People learned to keep their heads down at the grocer store” (p. 92-93). And then came the hate letters. And who can forget preacher Pat Robertson's proclamation after the ruling was announced: "I'd like to say to the good citizens of Dover: If there is a disaster in your area, don't turn to God. You just rejected him from your city" (quoted from P. 180).
The Devil in Dover provides a rare glimpse of a small community, bereft with tension and religious bigotry mixed with the sincerity and kindness of those living in the here and now. Lebo and the others survive, move on. The sun rises and sun sets, for this is certain, just as the scientists over the centuries were able to explain, despite what the Bible says.
No. 0842

"The Cypress Hills, An Island By Itself" by W. Hildebrandt and B. Hubner

The Cypress Hills is a beautiful spot for certain. You can feel that it is special as you rise in elevation, ever getting closer. It should, for it sits about 600 metres above the prairies. It is withing these 600 metres that everything changes. What was once prairie is now an ancient forest, a left over from the last glaciation. It is a place that was occupied at least 10-12,000 years ago, and has ever since drawn the attention of all who have travelled in its shadow.
This new volume, The Cypress Hills, is a dry documentary of primarily the last 200 years or so of life on the Cypress Hills. Repeatedly, the voices echo, the documents show systemic greed, racism, and inhumanity by the intruders. Of people, in some cases the Nakoda people who suffered the 'Cypress Hills Massacre' in 1873, were falsely guaranteed rights and resources. The forced turn from nomadic hunters to agricultural based living, allocated in reserves far away from their traditional lands provided only humiliating and deadly results.
It was through these white pre-21st century eyes that we learned the half-truths and lies about a culture quite alien to westerners. Overlooked was the unique relationship with the land and the pivotal role women played in their cultures and lives. The Cypress Hills remedies some of this by examining the records of American and Canadian trappers, explorers, the Hudson Bay Company and early settlers, and later the North West Mounted Police, but also the scant voices of the First Nations and Metis peoples, and boldly records history as it is, and was.
We have stretched our dignity as a species far too much to have history repeat itself. The injustices served should not be relinquished to past memories. These stories, of a place,...of a island once called "The Thunder Breeding Hills" should be clearly in front of us as paths mistakenly chosen.

"Hitler's Private Library, The Books That Shaped His Life" by Timothy Ryback

I am a sucker for anything "library". I detest war and anything involving it, or its historical glorification. So puzzle me this. A book of Hitler and his library. Do I buy it, and let it rest in a pile of other unread volumes? Do I not buy it and save my resources for another day of bibliophile fishing? Or do I do the former and actually read it? With some trepidations I do the last.
Ryback has to bring history into the library setting. This is Hitler's library, albeit what remains of it after it was dismantled, dispersed, and in some cases destroyed. Ryback is thorough, however, recreating the missing volumes, or at least some of them by searching relevant documents across the globe of what remains of Hitler's correspondence, as a private citizen, and the leader of the Nazi party and military machine; the man we've come to love to hate was also a bibliophile. Now long gone is the passive, retired pop image of a book person.
Witnessed by few, the self-proclaimed literary consumer searched through the classics for a self determination of what he professed. Emerging out of the First World War, the solitary Hitler soldier could do no other but read, for the alternative his personality could not digest.
I have to stop there...for it is difficult to walk the rope that the author of Hitler's Library did. The author's question is; this is not a glorification of the man, or either of the works in his library. But if we judge people by their library, what literary fuels they require to sustain themselves, we are ultimately left with questions of how and why; of some of the severest acts of human conduct and ...evil every enacted on the human soul. Is there one book that changed Hitler? Ryback answers no. Racism and self-aggrandizement was Hitler and the times and place that he was in. Yes, "I regard [Henry] Ford as my inspiration (p. 71), he once espoused, the automobile Ford being among other things anti-Semitic, but there were many, many others including Fichte, Schopenhauer, and Nietzsche. In addition...his Catholic upbringing also added to his soup of political, racial angst, though this would morph into his own personal cherry-picked religious creation - a "creative force".
Unlike most books I read, I thoroughly pencil underlines for significant thoughts, fill margins with quips and suggestions...but not this one. Hitler's Library allowed me to learn about German philosophy and thinking during the early 20th century, some of the German political events leading up to and during the Second World War and of a person I only visualized as a card board cut-out of evil. Ultimately, I learned that anything can be used as a weapon...even a book.

"Why Read? by Mark Edmundson. Bloomsbury, 2004.

This little volume, picked up recently in a bargain bin for two little coins, is a beautifully strong surprise. Author Edmundson is passionate about the punches he pulls: What happens now and in the future if our most intelligent students never learn to strive to overcome what they are? What if aspirations to genius, and to contact with genius . . . become silly, outmoded ideas? What you're likely to get are more and more two-dimensional men and women (p. 139) who will live for the easy road of money and the status quo. This is the projected life without the passion to read and think, and not just gather information that our consumer consumptive culture is creating now thanks in part as this generation is glued to the web. The recipe of this book is heavily sprinkled with poetry, but Why Read? is also history, fiction, and more. As Edmundson poignantly states You can learn history from books, or life will teach it to you more intimately (p. 118).

Edmundson's passion is clear; that a liberal education has much to offer our children. That teachers have to transfer their love of reading to their students, a literary begatting in spirit if not in books (I they don't, their disservice should be noted). To open their minds to discover who they are and not how much money they can earn. A healthy respect for the written word is at least required. Quoting another author whose introduction to literature was tentative for sure: Some of these books at first rejected me; I bored them . But as I grew older and they knew me better, they came to have more sympathy with me and to understand my hidden meanings. Their nature is such that our relationship has been very intimate (p.46, emphasis added). Whereas in today's 'show me now' culture, the usual response to the introduction of literature is boooooring (p. 47).

Big things can be gained from small packages. Big thoughts from small books. Despite it's slim 140 or so pages Why Read? is in fact a very, very big book.

My number 0840.

An Introduction

I am by nature a bookman. I would sooner bend my nose towards a book or a bookshop than be assaulted by much of the consumer consumptive society today. Fortunately, I am married to a sweet heart who understands my at times solitary trek into the literary world. I further claim that my own grasp of "literature" is limited. I forsake the parameters of "fiction and poetry", but would expand it to all forms of the written word, especially the underrated writings in science. Yet, I will emphasise my ignorance for this allows unhindered pursuit of almost everything.

For years I have been attempting to catalogue my library. This has followed a Gouldian trend [Stephen Jay Gould's co-created Punctuated Equilibrium where the history of life is documented in spurts and stints]. But of late, progress is being made not only with cataloguing but truly dissecting the literary works as they are seen to me. What follows below is some of this endeavor; of recent titles, but also of the more ancient texts (in this sense of current culture, anything older than 20 years).

I am by nature also a defender of not only the written word, but also of rational thinking bending towards liberalism (to an extent), and appalled by the arrogance of ignorance. Particularly, at least at this moment, those who cherry-pick science to favor their own non-rational views (religion), and at times creationists specifically.


Since I am also somewhat naive as to the inner workings of this technology,...I also beg your indulgence, for what follows is some words from books that I found of interest, or of wisdom far greater than I can create.