Science and Religion

The other day Pope Benedict XVI, with very little fanfare, announced that science and religion could coexist peacefully. In a coup for atheists everywhere he claimed that there was enough science to conclude that there was a natural process of evolution from the Gibbon to Man. But will this acceptance of science increase recruiting numbers for the atheist belief structure?
Boarding a flight from Melbourne to Sydney recently my driver quipped that today was the most dangerous day to travel. Whilst there were no terror warnings or specific threats of weather it took me a few minutes for his comment to make sense. It was Friday the 13^th. Not a religious or superstitious man I took his comment as jest and took my flight. However I found that during the pre-flight safety demonstration I listened intently and that during every bump of turbulence my heart beat a little faster than it should have.
Why did I believe that the plane that had flown for hundreds of trips and the pilot that had flown for thousands of hours would simply have an accident on this of all days? It’s the same reason that humanity still believes in religion and superstition.
The medieval drawings of churches and townships in the 12^th and 13^th centuries show the image of God and the saints protecting the town from attack and making the villages safe-havens for true believers with heaven being simply a few short kilometers above our heads. With the invention of man-made airplanes in the early 20^th Century humankind made its first trip above the clouds and found nothing. In the 1950’s when Yuri Gagarin breached our atmosphere to become the first person in space it seemed that God had relocated yet we still attended our buildings of worship en mass.
A recent study found that over two-thirds of American scientists believe in God, the most popular book post-September 11 was the bible and several religions gained members in the 2006 Australian census. So why after discovering how the universe was created and debunking the religious theories of creationism does human kind still attend church, read the bible or even belong these organizations. Comfort.
L Ron Hubbard, a science-fiction writer, took one of his books and spun it into his own religion and if alive today he would see that his “religion” was often on the front-pages of the gossip magazines and had caused controversy in Germany. The Scientology belief system revolves around freedom from fear and doubts and purging yourself of negative energy. The doctrine of scientology include mentions of galactic overlords yet still people join this organization in hopes of being free from the drudgery and pain of everyday life. How is Scientology’s doctrine different from the New Testament where God’s only son comes down to earth to purge man-kind of its fears and doubts (under the auspice of sin). The gospels report miracles being performed which all rational people would dismiss as parlor tricks yet mainstream religion has grown in Australia despite the technological advances disproving the existence of a deity.
We seek solace to keep us safe even when there is no hope. As a people we’ve begun to collectively defy science in order to comfort ourselves from the reality of pain, misery and the many other problems of living in the real world.
One of the most popular places to discover a higher form of life is in prison. In the squalors of human misery where those shunned by society are removed from the mainstream of the population one of two things happen, they either get worse or they get God. Chaplains from all major religions routinely visit various prisons in search of disenfranchised souls to redeem into the welcoming bosom of the lord. Prison, humanities cesspool, is perfect for religious enlightenment due to the nature of our penal system. Inmates are locked away with societies worst offenders ranging from murderers to rapists to thieves and a popular theme of religion is that of forgiveness, atonement may fail on the mortal coil but God loves all his children. But in this digital age with instant communication and the world at your fingertips the most popular book of all time remains The Bible. The recounting of the creation of the world, the freedom of the Jews and the martyrdom of God’s only son has sold an immeasurable number of copies (with some theorists predicting more than 6 billion) and is believed to be one of the first books ever printed by Gutenberg in the 1400’s. The bible will continue to be printed until the world runs out of paper but by then it’s words would have been digitized (as they have already) and will continue to enlighten until the ends of the Earth
There is no true answer as to why we have, in this age of technology, reverted to the belief of God or superstition because every person has their own different experience. Some, like those in prison, do it for redemption whilst others seek enlightenment and answers to life’s frightening questions that we fester in the back of our minds, why are we here? What happens after death?. The impossible questions that science cannot yet answer and religion has been retorting for over two thousand years.
Humanity breached the clouds and saw the supposed face of God only to discover that nothing was looking back at us but still we believe in the loving embrace of our deity. Why has this happened? Only God knows.

Brave New Internet

My friend recently announced his engagement. Proclaiming his intention to marry his girlfriend he invited everyone he knew to the party where the wine would be flowing and the conversation would be lively. However unlike the conventional engagement announcements on intricately designed paper and a party overlooking the beauty of Sydney the announcement was made via ‘Facebook’, a popular social networking site, and the party was held in ‘Second Life’, an intricately detailed virtual world where people can throw off the shackles of physics and fly around.
A recent survey from by YouGov in the UK has found out that half of all broadband users log into social networking sites and that more than 10 hours a week are spent online socializing. This works out to around 24 days a year compared with 22 days actually spent meeting friends or relatives.
Have we become so embedded in the internet that we are forsaking some of most cherished moments?
Too often the youth of today are told that they are spending far too much time in front of a screen and not enough time socializing. To our critics I say simply that we are socializing but considering the impact that the internet has had on society in the past two decades we are doing nothing wrong, its socialization that has evolved to the point where that’s all it is….a screen.
With the introduction of sites such as myspace, facebook and livejournal I’m able to interact with my friends, do my university assessments and write opinion pieces all without leaving my chair.
The internet was literally dumped in humanities laps and it took years for the shock to wear off. But whilst the older generation is still recovering from a form of cyber post-traumatic stress disorder the youth are embracing the evolving society. A globe, that has suddenly become completely inter-connected, has expanded and shrunk society at the same time. We’re able to instantaneously send files from one person to another across the world and its completely logical to assume that email will replace snail mail by the end of the century. This from the world that five hundred years ago still had large aspects undiscovered. At every stage of evolution since the axolotl rose from the primordial soup we have discarded anything that did not allow us take advantage of our surroundings. Now that man has finished evolving physically our evolution is taking place socially and with each generational leap we will leave something behind that is unnecessary.
What will the future hold for the generation that masters the internet? The dawn of the new information age is upon us. The internet is more important than any other device in the last hundred years and society is not controlling the evolution of the internet but rather the internet is controlling the way society is evolving.
Our many detractors spend their time warning parents that children are growing up without the skills needed to survive, that their progression to adulthood is being tampered by the many advancements in technology. They point out that those that were growing up were being denied “essential” skills such as map navigation because of the availability of GPS and general research because of the instantaneous answers of the internet. Whilst these people are entitled to his opinion, the future will prove him wrong. Facebook is the modernized equivalent of a phone book. Your contact details are all there and it’s easy enough to send a message to your “buddies” but for some reason contacting and socializing through a screen is considered “anti-social”. Technology has always replaced skills that eventually become redundant. Less than a five hundred years ago we relied upon celestial navigation to direct our ships, sun dials to tell the time and windows to throw waste out of. These have been replaced by GPS, clocks and indoor plumbing. Those growing up in the internet generation aren’t learning skills such as map reading or general research due to introduction of blanket wireless and the increasing reliability of computers and mobile internet, within the next century maps will not be printed on paper. Just as I was never taught how to use an abacus nor will my children be taught how to program a VCR as very soon videotapes will join the ever growing pile of discarded technology, replaced by personal digital recorders.
This generation is evolving without those “essential” skills because the internet is demanding it.
Huxley’s Brave New World could easily be used to describe the affect that the internet has had on society. Those that are controlling our future through innovation and the internet are the Alpha’s, whilst those that refuse to see the endless possibilities that the internet holds in this new, evolved society are merely the Epsilons. As the internet and technology expands even further we’ll see a host of new technologies open up to make our lives not only easier but better. We are confronted with a new period of evolution; there is no ice age and the fruits are high enough to reach but this age of evolution will have as much if not more impact on humanity. Society will learn to embrace whatever we face and if it is anything like the impact that the internet has had then we will learn to mould our lives around it and dispose of all that is deemed unnecessary.