Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed

A friend emailed me on Friday telling me to go see the movie Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed which had just opened. It sounded interesting so I made a plan to go and see it during the "city day" that honeypot and I had planned and it worked out well because the only theater this movie was playing in the Bay Area was in SF.

We saw the movie and I fell asleep during part of it. That's not to say the content wasn't interesting, and it did actually bring up a couple really good points. Before I continue with the details of the movie, let me ask you a couple questions. First, do you believe in Darwin's theory of evolution? (I do.) Second, do you believe in intelligent design?

The main point of the movie is to show how highly respected scientists who firmly believe in evolution, but merely mention intelligent design are being ostracized by their scientific communities, as if they had stated their belief in creationism. Why is this so ridiculous, well let me explain:

Darwin's theory of evolution begins after the first cell exists on Earth. The theory of evolution is the process of change in the inherited traits of a population of organisms from one generation to the next. This is how a single cell organism evolved to be you!

The theory of evolution does not deal with how that first cell got there in the first place. Intelligent design is one theory to answer that question. Intelligent design is the idea that something specifically put that first cell on Earth. That could be some smarter (or dumber depending on how you look at the human race on earth currently) life form from another place who used Earth as a big petri dish to see what would happen, or that could be some higher power like God (I know, it's the scary G word), or some other source that doesn't involve randomness.

The prevailing Darwinian scientist's theory as to where that first cell came from are something along the lines of this: somehow some crystal formations caused the first cell to come into existence, or the mud puddle theory (right place, right substances, right conditions created that first cell.) Um, ..crystals, .. or .. um.. mud puddle .. hmmm... There aren't many good origination options here.

Do you see how being an evolutionist and an intelligent design supporter aren't exclusive to each other? You can be both, and I think I am actually both. I really like the alien idea and earth being a big petri dish and of course I believe we evolved from apes.

So the movie demonstrates that there's this ridiculous backlash against anybody that whispers the words intelligent design in a scientific setting. And it's pretty fierce, and not very scientific of people, to shut out this one theory, especially when the "prevailing" origination theories are pretty far fetched, in my opinion.

I'd like to take this moment to point out that creationism is the idea that God created us in our likeness right now. In the theory of creationism, humans didn't evolve from gorillas; this is exactly how God made us. This has no relationship to the movie or intelligent design, but I think many people get Intelligent Design and Creationism confused. They are not really related except that intelligent design and creationism might agree that God created that first cell. That's where the similarities end.

So, to all my scientist friends out there that might want to keep working in science - I would convince yourself that you believe in the crystal formation, or mud pie theory for the origination of that first cell, never mention intelligent design, and you'll be safely employed for the rest of your days. (Or you could buck the system - and come and stay with me in our guest room.)

The movie is worth watching. It's not as amazingly eye opening as some other movies designed to shed light on some issues, but it's well researched and demonstrates how unscientific the scientific community is about this one theory of where that first cell came from.

Thanks Steve! See you at your wedding (w/ my honeypot!)

And What a Week it's Been

Wow, what a crazy week it's been. I felt like I was constantly running just to keep up with everything that came my way.
There were so many extra errands and so many more social events than normal for me. It was extremely fun, and also draining.
Last week I went to get the visa for my India trip and that took hours of standing in line.
There was this fantastic Girlz Night that I attended on Tuesday night. That was such a blast. It was a new group of friends and we hit it off really well. I hope I get to hang out with them again. An intriguing sounding movie called "The business of being born" came out of our discussions there.
Then on Wed morning we had an apt with our friend, who happens to be the real estate agent that sold us our Oakland house. There's a recently fixed up 4 unit place a couple doors down from us that we were interested in looking at. Slightly for investment purposes, and more for a couple friends that are looking to buy. This place was perfect. It's a reasonably priced spacious 2bd, has a huge yard and the entire building was recently overhauled. New foundation, new roof, new everything. It had been a rental previously. (If you're reading this Yar - what are you waiting for? We would be the perfect neighbors.)
I had two friends from out of town visiting this weekend. My Chicago friend arrived while I was at work on Friday and I didn't get to see him until Sat morning! I had dinner plans after work and a pretty large group of us went to Happy Shabu Shabu. The experience was interesting - the service not so great. Basically each person had a hot pot of boiling water in front of them and then you get served veggies and you make your own food! Sorta like Korean BBQ, except with boiling water instead of a grill. We had a 20 person group which might explain the bad service. The rest of the gang went on to the Cornelius show, and I went home. Before that my co-workers and I went out for drinks at 5pm to celebrate our success. we have about 1/3 of the staff, but we recently beat Zillow in unique visitors per week. It's a huge milestone and really demonstrates our growth, and our potential. Woo Hoo!
Saturday my Chicago friend, my honeypot, and I walked up to Rockridge for a lovely breakfast. Then we all went our own way and I bought supplies for the party we threw that night. It was a lot of fun with hours of gaming. The games went on until 5am! (I thought I was too old to stay up that late. he he he)
Sunday I finally got to see my other friend in town from DC. She was at the shabu dinner on Friday, but she was so far away I didn't really get to talk to her much. We had plans to hike but were both so worn out from our previous nights (she wasn't able to attend the party due to another show she went to) that we chose to walk around 4th ave and browse. It was a lot of fun. I don't really browse anymore. I probably didn't much before either, but I never do it now. Except yesterday. There's quite a bit of unique/weird stuff down there so it was good times. After our shopping experience, we went to Jupiter and had pizza to fulfill my friend's craving and some other friends met up with us. Then we went home, hung out and played some more games. It was fun.
Today I got up and went out to breakfast with my friend from Chicago and finally got some more time to hang out with him. Then I went to work and he prepared for his travels back.
Tonight I had dinner plans, but everybody was just too tired, so it pretty much fell apart. But that's ok. I'm tired. I'm really happy to be home and just relax a bit because I'm leaving for another adventure on Wed afternoon.

Our company has an off site planning week at the start of every year to figure out which projects are most importnat and make a tentative schedule for the year. This year we're all (60 people plus significant others and families) are going up to Tahoe on Wed through Sunday. My honeypot is coming up Thurs night and it sounds like it might get a little crazy. I expect good times!

The trip to India is official - I leave on the 31st and arrive back on the 17th and I'll get 5 days at the end when I'm not working. Also, I have a plane ticket into New Delhi and out of Mumbai.

Rough Weekend

My weekend was actually pretty fun. We got up late on Saturday and went to breakfast. Then later on we went to the city and had a yummie dinner. After dinner we met up with some folks for our friend's birthday and began drinking. We went to a show at this place, and moved on to this bar, and then went here.

I drank too much. I was painfully hung over today. My body still hurts. I haven't been able to eat much either. Today was pretty much shot. I'll be glad when I wake up tomorrow and feel normal again.

I had book club today. Yes, I know it's the super bowl, and we didn't even care. At one point I laid on ground because my head was pulsating.

Being hung over sucks.