My time is almost up. Goodbye cruel world!! Okay, not really in that sense. I'm just leaving Japan in about six days. I'm a little sad to be going home but at the same time I'm extremely excited to see Pam again. Long distance relationships suck! Even more so when you're married. It was a lot of fun the week that she was here visiting and we say some amazing things (and actually took pictures too; we're usually terrible about taking pictures).
Us being samurai
Us doing what we do best
This is probably going to be the longest week ever. I leave Japan at 1:30pm on Friday and arrive in Detroit at 12:30pm. No that's not a typo. Yes, I will be travelling back in time. Stick that in your theory-that-in-an-ad-hoc-fashion-excludes-rotating-non-expanding-universes pipe and smoke it senor Hawking. Oooh, the burn! I'll bet he's going to lose sleep over that zinger. If I wasn't so awesome some might say I suffer from delusions of grandeur. The only thing I'm suffering from right now is the desire to be back in Michigan (yikes!) with my Pammy. She could be somewhere like the surface of the sun, the center of a black hole, Idaho, or Crimea and I would still want to be there with here. Location is not really a big factor as long as I'm with her. I might draw the line at a GOP convention though. You can only put so much strain on a relationship without severe consequences.
Yesterday I gave a presentation at the Quantum Chemistry Research Institute in Kyoto, which was awesome! I got to meet one of my quantum chemistry heroes, Hiroshi Nakatsuji, for the second time and I know what other people mean when they say they were just awestruck at the genius of someone. I can only hope to be as brilliant as he is and he's technically retired. We talked about an idea that he's working on right now that I can't wait to see published (I won't say more than that on this). Science is a lot of fun. It's not fun like playing at the playground fun (remember all those skinned knees, bloody noses, knocked loose teeth, banged up bodies, faces and heads, among other bodily injuries resulting from playing on the playground? It was still a lot of fun). Where it takes us next no one knows! That's part of what makes it so much fun.
Speaking of science. A friend of mine recently posted a blog about, among other things, how religion is under attack and part of that attack is science. I am in complete disagreement. The only attack on religion is from within its own camp (by 'religion' I mean christianity in this case) as they are fostering and nuturing extreme unchristian ideals and ways of behaving. Religion is attacking science claiming that it's not real or that because we're running computer simulations what we're doing isn't real. For anyone who thinks this way I have some choice words I will happily share with you in private, just send me an email. There is a case that's trying to be heard by the supreme court about a former teacher who was fired for teaching his religious ideas as science, even going so far to tell students to read the bible for science facts. The fact that there are many people that support this sort of insane and crazy behavior is itself crazy.
Who's attacking who? I've worked with atheists, agnostics, muslims, hindus, buddhists, and even christians. They've all known eventually that I'm religious and you know how many of them have had a problem or issue with it? None. Not one of them. They don't care. The only ones that really seem to care are the religious who are scared that science will remove religion from their children's hearts. It's not science that's the problem. Science is often used as an excuse but it's not the real reason. The real reason usually stems from how others in the religion have treated them, which usually amounts to harassment, assault, and in some cases even battery. If there really was an attack on religion from science I think the religious communities would end up being surprised by how many people would not side with them, especially once they start to think things through logically.
Science is about logic and what we can determine about the reality around us from the data we can collect and analyze, including our own experiences. There is no room for a blind belief in something (excluding certain aspects of string theory). Then ask yourself, why on earth would a scientist even say anything about religion? Perhaps because they've been possessed by the devil? Maybe it's just their evil human nature that drove them towards science in the first place? Or maybe it's the fact that religious people keep trying to throw their own beliefs in her/his face, trying to force them to accept their beliefs as science? That is what is happening and in response science is merely pointing out the flaws in trying to use religion as science. You can't.
If more religious people behaved like Gary from the South Park episode "All About Mormons" this world would be a better place.
"Look, maybe us Mormons do believe in crazy stories that make absolutely no sense, and maybe Joseph Smith did make it all up, but I have a great life. and a great family, and I have the Book of Mormon to thank for that. The truth is, I don't care if Joseph Smith made it all up, because what the church teaches now is loving your family, being nice and helping people. And even though people in this town might think that's stupid, I still choose to believe in it. All I ever did was try to be your friend, Stan, but you're so high and mighty you couldn't look past my religion and just be my friend back. You've got a lot of growing up to do, buddy. Suck my balls." -Gary
Religion is not science. Just as you don't want science being used to try and describe your religion, stop trying to use your own personal religion to describe science, which attempts to be as universal as possible.
