I'm back! To those loyal, brave half dozen indivuals!!!

Yes, I've been slack as slack can be. I started this blog then stopped for no good reason other than laziness. I started making longer and longer comments on my facebook page and then realised I should be back here doing so because no-one I know is interested in my ideas. So, be patient and I'll get this disaster kick started very shortly.

Bloody oath I'm a pedantic prick!

Yes it's true, I'm a pedantic, picky prick. I have just spent half an hour trying to work out why I can't get rid of the double spacing between two of the paragraphs in my last post titled 'You're kidding right?". Maybe I'm taking this pedantic thing too far....

You're kidding right?

Aahhh, what would the day be without a word on climate change. How should we, as people of earth, approach it? Is a carbon tax the best way to begin reducing harmful gases into the atmosphere? How can we encourage the developing countries to become more engaged? These are the first questions that pop into my mind. How about you? Sorry, can you say that again?! What do you mean by you are not sure you 'believe in it'?

I wish that a conversation like that would result in everyone in listening range turning around to star in amazement and disbelief that some seemingly sane person would utter these fateful words "I'm not sure I believe in it". People like this should be viewed as most people view those who declare the moon landing was just a hoax.

There's a regretfully large part of the population who express doubt over whether climate change is caused/influenced by humans or is it just a natural, rhythmic occurrence. Where this doubt comes from is clear. One only needs to turn on the TV and listen to some politicians, or the occasional self professed 'experts', speaking on climate change and you could be forgiven for believing there is a raging debate over the validity of climate change/global warming and our connection to it as humans. Meanwhile, back in the scientific world there is no debate, no fundamental disagreements and no confusion; except the confusion by scientists over why the public seems prepared to listen to any loud mouth yahoo who gets in front of a camera and professes sincerely that climate change and global warming are just natural events; also claiming that us humans are innocent victims of big business and governments who are trying to con us into wasting our money solving a problem that doesn't exist.

The discussion reminds me of the problems encountered (mainly in the U.S. and some ultra religious countries in middle east) over the teaching of evolution in schools. The religious right have been spectacularly successful in blurring the conversation with pseudoscience and outright lies to the point that there are some very serious battles occurring in the U.S. where creationism (aka Intelligent Design) is being pushed into schools under the label of 'science'.

In that case, (the teaching of bad ideas in place of real science) the evolution battle is not quite as potentially dangerous as ignoring climate change/global warming. Countries where evolution is neglected will fall behind in R & D of some medicines and the development of agricultural crops (improving defence against diseases and increasing yield, etc). Yet should we as a global community choose to put our fingers in our ears and say lahlahlah over climate change, the results could be truly catastrophic.

Pretty close...

Were I unable to express myself through speach or via the written word, I think this would come pretty close to fitting neatly in as my profile.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBUc_kATGgg

And thus it all began.

So this is how it starts. Late one winter evening, in a living room far, far away, a middle aged man feels his brain slowly turn brittle with exasperation. The question you may well ask is why would this happen here and now? Did I just read another Global Warming denier's contribution to the further stupefying of the general public? Was it a 9/11 Truther's cries of despair that the world still doubts their conspiracy theories? Or was it a creationist's efforts to turn back science a few thousand years?

No, it was season 1, episode 8 of CSI NY. Yes, its sad but true, I watch all three of the CSI shows. Let me assure you that I in no way view these shows as documentaries and I'm very aware that the bulk of what happens in them should have the label 'For entertainment purposes only, please don't confuse with real forensics' permanently plastered on the bottom of the screen. What pushed me over the edge tonight was a scene that is played out in all three of the CSI shows at one time or another, where one of the main stars will happen upon a crime scene in a church. Then, with no-one else present, they will either drop to one knee for a quick prayer or will 'cross' themselves.

I find it hard to express the exasperation I feel whenever I watch one of these scenes. These are characters who spend half of their collective dialogues telling each other "...always follow the evidence!" Yet it seems that each and every one of them is religious. Religious. If at this point you are not predicting where I'm going with this then you may be reading the wrong blog. How in the hell can any rational, logical person get from 'always following the evidence' to having religious beliefs? Religion proudly touts its main virtue as faith. Faith is belief, in the absence of evidence. (Throughout recorded history, religions of all sorts have claimed to have the ultimate knowledge of where we came from, who we are and where we are going; and in all of those thousands of years they have provided a grand total of zero evidence. But I won't get into that right now.)

Yes, yes, CSI is just a fictional TV show for the masses; but these shows are not in the same puerile genre as shows such as 'Touched by an Angel" or "First Edition", where the supernaturalist, woo woo loving audience get to feed their delusions and go to bed each night thinking they've just seen a documentary. CSI and other similar shows are pitched at a slightly higher functioning group (as well as the odd masochist like me) who are looking for something a little more intellectually challenging. I will now blunder my way towards the loosely targeted point I'm trying to get at. The audience for shows like this would be a great target to pitch science at. But instead of just concentrating on the scientific side of things, the producers/writers feel obliged to throw in odd little pieces of religious nonsense. I'm very aware that these lines are added deliberately to appease their target audience primarily in the United States, but I can't help feeling that its a lost opportunity to wean people away from the supernatural towards rationality.