The problem of pain

The human body is one of the greatest examples of how evolution has a policy of just good enough. Evolution does not care directly about the comfort of the organism, only that it is able to reproduce successfully. After that point, after the reproductive age has passed, we, as individuals, are expendable as far as evolution is concerned. If we still lived as our ancient ancestors did, if we 'broke down' to a certain point, we almost certainly would die, often without passing on our genes. Granted our social nature (which has greatly increased our species survivability) would often have the group care for a disabled individual, but their reproductive status was reduced as well. They would often become evolutionary dead ends. But since evolution only cares about survivability of the species, errors still come up. Most of these are more annoyances then life threatening (usually), lower back pain, common headaches, most kidney stones and a myriad other things that pester our species constantly.

Now these and many other reasons are some of the best examples of why the idea of humans being created or even having our evolution guided is utterly absurd. But there is one other reason that is often barely touched upon or ignored all together. This is the concept of pain.

Now pain makes perfect sense from an evolutionary standpoint. It tells us to avoid actions that harm us. It is natures way of telling us to stop being a moron and get our hand out of the fire. But when looked at from the standpoint of creation or theistic evolution quite a few problems start to arise.

The first is the simple fact that pain hurts. Now this seems like an absurd statement, but consider it for a moment. A caring deity could make the signal be one that simply told us that we were being stupid and to stop it. It could be nothing more then an over riding urge to stop the current action. If such an entity did create us, it would not have to have stooped to tormenting us with such an unpleasant stimuli (unless you are coming from the standpoint of the Abrahamic deity(s) who seemed to delight in torturing us pesky humans).

The next reason is the wonderful effect of chronic pain. Evolutionarily this can be described, more or less, as shit happens. Mistakes in the genetic code or in that giant tangled mess known as the central nervous system explain it perfectly. But when the idea of creation or guided evolution comes in, you are faced with a whole new set of problems. The first is the obvious one of why. Why make a person suffer needlessly over an extended period of time. A suffering that in absolutely no way benefits the individual. I'm sure some theists would say that suffering makes a person stronger. Now if this were true, then about half of chronic pain suffers would not have depression as a co morbidity (in almost all cases, as a direct result of the chronic pain and not vice versa).

Chronic pain suffers would also not have a suicide rate of two to three times that of those who suffer from depression (about five times that of average individuals, although these statistics may be larger as only a select few studies have been made from very limited data pools).

On top of all this, those who suffer chronic pain would not have to endure an increase in their pain level over time. Despite the common held belief that, over time, a person can learn to block out the pain, the opposite begins to happen. The neural pathways the pain signal travels along transform from a backwaters road into a superhighway. Any time a set of neurons are fired frequently, the pathway is reinforced. The neural inhibition levels decrease (the synapse between neurons fires off the second neuron only once a threshold of neuro-transmitters is reached, this inhibition level is decreased as the pathway is used more frequently). So while an individual may be able to 'function' with levels of pain that most would not be able to stand over time, at the same time the level of pain the person endures increases. This also weakens the persons ability to tolerate the pain and is seen as a sharp decrease in pain tolerance compared to the rising levels before this peak is reached.

This concept is completely incompatible with the concept of any deity save one fueled by pure malice or utter indifference to the universe around it. But such indifference is no different then having no deity at all as it to requires the known evolutionary explanations. While the one spurred on but such hatred is both a horrific idea and one that does not fit the facts. For it seems rather absurd that such an entity would happen to use just the evolutionary paths that would be expected had it not existed in the first place. Either direction you are left with one logical conclusion, there is no deity that intercedes in the affairs of the universe, which as I said, is no different then no deity at all.

A question for Catholics

I was just reading a post over at the blog Pharyngula about the Catholic ceremony of the Eucharist when a question popped into my head that I can not quite resolve. If a Catholic who whole heartedly believes in the processes of transubstantiation (the communion wafer and wine actually turning into the body and blood of Christ (not to be confused with consubstantiation, where only the 'essence' becomes Jesus bits)) happens to be a vegetarian? Granted this question is mostly tongue-in-cheek, but it does make you wonder. If the person truly believed what they are eating has become the flesh and blood of their deity and the person is disgusted at the thought of consuming flesh (granted not all vegetarians are disgusted at the thought, but it sounds better here), then how would this work? I would imagine a true believer would make an exception but the thought has to be there in the back of the mind somewhere.

My encounter with a creationist

First off, I would like to apologize for my utter lack of posts lately. I have a very bad habit of starting a project and letting myself slack off. I have also had a great deal of my time lately consumed by a musical I am in. However, I recently had an event occur that spurred me to attempt to breath this blog back to life. I was invited to sit in on a presentation by a creationist and debate him.

This man claimed to have believed in evolution until he was presented with a creationist argument upon which he decided to devote his life to spreading the word. Now for those freethinkers out there that have heard this line before, I'm sure you soon found out that such claims are dubious at best (to be clear, I am not claiming that this person was lying). The caricature of evolution he presented was almost laughable if not for the fact that many people have and will buy it.

Before he started his presentation, we agreed that I would be able to interject any counter argument or corrections as they appeared, so I did not try and derail him or blind side him with questions. In fact he was told about me a week in advance so he knew I would be there and openly questioning him.

Some of the erroneous data he presented were things like evolution creates no new information, evolution can not explain morality, irreducible complexity and many more of the typical talking points. In fact it sounded like anything put out by the Discovery Institute. Although one bit of misinformation that he put forth was one I hadn't heard before and I found quite confusing. Apparently he believed that the continents were formed before the oceans. Where he heard this, I have no idea as it is quite well known that the continents formed later. He also did not shy away from the famous creationist tactic of quote mining, which I called out much to his chagrin.

Each time an erroneous bit was presented I not only corrected it but explained why it was incorrect. I brought with me a few things for this such as a basic Cetacean evolutionary lineage, the workings and types of radiometric dating techniques and the book Your Inner Fish by Neil Shubin for its great diagrams on embryology.

The way he countered any of my points can be summed up rather easily. It came down to either mocking the concept (I can't possibly see how such an absurd notion could ever be believed) or just ignoring it entirely. I was always respectful and never came to anger (although I did ask him quite a few times to stop talking over me and allow me to finish my point). I found him to be quite irritating for both his terrible inaccurate 'argument' and for what came down to essential blatant disrespect.

Although despite this, I had multiple people come up to me afterward who were quite interested in my points and showed interest in having me explain more to them at a future date, so it was not a complete lose. If I get just one person who was there interested in evolution, I will be quite proud.

No, I'm not dead yet...

Yes, despite the hiatus, I am still somewhat alive. Classes have once again started up so I shall hopefully have a bit more inspiration to write instead of staring at a blank page with an equally blank mind.

This semester I am going to try a few thing that will hopefully keep me at the whole writing thing a bit easier. One thing shall hopefully become a weekly event. As I've stated before, nearly all of my friends are Christian and as a result I have found myself spending time at the BCM (Baptist Collegiate Ministries) building. One thing I found interesting was to go to their weekly bible studies as it gave me a chance to ask my friends questions around topics they would bring up. Granted, nearly ever answer dwindles down to one word, faith. But I do find it interesting to see how their minds can try and rationalize some of their beliefs. What I hope to do is after every session, write about it, what it revolved around, what my stance on the belief is and the stance of those also attending.

Another possibility will come from my zoology class. Due to this regions conservative nature, I will be looking forward to my other class mates reaction to evolution during the class. I am hoping that the reactions will generally be positive, but I am a bit of a cynic, so we shall see.

The final possibility will be mostly a random rant time for me based on the upcoming college musical and my work in it (and subsequent lack of sleep).

Hopefully this shall lead to more posts in the near future.

Most of my friends are Christians, many quite devout, but not so that it is annoying thankfully. There are a couple Agnostics thrown in, but they are the exception to the rule. All of my friends know my stance and, much to my relief, have no problems with it. There are many times that we will get into debates (as we call them despite their good nature) and we all find it quite interesting and often enjoyable.

I got in with the crowd through my aiding the college theatre (why do so many people insist on spelling it theater, that bothers me so bloody much) by acting as a tech. As such most of my friends are either actors, singers or just hang arounds (or groupies as I like to call us).

There is however another group of friends who have nothing to do with the theatre or choir. These friends I have gained by being taken in by yet another group (you think they would know better then to take in one as crazy as I). This group are often found at the BCM. The BCM is the Baptist Collegiate Ministry. This was the absolute last group I expected to become associated.

Yet despite the name they do not follow what one often thinks when one conjures the word Baptist (a word often spoken with a cringe, especially considering I like in the Southern part of the Bible Belt. Many, if not most of them are actually non-denomination and are quite a bit less judgmental. Once again, they all know my stance on religion and have absolutely no problem, including the director of the establishment. In fact there have been many times when they have taken care of me in ways far past I would expect many to do.

But while some claim they do it because it is the Christian thing to do, I have seen the actual reason. This is because they are truly my friends. I have been accepted into a group in a way that can only be described as love and once again, their religion has nothing to do with it. If there was such a thing as a soul, I would not hesitate to consider many of them soul-kins.

Now many of those reading will not be surprised by hearing this as they are able to see people as people and not their belief system. The reason I make the effort to type this is two fold. One it is my blog and I can do what I like no matter how inane it may be (OK, that isn't a real reason). The second is because I have seen many of the other young Atheists recoiling at an individual when the word Christian is mentioned. To me this is such a sad thing as it is no different then when Theists cringe when the word Atheist is spoken.

Speaking from the standpoint of a Secular Humanist, we all need to work together if we ever hope to relieve the humane suffering and ignorance we encounter daily. Also, by allying ourselves with the more moderate of the Theists, we stand much more of a chance of silencing the extremists. I have already moved some of those I know to begin standing up to extremists in open defiance. There was a recent time when at the BCM's noonday (free food day, something no college student would be willing to pass up) when a pastor began spouting homophobic idiocies and those around me actively began to show open hostility to this man and made a motion to prevent his access in the future as well as boycotting his church. While I know I cannot take to much credit for this, I know I had a hand in these actions. Something that fills me with quite a bit of satisfaction.

Why Not to Wait for Marriage

I have heard many times that one should save oneself for marriage. That keeping your virginity for your spouse is a great gift (this is more often aimed at women, however I will not go into that now as this is a post about general sex and not double standards and misogyny). But I see this as a very unhealthy attitude to hold, both physically and emotionally.

Say you have found the man/woman that you want to marry. You both abstain from sex until after your wedding. Finally the big night comes, but instead of being a wonderful experience, all you can think about is how horrible and disappointing the experience was. This sadly happens more often then we are led to believe. Sex is a great emotional outlet and source of bonding, while bad sex can have the opposite effect. One or both (I am assuming monogamy for this post as most developed countries do not allow polygamy) of the partners will be left feeling unfulfilled sexually which leads to sexual frustration, possible resentment towards their partner (or anger at yourself if you believe it is your fault), both partners will not get the emotional connection sex grants a couple, and they will not have sex as a bonding agent after misunderstandings and arguments.

This leads to a higher divorce rate, a divorce that could have been avoided had the couple simply had sex before the got married. Many of those that do not divorce (usually for religious reasons, the same causative agent of the chastity) are left will a less then satisfactory marriage that leaves them craving emotional closeness.

Some will argue that two people will get better at sex over time and many people do, but that does not address the key issue here. Even if there is an improvement in performance, the two individuals sexual tastes or libido can still be utterly different. These do not change. A person can force themselves to do something they do not truly enjoy for their partners sake, but this leaves both unfulfilled (the one who is forcing themselves for obvious reasons and the partner who wants the encounter as a forced situation is invariably worse or less convincing then honest enjoyment). A person who enjoys a lot of kink during sex will not feel satisfied being monogamous with someone who only enjoys vanilla sex and vice versa.

As long as one practices safe sex, the risks of premarital (or extramarital sex if both married partners are consenting) will be outweighed by the benefits. Both individuals will have most likely gotten over the awkwardness of sexual encounters due to inexperience. Their sexual aptitude will also increase dramatically as by the time these individuals get married they will have begun to understand each others likes and dislikes.

Aside from the emotional reasons not to wait for marriage there is also a physical reason. A person who has sex regularly (in the referred study regularly was only once a week, greater frequency will have better effects) are less likely to get sick, they get over illness quicker and have a stronger memory and critical thinking skills (due to stress relief and greater amounts of neurotransmitters). Another recent study found that individuals who were still virgins after the age of 21 had more health issues then those who have had sex at least once, reinforcing the previous study.

No matter your gender, waiting for marriage to have sex is ill advised. Of course many of the emotional benefits only pertain to sex with an individual you have strong feelings for. Females need not wait out of fear of being considered a whore and males not need wait thinking abstaining somehow shows more respect to their partner (this is another form of misogyny that I will try to get to at a later date). In this post I have mostly used heterosexual monogamous couples as examples, however the concepts will equally apply to those who are homosexual, bisexual or polygamous. Also as to not give the wrong impression, I am not advising having sex before one is ready for it, that is always a must. Just my reasoning against abstaining until marriage.

Naturalistic Beauty

One argument against a naturalistic world view is that it supposedly holds no room for beauty and the euphoric awe that is familiar to many theists. This concept truly saddens me, to think that these people have to believe in the supernatural to be happy with their life and the universe they live within. I believe that humans can find as much, if not more beauty and spiritual fulfillment though naturalism as compared to the supernatural (theism included).

Yes, I said spiritual. When most people hear this word, them begin to think of religiosity or some new age belief. But the supernatural does not hold a monopoly on spiritualism. Freethinkers can have incredibly strong spiritual experiences through an understanding of their universe and their place in it. In fact spirituality is any view though which an understanding leads to betterment and a feeling of oneness.

Any person who truly knows me can tell you that I can be seen as a deeply spiritual person in this sense. When I begin to talk about our understanding of the universe and our place in it, I develop a fervor that would put the most evangelical preacher to shame. The feeling I get from this knowledge is pure ecstasy.

Our universe is more beautiful then we could ever hope to conceive of. Think for the moment that you, and everything you see around you is composed of the remnants of long dead stars. Look at a simple stream of water and conceive of the countless molecules of water in an endless dance with one another through hydrogen bonding. Imagine a simple microbe and know that there are thousands of chemical and atomic reactions going on within that very cell, allowing it to exist. Know that we are not separate from the universe, but an infinitesimal part of it.

Our very existence is amazing, consider that a single change in a single specie in the past could have prevented you (or even the whole human race) from being here. Intelligence is not a necessity for the universe to exist, yet we posses this trait. It is almost as if we, with our complex minds able to think in the abstract, are the universe's attempt to understand itself.

So next time you see an insect, a star, a stone or even your fellow humans, don't pass it off as a trivial thing. Stop and think of everything that had to take place for you to see it, all the complex processes going on within that item and the fact that you are even able to understand this concept to begin with. Think of these things, truly think and you will feel a sense of wonder that can move the most pessimistic of us to tears. This world is beauty, relish your chance to experience it, trivialize no experience and never forget to live your life, you will not get a second chance.