Bal's blog

Good afternoon,

I recently saw (again) a movie I very much like called The 13th Floor, in which the characters are faced with the question: what is real? Turns out that there's a whole lot of virtual reality going on.

I pose a question before the group at MLU: Is there no room at the table of the devout theist or the devout atheist for conviviality around the conversational marketplace of ideas?

I've seen people spout off about how "if you like religion so much, there are tons of other places for people like you. Why don't you go somewhere else?" and nonsense like that.

Check out this article:

http://tinyurl.com/yqeevn

This article reports on the anticipated creation of artificial life from the ground up. All information needed to create this new life would be artificially (i.e., human) created.

I emphasize the word information.

Just read this entry by Mano Singham. Very well done and highly recommended. I'm not sure I'm sold, but it does give food for thought.

There is only one piece of it that I have a problem with.

Let me start off acknowledging that I write as a layman. I have no august titles to augment respect. I have no vast accomplishments. I just have gall. Deal with it.

There seems to be a great prejudice against all things religion on this site. I think that this is misguided at best and more likely arrogance of a kind most unbecoming a scientist.