I appreciated the recent contribution by Aileen Mory to npr's "this i believe" series: link (to listen to or read her commentary).  About the Iraq war she says:

I don't have a solution, but I think I may have figured out what's missing from my perspective on democracy: pain — universal, democratic pain. In terms of the Iraq war, this country's burden is being shouldered by a select few. Some families and communities have been devastated by the war. Others, like mine, have been far too insulated. We can't truly share the responsibility for our democracy until we all share in its suffering.

And so, in the name of shared pain, I support the reinstitution of the draft.

As a parent of two teenagers, she continues:

If every parent does not have to fear losing a son or daughter — if every politician does not have to face that fear in his constituents — decisions to go to war will continue to be too easy. I believe that a true democracy comes from shared responsibility for our collective choices. If that choice is war, we must all share in its tragedy.

I wonder how much difference a draft would make, though.  I have the impression that the powerful have always been able to avoid the sacrifice of serving if they wanted to do so, draft or no draft.  Also, I have the impression that...even if there isn't unanimity...the subset of the population that has born most of the burden has generally also been supportive of the war from the beginning.  Still, it seems like it would be more appropriate for the burden to be distributed more evenly than it is, and a draft would help accomplish that.

- Jonathan

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Lisa says this is a great example of why she respects Obama:

- Jonathan

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Here's a video from a few from a few weeks back of Finn doing some wall climbing at the community center:

Also, we took the training wheels off his bike this week, and he was up and riding in no time:

- Jonathan

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- Jonathan

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Saturday night we watched Alvin and the Chipmunks (2007,PG) (ScreenIt! Review).  From the ScreenIt! review:

A struggling songwriter thinks he's hit pay dirt when he finds himself in the company of three chipmunks who can not only talk, but also sing in perfect, if high-pitched harmony.

It was OK.  I wondered if they skimped on the special effects because the munks at times didn't seem as well done as I'd have expected.  The boys enjoyed it, especially when someone was shaking his booty or making a rude noise.

I give it 3 out of 5.

- Jonathan

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Last Sunday afternoon we went over to our friends' house and played a little baseball in the yard.  Here are a few photos and a video.  Watch the video closely for an amazing circus catch made by the pitcher and to see how Finn smacks the ball on the first swing.

- Jonathan

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My mother-in-law and me in the Highlands, NC...1996.

- Jonathan

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I wrote a little about this show here: link

- Jonathan

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Please consider sponsoring me for the MS150 bike tour to raise money for MS research. This will be my 11th ride. http://tinyurl.com/6hh3bq

- Jonathan

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During last Friday night's episode of Real Time, Bill Maher made the comment that most scientists are atheists or agnostics.  That caught my attention, although it's the kind of statement that I probably wouldn't have questioned if my own personal observations weren't to the contrary.  Sure, I could buy that it's a true statement in the sense that any percentage greater than 50 is "most", but frankly I don't at all buy it in the sense that Maher was using it: to claim that science and faith are incompatible and that religion's credibility is diminished by the "fact" that it is rejected by "most" scientists.

For the last 8 years I've worked in R&D for a major chemical company surrounded by a whole gaggle of PhD engineers and other members of the "hard" sciences.  Time and again I've been surprised to find out that one of my colleagues is a church-goer.  With many of them that I haven't had deep conversations about faith, so admittedly some may be atheists or agnostics who happen to go to church for one reason or another.  However, there are also plenty that I do know well and know that they are strong believers.  As another anecdote, my own PhD advisor (who was and continues to be one of the most respected and influential professors in his field of science) is a Christian.  Somehow these sorts of surprises are reassuring to me in my own faith.

Prompted by Maher's statement, I did some googling.  A recent study pretty much fit my expectations, so I quit looking further.  ;-)

Based on a survey of scientists from 21 "elite" research universities, approximately 60 percent were either atheists or agnostics.  So, yes, ~60 is greater than 50 and is a larger number than the general public.  The study also suggested a bit of a surprise:

Scientists are less religious than the general population, a new study shows, but the reason has little to do with their study of science or academic pressures.

The findings challenge notions that science is responsible for a lack of faith among researchers, indicating that household upbringing carries the biggest weight in determining religiousness.

"Our study data do not strongly support the idea that scientists simply drop their religious identities upon professional training, due to an inherent conflict between science and faith, or to institutional pressure to conform," said Elaine Howard Ecklund, a sociologist at the University at Buffalo and co-author of the study.

That fits with my observations.  It's too simple to say that faith and science are incompatible and the scientific pursuits necessarily drive out faith.  Other factors are important, so I shouldn't be surprised that many of my scientist-pals in the mid-west, middle-America are people of faith despite the stereotype.

I'm sure if I looked a little harder, I could find plenty of evidence to the contrary (for example, this site quotes from various sources to draw different conclusions), and I'm not at all surprised that scientists tend to be less religious than the general population.  But I'm also convinced that the science vs faith divide isn't as cut and dried as conventional wisdom might claim.

- Jonathan

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