Copernicus reburied as a hero

Another noble step forward by the Roman Catholic Church made our free minds drunk and leaves many questions. Nicolaus Copernicus, once condemned as heretic, is reburied and honoured as a hero.

Last saturday, may 22nd 2010. in Frombork, POland, 467 years after his death and inappreciabled funeral, revolutionary astronomer, physician and cleric Nicolaus Copernicus is posthumous reburied during magnificent ceremony in the presence of clergy, scholars, students and others.

Copernicus' work was one of the historical "tectonic" quakes in a row initiated by giants like Martin Luther. Nicolaus Copernicus and Luther were heroes dare enough to make difficult questions and present it to one-minded institution, ask validity of authorities and dogmas, allowing human intelect to fly and explore vast area of truth. Their courage is weakened then militant and irrational fundamentalism, and fed and strengthened minds like Brahe, Kepler, Newton...

Indicative are the words of the local bishop Jacek Jezierski: "Today's funeral has a symbolic value in that it is a gesture toward reconciliation of science and faith." The point is debatable, but worthy of consideration.

Free-minded people are happy of such a glad tidings, so much that we feel dizzy in the head and skin goose bumps. But we also understand that we live in a time when some new dogmas are established, some new fundamentalists, who have not aegis of the Vatican, show their teeth and threaten. We already have innocent victims, both of believers and secular. Does this mean that we will unfortunately have another martyrs? And what is worse, does that mean that our beloved institutions need a new 467 years of God's grace to get to their mind?

God forbid!

Jesus in a lung

"Jesus is in us!" - Jesus is, actually, in the lungs. Her or his, it is unknown at the moment. What is known there is the image from a thoracic spine examination by Christopher Vittore and Kevin Tribble, radiologists in Rockford, Ilinois and clinical assistant professors at University of Illinois College of Medicine. This was performed on an open MRI machine, a General Electric Signa 0.35 Tesla MRI scanner. Don't bother convincing me this is an Photoshop hoax - who cares for hoaxes, anyway? 
 
And to whom we should trust? They preached for centuries Jesus is in our hearts. After that, doing his missionary work along with Mary, he begins to appear unexpectedly on the walls, animal fur, pancakes... I rather prefer the last option, in the lungs. It is closer to the heart. And smokers have a stronger motivation to quit smoking immediately in order not to cast the Lord out of their bodies. Now you have a nice reason to quit smoking because you overslept the Sunday when reverend taught about our bodies being the temple of the Holy Spirit. 
 
The only problem I see is how to worship that lung revelation. When Jesus appears on the wall it isn't difficult to make a chapel out of the house. But what to do with human lungs? How to find the patient that gave us such incredible MRI image? And what if we find him/her? Worship, give our money, listen, touch him/her toward solution of our problems? How mentally burned or intellectually inferior we must be to do such a things? 
 
If we can't solve our problems by means of healthy faith and healthy reasoning, we are in trouble because nothing and no one can help us, not even mysterious patient with Jesus in the lungs, especially not stains on the walls, pancakes and canvases. For a healthy faith there is elementary school - Jesus' words in the gospel of John that says about nourishing true faith anywhere regardless "holy places": "But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him." 
 
And if healthy faith doesn't work for you - Christ's rule about inner spiritual relationship with God - there is a simple psychology.  It is well known that humans have developed brain algorithm which we use to automatically assign meanings to certain patterns we see around us. Newborns in many species learn very quickly to recognize their mother's face among many shapes they see. Thus they are capable of fundamental surviving. Such an algorithm we use afterwards to distinguish good and useful faces from nasty ones that tend to harm us. In the darkness, our mind quickly calculates shapes and movements of the shadows to help us make decision about safe staying or running away from potential predator. Mechanism of patterns we process all the time is "guilty" of seeing the "face" on the Moon, but also for most religious appearances (the other situations based on strange chemicals and states of mind not covered here), so we are capable to se an illusion about Jesus in the lungs out of body tissue on the mentioned MRI image. 
 
Spiritual and intellectual education is enabling us for healthy critical thinking in order not to wander from stain to stain, but to repair walls, eat pancakes and keep our lungs healthy.

Message to grads

Keep using your heart, rely on the faith they taught you, but start to use your brain, trust your reason, ask questions.

An excerpt from the speech of scientist Eugenie C. Scott, may 15th 2010. during ceremony of receiving honorary degree from The University of Missouri, Columbia:

"I'm a scientist, and I believe strongly that reason, facts, and empirical evidence are essential for making not just scientific decisions, but other decisions as well. How can I encourage you to trust your brain? Well, as I was writing this talk, I read an article in the San Francisco Chronicle by a reporter who attended a psychic fair. He wrote: 'A whole wonderful building full of miracles. Major credit cards accepted... It could be a magic bracelet (results not guaranteed), or a magic stick (your results may vary), or a magic meditation magnet (no refunds)'

And indeed, there were people attending the fair who seemed not to be using their brains very much. One purveyor would, for $100, converse with a customer's dead relatives. As the reporter commented, 'her conversation seemed to be a trifle one-sided'.

Trust your brain. It's useful not just for surviving four years of university, but for deciding lots of things that are important. Like what brand of sunscreen to select, or what policies our elected representatives should follow, or whose fault the Deepwater Horizon oil spill is, as well as whether to believe someone can channel your dead relatives... Trust your brain. Ask questions when people make claims that sound fishy to you — and perhaps even more importantly, when you agree with them... So use your brains, but use your heart, too. You'll be a better functioning organism if you use both of them." (NCSE, may 17th 2010.)

Use your brain, trust your reason. Ask questions when people try to fish you into their superstitions, political parties or sell products. Love, be passionate, trust your heart, but always remember that there are times to put all that aside and start to use brain and ask questions. Our world's future abides in your hands.

Marie Curie about the age of reason

For all of my believing and non-believing friends, in the spirit of this blog, we do salt our society again. This time it's beautifully shaped simple statement of a famous scientist. It sounds almost like an statement inspired by some great wise Spirit and transcends ordinary human life, moving us to try explain the world and it's phenomena, in order for us to be less superstitious. (bold font provided by me)



"Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less."

Thank you...

Marie Curie, French (Polish-born) chemist & physicist (1867 - 1934)