I am now officially a daywalker!

Dan     changes, commentary, life

Science is not just a candle in the dark, it is the spotlight that can shine light upon the darkest corners of the human mind.

Today was my first 8am day. I had a great morning. Still woke up too damn early, but I figure it will take awhile to get acclimated to waking up later. I spent some time hanging out with the dog, then walked down to the transit center and rode the light rail in to work. Standing room only made it difficult to stand there and read, but I was able to make it through a few pages of Carl Sagan’s The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark. 

Given the difficulty of holding a Kindle on a packed MAX, I decided that podcasts and audio books would be a good supplement to reading materials. So now, I am subscribed to the following podcasts: The Atheist Experience, The Non-Prophets, Godless Bitches, The Geologic Podcast, The Skeptics Guide to the Universe, Common Sense with Dan Carlin, and the Think Atheist podcast. I’ll be looking for some audio books tonight, but I’m open to any recommendations. Same goes for podcasts.

So, as I write this post, I am listening to episode 82 the Think Atheist Radio Show. I’m already excited about this new format. I’ve resisted the medium for years, and I’m not entirely sure why. Since I enjoy talk radio, you’d think that podcasts would be exactly my speed, but I can be quite the stubborn bastard when I choose to be. This episode deals with a skeptic who also does paranormal investigation. I really like that he approaches the subject with an open mind, rather than starting from the assumption that nothing supernatural can exist, even though he has yet to find any evidence of ghosts or the paranormal.

It’s more open-minded than I could be, honestly, because I would be going in to the situation looking to debunk any supernatural claims, rather than trying to see if it’s possible that they could be true. It has been my experience that the acts attributed to ghosts are more easily explained by ignorance of the natural world, rather than any incorporeal being.

As Dr Nickell addresses in the podcast, these supernatural beliefs offer a similar hope to religion– that there is something more than what we can perceive. Aliens make us think that there could be other life in our universe, ghosts offer us a chance at life beyond this one, and psychics give us the false hope that our future may be knowable before we experience it. None of these are true, but there are millions around the world who are comforted by these thoughts. What’s wrong with that?

Everything. Our reality is not malleable or subjective, and we should be driven to find the answers to the hard questions, even if those answers disappoint us. There is enough beauty and wonder and mystery in the universe, we should not have to make it up.

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This has been Day 30 of my blog-a-day goal for the month of October. I hope to write 500 words or more per day, or ~15,000 for the month, to get myself in the habit of writing every day. How do you keep yourself motivated for creative pursuits? It’s definitely something I find difficult.

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