With a nod to Andy Donato,

Life cycle of ants

Click the image above to learn about the life cycle of the ant!

Whole Lotta Love

Led Zeppelin cover by Elise Testone on American Idol

Sperm Whale Encounter

Short but absolutely awesome video.



Click photo below for full size

Naturalism Explained

Here's a brief description, a paraphrased version of The Center for Naturalism's Statement On Naturalism:

Naturalism is the view that nature exists as a single domain or substance, without resort to obscure notions of the supernatural. While open to all logical possibilities and the many surprises the universe has for us, naturalism is supported by evidence, ongoing empirical observations and common experience. It recognizes that we as humans are fully connected to the rest of the natural world, that we are, on many levels, caused by perceptible and logical natural forces, and through that insight, we are empowered while encouraging the realization of compassion and humility.

Kennt's Pix

Beautiful shots Kennt! Awesome!

(Click on any pic to view larger image gallery)

Political Update

Here's an article in the Washington Post on Santorum's Opus Dei connections. I can just imagine a President Santorum press conference, "Mr President, are you going to renounce the use of torture, including on yourself?"

Not to worry though, "Frothy" will probably take a good whipping at the primaries before that happens.


And in a sign that the end is nigh for his campaign, Santorum bubbled over on camera.
--Thanks to Kennt for the heads up!

Mulcair by more than a whisker
And speaking of self-torture, here in Canada, the NDP finally finished up their botched convention with the election of Thomas Mulcair.

Correction on the family tree

When I was explaining the human family tree I was relying on outdated information. I looked for family tree charts and this one was the clearest. According to this one, homo erectus was not the common ancestor to neanderthals and us, but homo ergaster was the common ancestor to erectus and, via heidelbergensis, eventually to neanderthals and us. Keep in mind that a few of these relationships are not well established and the diagram will likely be adjusted again according to further research.

Still, it doesn't do justice to the fact that homo erectus was spread out throughout the world for almost 2 million years, while we have been around for just 150 to 200 thousand years. Seems hard to believe that they simply died out without leaving some unique genes behind.

Dowling Avenue in Three Centuries

Here's the street where I lived for 17 years -- but not quite that long ago. I found these old pictures of my street in the City of Toronto archives. The one above is from 1890 and is looking south toward Lake Ontario. Note the horse & buggy crossing the tracks. The sunken rail line and road bridge have yet to be built.

This one is from 1920. Now the railway is beneath street level and the bridge allows access to the lake. I like that guy with the boater hat enjoying the view.

And finally one from 2006 that I took right in front of my apartment. There's now the noisy Gardiner Expressway (unseen below street level) and in the distance is Lakeshore Blvd. You can click on this photo to view the gallery full size

Avoiding dogmatic religion by dogmatically condemning it?

In online discussions with Christians, one point often came up from them that atheism or free thought are religions of sorts. I would ask them (rhetorically) what do we have to do to not be a religion.

In asking that question, it does not mean I have a distaste for the word "religion", but that seeing my beliefs about the world came about by applying the simple principle of parsimony or "Occams Razor" or perhaps embodied by the more popular acronym "KISS" -- Keep It Simple Stupid, I can build a very strong case to deny that comparison.

To me, religion implies a multiplicity of independent, and unverifiable beliefs as determined by culture. And conversely, it is easily imagined that a person could grow up without any culture at all , and probably have no belief in a God as a result. It is not a stretch to think that could happen, given a lack of indoctrination. And note that the unindoctrinated person would still have naturalistic beliefs about the natural world, which he/she would inevitably experience.

But religions generally require specific instruction (creed), enculturation and reinforcement (eg. in-group discipline)

Christians may intend to "even out the playing field" in a debate by getting us to admit that atheists as a group are just adherents to another belief system and so have no special status as a philosophical stance. But atheism is not a belief system at all. Rather, it is a natural consequence of naturalism, which in turn is a single unified application of ordinary (and I should stress "limited") reason we use to plan our day. Travelling to work by car, diagnoses of diseases, and gardening are all performed with assumptions consistent with naturalistic methods.

But while it is clear that my principles (and others in our group) are not dogmatic (nor are they wishy washy) there is still a danger of exhibiting the bad parts of strident religion ourselves if we are not mindful. If we're not careful as a free thought group, the "just another religion" accusation of Christians may then have some validity.