Avenue Odd

Isaac Asimov
(1920-1992) b. Petrovichi, Russia.
(With reference to a correspondent)
The young specialist in English Lit, ...lectured me severely on the fact that in every century people have thought they understood the Universe at last, and in every century they were proved to be wrong. It follows that the one thing we can say about our modern "knowledge" is that it is wrong.

... My answer to him was, "... when people thought the Earth was flat, they were wrong. When people thought the Earth was spherical they were wrong. But if you think that thinking the Earth is spherical is just as wrong as thinking the Earth is flat, then your view is wronger than both of them put together."

Isaac Asimov,The Relativity of Wrong, Kensington Books, New York, 1996, p 226. (1)

If you were a man walking across the campus of Florida State University in 1978, an attractive young woman might have approached you and said these exact words: “I have been noticing you around campus. I find you to be attractive. Would you go to bed with me tonight?”

If you were that man, you probably would have thought that you had just gotten incredibly lucky. But not really. You were actually an unwitting subject in an experiment designed by the psychologist Russell Clark.

Clark had persuaded the students of his social psychology class to help him find out which gender, in a real-life situation, would be more receptive to a sexual offer from a stranger. The only way to find out, he figured, was to actually get out there and see what would happen. So young men and women from his class fanned out across campus and began propositioning strangers.

The results weren’t very surprising. Seventy-five percent of guys were happy to oblige an attractive female stranger (and those who said no typically offered an excuse such as, “I’m married”). But not a single woman accepted the identical offer of an attractive male. In fact, most of them demanded the guy leave her alone.

At first the psychological community dismissed Clark’s experiment as a trivial stunt, but gradually his experiment gained first acceptance, and then praise for how dramatically it revealed the differing sexual attitudes of men and women. Today it’s considered a classic. But why men and women display such different attitudes remains as hotly debated as ever.

Year upon year we strive towards so-called sexual equality. Can such an ideal equilibrium even exist?

Read an article about what the way you sleep says about you as a person, and thought it might be fun to share, so here goes

Foetus

Those who curl up in the foetus position are described as tough on the outside but sensitive at heart. They may be shy when they first meet somebody, but soon relax. This is the most common sleeping position, adopted by 41% of the 1,000 people who took part in the survey. More than twice as many women as men tend to adopt this position.

Log

Lying on your side with both arms down by your side. These sleepers are easy going, social people who like being part of the in-crowd, and who are trusting of strangers. However, they may be gullible.

Yearner

People who sleep on their side with both arms out in front are said to have an open nature, but can be suspicious, cynical. They are slow to make up their minds, but once they have taken a decision, they are unlikely ever to change it.

Soldier

Lying on your back with both arms pinned to your sides. People who sleep in this position are generally quiet and reserved. They don't like a fuss, but set themselves and others high standards.

Freefall

Lying on your front with your hands around the pillow, and your head turned to one side. Often gregarious and brash people, but can be nervy and thin-skinned underneath, and don't like criticism, or extreme situations.

Starfish

Lying on your back with both arms up around the pillow. These sleepers make good friends because they are always ready to listen to others, and offer help when needed. They generally don't like to be the centre of attention.

Yes, yes.. I know this is OLD and crummy. Evolution vs. Creationism aka Intelligent Design.

Evolution: From single cell organisms, creatures on earth took different evolutionary paths through processes of natural selection.It all began with the Big Bang. Extinction happens to species that "go down the path to a dead end". It all sounds very logical. Though one question remains, what caused the Big Bang(personally the burning question for me is: are we really all made of stardust?!??!)? Also, even if there is a scientific theory to that (there are many put forward by physicists and astrologers), how did such a process cause life?

Creationism aka Intelligent Design: A supreme being created each and every creature. It sounds like an "easy-way-out" for something that could not be explained by many early "thinkers". Point to note, in many holy scriptures that cite creationism and intelligent design, there are thousands of species of animals that are not mentioned. For example, in the Bible, there was no mention of a creature that resembles a Kangaroo, and yet, there they are getting run over on the expressways of Australia today! This can be attributed to geographical positioning. Since the author(s) of the Bible probably never got a chance to cross the ocean to reach the continent of Australia, they never got to record it and send it into Noah's Ark, but yet.. THERE THEY ARE! This is but one of the many flaws of the argument for Intelligent Design, and allows for rampant skeptism from the scientific field.

While thinking it through, it occurred to me that while evolution seems very logical to me, with all its digestible, tangible evidence; To a person who believes in a God and his supreme power, Creationism actually has logical, empirical evidence - God created us.

The Big Bang theory left me wondering though, so what caused the big bang?

So conclusion for me, an Intelligent Designer CREATED the highly Intelligent Big Bang that will then go on a process of evolution, and what we have now is only part of a timeline.

In short, God created the big bang 3 billion years ago and decided to take a vacation for 500billion years. Now that, my friends, is remarkably effective management.

Do drop a comment on your thoughts, I'm interested to know what others think of such a widely debated issue.

I'm very inclined to say one thing though, Science cannot answer everything. Ask a scientist why are leaves of plants green, and he will tell you that its pigmentation of chlorophyll that plants use in photosynthesis. That is a scientifically accurate answer that has empirical evidence, yet it does not answer the question of purpose or meaning. Purpose and meaning are probably the most elusive of all answers Man seek, answers that Science alone cannot provide. Never mind if God created us or we evolved our superior intelligence - our expansive mind that continually seeks answers is a tool, and Science(addressing quantitative and evident issues) and Spirituality(to address issues of purpose and meaning) merely means to an end(answers). However much they might conflict, they will co-exist. Forever.

*PICTURE WAS UPLOADED BY iuhoaix ON FLICKR.