The blunted point of this video: religion is about faithfully following and constraining curiosity, while science is about aggressively questioning and holding nothing sacred.

Science is also about atheistic materialism. The idea of the supernatural cause is rejected apriori:

No evidence would be sufficient to create a change in mind; that it is not a commitment to evidence, but a commitment to naturalism. ...Because there are no alternatives, we would almost have to accept natural selection as the explanation of life on this planet even if there were no evidence for it.

Steven Pinker MIT
How the mind works p.182

It is not that the methods and institutions of science somehow compel us to accept a material explanation of the phenomenal world, but, on the contrary, we are forced by our a priori adherence to material causes to create an apparatus of investigation and set of concepts that produce material explanations, no matter how counterintuitive, no matter how mystifying to the unitiated. Moreover, that materialism is absolute, for we cannot allow a Divine foot in the door.

Richard Lewontin, Harvard
New York Review of Books 1/9/97

Religion itself serves no purpose. Going to church, partaking in sacraments, putting on a public face of piety, these are the dead works of men. The heart of Christianity is to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, to know God intimately and experientially. It is not religion but relationship.

A point I would add is that in human societies there may be a time and a place for each, but they will still each question the value of the other.

At the outset, they were friends to one another. The idea of an orderly Universe based on universal laws is a Christian idea, and so is the idea that we can suss out those ideas by investigating secondary causes. Science really got its start in Christian europe. Though they are portrayed as rivals now, it is truly a false dichotomy. I think John Lennox explains this best:



What we should be talking about then is the individual common ground, in your own head, between these two things. You describe a more Unitarian God, responsible for creating/upholding the laws of a changing Universe, and nothing else. I might describe a God with far less impact or far greater impact on human lives here on Earth (...or hundreds of Gods along a God power-spectrum). I might also specify some particular stories about how I know my God to be the true God.

At their essence, I don't think there is any conflict. Religion tells us about who the Creator is while science tries to explain how He did it. The bible isn't a book about science, although it contains some scientific principles. It is a book that describes what God wants from us, why He created us. Science shows us His marvels, it tells us why the stars shine so brightly, it reveals their secret power.

The God I believe in is a personal God who created us for a purpose. His desire is for us to know Him personally and attain to eternal life through His Son Jesus Christ. I believe He is the true God because He transformed my life and being, made me whole by His love, and because I received the direct witness of the Holy Spirit. Everyone who believes in Jesus Christ will receive the witness of the Holy Spirit and then Gods existence will become undeniably true. God Himself provides the evidence if you approach Him in faith.

On the other side is Science, where neither bullshit nor treasured dogma are valued once proven wrong. Your world is composed of atoms, which we've taken pictures of, and we've landed robots on another planet... but where we wonder what the meaning of any of this is, and how long its going to be before we screw it up.

The idea that science is an objective enterprise is a myth. This isn't about the best evidence.

A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it”

Max Planck

If you want to challenge the status quo, you need the support of the status quo. It's a closed system. You're not getting any grants or getting published unless you're towing the line on the conventional wisdom of the day. Check out some of the finds that modern science conveniently ignores..



Evidence starts around 10:00 or so

Also check out this book:

http://www.amazon.com/Exploding-Myth-Conventional-Wisdom-Scientific/dp/1904275303

>> ^bamdrew:

>> ^hpqp:

You have to lurk the Sift lounge to learn the secret powers of kitty emoticons
>> ^thegrimsleeper:
>> ^hpqp:
ItchyKitty has some quality me time

How the eff did you make that smiley?

You have to lurk the Sift lounge to learn the secret powers of kitty emoticons

>> ^thegrimsleeper:

>> ^hpqp:
ItchyKitty has some quality me time

How the eff did you make that smiley?

>> ^geo321:




Yes, for those who have access.

*bugs

Piegon told me it is also on Hulu: http://www.hulu.com/ants-natures-secret-power ! English too!

*bugs

Piegon told me it is also on Hulu: http://www.hulu.com/ants-natures-secret-power !

Nice! It's on Hulu. Wow!

Hey, how are you? I thought you flew away forever!


In reply to this comment by pigeon:
ominous...

http://www.hulu.com/ants-natures-secret-power

p.

>> ^gwiz665:

@<a rel="nofollow" href="http://videosift.com/member/ant" title="member since March 2nd, 2006" class="profilelink"><strong style="color: rgb(0, 136, 0);">ant & @<a rel="nofollow" href="http://videosift.com/member/geo321" title="member since December 3rd, 2008" class="profilelink">geo321 rubies and above can embed from anywhere... anywhere as long as its a flash embed. I've embedded redtube before.. but been struck down in sift-court.


Sorry, I meant I didn't know MegaVideo had embedding code to use here.

>> ^geo321:

I had no idea we could embed megavideo on VS. Nice.


Yeah, me either. Maybe it's recent?

>> ^geo321:

He did I think.
Edit: (but apparently in french) >> ^shagen454:
I can't believe Ant didn't post this!



Yep, http://videosift.com/video/Ants-Natures-Secret-Power-An-ant-documentary ...

I saw this one on MegaVideo, but don't remember it being embeddable. I can't replace mine since it is already posted. No big deal. He can have the English one while I keep French one.

Cheers ant, that's nice of you! I didn't know dupeof would not allow you to claim the new video.
Have a good weekend!

In reply to this comment by ant:
I can't repair mine since you already took the embed code. That's OK, mine is long dead. Keep yours. I voted yours.

In reply to this comment by Laekroth:
Hi Ant!

Found a new source of your documentary "Ants - NAture's Secrets Power". I Couldn't fix the link so posted a new video. Claim dupe if you want to repair yours. It's a great docu!

link to mine:
http://videosift.com/video/Ants-Nature-s-Secret-Power-Full-documentary

He did I think.
Edit: (but apparently in french) >> ^shagen454:

I can't believe Ant didn't post this!

I can't repair mine since you already took the embed code. That's OK, mine is long dead. Keep yours. I voted yours.

In reply to this comment by Laekroth:
Hi Ant!

Found a new source of your documentary "Ants - NAture's Secrets Power". I Couldn't fix the link so posted a new video. Claim dupe if you want to repair yours. It's a great docu!

link to mine:
http://videosift.com/video/Ants-Nature-s-Secret-Power-Full-documentary

Hi Ant!

Found a new source of your documentary "Ants - NAture's Secrets Power". I Couldn't fix the link so posted a new video. Claim dupe if you want to repair yours. It's a great docu!

link to mine:
http://videosift.com/video/Ants-Nature-s-Secret-Power-Full-documentary

@chilaxe @NetRunner

I've been stupid busy all week, but would've loved to talk about this stuff with you two.

About importing poverty...have either of you heard of this thesis? I gather that it has been tested, but I haven't seen that evidence myself.

Dopamine, a pleasure-inducing brain chemical, is linked with curiosity, adventure, entrepreneurship, and helps drive results in uncertain environments. Populations generally have about 2% of their members with high enough dopamine levels with the curiosity to emigrate. Ergo, immigrant nations like the U.S. and Canada, and increasingly the UK, have high dopamine-intensity populations.


It's been cited numerous times in things I've read, including in the infamous citigroup plutonomy memos:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/6674234/Citigroup-Oct-16-2005-Plutonomy-Report-Part-1

High dopamine is also associated with risk-taking. The citigroup guys were obviously citing it as though being an immigrant nation was going to save us in uncertain times. However, regardless of which theories or hypotheses you subscribe to or hear about, there's something quite different about people who emigrate. Taking that idea further, you have to separate people who emigrated en masse because of rather forced conditions (tons of Irish people during the potato famine, Polish/Lithuanian people in the early 1900s, etc) and individuals who emigrate simply because they're after more money/opportunity.

I've also read some stuff that indicates dopamine levels affect your perception of time. Schizophrenics have really high dopamine levels, which causes their internal clock to speed up, and it alters their perception of time. This is interesting in relation to the dopamine/emigration theory because of Philip Zimbardo's work on perception of time and how it relates to personality.

Plus, Zimbardo's work is just interesting, period:
http://videosift.com/video/The-Secret-Powers-of-Time
http://fora.tv/2008/11/12/Philip_Zimbardo_The_Time_Paradox

Another article about time perception with a few mentions of dopamine, drugs, etc.
http://delontin1.wordpress.com/2008/01/24/stretch-time/

Anyway, not to derail things, but it's mostly on topic with all the earlier discussion of brain stuff. I really think perception of time affects our personality in profound ways, and it's clear that brain chemistry affects our perception of time. I also think there's evidence that there can be overall brain chemistry trends in populations which have interesting implications.