As reported in the New York Times science section last tuesday, the current edition of the journal Nature contains a very interesting article by Dr. Larry Young of the Primate Research Center at Emory University. Entitled, "Anti-Love Drug May Be Ticket to Bliss", it describes the findings of Dr. Young at his primate research center on the neochemistry of the "feeling" of love. The possible benefits? The future could see a pharmaceutical meant to bring about the feelings of love for a particular person. The proposal by NY times writer John Tierney is equally fascinating - an "anti-love" potion that will, as he states, "prevent you from making an infatuated ass out of yourself" (I love that line!).
Essentially, when we fall in love, we get stupid. The feeling of falling in love is actually akin to obsessive compulsive personality disorder. We cling, get ridiculously giddy and in the process often become dependent on the object of our affections. This can be a good thing - falling in love often "tricks" our minds into marriage and forms a lifelong bond. However, it can be extremely detrimental to ourselves and our relationships as well. More and more people have begun to associate the feelings of romantic love with "true" love. If they don't feel it then something must be wrong. Is this a product of our increasingly materialistic culture? Is it related to our demand for high speed feedback and our fast paced lifestyle? I don't know if there is any causation or correlation in that regard, though I could speculate that there must be some relation.
My grandparents generation was much different - I don't mean to say it was a "better time" or even a "simpler time" - different is as much as you can say. Society was different, technology was different - Certainly communication was much more limited without cell phones and the internet - all those people you re-connected with on Facebook? You probably never would have seen or heard from them again. There is also the movement of females from the kitchen to the workforce (PLEASE - Im making no statement whatsoever on the women's liberation movement - merely poiting out the factual differences between generations!). More women working meant more men and women spending time with the opposite gender at work (and less time at home with their spouses). I'm not about to go out on a neo-darwinistic limb and suggest that there is something biological regarding people's propensity for infidelity. In all seriousness, it is my belief that in addition to our genetic pre-dispostions to certain behaviors there is the all-powerful "human" x-factor - There is something very different from us as humans than there is from the rest of the natural world. Some people associate with religion, some people just believe in a soul but most people would be hard-pressed (except maybe noted atheist Richard Dawkins)to deny that there is a "specialness" to us that must lie in some other factor. Of course, my thinking that we are special could also be an evolved response, a gene that causes my brain to think that way. Personally, I'd like to believe in free will.
Tha being said, the idea of a real "love potion" is pretty intriguing. Give yourself a booster in tandem with some good old fashioned marriage therapy and PRESTO!! back on the honeymoon!! I don't know that it would come that easily but certainly hormones and chemicals can play with our brains, alter our moods and ultimately help us to be in a better position to make decisions and think about our lives. Conversely, the idea of an "anti-love potion" is interesting as well - go to the self help section of any book store and you can find countless books on the warning of becoming too intimate with the wrong person - with this a little shot and boom - the person might as well be a virus that you are vaccinated against.
Interesting, possibly very scary stuff. Of course, the first thing I thought of when I read the article was the Planters commercial from the super bowl last year - just think if this girl got her hands on the real love potion!!
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
The debate that should not be
Passion. Not as in the story of Christ's suffering on the cross. Passion that is a complete and utter emotional explosion towards a certain topic, person, or place. When it comes to passion about excellence at his life's calling, I think of my Dad. I once described my friend Mike as being one of the most passionate individuals I know about life in general. I am extremely passionate about a small number of topics (and I'm not talking about my passion or love for the people in my life here - to ALL of them, and you know who you are, my love is immeasurable).
Anyway, one such topic is the theory of evolution. Another topic is religion, specifically the tenets of Roman Catholicism, and aligning or examining them to find a spiritual path in life that leads me to a more fulfilling and meaningful existence not only to myself but to as many other people as possible. I list these ideas separately because while I consider both of them with a great deal of interest and occasionally find it difficult to resolve both issues together, I ultimately feel that they are separate issues that are guided by a completely different set of principles. Evolution is called a theory, but not in the colloquial sense of, "I have a theory that the Red Sox will continue to win championships at a rate greater than the damn Yankees did for all those stinking years". A scientific theory has been proven. and proven. and proven. and then proven some more. It is based on evidence and the most widely accepted theory for the origin and diversification of species is the theory of evolution by natural selection. Religion however is based on faith. To use the same example as before, Red Sox fans (my Dad and Grandfather much more so than myself and my brothers) had an exorbitant amount of faith for years of believing that "next year will be the year". Little children have faith in Santa Claus, and it is a valid, strongly held belief that can change their behavior come Christmas time. In all seriousness, a deep faith is believing in something that by definition cannot be proven. Right or wrong. Nobody I know has ever physically met Jesus Christ. Sure, in that metaphorical sense, we might see Jesus in the beggar on the street or in the kind stranger who offers a helping hand. However, none of us has been offered, as Thomas the Apostle was, the chance to put our hands in Jesus' wounds so that we may believe in him.
So you see, its pretty simple - science deals with proving things. Religion deals with faith in things that cannot be proven (that would make it easy, don't ya think!). Why bring up this obvious difference? Because people are scared to death of the teaching of evolution and it has no boiled over into Hollywood. Ben Stein is set to release, "Expelled - No Intelligence Allowed" http://www.expelledthemovie.com/home.php on April 18th. Check out the trailer - guess what? - Scientists who "believe" in evolution (its not a belief people) can't sufficiently explain the origin of all life on earth. They can't! No scientist can. At least not yet. But "Intelligent Design" or "Creationism" can and this movie wants it to have its place in the classrooms and textbooks of America. Now I mentioned Evolution before - a topic I am very passionate about. By no means can I explain, nor do I claim to understand all the mechanisms by which Evolution and Natural Selection work. Since the movie is about "Intelligent Design" let me see if I can explain how these "scientists" think that life originated on earth.
God did it.
No, no wait, got that wrong.
An intelligent designer did it.
Did you see that? They just told us how it all happened! He DID it. See the higher order thinking there? - they actually explained HOW it was done without explaining HOW this unnamed deity did it! Thats what you want in MY science classroom? You have got to be joking. This movie will do a great disservice to the multitudes of people who do not have a fair understanding of the meaning of science and of evolution. Go ahead - believe that God, Zeus, Apollo, or the damn Easter Bunny created life and the Earth - Science can NEVER prove you wrong! Any decent scientist, even Richard Dawkins, the most controversial Atheist Scientist and author of "The God Delusion" would admit this. Sure, hes not going to hold your hand into your chosen place of worship, but why do we need people holding our hands? Believe what you want to believe and let science be science ONLY!
I cannot teach a science class, even one in a catholic school, that life was created by God. I can mention the controversy. But no science teacher should ever teach intelligent design. I say this not because evolution has too many holes and I am afraid but because ID and creationism are matters of faith. So scientists don't have a decent answer for the origin of life. Life has been around for BILLIONS of years. How long have we been studying HIV? And we don't have a cure yet?! How about the common cold? No? You have to be kidding - we can't figure these things out?
Science is a process and it benefits from continuous dialogue and disagreement. Religion and faith are matters of personal opinion that unfortunately spark a type of passion, in some, that manages to contradict the original purpose of the institution. Wars have been and continue to be fought in the name of "faith". Enough is enough people. Lets evolve as a species and come to an intellectual peace treaty. My fellow scientists and religious people, I ask you, "What beliefs do you feel passion for? Can they ALL be proven? Most importantly, can you give up your need to be right and enjoy the peace of believing what you believe?"
Anyway, one such topic is the theory of evolution. Another topic is religion, specifically the tenets of Roman Catholicism, and aligning or examining them to find a spiritual path in life that leads me to a more fulfilling and meaningful existence not only to myself but to as many other people as possible. I list these ideas separately because while I consider both of them with a great deal of interest and occasionally find it difficult to resolve both issues together, I ultimately feel that they are separate issues that are guided by a completely different set of principles. Evolution is called a theory, but not in the colloquial sense of, "I have a theory that the Red Sox will continue to win championships at a rate greater than the damn Yankees did for all those stinking years". A scientific theory has been proven. and proven. and proven. and then proven some more. It is based on evidence and the most widely accepted theory for the origin and diversification of species is the theory of evolution by natural selection. Religion however is based on faith. To use the same example as before, Red Sox fans (my Dad and Grandfather much more so than myself and my brothers) had an exorbitant amount of faith for years of believing that "next year will be the year". Little children have faith in Santa Claus, and it is a valid, strongly held belief that can change their behavior come Christmas time. In all seriousness, a deep faith is believing in something that by definition cannot be proven. Right or wrong. Nobody I know has ever physically met Jesus Christ. Sure, in that metaphorical sense, we might see Jesus in the beggar on the street or in the kind stranger who offers a helping hand. However, none of us has been offered, as Thomas the Apostle was, the chance to put our hands in Jesus' wounds so that we may believe in him.
So you see, its pretty simple - science deals with proving things. Religion deals with faith in things that cannot be proven (that would make it easy, don't ya think!). Why bring up this obvious difference? Because people are scared to death of the teaching of evolution and it has no boiled over into Hollywood. Ben Stein is set to release, "Expelled - No Intelligence Allowed" http://www.expelledthemovie.com/home.php on April 18th. Check out the trailer - guess what? - Scientists who "believe" in evolution (its not a belief people) can't sufficiently explain the origin of all life on earth. They can't! No scientist can. At least not yet. But "Intelligent Design" or "Creationism" can and this movie wants it to have its place in the classrooms and textbooks of America. Now I mentioned Evolution before - a topic I am very passionate about. By no means can I explain, nor do I claim to understand all the mechanisms by which Evolution and Natural Selection work. Since the movie is about "Intelligent Design" let me see if I can explain how these "scientists" think that life originated on earth.
God did it.
No, no wait, got that wrong.
An intelligent designer did it.
Did you see that? They just told us how it all happened! He DID it. See the higher order thinking there? - they actually explained HOW it was done without explaining HOW this unnamed deity did it! Thats what you want in MY science classroom? You have got to be joking. This movie will do a great disservice to the multitudes of people who do not have a fair understanding of the meaning of science and of evolution. Go ahead - believe that God, Zeus, Apollo, or the damn Easter Bunny created life and the Earth - Science can NEVER prove you wrong! Any decent scientist, even Richard Dawkins, the most controversial Atheist Scientist and author of "The God Delusion" would admit this. Sure, hes not going to hold your hand into your chosen place of worship, but why do we need people holding our hands? Believe what you want to believe and let science be science ONLY!
I cannot teach a science class, even one in a catholic school, that life was created by God. I can mention the controversy. But no science teacher should ever teach intelligent design. I say this not because evolution has too many holes and I am afraid but because ID and creationism are matters of faith. So scientists don't have a decent answer for the origin of life. Life has been around for BILLIONS of years. How long have we been studying HIV? And we don't have a cure yet?! How about the common cold? No? You have to be kidding - we can't figure these things out?
Science is a process and it benefits from continuous dialogue and disagreement. Religion and faith are matters of personal opinion that unfortunately spark a type of passion, in some, that manages to contradict the original purpose of the institution. Wars have been and continue to be fought in the name of "faith". Enough is enough people. Lets evolve as a species and come to an intellectual peace treaty. My fellow scientists and religious people, I ask you, "What beliefs do you feel passion for? Can they ALL be proven? Most importantly, can you give up your need to be right and enjoy the peace of believing what you believe?"
Thursday, April 3, 2008
To blog or not to blog... and the good alms giving.
In continuing in the ass-backwards tradition of following in my little brothers footsteps (Kev - you are the ultimate trend setter!), I am joining the world of blogs. While I'm not sure it will be nearly as comedic as brother Kevin's, nor as constructively critical of the world of surgery as father Tom's, I hope my own blog will provide an intellectual and sensory potpourri of thoughts to be shared with you, my adoring audience. In perusing the myriad of random thoughts racing through my head for my first post, I've landed on one unique experience I've had over the past couple weeks. Enjoy and continue to tune in....
About a month ago, I arrived home to my apartment in the early evening, around 5:45. The sun was out and it was unseasonably warm. Kids were skateboarding and couples were walking the paths through my apartment complex. When I parked my car, I noticed that someone had thrown eggs at the car next to me, and that it looked like it had been done recently. I shook my head. "Damn kids," I said, before slapping myself in the face for sounding so OLD. Whatever, I'm bald, I have no more fun birthdays left, and these eggs ticked me off.
So what if one of my neighbors actually watched me take my dog out and NOT pick up her poop, then went outside to "double check" (the poop! can you imagine?!) and report me to the apartment office. So what if the guy living upstairs left his washing machine on and somehow dumped all the water down onto MY ceiling and soaked everything. So what if my refrigerator broke after buying 50 bucks worth of meat, seafood and ice cream that went bad. This was about friggin solidarity - no measly prankster kids were going to get away with egging one of MY neighbors cars!!
I dropped my stuff off and took my dog out (all the while looking over my back for the poopy spy!!). I checked the egg on the car and the shells were falling off with ease. This was a nice car. This guys paint was going to be damaged. The eagle scout within me cried out, "Do your good turn daily, damn it!" I gathered some wet paper towels and headed out. Without looking too creepy hovering over this strangers car, I did my best to remove all the shells and sticky egg (keep in my mind that people have written on my car "wash me" about ten times and it has been caked over with even MORE dirt, but thats a different blog post). I did a nice job overall - all but a little yolk came off!
I came inside and wrote a nice little note to the stranger:
To the owner of the Honda:
Unfortunately, somebody egged your car today and since I was not sure of where you lived, I felt compelled to wash the egg of your car myself. I did the best I could but some remained.
Its unfortunate somebody around here did that to your property.
Take care,
Dan - Apt. 13-104
I put the note under his windshield wiper and walked in feeling good that I had done something nice for somebody. Thats what I'm supposed to feel right? I mean, Jesus said that, "“When thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth” Well both hands knew what they were doing, but I wasn't going around trying to broadcast what I had done. In fact, I only left a note because I didn't want him being all confused seeing this clean spot on his car with yellow crap all over the ground!
So I left for work every morning seeing this note on the guys car - "wow, I'm sure glad I cleaned that egg off - it surely would be caked on for good," I said after a couple hot days. Then it rained, the note got soaked. Then it got hot again, the note dried out. I could see the ink coming through the other side of the paper when I walked by. Every day, I looked. Every day the car remained in the same exact position, with the note slowly becoming an actual part of the windshield.
Finally, one morning, the note was gone. But the car hadn't moved. Not an inch. There was a storm the night before and I'm sure it was blown away. There is still egg all over the street. Theres still a nice clean spot next to the guys driver side door. But nothing explaining the good deed that brought us all here.
And so, my fellow philosophers, just as one asks, "If a tree falls in the forest, and nobody is there to hear it, does it make a sound?", so I ask you, "If a man doest alms, and nobody ever receives said alms, what good are the damn alms?!"
About a month ago, I arrived home to my apartment in the early evening, around 5:45. The sun was out and it was unseasonably warm. Kids were skateboarding and couples were walking the paths through my apartment complex. When I parked my car, I noticed that someone had thrown eggs at the car next to me, and that it looked like it had been done recently. I shook my head. "Damn kids," I said, before slapping myself in the face for sounding so OLD. Whatever, I'm bald, I have no more fun birthdays left, and these eggs ticked me off.
So what if one of my neighbors actually watched me take my dog out and NOT pick up her poop, then went outside to "double check" (the poop! can you imagine?!) and report me to the apartment office. So what if the guy living upstairs left his washing machine on and somehow dumped all the water down onto MY ceiling and soaked everything. So what if my refrigerator broke after buying 50 bucks worth of meat, seafood and ice cream that went bad. This was about friggin solidarity - no measly prankster kids were going to get away with egging one of MY neighbors cars!!
I dropped my stuff off and took my dog out (all the while looking over my back for the poopy spy!!). I checked the egg on the car and the shells were falling off with ease. This was a nice car. This guys paint was going to be damaged. The eagle scout within me cried out, "Do your good turn daily, damn it!" I gathered some wet paper towels and headed out. Without looking too creepy hovering over this strangers car, I did my best to remove all the shells and sticky egg (keep in my mind that people have written on my car "wash me" about ten times and it has been caked over with even MORE dirt, but thats a different blog post). I did a nice job overall - all but a little yolk came off!
I came inside and wrote a nice little note to the stranger:
To the owner of the Honda:
Unfortunately, somebody egged your car today and since I was not sure of where you lived, I felt compelled to wash the egg of your car myself. I did the best I could but some remained.
Its unfortunate somebody around here did that to your property.
Take care,
Dan - Apt. 13-104
I put the note under his windshield wiper and walked in feeling good that I had done something nice for somebody. Thats what I'm supposed to feel right? I mean, Jesus said that, "“When thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth” Well both hands knew what they were doing, but I wasn't going around trying to broadcast what I had done. In fact, I only left a note because I didn't want him being all confused seeing this clean spot on his car with yellow crap all over the ground!
So I left for work every morning seeing this note on the guys car - "wow, I'm sure glad I cleaned that egg off - it surely would be caked on for good," I said after a couple hot days. Then it rained, the note got soaked. Then it got hot again, the note dried out. I could see the ink coming through the other side of the paper when I walked by. Every day, I looked. Every day the car remained in the same exact position, with the note slowly becoming an actual part of the windshield.
Finally, one morning, the note was gone. But the car hadn't moved. Not an inch. There was a storm the night before and I'm sure it was blown away. There is still egg all over the street. Theres still a nice clean spot next to the guys driver side door. But nothing explaining the good deed that brought us all here.
And so, my fellow philosophers, just as one asks, "If a tree falls in the forest, and nobody is there to hear it, does it make a sound?", so I ask you, "If a man doest alms, and nobody ever receives said alms, what good are the damn alms?!"
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