dilemma of faith

As a rational scientist, having judged all arguments, I came to the conclusion that it is favourable for the human being to be religious.
So rationally speaking, I have to be religious.
However 'religion' is a matter of faith, not of rationalism.
oh bugger.
any suggestions for available Gods suitable for rational scientists?

H. sapiens, limited edition

The problem of science: our senses and brain are adapted to survival, not to perceive the absolute and objective truth of all things.

Nature of Paradise

Our brain was big and complex for about 1 million years before we actually started to use it for complex actions and thoughts (tools, burial rites, social structures). Is that epoch the Paradise referred to in the Genesis? Is the apple the consciousness? Or the civilisation?
Paradise lost because consciousness gained?
Paradise lost because civilisation gained?
What about 'uncivilised' tribes? Do they die of stress, of fears? Do they hate their neighbours an does this stop them from sleeping? Are they as afraid of failing to hunt pray as we are of social failure? How afraid are they of disease and death?
In becoming civilised, we have lost the connection with Nature that they had. We have gained civilisation and consciousness instead. Fears of Nature have transformed into fears of civilisation. Have we advanced, or just shifted?

L'enfer, c'est les autres

Is it that our brain is so complex because our social system is so complex, or is our social system so complex, because our brain is so complex?

A better place?

I wonder what our world would be like if it was ruled by Australian aborigines.

From Kafka to Douglas Adams: bureaucracy goes US

Dear John,

As you can read below, the institutes' administrator says my French diploma of a doctor is not enough to certify the award of the diploma of a doctor. She wants an original transcript showing all the grades.
I replied that the diploma of a doctor can not show "all the grades", simply because there are no grades; you can only pass it (with certain distinctions), or not pass it. And this is clearly written on it.

She replied that she would then need "a certified letter [in English] from the University stating that they do not provide transcripts with grades and that the diploma is the only source of documentation used to confirm that. "

Needless to say that the lady that deals with this stuff in our University is a) not good in English, b) out of work because of a broken wrist. She may still kindly agree to state the above obvious, and to help her, I suggest the following phrasing for the letter:

"I certify that the University of Montpellier I does not provide original transcripts showing individual grades for the diploma of a doctor, simply because there are no individual grades for the diploma of a doctor.
I certify also that the ‘Diplome de Docteur’ delivered by the University Montpellier I is the only source of documentation used to confirm that the diploma of a doctor has been delivered by the University Montpellier I."

Importantly, this all is NOT to needed certify that I have obtained my diploma of a doctor, because my degree has already been certified by an official US credential evaluation, delivered by a certified (NACES) company.
Yet, even this official credential evaluation appears not enough as an official credential evaluation, because, for the institute, it also needs to contain all the four points:
1) a translation of my diploma
2) verification of accreditation of the foreign university
3) the equivalency of the non-US degree to a US degree
4) my attendance at and graduation from my university

However, my initial credentials evaluation company replied that a credentials evaluation is exactly that. It naturally includes all of the above. The company suggested that my administrator may call them to see what they actually want.

She did not call them, but replied to me "Our department must cover all four points that was provided below." And she suggested that I should use another evaluation company.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!

The Unterpants of Cultural Heritage

Untergunther are an underground organisation of a dozen members specialised in the clandestine restoration of hidden cultural heritage. They only restore pieces that no-one can see. They got a trial for repairing a monumental clockwork that was piled up somewhere in the attic of the Parisian Panthéon . However the process got adjourned, because the court decided that restoring heritage is not an offence. Annoyed, Pascal Monet, the administrator of the Panthéon, took away a central piece of the clock, so that it stopped working.

The Right Choice

Just noticed that Google Ads have chosen to advertise for Retractable Urinals on my blog. I'm not sure that this a compliment for my writing ...

An Ongoing Mess

If after 2 million years of Human evolution most (!) men and woman still can't form harmonic and stable relationships (neither live happily with continuously changing partners) then this means:
a) that this is in fact the best reproductive strategy (i.e. semi-stable relationships produce the highest off-spring rate, due to adultery sex or serial monogamies).
b) that this is an obligatory negative by-product of another very favourable trait (e.g. the difference between men and woman, or individuals in general, allows specialisation into different tasks, which is important for a community).
c) that we have not yet adapted to our current condition (overpopulation and high mobility means extremely frequent encounter of attractive potential partners)
d) that the Gods like to have a laugh sometimes.

India's greatest gift to mankind

Sri Krishna Pattabhi Jois ('Guruji') taught ashtanga yoga for 70 years. Until he was about 60, he barely had any success at all, having only five or less students a time. As he died yesterday, aged 93, his teachings have improved, directly or indirectly, the health and happiness of millions.

May I talk to your inner chimp?

Taken from Nature Newsfeature 29/01/2009: "much of a person’s everyday life is determined not by their conscious intentions and deliberate choices, but by mental processes put into motion by their environment" [...] "humans lived in social groups long before language evolved, and the language function presumably exists on top of a more archaic brain system for non-linguistic social signalling."
So despite our sophisticated linguistic communication, it's still our inner chimp that rules our world. Of course we're clever enough to exploit this knowledge to "improve sales success by as much as 20 %". 20 % more of things we neither want nor need, now that's fantastic progress; congratulation, Homo!

Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité

Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité; For the French, this is not a motto, it is a ranking.
Liberté (to do what ever you want to do, regardless if it harms or annoys anyone): that's the most important!
Far, far behind, there is Egalité (meaning equally low; it is not because you work your bum off that you get more than those who do nothing).
and at the end of the list, there is Fraternité. Nobody knows what that means, really, but it comes at the end, so it shouldn't be important anyway.

SUEs

Unfortunately, our memory of persons tends to be dominated by Single Unpleasant Events (SUEs). Maggi is the one who farted during yoga class, Celine the one who burped at the beginning of a sentence...

Publicity

Publicity, adverts, displayed, played, popping up, appearing everywhere, all over, ever more agitated and noisy. Somehow it feels that these are the last hectic spasms of a dying system. Dying because it at last managed to bite its own bum.

Cacophonie

Science is about observing and deducing.
CONTEXT: The toilets in our new institute are sufficiently hear-through to allow, sitting on one, establishing statistics for the other.
RESULTS: With N>50, I now report that only about 5 % (+/- 2 %) of all toilet visitors wash their hands after usage.
CONCLUSION: While this explains with good confidence the impressive recurrence and spread of gastro-enteritis infections in our institute, further studies are needed to link this behaviour with the reputation of French citizens to be scruffy.

Petri Heil

Petri said: Spirituality is not something you do once in a while in a candle-lit room, wearing baggy clothes and burning incense, but something you do in your daily life.
Here we go.

Majority Problem

The problem of the French: they all want to be in the opposition. they want to be against. All of them...

Give way

This grey morning, I gave way to a lady in the street, in a small passage.
She looked at me and said: "Thank you"
I was surprised.
And then I was surprised that I was surprised.
2012?

Hug a Grandmother

Hey it's Grandmother's day today in France.
Don't forget to hug one on your way home!
Yep, anyone will do. They all deserved to be hugged, especially those with a pink perm.

Convulsive intelligence II

Is the major part of our mind solely devoted to finding remedies to problems our mind itself causes? By inflating our brain beyond reason, our species also inflated our emotions beyond reason. More than any other organism, we love, we hate, we envy, we miss, we regret, we stress, we fear, we are bored, especially on a Sunday, and oh well, and we want more, much more. Homo drama queeniens. As a result we need law, police, the military to regulate, we need science, medicin and psychology to cure from stress, accidents, wars, polution, and we need entertainment. And if nothing helps and we are still unhappy, then we need religion, we need yoga, to calm our mind, and we need drugs. All sorts of drugs.
No other species needs so much fuzz to live and survive happily in big societies. And we're not even particularly happy! Because the more we get the more we need, that's simply how our sensory organs are conceived; only changes are sensed, and only increase is success, keeping the same level means regression. That's how our senses work, and that's how our happiness, our economy and stock exchange fail to work, at least at the moment. No other animal is as much fooled by it's own emotions as we are; but we still think we're more advanced than everybody else. Ask ants if they want our brain -
Ok, I need some holiday!