The preservation of peace and the guaranteeing of humanity’s basic freedoms and rights requires courage and eternal vigilance: courage to speak and act – and if necessary, to suffer and die – for truth and justice; eternal vigilance, that the least transgression of international morality shall not go undetected and unremedied. These lessons must be learned anew by each succeeding generation, and that generation is fortunate indeed which learns from other than its own bitter experience.
Today is the 120th anniversary of the birth of Haile Selassie I (23 July 1892 – 27 August 1975), whom Wikipedia tells us “is revered as the returned messiah of the Bible, God incarnate, among the Rastafari movement.”
I don’t know much about the Rastafari movement. Rastafarians are sort-of Christian, in the same way that Mormons are sort-of Christian. Unlike Mormons, however, Rastafarians smoke lots of marijuana. In fact, many Rastafarians are too stoned to comb their hair. Bob Marley was a Rastafarian most of his life. One of the best MPs New Zealand ever had was openly Rastafarian. Also, the Rastafari movement is not an organised religion as such. The movement tolerates a diversity of theological views within it. So I figure that Rastafarianism can’t be all that bad!
(Suppose, for the sake of argument.) God created the heavens and the earth … the sun, the moon, the stars, the skies, the land, the seas … the plants, the animals … and mankind. All in the space of six days! (By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work.)
How did he do it?
To some it may seem presumptuous even to ask how God went about the business of creation. But mankind is a curious creature. His inquiring mind wants to know. Humans (some of them) thirst for knowledge for knowledge’s sake. That’s why we have philosophy and science and why, today (thank God), we live in a technologically advanced age. The gains in scientific knowledge made since the Enlightenment are nothing short of stupendous.
And now we know.
We now know, for example, that the several references in the Old Testament to God “stretching out the heavens” refer to the metric expansion of space which is a key feature of Big Bang cosmology. We now know that the Universe had its origin in a moment of creation some 13.75 billion years ago.
Let it be said, however, that cosmology is a better example of human ignorance than human knowledge. We’re still in the dark about so many of the fundamentals. Dark matter and dark energy are aptly named. But in other branches of science we know a great deal more. We know so much, in fact, that we can, and do, “play God”. To illustrate this point, here is a recent news headline.
We’ve mapped the human genome. We’ve mapped the genome of Mycoplasma genitalium and run software simulations of the entire organism. We’ve even constructed artificial life (assuming, of course, that a virus can truly be called a living thing), building it from scratch in a laboratory, one RNA molecule at a time. And this is only the prelude to what is to come.
We know how animals (albeit, very small ones) are made. We know how they work. We can simulate them. We can even build them ourselves.
Where am I heading with this? Actually, this post is for my co-blogger, Tim. God made animals, but he also made the human mind. I anticipate that one day we will find out how the human mind is made. We’ll run a simulation of a human mind on the powerful computers of the not-too-distant future.
What’s Up? 4 Non Blondes.
Twenty-five years and my life is still
Trying to get up that great big hill of hope
For a destination
And I realized quickly when I knew I should
That the world was made up of this brotherhood of man
For whatever that means
And so I cry sometimes
When I’m lying in bed
Just to get it all out
What’s in my head
And I am feeling a little peculiar
And so I wake in the morning
And I step outside
And I take a deep breath and I get real high
And I scream at the top of my lungs
What’s going on?
And I say, hey hey hey hey
I said hey, what’s going on?
ooh, ooh ooh
and I try, oh my god do I try
I try all the time, in this institution
And I pray, oh my god do I pray
I pray every single day
For a revolution
And so I cry sometimes
When I’m lying in bed
Just to get it all out
What’s in my head
And I am feeling a little peculiar
And so I wake in the morning
And I step outside
And I take a deep breath and I get real high
And I scream at the top of my lungs
What’s going on?
And I say, hey hey hey hey
I said hey, what’s going on?
Twenty-five years and my life is still
Trying to get up that great big hill of hope
For a destination
There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.
Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines. (1 Corinthians 12:4-11)
… From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked. (Luke 12:48)
My son, keep my words
and store up my commands within you.
Keep my commands and you will live;
guard my teachings as the apple of your eye.
Bind them on your fingers;
write them on the tablet of your heart.
Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,”
and to insight, “You are my relative.”
They will keep you from the adulterous woman,
from the wayward woman with her seductive words.
At the window of my house
I looked down through the lattice.
I saw among the simple,
I noticed among the young men,
a youth who had no sense.
He was going down the street near her corner,
walking along in the direction of her house
at twilight, as the day was fading,
as the dark of night set in.
Then out came a woman to meet him,
dressed like a prostitute and with crafty intent.
(She is unruly and defiant,
her feet never stay at home;
now in the street, now in the squares,
at every corner she lurks.)
She took hold of him and kissed him
and with a brazen face she said:
“Today I fulfilled my vows,
and I have food from my fellowship offering at home.
So I came out to meet you;
I looked for you and have found you!
I have covered my bed
with colored linens from Egypt.
I have perfumed my bed
with myrrh, aloes and cinnamon.
Come, let’s drink deeply of love till morning;
let’s enjoy ourselves with love!
My husband is not at home;
he has gone on a long journey.
He took his purse filled with money
and will not be home till full moon.”
With persuasive words she led him astray;
she seduced him with her smooth talk.
All at once he followed her
like an ox going to the slaughter,
like a deer stepping into a noose
till an arrow pierces his liver,
like a bird darting into a snare,
little knowing it will cost him his life.
Now then, my sons, listen to me;
pay attention to what I say.
Do not let your heart turn to her ways
or stray into her paths.
Many are the victims she has brought down;
her slain are a mighty throng.
Her house is a highway to the grave,
leading down to the chambers of death. (NIV)
My son, keep your father’s command
and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.
Bind them always on your heart;
fasten them around your neck.
When you walk, they will guide you;
when you sleep, they will watch over you;
when you awake, they will speak to you.
For this command is a lamp,
this teaching is a light,
and correction and instruction
are the way to life,
keeping you from your neighbor’s wife,
from the smooth talk of a wayward woman.
Do not lust in your heart after her beauty
or let her captivate you with her eyes.
For a prostitute can be had for a loaf of bread,
but another man’s wife preys on your very life.
Can a man scoop fire into his lap
without his clothes being burned?
Can a man walk on hot coals
without his feet being scorched?
So is he who sleeps with another man’s wife;
no one who touches her will go unpunished.
People do not despise a thief if he steals
to satisfy his hunger when he is starving.
Yet if he is caught, he must pay sevenfold,
though it costs him all the wealth of his house.
But a man who commits adultery has no sense;
whoever does so destroys himself.
Blows and disgrace are his lot,
and his shame will never be wiped away.
For jealousy arouses a husband’s fury,
and he will show no mercy when he takes revenge.
He will not accept any compensation;
he will refuse a bribe, however great it is. (NIV)
Accounts of unusual sexual activities among penguins, observed a century ago by a member of Captain Scott’s polar team, are finally being made public.
Details, including “sexual coercion”, recorded by George Murray Levick were considered so shocking that they were removed from official accounts.
However, scientists now understand the biological reasons behind the acts that Dr Levick considered “depraved”.
The Natural History Museum has published his unedited papers.
Mr Levick, an avid biologist, was the medical officer on Captain Scott’s ill-fated Terra Nova expedition to the South Pole in 1910. He was a pioneer in the study of penguins and was the first person to stay for an entire breeding season with a colony on Cape Adare.
He recorded many details of the lives of adelie penguins, but some of their activities were just too much for the Edwardian sensibilities of the good doctor.
He was shocked by what he described as the “depraved” sexual acts of “hooligan” males who were mating with dead females. So distressed was he that he recorded the “perverted” activities in Greek in his notebook.
Graphic account
On his return to Britain, Mr Levick attempted to publish a paper entitled “the natural history of the adelie penguin”, but according to Douglas Russell, curator of eggs and nests at the Natural History Museum, it was too much for the times.
“He submitted this extraordinary and graphic account of sexual behaviour of the adelie penguins, which the academic world of the post-Edwardian era found a little too difficult to publish,” Mr Russell said.
The sexual behaviour section was not included in the official paper, but the then keeper of zoology at the museum, Sidney Harmer, decided that 100 copies of the graphic account should be circulated to a select group of scientists.
Mr Russell said they simply did not have the scientific knowledge at that time to explain Mr Levick’s accounts of what he termed necrophilia.
“What is happening there is not in any way analogous to necrophilia in the human context,” Mr Russell said. “It is the males seeing the positioning that is causing them to have a sexual reaction.
“They are not distinguishing between live females who are awaiting congress in the colony, and dead penguins from the previous year which just happen to be in the same position.”
Sexual coercion
Only two of the original 100 copies of Mr Levick’s account survive. Mr Russell and colleagues have now published a re-interpretation of Mr Levick’s findings in the journal Polar Record.
Mr Russell described how he had discovered one of the copies by accident.
“I just happened to be going through the file on George Murray Levick when I shifted some papers and found underneath them this extraordinary paper which was headed ‘the sexual habits of the adelie penguin, not for publication’ in large black type.
“It’s just full of accounts of sexual coercion, sexual and physical abuse of chicks, non-procreative sex, and finishes with an account of what he considers homosexual behaviour, and it was fascinating.”
The report and Mr Levick’s handwritten notes are now on display at the Natural History Museum for the first time. Mr Russell believes they show a man who struggled to understand penguins as they really are.
“He’s just completely shocked. He, to a certain extent, falls into the same trap as an awful lot of people in seeing penguins as bipedal birds and seeing them as little people. They’re not. They are birds and should be interpreted as such.”
There’s a lot of food for thought in this report.
The current curator of eggs and nests at the Natural History Museum, Douglas Russell, tells us that the then keeper of zoology at the same museum, Sidney Harmer, decided that George Murray Levick’s paper, Sexual Habits of the Adelie Penguin, “was too much for the times.” Apparently, though, Russell thinks it’s still too much for the times. He seems to think it necessary to remark that when live penguins fuck dead penguins it’s not actually penguin necrophilia. “What is happening there is not in any way analogous to necrophilia in the human context,” Mr Russell said.
Not analogous? Not in any way? Really? Frankly, I can’t see how penguins having sex with dead penguins is in any way disanalogous to humans having sex with dead humans. Sick penguins, sick humans.
Russell goes on to describe Levick as “a man who struggled to understand penguins as they really are.” He says that Levick, “to a certain extent, falls into the same trap as an awful lot of people in seeing penguins as bipedal birds and seeing them as little people. They’re not.”
They’re not? What about Happy Feet?! Why on earth shouldn’t we anthropomorphise penguins? We anthropomorphise people, don’t we?! Times change. Nowadays, being likened to a penguin is more offensive than a graphic account of necrophilia. What’s the world coming to?
Russell gives his alternative account of the live penguins’ non-necrophilic sexual relations with dead penguins. “It is the males seeing the positioning that is causing them to have a sexual reaction. They are not distinguishing between live females who are awaiting congress in the colony, and dead penguins from the previous year which just happen to be in the same position.” Russell, you see, claims to have “the scientific knowledge” that Levick, a century earlier, lacked.
But does he? How does Russell know that the penguins “are not distinguishing” between live and dead penguins? I’d say the penguins are well aware, but do it for the lulz. Perhaps Levick was right all along. Copulations with dead female penguins are the depraved sexual acts of hooligan males. Doubtless, the penguins involved don’t see it that way.
“It is the males seeing the positioning that is causing them to have a sexual reaction,” says Russell. Well, doesn’t “the positioning” of a human female also cause human males to have a sexual reaction? Of course it does! The positioning of a human female—is there a more apt description of the sex industry than that?
For whatever reason, humans are more like other members of the animal kingdom than humans care to admit. Darwin’s theory of evolution explains and predicts these similarities. Creationists must acknowledge that when God made the creature called man, he based his handiwork on an intelligent design blueprint he’d used previously and successfully throughout the animal kingdom.
What do you name a necrophilic penguin? Cold Feet.
“They just heard you offer the apology for all the monsters of our times.”
You walk this earth without a heart
You tear the innocent’s souls apart
You shovel your conscience into the grave
You walk this earth without a heart
Your uniform couldn’t be taken off
A tattoo burned into your flesh
Your mind, your voice
These are your instruments of death
How could you dare to be so bold
You only did as you were told
Marionettes dancing in time
To the apologetic lines
For all the monsters of our time
Who is evil, who is blind?
In the name of who you’ll find,
A city of souls dying for peace
Welcome to the belly of the beast
One mind, one voice
Welcome to the belly of the beast
Who hears, your voice?
Millions, never, never again
Madness, never, never again
Martyrs, dead that can’t die
Monsters
Insanity, the normal state
The left hand a hammer, the right the stake
Driven so deep into the heart
It’s killing love, it’s killing faith
It’s killing ’cause it’s from the heart
What better way to demoralize
When your own children are your spies
The things you trust are not the same
Trust in death, trust in grief
Trust in hope is trust in pain
Who is evil, who is blind?
In the name of who you’ll find,
You’re not supposed to question faith
But how do you accept this fate?
Millions, you walk this earth without a heart
Madness, tear the innocent’s souls apart
Martyrs, shovel your conscience into the grave
Monsters
