A Vatican astronomer explains why he sees God through the telescope

November 29, 2013 • 12:27 pm

Reader Grania sent me a piece from the Catholic News Agency called “Vatican astronomer: science opens the door to dialogue.”  Of course with a title like that the article is bound to be dire, and Grania added a note: “The cognitive dissonance is strong in this one.” But that’s not completely accurate, for cognitive dissonance is the condition of mental disturbance experienced when one holds conflicting views simultaneously.  There’s no evidence that the astronomer, Brother Guy Consolmagno, is disturbed in the least.

Consolmagno is described as “curator of the Vatican Meteorite collection” in the article, a job that surely allows him plenty of free time. He’s also a Jesuit, and, like Pope Francis, is from Argentina, although he got a Ph.D. at the University of Arizona and served in the Peace Corps in Kenya. (By the way, the director of the Vatican Observatory from 1978-2006 was one Fr. George Coyne, a name that caused me genuine cognitive dissonance.)

It’s a short article, but one replete with acommodationism; and I’ll highlight a few choice bits.  One of its most annoying implications is that astronomy brings us closer to God and helps us understand the deity and his creation—but not just for Consolmagno but for everyone.

Of those who share his same field of study, the brother stated that “we are really all in this field of astronomy for the same reasons.”

“Astronomy is not going to make you rich, it is not going to get you powerful, astronomy is not going to get you girls, didn’t work for me anyway, but astronomy does connect you up with that same moment of joy that I also experience in prayer.”

Unless Jesuits are allowed to have connubial bliss, I doubt that Fr. Consolmagno can have “girls,” but the invidious part is comparing the joy of scientific discovery with that of prayer. Maybe the emotions are similar (I wouldn’t know), but I’d think the joy of finding out something new would be of a higher order than the joy experienced by communing with a nonexistent being.

But I quibble here; in the rest of the article Consolmagno implies that astronomy is for many—religious and layperson alike—a way to answer The Big Questions about humanity:

Highlighting how it was not his “cat” that wanted to look through the lens, the brother observed that this experience of wonder at creation speaks about man’s constant search for God, because “this is something human beings do, this is something human beings ask about.”

“They want to know what are those stars, why are there stars, why are we here, what is this all about, where did we come from,” he explained.

“This is what makes us more than just well fed cows and if you starve somebody from being able to ask those questions, you are denying them their humanity.”

Speaking of the link between science and religion, Br. Consolmagno observed that “it is an important part of being human to ask, who are we, how do we fit into this big universe, and it is an important part of being of human to recognize in this creation the hand of the one who made it.”

I’m not sure what the “cat” is about, although he may be invidiously equating it with the presumably incurious and dull “well fed cows”. But of course cats are curious!  At any rate, what Consolmagno elides is the question of whether religion can actually answer those questions we’re compelled to ask. Perhaps he thinks that Catholicism gives answers, but then what about the divergent “answers” provide by other faiths? And if it’s an important part of being human to recognize the Creator God, then, well, I guess that most of us here aren’t human.

“The astonishing thing to me about astronomy is not only that the universe makes sense and I can come up with equations and explain it,” he continued, “but the way it makes sense is beautiful.”

“God chose to create a universe that was at the same time logical and beautiful, one that I can enjoy with my brain and enjoy with my heart,” he stressed, going on to say that this “tells me something about who God is and how He creates and how He’s expecting me to relate to Him.”

I challenge Fr. Consolmagno to give me an example of a universe containing us that doesn’t “make sense.” I doubt he can come up with one, though I can think of a universe that makes more sense than his. It’s a universe, as Sean Carroll mentioned in yesterday’s video, that contains only one galaxy—ours.  Why would God want all those superfluous galaxies and uninhabitable stars, or those without planets? I suppose he could respond that there may be life in other galaxies, but then he’d have to further explain how those inhabitants could also be saved by Jesus, who lived and died on Earth. (Philosopher Michael Ruse once did this by positing an “intergalactic Jesus” who traveled through the universe saving people left and right.)

Finally, I’d like to know exactly what Consolmagno has learned from his astronomy studies about who God is and how he creates and how he wants us to relate to him.  I suspect his answer would involve not astronomical observations, but special pleading involving what the Bible and Church teachings say. Can you really find out how God wants us to deal with him by looking through a telescope? And if God wants to make those answers clear, why didn’t he just put them in his holy scriptures? Did God really need us to wait until the 17th-century invention of the telescope to fully understand what he wants? Why is God so coy about revealing his presence and desires?

Addressing the fact that many are surprised at the existence of the Vatican Observatory, Br. Consolmagno stated that “that’s part of the reason we exist; to surprise people.”

“To make people realize that the church not only supports science, literally… but we support and embrace and promote the use of both our hearts and our brains to come to know how the universe works.”

Let us be clear. We can never understand how the universe works by using our hearts. Our hearts tell us what makes us feel good, and how we’d like things to be—but not how things really are. The heart is notoriously bad at ferreting out the truth.

As for the “dialogue” between science and religion touted in the article’s title, well, that’s just wishful thinking. It’s not a dialogue, but a one-way monologue: science tells religion that its claims are wrong or untestable, but religion has nothing to contribute to science. Such a dialogue is purely wishful thinking on the part of the faithful, and most scientists won’t have anything to do with it. As Sean Carroll noted, the idea of god doesn’t add, and never has added, anything to our understanding of the cosmos.

Here’s Consolmagno:

Br_Guy_Consolmagno_speaks_with_CNA_on_Nov_22_2013_at_the_Vatican_Observatory_in_Rome_Credit_Marco_Gandolfo_CNA_CNA_112813
Photo: Marco Gandolfo/CNA

His appearance reminds me of someone, but I can’t put my finger on who. Maybe George Clooney with glasses?

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Spectacular video of fox hunting rodents under snow

November 29, 2013 • 9:45 am

I’m not a big fan of d*gs, but I make an exception when it comes to foxes. They’re cute (almost catlike), furry, have magnificent tails, and are smart and wily.  This video from Discovery, showing foxes hunting rodents under several feet of snow, shows their remarkable hearing.  It’s unbelievable that they can feed themselves this way, but the narrator says they succeed 75% of the time. Watch its ears twitching as it homes in—like mammalian radar.

The YouTube description below implies they use the magnetic field, but I have no idea how that would work. The explanation in the video is obscure.

A red fox pinpoints field mice buried deep beneath the snow, using his sensitive hearing and the magnetic field of the North Pole to plot his trajectory. For more North America, visit http://dsc.discovery.com/tv-shows/nor…

h/t: Su

Another child doomed by faith, and an “ad” for vaccination

November 29, 2013 • 8:38 am

This time the child, a girl, was reared in an Amish home, which means she has virtually no chance of escaping that bizarre religious milieu.  It also means she will die. According to Yahoo News, a 10-year-old Amish girl with leukemia has apparently disappeared, probably spirited away by her parents so she wouldn’t receive chemotherapy:

A 10-year-old Amish girl with leukemia and her parents haven’t contacted a guardian appointed two months ago to make medical decisions for the girl after her parents stopped her chemotherapy treatments, the guardian’s attorney said Wednesday.

It’s unclear whether the girl has resumed treatments, and there are indications that the family has left its farm in rural northeast Ohio.

The girl, Sarah Hershberger, has not restarted treatments at Akron Children’s Hospital, said Clair Dickinson, the guardian’s attorney. He said it’s not known whether she is undergoing chemotherapy anywhere else.

Doctors at the Akron hospital believe Sarah’s leukemia is treatable but say she will die without chemotherapy. The hospital went to court after the family decided to stop chemotherapy and treat Sarah with natural medicines, such as herbs and vitamins.

An appeals court ruling in October gave an attorney who’s also a registered nurse limited guardianship over Sarah and the power to make medical decisions for her. The court said the beliefs and convictions of her parents can’t outweigh the rights of the state to protect the child.

The family has appealed the decision to both the appeals court and the Ohio Supreme Court.

Messages seeking comment were left Wednesday with attorneys representing the family.

One of the attorneys, John Oberholtzer, told The Medina Gazette he has been in contact with the family but does not know its whereabouts or whether the girl is being treated.

Dickinson, the guardian’s attorney, said that shortly after the appeals court ruling, a taxi was sent to the family’s home near the village of Spencer in Medina County, about 35 miles southwest of Cleveland. The taxi was to take the Sarah to the hospital in Akron, but someone at the home said the family was not there, Dickinson said.

Sarah’s condition is treatable—indeed, possibly curable—but she asked her parents to stop chemotherapy. Her last chemo session was in June, and according to doctors she will die in less than a year without further treatment. But she’s not competent to make that judgment, and there’s also the possibility of a). religious pressure from her parents and the community influencing her “decision,” and b). the fact that chemo makes one sick, which of course would make a child averse to it.  It makes you sick, but often cures you.

And I don’t know how an attorney in good conscience can defend what the Hershbergers are doing.  I know everyone deserves representation, but how could a lawyer with a conscience defend parents whose reckless actions will kill their child?

Andy Hershberger, the girl’s father, said this past summer that the family agreed to begin two years of treatments for Sarah last spring but stopped a second round of chemotherapy in June because it was making her extremely sick.

Sarah begged her parents to stop the chemo and they agreed after a great deal of prayer, Hershberger said. The family, members of an insular Amish community, shuns many facets of modern life and is deeply religious.

Hospital officials have said they are morally and legally obligated to make sure the girl receives proper care. They said the girl’s illness, lymphoblastic lymphoma, is an aggressive form of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, but there is a high survival rate with treatment.

I didn’t know much about the attitudes of Amish toward medical care, but several sites, including Amish America, note that their attitude toward modern medical care is mixed.  Some abjure it; others use it. But in general they use it less than do non-Amish, and often resort to alternative or herbal treatments for religious and cultural reasons. Unfortunately, Sarah Hershberger’s parents apparently belong to the last class, and that will cost her her life.

In An Amish Paradox, Hurst and McConnell detail use of institutional medicine among the various Amish affiliations in the Holmes County, Ohio settlement.

Hurst and McConnell report that Amish are generally less likely to undergo annual checkups or engage in preventative care.  A reluctance to go to the doctor can result from various factors, including  a desire to avoid needless medical costs, a generally higher pain threshold (as reported by doctors treating the Amish) and a failure to understand the importance of, or reasons for professional treatment.

The authors also note that more conservative Amish are less likely to seek medical care, and more likely to delay treatment, especially when physical symptoms are absent or minimal.

There is something ineffably sad about children like Sarah. By accident of birth they are brought up in families afflicted with religious delusions, and there is no way for them to escape (except, perhaps, during or after the famous Amish Rumspringa, when children get a taste of non-Amish life).  They will perpetuate the delusions, and so the cycle continues. And in Sarah’s case, those delusions will take her life. This makes me very angry, and even more so when the religious parents are pretty sanguine about this child abuse, attributing medical-abuse deaths to the will of god. It doesn’t have to be that way. Woo is always bad, but only in religion is it fatal.

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Finally, this is relevant but a wee bit off topic: a parody “commercial,” from Upworthy, showing what it would look like if vaccines were advertised like other drugs.

And another addendum: Dr. Edzard Ernst has posted a scathing “tribute” to Prince Charles and the royal’s incessant promotion of quackery and “alternative medicine” (Charles just turned 65).

h/t: Matt

Dead whale explodes

November 29, 2013 • 6:16 am

Warning: GROSS! Do not watch if you can’t take an exploding whale spewing its guts everywhere. (You’ll watch anyway)

I pondered long and hard about putting this up, but decided to because it shows not only the internal organs of a sperm whale, but the tremendous gas pressure that builds up inside a dead cetacean (there are in fact several videos of exploding whales on YouTube). But don’t think this one was killed; according to the notes, it was a washed-up whale that died of “natural causes”:

Sperm Whale explodes in the Faroe Islands while a man is trying to open his stomach. Sperm Whales are not killed in the Faroe Islands, this one died from natural causes..
This footage was originally shot by the Faroese national television. http://www.kvf.fo

Now I’m not sure why the guy was trying to open his stomach, unless they were trying to get ambergris or something, nor why anybody would be foolish enough to attempt this. But reader gravelinspector, who sent me this video, gives some useful answers:

I would have thought that with the prevalence of exploding whale videos on the Internet, people wouldn’t need telling this, but … well it actually looks as if this was a part of a disposal team, with appropriate PPE (Personal protective Equipment). I’d have used a long-handled knife though – probably something for forestry trimming, 6ft long – to vent the problem. At arm’s length. From the upwind side.
We’ve had several of these in the last few years in the Aberdeen area. And boy, do they stink! For a 10-tonne mini-whale, “something” could include a lorry (there is a video warning you to not take the lorry through the middle of a city though – you can guess!), but much bigger than that and you have no real choice but to cut it into pieces there and then.

Readers’ cats: Fatty Boom Boom, Mischief, General Mayhem, and Monster

November 28, 2013 • 3:14 pm

Here is a postprandial moggie with a strange name, replete with Thanksgiving bird and described by staff member Thaddeus Aid.

I just had to defend my turkey dinner from my daughter’s cat. It was a wild tale of the great white hunter stalking his prey. Thankfully my fully cooked bird did not succumb to his prowess.

Later all the cats got to share some of the leftover turkey. The d-g had to subsist on leftover steak.

20131128_212300I got more info on this cat and the others:

The cat’s name is Fatty Boom Boom (my daughter named him through a series of names starting with Parsnip and Hashtag but ending with that, so we didn’t know what he was going to be called for a week or so). The photo is tonight, post hunt and noms.

The other cats are Monster (wife’s cat, named by my son when he was 4), General Mayhem (my cat, though he was purchased as a gift for my wife, also the only cat I have ever not been allergic to), and Mischief (another daughter’s cat). All shared in the turkey bounty.

Here’s General Mayhem:

cats-Mayhem

And Fatty again, with Mischief and Monster:

cats-Fatty-Mischief-Monster

Time for my own bird, and a good bottle of Rioja.  Happy Thanksgiving, folks; I’ll be here all week!

The panda ant

November 28, 2013 • 1:48 pm

Well, it’s not really an ant but a wasp—a wasp in the hymenopteran family Multillidae, also called—for obvious reasons—”velvet ants.” (Ants and wasps are fairly closely related; in fact, ants evolved from early wasps.)

In these wasps the females are wingless and the males winged, and their colors and patterns are aposematic: that is, they are “warning” patterns that tell predators to stay away. Predators presumably learn these patterns readily, for velvet wasps have extremely painful stings.

But isn’t this a cute little girl?

Picture 1
From One Big Photo, with the big photo taken by Chris Lukhaup.

I’m not an expert on this group (or any group of insects save Drosophila), but Wikipedia notes this:

They exhibit extreme sexual dimorphism; the males and females are so different, it is almost impossible to associate the two sexes of a species unless they are captured while mating. In a few species, the male is so much larger than the female, he carries her aloft while mating, which is also seen in the related family Tiphiidae.

Here’s another view, from photo by DrSarahJensen via Flickr:

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Velvet ants come in all sorts of striking colors and patterns, presumably aposematic; go here to see some.

h/t: Grania