Too Skeptical for Skepticism

Turns out, you are pretty amazing, as far as, you know, meaningless collections of dust particles go.

As I mentioned on-air, you are "more wave than particle", given that you're always exchanging particles with the rest of the universe.  And you don't mess around:  You're all new every seven years.  There's nothing left of you that was you a decade ago. 

Materially speaking, it's "Extreme Makeover:  You Edition", except without the annoying sleeveless guy. 

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My brother and I used to argue over who got to read the Cap'n Crunch box during breakfast.  We talked our mom into buying it because it was -- and REMAINS TO THIS DAY -- fortified with eight minerals!  I thought it was funny that they called whatever these were "minerals", because it almost sounded like we were eating rocks! -- until I realized, I think at age 32, that we were eating rocks.

You see, you eat rock-specks because we are made out of the ground.  You keep losing ground, and the Cap'n helps you gain it back. 

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It's funny:  I just learned "Adam" means, essentially, "Guy made out of the ground", or "Dust Guy", or "Ground-Boy".  But there's no naming ceremony for Ground-Boy in Genesis.  The first mention of his name is all casual-like, as he's naming other stuff.  It's in Genesis 2, which goes a little somethin' like this:

So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and the beasts of the field.  But for Ground-Boy, no helper was found.

You, too, are Ground-Boy.  Unless you're a girl.  The name "Eve" is classier.  But you still need Cap'n Crunch.

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So let's face it.  It's already remarkable enough that you retain consciousness, you retain a constant identity, you are "yourself", in spite of the fact that, materially, you are completely different, and always changing. 

But now things get crazy:  They just discovered that your skin cell can be "reprogrammed" to become a pluripotent stem cell.   They used to think only embryonic stem cells were capable of this.  "Pluripotent" means they can use the cell to create any other type of cell in the body.

(Think of it this way:  You used to be a single cell.  You'd think that by dividing and multiplying, you'd just have a bunch of copies of you.  But something amazing happens:  Switches get pulled that convert cells into other types of cells that you'll need, from white blood cells to brain cells.  That first cell was "pluripotent".)

So now, your ADULT skin cell can be reprogrammed, and they can grow other kinds of "you" cells from it. 

That skin cell, made of stuff that wasn't you seven years ago, has a "memory" of how to create you from the beginning.

(For further marveling:  Richard John Neuhaus, in First Things, notes how DNA information now seems to travel "backward", as well as forward.  Far out.)

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Like everybody else, I'd sure like to not be a freak.  I'd love to be hip, and enlightened, like one of those Freethinkers.  (Remember: "Freethinking" means ruling out the supernatural without evidence, while being "Closed-Minded" means allowing that it's possible.) 

That would mean explaining all this with the wave of a mechanistic hand.  Just matter in motion, laws of physics, chance mutations, survival of the fittest, etc."  I could do that, but...

Zzzzzz.

Meanwhile, you are dust in the wind, more wave than particle, constantly inconstant, and yet...somehow...you.  Almost like you had a soul.  Almost like things really did matter, like beauty isn't mere construct; almost like goodness is truly Good, "evil" seems evil because it's actually Evil, and almost like love isn't just brain chemistry.  It's almost like something keeps us together. 

It's almost like the world remains enchanted.  And wouldn't that be fascinating?

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I'm sorry.  This walking wave of dust, this Ground-Boy, is so skeptical, he's skeptical of skepticism. 

This one admits there's a God.

Comments

[Pam Miller]

Dear Brant has anyone, ever told you that you are a deep thinker ? By what you write about, tells me that you are. I am a deep thinker, sometimes, I try not to , but it is who I am. Funny Capt Crunch, was a favorite cereal of mine, I must have been a tom boy, cause, I thought the captain looked cool ! Really ! Ha ! It is interesting, about cells, today on the news, they were talking about, cloning animals, for food. I'm not sure, if I like this idea ? I never thought the idea of cloning, was a good idea, I think it's scary ! What is your opinion, about cloning, animals for food , that we consumers, can buy and eat ??

[speetz]

readers who enjoyed this entry from brant's blog of awesomeness will also enjoy "the language of God" by francis s. collins.