Showing posts with label science. Show all posts
Showing posts with label science. Show all posts

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Millions and millions

Millions and millions of species.
And the Christian god favours the one
whose eyesight is surpassed by the eagle
whose speed is bettered by the cheetah
and whose nose cannot compare with his dog's.

And those new viruses
evolving to survive our antibiotics?
Why does this god not love and favour
his latest creations?


It seems to me that it is time for atheists to get political. Clearly, the Tony Abbotts of this world find it impossible to believe that their god could render his favoured species, the only species with a soul, extinct. For them, the thesis of man-made climate change is not believable. Yet all these characters who refuse to accept the science of climate change are happy to accept the science which makes medical breakthroughs possible or allows them to turn on a light.

Angophora costata IMG_3037
Angophora costata, Palm Beach, Sydney.

And what of trees? Why animals rather than plants? Surely 400 year-old living organisms are worth a thought.

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Names

IMG_2152
Boronia ledifolia. Buds, September 7, 2007. America Bay track.

Boronia ledifolia IMG_6595
Developing fruits (with persistent petals) of Boronia ledifolia. The Basin track, November 16, 2007.

The delight I have on being given a name seems to relate to some kind of primitive magic.

When I encountered the fruits of this boronia, I saw the sameness, and the difference and assumed the two were different. In being given the name, the flower was at once embedded into a whole history of scientific thought and discovery.