In the field

I got really lucky on Friday and got to go out in the field to do fish sampling.

One of my coworkers and the fish biologist collecting samples by electroshocking.

The snake that kept following us around after we let it go.

Stunned, but alive.  They were counted and released.

The Wisconsin River.

The Mississippi River.

Bridge across the Mississippi.

It was a good day.

"No-God Books"

A comment from my little sister, "Oh great, more of your no-God books".

Its been a week into the new year and I have yet to post anything here, partially because I've been sucked into books and partially because I've been job searching/depressed when I got a NO on a job I really wanted.  My reading tastes lately have been on religion and gender.  I want to know about why people don't believe in god.  I think it makes my sister uncomfortable.  Several of my book choices have made them uncomfortable, but I tell them that I need to read them, I need to understand.  I don't know if it helps.

A Billion Wicked Thoughts
by Sai Gaddam and Ogi Ogas
Billed as "The World's Largest Experiment" on human desire.  Partway through this book I was angry and had a headache.  I finished it because I needed to know all of what it said.

My GoodReads review: (2/5 stars)
"I wan't impressed by the content of this book. The idea of mining the internet for data on human desire is an interesting concept, but their interpretations were, to my mind, poorly supported and based on only some of the current ideas on human sexuality. 

I was offended by the characterization of men as cartoon characters (Elmer Fudd) and women as Miss Marple. The authors do mention in the preface that there is great variety in the human race and that they're using statistics to look at the human population, but the images they chose to use to describe men and women were ill-fitted.

There was almost no mention of the behavior of bonobos that challenges the concept of women trading monogamous sex for food and protection for her and her offspring from a single dominant male that is espoused on page 72. I would suggest a reading of 'Sex at Dawn', which takes a more detailed and nuanced approach to looking at prehistorical human sexuality. 

They did have a section on notes and sources, but it would have been helpful if they had been marked in the actual text - many times I read a set of statistics and wanted to know exact sources, but had to dig through the notes and references to find it. Then it was still unknown how substantial those statistics were. Statistical significance was sometimes skirted altogether - the graph on page 169 was used as evidence for the similarity between bisexual women and heterosexual men but the y-axis had no labels (I assume %) and there was no actual statistical evidence of any difference. 

Overall, if you're curious about what's out there on the internet about sex, have a read, but take their broad interpretations with a grain of salt".

Delusions of Gender

by Cordelia Fine 

I haven't finished this book yet, but I think it is very well written.  As it is described on GoodReads, "A vehement dismantling of the latest pseudo-scientific claims about the differences between the sexes".

Fine goes through a large number of studies used to support differences between the sexes and dissects their methodology with a fine-toothed comb (sometimes even that is unnecessary) to show errors that influence their conclusions.  She makes many good points about sample size, unaccounted variables, and false positives. She also goes over historical measures, ones that seem preposterous now.  It highlights how technology can be used incorrectly.  

Maybe because I read the "science" book above first, but I noticed how well documented (sources cited within the text) and well argued this book is.  

When I have the funds I'm going to buy this one.

Women Without Superstition "No Gods-No Masters"

Edited by Annie Laurie Gaylor

I haven't finished this book yet either, but this is because it is so long and I can only read it in sections.  There is so much information here - so many good thoughts that I'm going to have to digest this book by reading it many, many times.

This is one of my "no-God" books that LilSis was commenting on.

I find this book very comforting and I'm only up to Ernestine L. Rose (1810-1892).

I may feel alone in my beliefs here in this little town, but this book is full of women from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries that questioned the popular ideas of the time.

--

I recently found a friend's description of his religious beliefs on Facebook and I think its the best I've found yet:

"Perception is a fingerprint: People and their faith and beliefs are ineffably beautiful. Organized religion, however, is not".

I need to move to a larger town where the likelihood of meeting someone with my ideology face-to-face is greater.  

I'm also reading The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution by Richard Dawkins and Calling Bernadette's Bluff by Dale McGowan.  I love being able to read whatever I want. 

One Week

This past week, while NewMom (now NewWife&Mom) was on her honeymoon, I locked myself in her house and worked on my thesis presentation.  The NewWife&Mom's house has great internet and 4 cats that lent to some stress relief.  Bob in particular decided to help me out.  The cats aren't supposed to be on the counters or tables, but while I was there they seemed to think it was a free-for-all:

When he wasn't prowling through my things he was sitting on my lap, curled up, keeping me warm.  On Thursday I presented the dry run to my lab and advisor.  Their input was great - it will make the real presentation so much better.

I have to say I'm not looking forward to the rest of today and next week.  By this time next week I will either have graduated or be really depressed.

I'm going under a self-imposed quasi- house arrest to work on my presentation and defense prep.

I'm defending on Friday the 16th.  On the 17th I'm opening a Christmas present I know is full of books and I will spend at least a day not thinking about Bythotrephes.

Bythotrephes in Lake Erie - Photo by Andrea Jaeger Miehls, MS

Proven

My youngest sibling's facebook status: I was recently informed that all of the elements in our body came from star dust really it's a proven scientific fact. WE WERE CREATED FROM DUST!!!!! Once again science proves that God it ALIVE. Jesus is alive and risen. Sing praise for he saved us.

One, I want to tell her that nothing in science is "proven", a concept that I continually try to convey to my general biology students.  We find evidence, support, but nothing is a "proven scientific fact" - not even gravity.  Two, I want her to realize that science can neither 'prove' nor 'disprove' the existence of a god.  Religious beliefs are subjective and unfalsifiable.  They have no place in science.  Three, I want to fix her grammar. :-D  Every facebook status of hers is riddled with run on sentences or, usually, multitudinous sentences sans punctuation.

Talking with my sister about points one and two probably wouldn't go over well in my family.  They try to be moderate in their beliefs and to not make waves.  I've done the same.  My beliefs are no longer the same as theirs, but we don't talk about it.  I think my mother would get defensive if I tried to talk to my sister about these things - mom already has two children that no longer attend church, she doesn't want to lose the third.  In any case it's a journey my sister has to take on her own.  She's only 18 and at that time I had some qualms, but nothing really upset my belief system back then.  She may be devout her entire life, but I hope that she has roots for why instead of blind faith.  Maybe her faith will be stronger than mine ever was.