Mr. William Rees-Mogg has taught me some on evolution and the Church’s understanding of it.^[1] I did not know of Saint Augustine’s theory of evolution, one in which God created first chaos, but a chaos with the seeds of order embedded in it. It is a compelling theory, it takes all that science suspects of the Big Bang, and all that science detects of the deterministic nature of the physical world, the narrow ranges in which life could exist and so on, and unifies it more cleanly than, I think, even the neo-Darwinists do. Which is not to say I think Saint Augustine right on this. Merely that he could be right. And if he is, then all of physics would be unified cleanly with theology.

Contrast this with the neo-Darwinist position that posits randomness and yet at the same time says that the material is all, that we are our genes. That suspects to find the cause and whole of thought in the mechanics of the mind. An argument that, combined with physics, would reduce all of nature, all of man and all of his intellect to the mathematics of atoms bouncing. The Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle does not save us from this clockwork existence, for while perhaps no one can know the speed and position both at once, yet each atom has both. It would be a mistake, I believe (though I cannot prove), to say that the statistical understanding of the subatomic world is real. Each atom has a position and has a speed at any given instance. Not many speeds, but one. It is simply impossible for man, at least for now, to know it without changing the system. But that speed and position, unknown, still determines in (unknowable) mathematical precision exactly what is and what will be. Or it would, were the materialist correct, if the material were all that is. The only randomness available to the neo-Darwinist then is the randomness of the initial state, the composition of the pre-bang mass. Its nature, at best unknown and more likely unknowable, and the cause and nature of its explosion together provide the initial state after which all is determined by the geometry and physics of sub atomic collisions and wave equations.

Saint Augustine replaces this finite source of randomness. He replaces this unknowable disorder with a precision-crafted mass, and a carefully triggered explosion. A mass and explosion created, designed, to produce what we see. How much cleaner a picture this paints. It explains why each physical constant is exactly within the oh-so-narrow range it needs to be in. Why nothing is even the slightest out of place to yield life. It explains that great leap of improbability: the origin of life, an event so improbable as to cause some scientists to speculate that there must be many universes, or at least that the one universe must have collapsed and exploded time and time again, so that sufficient tries exist to allow the infinitely improbable to occur. All this messiness, this unprovable supposition is swept away with one simple and yet natural theory: that we are because some One willed it.

And yet, this too is not doctrine. It is merely, some 1449 years before Darwin published, the Catholic theory of evolution. It is the answer to the ancient Greek thought envisioning a world of atoms, whose random interactions negate the need of a Deity, and thus opens the way to the intellectually fulfilled atheist.

The Church, as Mr. Rees-Mogg states, might well want to distance itself from protestants who seek to find science in Genesis. But not necessarily because the Church thinks they must be wrong. Merely because they could be wrong. Again we face the temptation that Galileo succumbed to. We are tempted to say that we know that something is for no better reason than that the theory appeals to us. But the theory could be “beautiful,” it could be incredibly useful, and yet be wrong. Just as Newton’s laws proved wrong, and now perhaps even Quantum Mechanics will pass away,^[2] so too could Saint Augustine be wrong here, and all of evolution with him. There is no proof, there is only facts that fail to contradict at this point. That failure to contradict can lend strength, but, in the end, it cannot prove Truth, only find to be False. The temptation is to pride, to think we can know as God knows, to think that we cannot be wrong. To assert that all, even God, must give way before the power of our minds. And it was for this crime, and no other, that Galileo was found guilty.

Perhaps the science behind Intelligent Design is bad. Or perhaps it is only the Creationists whose science is bad, those asserting seven day creation. Or perhaps Genesis, beyond all expectation, does contain historical truth, and they will be found to have been right. We cannot know, do not know, with the data in hand.

1. Mr. William Rees-Mogg. “A pope for our times: why Darwin is back on the agenda at the Vatican” The Times Online 2005-11-07. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,1052-1860310,00.html
2. Alok Jha. “Fuel’s paradise? Power source that turns physics on its head” www.guardian.co.uk 2005-11-04. http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/story/0,3605,1627424,00.html Much thanks to Vincas for passing this on.

Mr. Joel Kotkin looks at the riots in France, and the role of socialist policies in enabling and in fact causing them.^[1] He makes some telling points about the “brain drain,” as those who work to become educated make their way out of Europe, and about the higher unemployment rates among the young and more so among the young immigrants.

We here in the United States are not perfect. Far from it. We are not so far from the days of “No Irish Need Apply.” We would do well to remember in our push for “multiculturalism” that it was not multiculturalism that settled much of the tension between the varied European heritages of our early immigrants, but rather that we assimilated them to us and us to them, a merging that has in more recent days been described as a “melting pot.” Where is that melting pot today? Where is the drive in today’s immigrants to become “American,” and the willingness of society to, even reluctantly, let them do so? For if we push them away, if we force them to stay ever immigrant, ever hyphenated, will they push back endlessly? Can we expect that?

1. Mr. Joel Kotkin. “Why Immigrants Don’t Riot Here” Opinion Journal from the Wall Street Journal 2005-11-08. Registration required. http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110007519

As we here face election day tomorrow, with a number of State officies up for re-election, I, in the face of questions, feel the need to re-emphasize two points.

1. Virginia is NOT “Local Government.” The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, the Herdon Town Council, or the Fairfax City government are “Local Governments.” Virginia is actually quite large and incredibly diverse. So much so that one way to try to win an election is to try to promise Northern Virginia that you will give it its “fair share” of tax dollars and highway money. Northern Virginia is a very different place fromthe tidewater areas, the southern Piedmont, and the western and south-western parts of the state. Richmond, one of the few industrial cities in the South, is very different from all of them. Blacksburg, part of the “technology corridor” is very different from the pan handle. The same social policy will not be right, effective, nor just for all of them.
2. Jamaica’s Archbishop Samuel Carter rightly said that

   When you give, the giver is always in the position of superiority; the receiver is always in the position of inferiority. When you give to someone who doesn’t feel as though they have earned it, you diminish them as a person in their self worth.^[1]

   This is something we see and face in our governance here. Our politicians do often look down on the people they serve. Even our Boards of Education, dominated by the teachers’ union, oftend do so. This is not right, nor is it healthy for us as a people and society.

You are Rerun!

Which Peanuts Character are You?
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For the first time ever, a good description of what I do in gaim: Bug Master. Mr. Luis Villa nicely describes what a “Bug Master” is and is not, in a way that closely mirrors my own work, and why that role is important both in open source and in the commercial software world. This is nice to see, and I am very thankful to faceprint for passing it on.

I am told that the law(s) against polygamy are not particularly enforced in Mormon dominated Utah.^[1] But I am also told that Mormon’s no longer believe in polygamy. Something does not seem to add up here.

1. Ms. Emily Yee. “So judges interpret the law… but don’t have to live by it?” TownHall.com 2005-11-03. http://www.townhall.com/blogs/c-log/EmilyYee/story/2005/11/03/174091.html

Ms. Barbara Perry thinks that if Judge Samuel Alito’s nomination to the Supreme Court is confirmed, that it will signal/mean that there is no more anti-Catholicism with respect to the Supreme Court at least.^[1] I disagree. I think that the very fact that his faith has been raised and noted means that it is and continues to be an issue even if his nomination does get through.

1. WebIndia123.com. “Catholic majority seen for Supreme Court” news.webinida123.com 2005-11-01. http://news.webindia123.com/news/showdetails.asp?id=151671&cat=World