The other evening, Alex, Beth, and I watched a special on Discovery Science that reviewed some of the most important discoveries in the field of Life Sciences and Origins. Topics covered included the classification of species by Linnaeus, the voyage of the Beagle and Darwin’s subsequent publication of the Origin of Species, the discovery of early hominds such as Lucy, the Burgess Shale, the K-T extinction event, and the discovery of Chemosynthesis in the hydothermal vent communities in the world’s oceans.

Alex sat in rapt attention throughout the entire show - pausing only to ask questions or to elaborate on one of the topics. At the end of the night, he was still talking away. Finally, when I got him settled down for bed and tucked in he looked at me and told me “Dad, I love science”.

I told him, “me too, spud.”

Unfortunately, not everyone loves science - which I can live with - but worse, not everyone understands or respects science, viewing it as something that can be twisted and manipulated to match their beliefs or needs. As much as you may not want to believe it, as I mention in the title of this post in this day and age Science does need defenders. Notice the rash of Creationist (er, sorry - Intelligent Design) garbage that is in the media each and every day. When your President states that:

“On the issue of evolution, the verdict is still out on how God created the earth,”

I think that it’s pretty clear as to what side of the evolution debate he is coming down on, no? What about the suppression of information coming out of NASA on the subject of global warming by a Bush Administration appointee as in the Deutsch affair. Or how about the load of crap that is “faith-based” funding of anything…..

<sigh> At times it gets to be a bit much.

The truth of the matter for me is that if the President - or anyone for that matter - wants to believe in the whole ID / bible is the unvarnished word of God bit - the literal Adam&Eve, Noah and the Ark, Jonah and the Whale, the revelation of St. John - then that’s fine. I may think it’s stupid, but at least currently that’s not against the law.

Where I draw the line is when the proponents of this garbage want to present it as truth to my children. Where they want to have government recognition and support of their bullshit. When foreign policy is influenced, no matter how slightly, by belief in the End Times. Most importantly, I draw then line when scientific progress is balked by politics and religion.

And that seems to be happening now.

Fortunately, something is being done. This morning, Phil Plait - who I’ve gushed about in various other posts in this forum - has written this post to his weblog that links to a site - www.defendscience.org - that aims to raise awareness of the current political and religious problems facing science in this day and age. At this point of this writing, over 500 scientists and members of the scientific community have signed their petition.

Makes me feel good that there are others out there, who are doing a much better job than I am at raising awareness. Take a minute, read through their site. Remember,

A candle loses nothing by lighting another candle.
– James Keller

Note: For the curious, the picture on the upper left side is of the famous “Laetoli” footprints. A National Geographic article on this discovery was catalyst for much reading and research on the subject of human origins throughout my early high school years. While researching this post, I came across these pages from the University of Texas’ website on African Archaeology which proved to be a fascinating read. The picture is theirs.

While watching Olympic hockey this year, Alex had asked about this “Miracle on Ice” that the commentators were talking about. This opened up a floodgate in my mind, as one of the strongest memories I have of my childhood is of watching the 1980 Olympics with my parents, and in particular the USA Hockey Team. The odd thing is that neither of them were (or are) hockey fans - yet I remember watching hockey in our home on Broadview road in Seven Hills.

I was eight at the time, a few months younger than Alex - but I wasn’t a normal eight year old. I was very much aware of what was going on in the world. The Oil Crisis. The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The Iranian hostage crisis. Video of the Soviets running military hardware through Red Square during May Day. In my little world, the Soviets were the bad guys. To say I disliked them was an understatement.

Alex and I looked up some articles on the internet and read about the Lake Placid team, we looked at pictures, and I told him about what I remembered from being his age. The noise and the American flags. Mike Eruzione scoring the go-ahead goal against the Soviets. Jim Craig stopping everything that came remotely near him against the Russians and the Finns. Mike Eruzione calling the rest of the team up on the podium when they accepted their medals.

Above it all I told him about the two memories that stand out above all others - Jim Craig draped in an American flag looking for his father in the stands after they won the gold. And Al Michael’s call at the end of the game against the USSR:

Eleven seconds, you got ten seconds, the countdown going on right now…Morrow up to Silk…five seconds left in the game! Do you believe in miracles? YES!!! Unbelievable!

I had wanted to see Miracle since it came out in the theaters, but never was able to. So I told Alex we would rent it and watch it together. After watching the US Women take home the Bronze this year, he was all excited about that (my little budding hockey fan). We finally did last Sunday, along with Beth.

Throughout the movie I would sneak a look over at Alex every now and then - rapt attention most of the time. Alex has played enough sports at this point that he understands the importance of being a team. He knows that you have put the work in to succeed - that if you want to excel at something you need to leave everything out and not hold back. This story reinforced all those points. As Kurt Russell said in character as Coach Herb Brooks, “The name on the front of that jersey is a whole lot more important than the name on the back”.

During the whole time of the game against the Soviets, Alex was on the edge of his seat, jumping around. Cheering when a goal was scored, groaning when we were scored on. As it went into the final few minutes his eyes bored into the screen, ending in wild clapping when the game was over.

It’s hard for me to not get a bit emotional when I think about this game - I know that it’s not like Team USA were the Bad News Bears. There were many players on that team who went on to the NHL. They were talented.

But as Herb Brooks pointed out to the team “You don’t have enough talent to win on talent alone”. They won as a team. And - right or wrong - they managed to elevate the spirits of the country at a time when the country needed it.

Right before he went to bed Alex told me he really liked the movie, and gave me a hug. I asked him what he learned from the movie. He thought for a second and told me that when you’re on a team, you need to work hard and be a good teammate. Twenty six years later, Team USA still inspires. In the words of Captain Mike Eruzione:

“I don’t think you can put it into words. It was 20 guys pulling for each other, never quitting, 60 minutes of good hockey. I don’t think we kicked their butts. We just won. It’s a human emotion that indescribable.”