SCIENCE AND FAITH

Strange bedfellows / an odd couple, or is it just me? Having faith in God is often challenged as being unscientific so, how does one live with ones faith in a transcendent God while accepting science as meaningful?

Somehow I have a feeling that the wrong questions are being asked. What could be more natural than to believe in God as creator and sustainer of everything in the universe if this is indeed true? God works and that's why the universe works. But then science should be able to test this hypothesis and prove it one way or the other.

Some scientists demand that they should be able to test any hypothesis to see if it is workable and to determine if it is the best hypothesis to explain whatever phenomena are being studied. This too may be a false start. I don't believe that God is a studiable 'phenomenon'. I don't see any reason why he should be, do you?

To my mind, the fact that there is matter and the fact that there is energy and the fact that there is time and ... all point me to God. Things are there to be studied and there to be understood only because God made it so.

This is an unusual post for this blog. Very abstract. But, very important. It's important because I see two disturbing tendencies. One is to make science and God adversaries, the other is to say that these are two separate worlds of thought that do not intersect. The consequences of either approach is bound to be poor science and a god who occupies the scientific gaps. neither this science nor this god have any worth!

Stunted Palm, Hefty Fern? No, it's a CYCAD!

We were so excitedly lucky to see a stand of native Indian cycads - Cycas circinalis - in the Anamalais Hills recently (top).

My second year at college and I was in a quandary. The unlikely result was a course in plant morphology! I thought I knew a lot about plants and thought them much less interesting than animals but soon discovered the depths of my ignorance.

One of the fascinating groups of plants that Dr. Jerry A. Snider introduced to us was the Cycadales. Cycads, as they are commonly known, seem to have been around for at least 300 million years! They were an important part of the flora of the Carboniferous and Permian periods and formed a portion of the vast forests that we now mine as coal. The dominant plants back then included the Lycopsids (club ferns - some small relatives still survive), and other 'fern allies' including the Seed Ferns (now extinct, illustrated here, left and right) along with early relatives of the Gymnosperms (Pines and connifers).

Cycads are considered to be "living fosssils" along with Gingko, Araucaria and fern allies like the club ferns, horsetails, Sellaginella and so on...

Cycads seem somewhat in-between the ferns and the connifers / flowering types, which we often think of as 'higher' plants.

Most wild Cycads are rare, even in tropical lands but especially so in temperate areas, so it was a great pleasure to see healthy Cycas circinalis in these forests.
The commonest Cycad is a gardener's favourite, Cycas revoluta.

Odd looking creatures that resemble stunted palm trees, the cycads are often mistaken for palms. They have male plants and female plants that produce the most fascinatingly unusual male and female 'cones' for reproduction.

Another strange feature is that the fronds (leaves) unfurl very much like a fern's fronds do - what botanists call circinate vernation. It is beautiful to see little shoots like stumpy fiddleheads slowly unrolling into magnificant full-scale fronds. Supposedly a sign of 'primitivity', such unfurling is also shared by some connifers like Araucaria (Newfoundland Island Pine) and the ferns allies.

Along with other rare and beautiful species (like tree ferns - see Cyathea, below) that occupy the understory of 'old' forests, the cycads are dying out due to deforestation.

Bioinversity marches on!

The cycads are even more endangered as they are very, very slow growing. Something a meter high may be 100 or more years old! Once a few are destroyed they will take literally centuries to regrow!

Wonders of God's creation and signposts of biodiversity, these are creatures to be treasured!

The Little Black Boy

It's the women and children being targeted again, this time in Palestine and by the Israeli army!

Action - reaction - over reaction is a common sequence in human history, but this is getting to be ridiculous. The easy target, the easy way out, no risks involved, no rubber bullets, just kill!

Click on the image, which is a facsimile of one of Blake's original publications, to read the poem - on display at the Tate (London).

The title links you to the Tate's electronic page of Blake's work, showing his original plates too!

Treetops and Topslip

Getting into the forest is the most rejuvenating experience possible!

Topslip is the main outpost of the Indira Gandhi Wildlife Sanctuary, A national park administered by the Tamil Nadu Forest Department in the Western Ghats Catchment area of the state, bordered on the West by the Parambikulam sanctuary in Kerala and on the East by the Anamalai hills.

The entire complex is a very precious reservoir of biodivarsity for an ecosystem that includes one of the only remaining regions of tropical rainforest, truly unique shola forests and medium montane grasslands. The last real populations of the Nilgiri Tahr (a type of mountain sheep/goat - Nilgiritragus hylocrius) are to be found in the upper reaches of these very habitats in isolated pockets of the Western Ghats biosphere.

Arriving on Wednesday, we spent one night at the Chital Forest Lodge and the next morning were given a rare oportunity to experience the newly built Treetops Suites. These are real treehouses placed, seemingly precariously, on stilts of living teak trees, the suites are comfortable and include functioning bathrooms and even hot water!

The evenings were misty and with the onset of the monsoons, we had periods of heavy rain followed by intervals of light drizzle. The spotted deer and wild boar were out in force and the population of the Nilgiri Langurs (Trachypithecus johnii) seems to be very healthy in this forest but they are endangered due to habitat loss and poaching as it is rumoured that their flesh has aphrodisiac properties.

We were surprised by a herd of the endangered Kaattu Erumai (Gaur, Indian 'Bison' - Bos gaurus) who wandered through the camp on the second day. These are massive beasts with the bulls weighing in at over a ton, beautifully marked, generally shy and found only in deep forests, it was a treat to watch them calmly walking through.

The nights were very special. A serenade of insect, tree frog and barking deer calls, with lowering mists and very faint moonlight filtering through. The barking deerMuntiacus muntjak) were obviously tracking larger predators, either leopards or tigers.

Oh, the smells! Delightful wafts of wildflowers, honey, ripe fruits and spices; clean healthy air to relish breathing.

All of our attempts to enter the Karian Shola were dashed by the spells of pelting rain. This patch of Shola is very special as it is one of the last resorts in India for the Ceylon Frogmouth (Batrachostomus moniliger) a fascinating bird that mimics dead leaves so perfectly that it is hard to spot even from a few feet away!

Just as we were getting ready to leave, Sellamuthu, the Treetops' Forest Guide, pulled us out to watch a pair of giant malabar squirrels (Ratufa indica) gambolling in the tops of the nearby teak trees. They were having fun chasing each other around and making incredible leaps from branch to trunk completely oblivious to the fact that they were a good 100 ft up.

Even in these aparently rich forests man's ravages are very evident. Large plantations of teak tree monocultures have replaced a highly diverse forest ecosystem. Attempts to propagate the forest species of trees have been failures and it is becoming obvious that climate change is inimical to the original habitats. The planted seedlings simply don't survive.

In oder to try to promote diversity, species of bamboo have been introduced but introduced species usually create their own imbalances.

We are witnessing bioinversity in action.

So, we take our children to these forests, knowing that our grandchildren will not see anything resembling them at all.

Thanks to Pandiyan for the nilgiri langur pic.

Suffer the Children II

Come Out with Me

There's sun on the river and sun on the hill . . .

You can hear the sea if you stand quite still!

There's eight new puppies at Roundabout Farm-

And I saw an old sailor with only one arm!

But everyone says, "Run along!" (Run along, run along!)

All of them say, "Run along! I'm busy as can be."

Every one says, "Run along, There's a little darling!"

If I'm a little darling, why don't they run with me?

There's wind on the river and wind on the hill . . .

There's a dark dead water-wheel under the mill!

I saw a fly which had just been drowned-

And I know where a rabbit goes into the ground!

But everyone says, "Run along!"(Run along, run along!)

All of them say, "Yes, dear," and never notice me.

Every one says, "Run along,There's a little darling!"

If I'm a little darling, why won't they come and see?

Alan Alexander Milne

Tiger, TIGER!

On an animal survey, four of us (3 volunteers and one tribal guide) were trekking in the Top Slip National Park three years ago. We had started early, around 5.30 a.m., just as dawn was starting to break with a slight greying of the sky. It was still quite dark as we enterred the scrub jungle on the outskirts of the forest proper. As we walked the sun rose and filled the atmosphere with a golden glow. it was a glorious way to begin our hike.

Very early on there were indications that this was to be an exceptional morning. We had hardly started when we almost ran into a solitary, large, sloth bear (Melursus ursinus). He had been digging for juicy roots and the ground was littered with fresh piles of upturned earth.

Around ten, we had covered 5 km of fairly easy walking when the distinctive smell of slightly decaying flesh brought us to a grinding halt. We cast around and finally located a fairly recently killed Sambhar Deer (Cervicus unicolor) hidden under a thorn thicket. Studying the ground, our guide (an excellent tracker) showed us where the deer had been ambushed and pointed out the rear hoofs digging deep into the earth where a tiger had landed on his haunches, where he fell, and how after a brief struggle on the ground he was dragged under the bushes where the tiger completed a meal of the shoulder portions. The deer was a large male and it would have taken a tiger in its prime to bring him down.

Unfortunately we could get no very clear pug marks to help identify which of the 42 bengal tigers known to frequent that forest this one was. There was rising ground some 3 km off and as tigers prefer to go to a vantage point from which to sleep off a meal we thought (without any real hope) that we would give it a try. Soon we were toiling up a dry stream bed and seemingly going straight up. The surrounding scrub was too thick and thorny to break through.

We were in single file with our guide in front. he kept exclaiming at this or that sign, shushing us and commanding that we walk quietly and I was sure that it was the usual hype - "Sir, the tiger definitely passed this way this morning..."

We stopped and bunched up when we came to a series of rocks that would have made a lively waterfall in the rainy season. Broad flat rocks that almost seemed to be a series of made-to-purpose steps. At the top there was one long step and three of us took that step almost simultaneously and FROZE. There, not ten feet from us, was a huge male tiger in repose. He jumped to his feet, tail slightly twitching and stared at us. We were well and truly horrified, I know I was holding my breath. Each of us carried a camera but that was completely forgotten. The tableau held for an instant or two and then - a reddish streak, he went vertical, springing effortlessly up fifteen feet onto a big boulder, another huge leap and he disappeared into the scrub.

After a few still moments, we slowly, very slowly looked around and then, in silent excitement, cautiously came back down to the plain. Only when safely out of the deep scrub did we start jumping up and down in excitement and talked and talked about those fantastic, incredible few moments, and then we talked all the way back to the camp.

I know people that have lived in these jungles for years and never seen a tiger! It was an incredible bit of luck - and a truly blessed few moments!

I was in this same forest recently and traced out our tribal guide to see if he had seen any further signs of our handsome young man (estimated age then around 4 years, about ten feet from toe to tail) and the word was that he had been spotted, even bigger, in a completely different zone of the forest, a couple months earlier.

Well, the Bengal Tiger is highly endangered. The census that year (2003, 3 years back) identified 42 tigers. Now the count is down to 36. The population is not sustaining itself and the major reason is poaching. A tiger skin is reported to fetch upwards of 400,000 Rupees (about 10 years wage) in the local market. Other parts of the tiger are also considered very valuable and if a tiger is 'judiciously disposed of', the total for the poacher will be a million Rupees or more.

So, you will forgive me for not identifying our trekking route or the area of the forest any more clearly than I have. I have also deliberately not named my companions or our guide and they will understand.

NOBEL WORLD

The first announced Nobel prize of 2006 was for work in medicine/physiology, recognising work done in the field of genetics. We had thought that we had all the basics down pat as far as genetics is concerned, when along came the lowly petunia to shake us out of our complacency. It turns out that tiny bits of genetic material (small RNA) can silence genes even after the gene has been read-off on its way to being expressed by a cell. Even more surprising was that the same basic 'silencing' mechanism is also active in animal cells.

The implications are enormous. On the one hand there is now potential to externally modify individual gene expression and that will have a lot of bearing on treating some sorts of genetic diseases. On the other hand, individual gene action can now be much more easily studied helping us to make sense out of the massive amount of data that became available when entire genomes have been sequenced.

Moving from tiny fragments of RNA to the universe at large, the next prize to be announced was in physics. The study of 'background' microwave radiation has helped to flesh out the Big Bang theory enabling physicists to better study the very earliest stages of the creation of our universe.

Hotspots of Biodiversity

The recent discovery of a completely new species of bird from the remote Arunachal Pradesh (Himalayan foothills) in India reminds us that where man has not interfered much, the wilderness still can thrive.

Bugun liocichla is colourful. Initially it was mistaken for a Chinese species, the Omei Shan Liocichla, and it was assumed that a different race of that species had survived in a pocket over a 1000 km South of its known range.

Now that would be very unusual. The other possibility, that the species had spread South from the Shan would be even stranger!

With the world warming rapidly we are seeing the opposite! Temperate species are creeping North as the winters become milder while tropical creatures are extending their ranges. The nightmare for medical authorities in temperate countries is that very soon, tropically transmitted diseases, such as Malaria and Dengue will be commonplace in North America and Europe. The reason being that their vector - the mosquito - is already establishing populations much further North than ever before - simply because winter has become so much milder. In fact, the trend is so pronounced that the hottest specialty in medical colleges is now...Tropical Medicine!

Getting back to Bugun, the new species has coexisted with a small tribe of the West Kameng district, quite naturally called the Bugun (or Khova) and hence the new name.

We have a common, noisy and gregarious cousin of this rare "babbler" in my area and we call that "the seven sisters" as they are always found in hyperactive bunches.

My own fascination for birds bloomed very late and I have to thank many people for having introduced me to the "world of birding"not least of whom is the amazing Dr. John R.W. Stott

Suffer the CHILDREN

The BBC reports an estimated 43 million children in the war affected hotspots around the world that are now being denied a chance at education (data from Save the Children).

Horrifying, but not nearly as bad as this statistic: The proportion of women and children among civilians injured or killed in war is approximately 80% (according to Unicef).

In countries like India, where industrialisation is growing apace, the greater danger comes from poverty. Society is becoming more stratified.

The absolute number of kids getting a primary education seemingly increases as a result of the 'growth' of the middle class.
But, the poor are getting poorer - and sending their kids out to work. Staying alive has a higher priority. Privatisation of education only means that the government, which should be helping the poor, quietly turns a blind eye.

Getting back to the question of who really suffers in war, one wonders, do the perpetrators of war ever think through the consequences?

What benefit is there in supposedly engaging one enemy but ending up killing only women and kids?

Is this a new sort of tactic ?



- stop fighting me...

or I will decimate your women and children?


Remember: Modern warfare kills 10 TIMES more civilians than combatants!

Raining and Pouring

Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite.

Will we never learn? In the dry season and during periods of drought, many parts of India resemble a desert. But if it should rain, behold we have floods. The photos compare the Mahanadi estuary just one month apart. About 2 million people were displaced over that one month along the course of just this one river - 2,000,000!

Climate change has been rapid in India what with the massive elimination of forests over the last century. The land's ability to ameliorate the extremes has disappeard. The water table has dropped precipitously making it unlikely that the forests will ever come back even if we do try to allow aforestation. We replant with monocultures promoting bioinversity, we pollute. Is there anything left for us to make worse?

the people suffer

The government builds mega dams and the flooding worsens. The likelihood of catastrophic earthquakes increases - Latur, Bhuj and Kashmir all in the space of 10 years are not enough of a warning.

the people suffer

Loving Community

For a short while, we had shifted to a new home that had been lying vacant for quite some time. It was full of interesting creatures like geckos, roaches, 6 species of ants, at least 10 different types of spiders and two communities of paper wasps. The wasp nests were nestled into the air vents in the house's two bathrooms. As they were well out of easy reach, we decided to wait on "dealing with" the wasps and got on with clearing out most of the other house guests. The nearby vacant land had a few trees with a resident family of purple rumped sunbirds and even a rarely seen green agama lizard sporting an impressively long, brown-tipped tail.

A little research on our wasps revealed that these were members of the family Vespidae, subfamily Polistinae and probably of the Polistes genus (though no entomologist am I).

The adults feed on nectar while the young are given a diet of other insects' larvae making the wasps very important both as pollinators and as pest controllers.

After a week we realised that the wasps were not causing any problems - no one had been buzzed and though the bathrooms were in use, the wasps seemed to be minding their own business. As days went bye, we spent more time just watching them work. Superbly organised, there was daily progress on nest construction and we started to notice the young ones emerging and merging with the family community. there was even a powerful but gentle discipline maintained by the senior wasps. Juniors who did not get on with their work could be seen sitting just outside the nest area facing away from the nest for a few hours at a time till one of the older ones would come and nudge them gently back into the mainstream.

My son (about 13) had always been terrified of anything that carried a sting. Even he came round to taking bath without an upward glance! Soon he became the resident expert in capturing and releasing the few wasps that got confused at night by the tubelights and ended up in the living room or in one of the bedrooms.

When we shifted out after about 4 months of peaceful cohabitation, we (carefully) covered the vents up from the inside to try to protect the nests from whoever came in after us. The attempt was unsuccessful. When I returned to pick up the last few odds and ends after about a week, I found the netting removed, no wasp nests, and evidence of fire on the walls round the air vents.

Aligning with TERROR

"To those new states whom we welcome to the ranks of the free, we pledge our word that one form of colonial control shall not have passed away merely to be replaced by a far more iron tyranny. We shall not always expect to find them supporting our view. But we shall always hope to find them strongly supporting their own freedom--and to remember that, in the past, those who foolishly sought power by riding the back of the tiger ended up inside.

To those people in the huts and villages of half the globe struggling to break the bonds of mass misery, we pledge our best efforts to help them help themselves, for whatever period is required--not because the communists may be doing it, not because we seek their votes, but because it is right. If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich." from JFK's inaugural address!

That America no longer exists...

"Our first objective is to prevent the re-emergence of a new rival. This is a dominant consideration underlying the new regional defense strategy and requires that we endeavor to prevent any hostile power from dominating a region whose resources would, under consolidated control, be sufficient to generate global power. These regions include Western Europe, East Asia, the territory of the former Soviet Union, and Southwest Asia...we must maintain the mechanisms for deterring potential competitors from even aspiring to a larger regional or global role." (Paul Wolfowitz, then under-secretary of defense, way back in 1992)

In the context of the future of our world, alignment with perpetrators of war will result in terror. Just yesterday India's Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh , issued a warning that India was going to be targeted by terrorists. He went on to say that he had reliable information that our nation was riddled with secret terrorist cells that are just waiting for a chance to create mayhem. I have no doubts as to the origin of that"intelligence" and even less doubt that it will soon be backed up by some attempt to drive us in fear to the neocon doorstep!

Here then is the NEOCONONIAL vision for Asia

Common sense should tell us that those who find it easy to kick their 50-year-old most favored ally + bosom buddy (Pak) out overnight are not fit to be considered as potential friends.
I like Manmohan Singh and he has been a good Prime Minister - so far. But, the day that our government decides to align with the creators of 'the war on terror' is the day that we destroy India's security. There will be no peace of mind, there will be no peace. We will henceforth become paranoid for that is the price of being allied to:

A country that is willing to do anything in order to hegemonise the world's oil supply...

• A country that 'renders' human beings to torture.
• A country that raises taxes for the poor while lowering taxes for the rich.
• A country that promotes racial profiling.
• A country that maintains prisons outside its own jurisdiction deliberately to avoid due process.
• A country that believes it can preemptively strike anytime, anywhere.
• A country that denies its own citizens of the freedoms guaranteed by its constitution.
• A country that spies on everything including what its own people do.
• A country that hires mercenaries to do its dirty work.
• A country that provides its ally with cluster bombs to murder civilians.
• A country that is committed first to its corporations and considers its citizens as the fodder of big business.
• A country that allows thousands to die in a hurricane because they are poor.
• A country that lied to create a war.
  
• A country that encourages global warming.
  
• A country that systematically coerces other nations to either support it or shut up.
• An administration that repudiates the Geneva Convention and is desperately trying to legalise torture
  

I and all those that love our nation - and our world - would not want to have anything to do with such as these.

Whatever inducements the U.S. has used, whatever be the cost of refusing their allures, please say NO!

We have always been non-aligned, let's stay that way.

"We in this country, in this generation, are -- by destiny rather than choice -- the watchmen on the walls of world freedom. We ask, therefore that we may be worthy of our strength with wisdom and restraint, and that we may achieve in our time the ancient vision of 'peace on earth, good will toward men.' That must always be our goal, and the righteousness of our cause must always underlie our strength. For as was written long ago: except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain"

Let's pray that the most powerful country on today's earth does come back to its roots and regains its sense of equilibrium!

NeoCononialism

The tables have been turned. For those, like myself, who are citizens of nations that survived our colonisation by GREAT Britain, it's ironic to see the ridiculous and comical turnaround that has occurred over the last 5 years.

Can't really blame Tony. He had inherited a castrated nation and desperately needed to be leashed to the neocon HE-men of America in order to distract his people from their own desperate straits.

Margaret Thatcher was the much loved and therefore much reelected Prime Minister who knocked the final few nails into the coffin of British world hegemony. She has never recovered and now has to kow-tow quite shamelessly to the likes of GWB.

A globalised economy, the almighty dollar, a resurgent Euro (ever wondered where the vaunted Sterling is hiding?) and the loss of Hongkong (not to mention the Falklands war) had left Britain tottering.

From all the former colonies around the world we watch with somewhat mixed emotions as the new handler slaps his dog into complete, obsequious, submission. A former colony has in turn colonised (or is it neocononised) the once proud owners of an empire on which "the sun never set".

The Magna Carta (of 1215) says "No Freeman shall be taken, or imprisoned, or be disseised of his Freehold, or Liberties, or free Customs, or be outlawed, or exiled, or any otherwise destroyed; nor will we pass upon him, nor condemn him, but by lawful Judgment of his Peers, or by the Law of the Land. We will sell to no man, we will not deny or defer to any man either Justice or Right."

But in today's England, the neocononial tsunami that began with the secret "renderings" has washed away all traces of justice and liberty.

Those who came seeking asylum from the terror at their backs are falsely accused and imprisoned as suspected "terrorists". When finally acquitted by the highest courts are nonetheless being forcibly deported to the control of Secret Police in countries that are known for their torturous and murderous treatment of dissidents.


And the tragicomedy continues to play out...