Keep An Open Mind On Science

When I was a kid, I wasn't too thrilled by classes in science. At that young point in my life, I suppose I didn't see the relevance of science and in depth research into various aspects of life and the world around me. As the years ticked by, I began to have much more of an appreciation for that conglomeration of subjects we call "science."

Science can come into conflict with a person's religious views; after all, many folks are brought up on a set of religious beliefs, with the key word being "beliefs." They aren't called "facts," they are called "beliefs." I suppose most of you "believed" in Santa Claus, but at some point, you gave up on that "belief." Many people keep telling me I should give up on that "belief," too, but they can't fool me, I know there's a Santa Claus, because who else would have the nerve to ride through a parade in a sleigh drawn by a team of reindeer, wearing a red suit, and yelling "ho, ho, ho," like the Jolly Green Giant, or Tiger Woods (oops, wrong kind of "ho, ho ho!"). Besides, the judge in "Miracle On 34th Street" ruled there is a Santa Claus, and you can't fool Hollywood!

Actually, science and religion have much in common, as they both have "theories," sometimes about the same subject, like for instance, how humans came to be here in our present form. I'm not writing this to say "agree" or "disagree" with one side or the other. I'm writing this to say, "keep an open mind," and don't be afraid to find out that your long held "beliefs" may have flaws. Those with super strong, fundamentalist "beliefs" loathe many aspects of science,* until "perhaps" they need special medical treatment, or until scientific research might benefit them. Challenging our basic beliefs is a tough one for many (maybe all) of us to accept, but challenging such beliefs is what has moved mankind forward, but there are still those who seem to want to live in, or take us back to, the Stone Age, if not before. Science isn't perfect, but neither is religion, otherwise we wouldn't have religious fanatics cutting off people's heads, or trying to light their underwear on airplanes. (Hmm, I wonder if this guy's mother told him to always wear clean underwear in case he ever tried to ignite explosives he had hidden in them?)

* I'm NOT saying that all religious beliefs are the same. Some folks' religious "beliefs" have evolved to include modernized ideas, often based upon science, and these folks are perfectly comfortable with such "beliefs."

WORD HISTORY:
Moot-This word, closely related to "meet," traces back to the Indo European base "ma/me," which had the notion of "measure." This gave Old Germanic "motam" (noun) and "gamotan" (verb), the noun meant "meeting," a gathering where ideas were "measured" one to another; that is, discussed and decided upon (this same word is also the ancestor of "meet/meeting). This gave Old English "gemot/gamot," I assume the verb forms, and also "mot," with a long "o" sound, which also meant "meeting." It "seems" the modern spelling occurred during the 1100s. The adjective form developed during the 1500s, as law students used the term "moot" for test/mock legal cases (again, the idea of discussing, considering is present, and the term actually had been around in legal matters in Old English times, in a verb form, meaning "to plead in court," and as a noun to mean "a meeting to mete out justice" ). Eventually, the idea of mock legal cases gave us the idea of "debatable," with the notion of "not worth serious debate," or "only legally debatable," as in "a moot point," developing during the 1600s. Other Germanic relatives of both "moot" and "meet(ing)": Low German Saxon has "Mööt" (meeting), Dutch "ontmoeting" (meeting), Danish and Norwegian "møde" (meeting), Icelandic "mót" (meeting, tournament; that is, "meeting in competition"), Swedish "mote" (meeting).