Here is a clip:

At any rate- my theatre friends always appear to be very well read. As I have studied composition for the past 4(ish) years, I am well listened, but not as well read as I should be. I figured if I signed up for a theatre course, I would get some real summer reading. I would have read over the summer anyway, but I probably wouldn’t have learned as much. Anyway- I recommend one of the following books:

What Darwin Really Said by Benjamin Farrington

This book did a wonderful job in placing Darwin’s views back in Darwin’s time and then comparing those ideas and how they relate to present day. Farrington first points out that Darwin was a “born naturalist” and not a philosopher. The text makes it clear that Darwin was a great observer of things, but not much more. He eventually became so holed up in his own methods of observation, he too easily lumped humans in with other higher animals due to our physiological resemblance (referring to Decent of Man). Farrington goes on to show that evolutionary theory cannot be directly applied to humans. Mental capacity, education, culture are not inherited genetically. They are learned, therefore Darwininan theory does not apply. Farrington did make it clear that Darwin’s observations were still very important due to the debate it cause in the scientific community. Origin prompted Mendel to cross-breed peas and essentially discover recessive genes. Some of Darwin’s works are still used as vital text (one about the development of choral reefs).
Darwin’s Black Box by Michael J. Behe
CORRECTION: For those of you who actually read my original summary of this book, I do apologize. I could not articulate exactly what was bothering me about it. Now I can.

SUMMARY: If you had a decent Bio teacher your freshman year, you do not need to read most of this book. If you have completely forgotten anything and everything about cell function, then read on! Despite the over use of analogy to make easy-to-grasp points, this books puts forth an intriguing case against the Darwinian Theory of Evolution (he puts forth a case, but doesn’t really prove anything). Part I gives examples of Darwinian and Creationist views on evolution. Each can only disprove each other (this is also what he tries to do for the remainder of the book, funny). They both fail at explaining their theory in full (not true, one just has actual proof and the other thinks it has actual proof). Evolutionists say that evolution occurred because we can see similarities between more complex species and simpler ones. On a large scale this seems true, but here are many layers and “nuts and bolts” to complex species. When you reach the cellular and molecular level of things, even the simplest organisms and functions are frighteningly complex. Chapters 3-7 or Part II, give several examples about how the interdependence of most of these systems (let’s say, the way a cell metabolizes food) is so complex that there is no possible way for it to have evolved. (Yes it can, I like to call it the Pac-Man incident. One day a cell was wondering around and then chomp! It “ate” a mitochondria-like organism. Or the mitochondria invaded the cell, but I like the Pac-Man version better.) Behe continues to state that if one tiny part of the system is removed, the cell will cease to function. (This is true, but there was a time when it was functioning without or differently. Just like how light-sensitive cells eventually became eyeballs.) Part III brings all of these examples together to form a startling conclusion: because it is impossible for certain systems to have evolved and science has absolutely no explanation or proof of spontaneous life (Meaning amino acids randomly forming from the elements to form proteins to form cells, etc. The well-calculated tests done by Stanley Miller are “debunked” in Part III), life must have been created by intelligent design. Wait, what? Now, Behe does not say that the designer is God. Or his God, I think he is a Catholic. He only recognizes that in order for life to have been created, not only on the molecular and cellular levels, a planned design was involved. Granted, back in kiddie-bio class you study cells and how they work and their structural make-up, but how they formed is typically not addressed. At least not in Texas, ha ha. That’s beside the point.

I do not feel that Behe made a new case against evolution. It is a typical creationist view masked by science. And just as he said in the beginning, neither theory (only one is a real theory in my view) is complete and each side only strives to disprove each other. Not true, the Theory of Evolution by way of natural selection actually has been proven.

CORRECTION PART II: I forgot about this post, but now I am finally able to articulate why it is so weird for a scientist to write in favor of intelligent design. Because his arguments SUCK. Yeah, that’s right. They are interesting, they are detailed, but overall, they are not applicable. He is an example (paraphrased) , “You can’t make a bike into a motorcycle without intervention because the parts to make a motorcycle just aren’t there!” Um, yeah, bikes are not biological systems, so therefore your argument has absolutely no pull. And if a bike were a living thing, it would take many, many steps for it to evolve into a motorcycle. Of course systems may generate new and different systems. We see it in mutations, overall height of the population… genetic codes have been mapped proving that this is possible (tobacco could become as potent as pot any minute now…). As for the original formation of amino acids… sure, we may not know how that happened. But what if Miller got it right? We don’t know the precise conditions of the world pre-existence of life. so you can’t call someone out for knowing under what conditions amino acids are formed. What if that’s actually how it happened. Well then, cool. I’ve decided that Behe feels there is a conflict between his career and religion and this is his way of calming his own personal fears and/or contradictions. He also talks about aliens and time travel in the last chapter, so maybe he’s just not all there.

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Anyway, back to reality. I’ve been at my Grandmother’s for the past few days and will be passing through Waco on Friday and Houston on Saturday. So far we have gone to Central Market (not-quite-as-cool or vegan/veg friendly version of Whole Foods, but God bless HEB for trying), a Croc’s outlet store (God bless the Croc’s outlet store), and  a Saltgrass… which is no ordinary steakhouse, my friends. Oh no, it is a TEXAS steakhouse, which makes it extra special because anyone who does not eat beef is stripped naked at the door, and ground up with the corn and growth hormones that are fed to their 100% Fat-Ass Angus Beef Cows or whatever. A place so special, that not even the salads are vegetarian due to Texas-sized portions of dressings titled “Bacon-Fat Vinaigrette” “Beef Blood au jus” and “Chicken Ranch.” When I ordered my Texas Steak Sandwich (minus the steak, of course), I expected a beautiful sourdough bun with a layer of melted swiss cheese and strips of beautiful red and green bell peppers, topped with a thin layer of chipotle sauce. Is this even close to what I had imagined and anticipated? Oh no, dear reader(s). What was placed in front of me was a long dinner roll with a substance which closely resembled that plastic throw-up you could purchase from Things You Never Knew Existed… And More! catalogue. Side-note: I wanted that so badly when I was a kid! I had to settle for a 6-inch plastic roach named Fred. Anyway, I managed to eat almost half of my roll a la cheese-puke, but that was all. And surprisingly, my uncle (who I assumed was a huge Texas beef-eater type) is very interested in vegetarianism. He has done some reading and now only eats fish for protein- not even eggs! I really under estimated my uncle. Even though he had never heard of Tofu and half-jokingly confused artichokes with anchovies, he was very well versed on the health benefits of not eating meat. (Not knowing of Tofu does not mean you are ill-informed, it just means you need to branch out. And just because you don’t cook with it doesn’t mean that you haven’t branched out. I cook with it all the time because it is cheap and I am a lazy cook.)

Which brings us to something else that my uncle told me. And I would trust him with this because he has been an owner of several businesses and currently builds houses… a lot of them. So he’s had to handle various sums of money over the years, and due to his success with small businesses, I would trust him with financial advice. Right- so in the next 12 months credit card companies are not going to wait until the end of the month balance to start charging interest. They are going to start charging you interest as soon as you purchase something. No more free trips. (They weren’t free to begin with, anyway…) No more borrowing the credit card company’s money with no penalty. Even if you pay your card in full at the end of the month- it won’t matter. Bank of America has already started doing this. So yeah, I am going to check on this further, and I suggest that you do the same. It would at least be worth a detective session with Google.

Anyway- I need to get back to readin’ mah Dar-win. Here are some of my favorite quotes so far:

It happened to be a grand feast-day, and the village was full of people. On our return we overtook a party of about twenty young black girls, dressed in excellent taste; their black skins and snow-white linen being set off by coloured turbans and large shawls. As soon as we approached near, they suddenly all turned round, and covering the path with their shawls, sung with great energy a wild song, beating time with their hands upon their legs. We threw them some vintems, which were received with screams of laughter, and we left them redoubling the noise of their song.

This sea-slug is about five inches long; and is of a dirty yellowish colour veined with purple. On each side of the lower surface, or foot, there is a broad membrane, which appears sometimes to act as a ventilator, in causing a current of water to flow over the dorsal branchiae or lungs. It feeds on the delicate sea-weeds which grow among the stones in muddy and shallow water; and I found in its stomach several small pebbles, as in the gizzard of a bird. This slug, when disturbed, emits a very fine purplish-red fluid, which stains the water for the space of a foot around. Besides this means of defence, an acrid secretion, which is spread over its body, causes a sharp, stinging sensation, similar to that produced by the Physalia, or Portuguese man-of-war.

We found on St. Paul’s only two kinds of birds — the booby and the noddy.

One day I was amused by watching the habits of the Diodon antennatus, which was caught swimming near the shore. This fish, with its flabby skin, is well known to possess the singular power of distending itself into a nearly spherical form.

…become erect and pointed. But the most curious circumstance is, that it secretes from the skin of its belly, when handled, a most beautiful carmine-red fibrous matter, which stains ivory and paper in so permanent a manner that the tint is retained with all its brightness to the present day: I am quite ignorant of the nature and use of this secretion.