We’re Never Absolutely Certain, But We Really Don’t Need To Be
Descartes told us that the only thing of which we can be certain is that the statement “I exist” is true every time we pronounce it or conceive it in our minds.
In our real-world lives, however, no one needs absolute certainty. I’m fairly confident that I’m sitting at my desk typing this blog post, though I concede it’s possible that I’m asleep dreaming it, or that I’m in a lab somewhere with mental images being electronically implanted into me. However, I’m as certain as I need to be about my being here at 2GreenEnergy “headquarters,” typing away.
As suggested at left, those who believe that the Earth was created about 6000 years ago have a similar dilemma, only in reverse; they have chosen to believe something that seems, while not impossible, improbable in the extreme.
By the time the Derek Chauvin / George Floyd case is over, the volume of news coverage on it will be astronomical. The case rivals the O.J. Simpson trial in terms of its national and international fascination, but sadly, it’s far more important, given this terrible point in U.S. history, where racial tension has, for an entire presidential administration, been deliberately amplified and exploited for political purposes. 
Like all decent people, I’m a feminist. But I’m also a man of science, and the statement at left is simply incorrect biologically. Boys’ thoughts are often driven by girls’ bodies; it’s a scientific fact, and it has no moral connotation whatsoever.
Bashing today’s Republicans, the group from which the party of Lincoln devolved, has never been difficult for intelligent and articulate people, but it’s always great to see it done with such zeal and panache, and especially when it comes from a self-described 
We don’t need another reminder of how broken our democracy is, but if we did, the meme here would certainly get the job done.
It’s a tragedy that we have people who lack a 6th grade education in science influencing policy-making that will mean the difference between life and death for the human civilization.
We expend a good deal of resources here advocating for science. This may seem like a subject that should take care of itself, but sadly, it isn’t, given the influence of big money and religious fundamentalism.
Venn diagrams, popularized by John Venn in the 1880s, show the logical relation between sets. Right around the time I was in elementary school in the early 1960s, set theory was becoming an important part of math curricula, and our teachers used them to teach us things like elementary logic.
There can’t be more than a handful of intelligent people in the world today who believe that religion, generally, is currently operating at its optimum capacity in human civilization.
There are probably enough people poking jabs at the youthful climate activist Greta Thunberg without my jumping on the bandwagon, but this is all in good fun, and it’s far too clever to ignore.
