WEAK HYDROGEN BONDS

I was the middle son of three boys, wanting nothing more really than to please my parents. Sure I wanted a bicycle and a ball glove but at the end of the day was the hope that something I did would make them proud. They never preached thank goodness, what I should do or believe; it wasn’t their nature to preach. What they did was to live day by day, hour by hour, consistent with the rules and beliefs of their experience. To that end, my foundation was not one of lectures or instruction but one of demonstrated examples, behavior and a sense of identity I could hang my hat on. 

Even if boys don’t rebel they have an inherent need to assert themselves. That often pans out as the prodigal son who spurns his parent’s wisdom in a quest for his own revelation. I questioned their politics and held on to their religion. In college I really took the bait of a conservative world view. The free will, personal accountability model sounds so right when you have time and privilege on your side. We are what we chose to be, you get what you deserve. Amen, thank you Jesus. After a couple of decades, that youthful meandering corrected itself.  

I had rediscovered the wisdom of “The Greater Good.” As much as Western thought has emphasized the importance of the individual, the greedy self still has to balance with a generous spirit. We are an Ultrasocial, Hive Culture, like bees. As much as we need to take care of ourselves, we must take care of each other as well. Specialization and division of labor makes individuals interdependent. Bees don’t fly off when times get rough, looking for a better job. If the hive fails, the bees all die. Interestingly, there are no King Bees; but that’s another story. I love the freedom that comes with individuality but I also realize it comes at a price. “Liberty” zealots would easily point out my error but that would be like football coaches around a chalk board, arguing one strategy over another. Whoever gets the chalk last, wins.

Faith based Believers would also take me to task. As a kid I got the omnipotent God thing but never could buy into Jesus. He had a good story but so did Pinocchio. I really tried to walk that walk but I think that was about pleasing Mom & Dad. It was like shooting hoops alone in the side yard, pretending I was a star in the Olympics. When lunch time came, I was just a hungry 10 year-old. An adult life invested in science education simply sucked all the air out of that balloon. Big “B” Believers are statistically happier than heretics but so are children who still believe in Santa. It is amazing how much better you feel when your own personal, irreversible truth is that you get to live forever. When we feel vulnerable we want absolute, universal truth, right now and the only place they sell that is at the myth store. Science is a system with people and process, not a belief. It simply claims: We have a good process, slow at times but it works. We share and explain what we learn. If it changes we write new books to show that change. In practice, the purpose of science is not to prove something, but to disprove everything. What survives that gauntlet then has to stand on its own legs. The fact that we use what we learn to advance our own interests and profit is about us, not about science. 

Faith is strong stuff but your faith is about you, not the object. What I believe is always followed by a disclaimer; “...until I learn otherwise.” As close as I come to Faith is a high degree of confidence in gravity and weak hydrogen bonds in DNA. I’ve nothing to gain by attacking someone else’s Faith. Live well, be happy. If you want religion, if you need it you should have it. It's better than Prozac and you don't need a prescription.