I've never shaken so much before a presentation since they've been required. I mean, I've been nervous about them before, but not so much that my heart rate raised 3 hours before the actual presentation and will not settle down. I'm going to be so glad when theis is over. Of course this is not the last presentation that I will give. But it's the source of most of my worries. What if I just freeze up there and forget what I'm talking about?

x.x

I doubt that I will, but it's happened before, and it's really embarassing. It's the reason that I don't like to present in front of my peers. Ahh well... time will come, it will stay, and it will go. Sooner or later, that class has to come, and sooner or later it has to end. Sooner or later, it has to be night, so sooner or later, this whole thing will be over, it will be in the past, and it likely will not matter any more.

Since I've written this paper, I've had a lot of time to reflect upon what the importance of science is to my nearly faithless way of life. And I'm glad for that. I wish that more people would dump organized religion like I did, and look at the world in the scientific sense. One can still have faith in a greater being and respect the awsome nature of science. I've been doing it for years, well respecting the scientific method, and I am not an immoral hitler-type. I am bound by the reasonable nature of my human integrity, my respect for others, and that's what this all boils down to. This issue is important to me, because we can not beat ourselves senseless back to the dark ages, a time of scientific depression, and unquestionable religious fundamentalism.

God has not been left out of the equation. There is just no evidence for him. Everywhere we look, we see things beautiful in nature, and think to ourselves "That must be the work of an intelligent designer" -- of course, that is an excellent show of faith, but it's not science. In all of our history, when we look at science, we have discovered the existence of a natural explanation for phenomena. The properties of Physics govern most of the forms we see. The properties of chemestry creates anatural balance in the world that we as people MUST understand to keep going forward. Applying god directly into the equation will halt scientific progress as we know it.

The best thing then to do is to recognize that there are things in nature that are spectacular. And, where you wish, keep believing in god. Believe in god in the naturalistic sense. Believe that he has given us all of the properties of physics, chemistry, biology to determine what the outcome of human life is. Because the explanations that we are coming by are all true, and they are all naturalistic. And they cannot be cointinued to be ignored just because they defy someone's religious dogma. The application of science can be made to individual religious beliefs. It's up to the people, and its up for science to remain objective so that the people can make these decisions for themselves.

As you can see much of this is just random typing, while I try to vent some of the anxiety that I'm feeling at the moment. Well, I have to start presenting in about 20 minutes.. I ought to run through my presentation again. I hope I do well.

~David~