Recording Your Dreams

October 29, 2010
by Rodney Olsen
1 Comment

Can you imagine being able to record your dreams? Is that something that excites or frightens you? It’s a little bit of both for me.

I guess we’ve all had those dreams that seem so real and so wonderful at the time but then we wake up and we’re left feeling a bit let down as we try to scramble our memory to search for all the pieces to the amazing scenes we’ve just experienced. I’ve visited far off, exotic locations and met with some amazing people but then I wake up to find that not only wasn’t it real, but the memory of those dreams is slipping away incredibly fast. I love the dreams of being back in India or of cycling across Australia.

Maybe you’ve also had those dreams that you don’t remember having at all when you wake up, but then something happens during the day triggers a memory and the dream you had last night floods back.

Now we’re being told that US scientists hope to record people’s dreams.

They’re in early stages of research at the moment but it may one day be possible to TiVo your weird and wonderful night time adventures. If it ever happens, sign me up, but first I want to ensure that the recordings are kept secure, with me being the only one to watch my dreams. I’m sure that there’ll be stuff I’ll show others or even post online once I’ve edited it but having my mind in its most unguarded moments streamed live isn’t something that would thrill me.

How about you? Have you had some dreams that you’d like to be able to re-visit? Would you want to record your dreams?



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Majority of Scientists Believe in a Higher Power

November 26, 2009
by Rodney Olsen
3 Comments

Lab

OK, so it’s not an overwhelming majority but it is a majority, which is certainly not what some people want us to believe.

The Los Angeles Times is telling us that while the science community is less likely than the general public to believe in God or a higher power, there is still just over half their number who think there’s more to life than that which can be verified scientifically. Surveys of the general public show a 95% belief in God or higher power.

According to a survey of members of the American Assn. for the Advancement of Science, conducted by the Pew Research Center in May and June this year, a majority of scientists (51%) say they believe in God or a higher power, while 41% say they do not.

You might think that most of those admitting to a belief in God or a higher power would be leaning towards the higher power end of the spectrum when in fact 42% of scientists say that they believe in a personal God.

The research doesn’t show that those who believe in God necessarily believe that he created the world in which we live.

Today, a century and a half after Charles Darwin published “On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection,” the overwhelming majority of scientists in the United States accept Darwinian evolution as the basis for understanding how life on Earth developed. But although evolutionary theory is often portrayed as antithetical to religion, it has not destroyed the religious faith of the scientific community.

But what would Darwin have said if he was surveyed on his beliefs? Charles Darwin’s original choice of career was to be a village vicar but it’s said that he lost his faith because it didn’t fit with his thoughts on evolution.

As for Darwin, his letters indicate that he was probably an agnostic who lost his faith not because his groundbreaking theory was incompatible with religion, but because of his grief after the 1851 death of his favorite child, his 10-year-old daughter, Annie. And even then, he may not have completely rejected the idea of a higher power. The concluding sentence of “Origin of Species” speaks of a “Creator” breathing life “into a few forms or into one.” The passage raises at least a little doubt as to how the father of modern evolutionary theory might have responded to the question on belief in Pew’s recent survey of scientists.

What do you think? How would you respond to the question? Is there a God or higher power watching over us? Did that God or higher power create this world or even set the process in motion? I’d love to get your thoughts in the comments section below.

Discovered via Phil Cooke.



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