Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed

So, I figured it was about time that someone besides Karen posted something on the family blog. Gosh, if she would just quit hogging the whole thing...

Anyway, while I was down in Utah this past week for Women's Conference at BYU, Anna and I decided to go out to a movie. We saw Ben Stein's new documentary titled "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed" about the current controversy in the scientific community over the theory of Intelligent Design.

In the film, well-known comedian Ben Stein addresses the debate (or lack thereof) in academia between Darwinism and Intelligent Design, especially as it relates to evolutionary biology, but also other fields of science. He investigates the professional repercussions for scientists of admitting to the use of the theory of Intelligent Design in the research, or for some, even the mention of it in a classroom setting. He also explores the links between Darwinism and atheism and Intelligent Design and belief in God.

At the beginning of the film, I felt that the use of the Berlin Wall as a symbol of the sanctions placed on scientists who believe in Intelligent Design was a little heavy-handed, but as the movie progressed, it seemed more and more appropriate. What I found especially interesting were the attitudes of scientists outside the US on the subject--they seemed much more inclined to endorse the idea of promoting an actual scientific debate on the subject, not a disenfranchisement of those not toeing the "party line". Stein's visits to Hadamar and Dachau, along with his investigations of Hitler's practices regarding the mentally ill and other genetically "undesireable" people, along with American Eugenics in the early 20th century and their links to Darwinism were especially chilling.

Perhaps I was a little sheltered from the force of this debate by attending a religious university, but I believe it was mostly my upbringing by intelligent, well-educated parents (one of whom is a very accomplished scientist) that showed me in a very clear way that a belief in God and the ability to be a good scientist are not mutually exclusive. As disturbing as some of the situations presented in the film were, I really enjoyed watching it and discussing it afterwards with Anna. Sometimes it feels nice to use those brains cells that don't get exercised very often when the majority if your day is spent with the under 10 crowd. It made me appreciate my testimony of the restored gospel and the concept of all truth being linked together. While it is not very action-packed, it will definitely give you plenty to think about.

Spring Break

We finished up our Utah National Parks tour during the kids' week off from school. We went to Bryce Canyon and Capitol Reef and also threw in the Petrified Forest state park on the way. Bryce Canyon was really too cold in April, but we had lots of fun at Capitol Reef. The kids enjoyed all of the crazy southern Utah geology and rarely complained about the amount of walking we were doing. In case anyone wants to know, we think Capitol Reef and Arches are the best parks for kids.



I think the kids have pretty much decided that they want to live in a cave someday. There were tons of these all over during our hikes, but they never lost their enthusiasm for them.



Here's spidergirl scaling the canyon wall.

Negligent Parenting

So I watched 2 of my friend's kids today while she went to the store. Everyone was playing happily, so I went downstairs to print Jacob a picture to color (because he really, really wanted one). I walked back upstairs not 5 minutes later and the front door was open and Luke, who's 2, was nowhere to seen. I scoured the neighborhood. I scoured the house. I got all the neighbors looking with me. I finally called the police and his mom came back from the store. Where was he? At his house watching tv and eating a lollipop. A different neighbor had seen him wandering on her way out and dropped him off at home. Luckily, it was unlocked and he was resourceful enough to make himself comfortable. But it makes me ask this question: How on earth am I going to be able to handle 5 kids?! I couldn't even remember the cardinal rule of 2-year-olds--never leave the front door unlocked.

Happy Spring!

What a great way to announce the coming baby, Karen! I can't believe how long it's been since I read the blog. Thank you, Karen, for posting multiple times and doing the blog for the family.

Hope you all had a nice Easter. Tom and I went to Virginia to visit Great-Grandfather and to North Carolina to visit Linda and her family for the weekend. It all happened very quickly. Tom came home on Wednesday, I think it was, and announced that his business trips on Friday and Monday were cancelled, and asked if I wanted to visit my dad and Linda's family for the Easter weekend. Of course, I jumped at the chance. Both were short visits, but it was so nice to see them all!

Great-Grandfather (I'll just call him Grandpa G) is hanging in there. He was on oxygen most of the time and got winded from walking the length of the house. They just had carpeting replaced in the living and dining rooms the morning we arrived. Soon they're having the windows replaced. It was pretty warm there and the flowers are blooming!

It was also warm in NC. Hayden and Stewart seemed to have grown so much since the reunion in August. Of course, Adaline has grown a lot. The boys are very good with her and obviously love her very much. She is a very happy baby and she and Bethany are doing many of the same things.

We are excited to be going to James' graduation in April! Did everyone know James is graduating with 2 degrees!? We're so proud of you, James.

It will be great to see everyone in Provo and Orem, even though it's another quick trip. Dad is supposed to go to Pakistan that weekend - not where I would want to travel.

I was going to try to post some pictures, but it's getting too late tonight.

Love to all of you. I'll try to blog again real soon.

Mom/Grandma

And baby makes...7

Here's our Valentine's Day surprise. Only Jared was in Florida on Valentine's Day. Go figure. Still, I should have known earlier. I don't skip periods...
I am surprised and happy to report that I am feeling kind of excited about this new development. Not part of the plan, but I'm a sucker for babies.

Controversial Books

So, I was interested in reading The Golden Compass series by Phillip Pullman (The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, The Amber Spyglass) because some parents have asked us to remove it from the shelf at the school lbrary. After hearing the allegations about the books (that they are intended to persuade children to become atheists), I was feeling like people had not given them a chance. I had already begun to read The Golden Compass before I had heard about any of the controversy, after all, and there was nothing that I could find that was questionable. So I continued to read. Even after the second book, it seemed as though he was only speaking out against corrupt religion, which I think is a good thing. Not too far into the third book, however, it was clear that he believes all religion is corrupt.

The premise of the books is essentially that there was an angel a long time ago that put himself above the other angels and called himself God and the Creator (even though he was not) and that his goal is to keep people from gaining knowledge(that's why gaining knowledge was the original sin). The rebel angels (you know, that 1/3 from the war in heaven) have been fighting against him ever since and trying to help humans learn. And they enlist the help of two children to help them destroy God and create the Republic of Heaven (rather than the Kingdom).

There's a lot more to the stories, of course, and they are well written and interesting, but they still really hurt my feelings. In his books, the only religious people are either power-hungry hypocrites or fearful and ignorant. He writes about love and accepting people even with their faults (his main characters are flawed on purpose, I think) and the power of human relationships and following your instincts and the great value of learning. I am in complete agreement with pretty much everything he writes about those things. He seems to have a good understanding of how we all interact with and need each other. But the major flaw I see is that his goal is to show that religion is the antithesis of all of those good things; it is only useful for repressing people. So, while he may know a lot about life, he is quite ignorant about religion and people's reasons for being religious. Maybe he should stick to writing about things with which he is familiar.

For the record, I still don't think it should be removed from the shelves at school. As Anna said to me, "Nothing good ever came from censorship." I agree. It would probably create more problems than it would solve. And I want to have my freedom of expression protected, so I can't take away someone else's. Still, I think parents should be making informed decisions about what their children are reading.

Past events

Here are a couple of pictures from December that I never got around to posting:

Laurel was baptized Dec. 1. We had a conflict with the scheduled Stake baptisms (Jared was going to be out of town), so she got to have her own. It was really nice to have all of Jared's family and also Mom and Dad here for the baptism. Our house was pretty packed with people, but all the cousins on the Meeker side seemed to have a good time.

Our Christmas picture. We can never get one with everyone looking at the camera.