Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Searching for Patterns

During Evolution Week, I attended a lecture by Dr. Whiting. I believe it was titled “Grandeur in this View of Life”, or something to that effect. Dr. Whiting gave a general overview of evolution and the reasoning behind it. He also talked of Darwin. He spoke of Darwin’s life experiences and how these affected his scientific views. It was a great summary of evolution and Darwin for the general population. But to be honest, I found Dr. Whiting’s talk to be somewhat boring. I am in his Biology 420 class this semester, so I had already heard most of his lecture within the beginning week of January. And other biology classes had already taught me the general principles of evolution.
However, there was one aspect of his lecture that really caused me to think and ponder. Dr. Whiting talked about the importance of patterns. He showed us a picture of his daugther’s creation of cookies and pudding. He described this creation as a pattern, and by studying the pattern, one could see how the cookies and pudding were manipulated. It was possible to tell that the cookies had come after the pudding, and that the little girl had created the pudding painting using mainly her fingers. Dr. Whiting described some of the patterns in evolution and demonstrated how these patterns point to the mechanisms of evolution. He stated that by finding patterns in nature, we can understand fundamental principles.
Dr. Whiting seemed to assert that patterns in nature will lead us to understanding the science behind nature. I also believe this is true. But it made me think of the people who created Topeki Gobli, or those who erected Stonehenge, or even the Kogi today. These people also saw patterns in nature. They saw the renewal of the earth every spring. They saw the equinoxes and the solstices. They saw constant death but also constant life. To explain these patterns, they turned to myths such as the Babylonian story of Adapa the fisherman who refused the gift of eternal life or the Greek myth of Persephone who oscillated between the underworld in the winter and living with her mother the goddess Demeter in the summer. So far as we know, these myths do not contain much scientific truth. But every culture has always found a need to explain the patterns of nature in some way.
Now I’m not trying to say that evolution is our myth today. I do believe that evolution is scientifically sound, and that it is God’s way of creating new life forms. But it does make me wonder about our need for explanation and understanding. We see patterns around us, and we feel a need to fit in, to become part of the pattern, to understand and to feel like we are more than an individual, that we are a part of a whole. I think that explaining the patterns found in daily life and in the environment was perhaps the main reason religion arose. The need to connect and to understand is deep-seated in each one of us, and has been a part of humanity perhaps since the beginning. I wonder why we feel this need, why we can’t just observe and recognize that there is “grandeur in this view of life”. I don’t think it’s wrong to try and understand patterns. I just think it’s interesting to see how much effort we put into explaining them.

10 comments:

  1. Its true that humans are always trying to categorize, label and explain things. I think this is one of the ways that sets us apart from the rest of the animal kingdom. We recognize our surroundings and try to make sense of them. We are continually organizing our world whether for good or ill. We are rational beings with a rational mind.

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  2. Patterns permeate through our lives, whether it be sunrise and sunset, the cycle of times of dating and not dating most college students experience. I think it is through understanding these patterns and why they happen that we recieve greater knowledge of life and our world as a whole.

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  3. Thank you for the blog. It was very well written. I also see patterns in nature. It is nice to know that every spring you can go to your lucky fishing whole and know that a good catch will be made. Patterns are around us everyday. Some of us would like to pattern our lifes like chirst. I think patterns enable us to see something that works and be able to replicate it.

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  4. The sooner that we stop trying to categorize everything and compare between ourselves and others we will be that much farther ahead. Although comparing things has its advantages I think it hinders ourselves from reaching our true potential.

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  5. I really enjoyed reading this blog. I liked when you quoted Dr. Whiting by saying that understanding the patterns in nature will help us understand the science behind nature. I think when we have reached that point, we can actually begin to understand how to better the world that we live in.

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  6. Perhaps what we need to decide is how much weight is there in science? I am a Biology major and I love science, but it isn't my ultimate priority. Pattern etc is a way for science to explain things... I think the goal is ultimate truth and we may all be suprised by the method that God uses to teach us those things.

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  7. I agree that we (as scientists or scientist-wannabes) tend to approach life a little too left brained, and that God instilled in us a sense of wonder for a reason. However, God also gave me the abilty to think. I believe he expects me to use that ability the same as Christ expected his servants to multiply their talents, rather than hide them.
    My point is, we can have the best of both worlds in this instance.

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  8. God certainly works by patterns. If we can discover His patterns then we have potential of discovering His handy-work and the mysteries of His kingdom. I just wonder whether our expansive research and great input into discovering the facets of evolution have helped our society. Maybe it would be more productive to put the time and energy of our great thinkers into discovering the cure for cancer, aiding the AIDS devastated countries, or destroying the Tse Tse fly of Africa! :)

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  9. Perhaps an understanding of evolution helps us understand organisms like the tse tse fly so we can effectively control that species. We just need Moses to control the pests like he did in Egypt!

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  10. The part of the forum that you mentioned where the speaker stated that by finding patterns in nature, we can understand fundamental principles, and that patterns in nature will lead us to understanding the science behind nature, was what stood out to me as well. It is this view point that I began picking up on myself, especially upon taking developmental biology.
    All things testify of Christ and are eternally connected.

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