STS-130 Endeavour Launch

In what will likely be the last night-time space shuttle launch, the space shuttle Endeavour lifted off this morning on the latest mission to the International Space Station.

Hubble Hard at Work

Two recent new images from Hubble display the amazing capabilities of the famous space telescope.

First,we have a dramatic photo of a somewhat mysterious object:

NASA explains the image:

“The mystery object was discovered on January 6, 2010, by the Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR) sky survey. The object appears so unusual in ground-based telescopic images that discretionary time on NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope was used to take a close-up look. The observations show a bizarre X-pattern of filamentary structures near the point-like nucleus of the object and trailing streamers of dust. This complex structure suggests the object is not a comet but instead the product of a head-on collision between two asteroids traveling five times faster than a rifle bullet. Astronomers have long thought that the asteroid belt is being ground down through collisions, but such a smashup has never before been seen.”

The second image isn’t directly from Hubble, but is the result of four years of continuous computer processing of Hubble images of Pluto.

This image is the clearest view of Pluto ever, at least until NASA’s New Horizons probe makes its first-ever flyby of the planet in 2015.

The Great Richard Dawkins Fallacy

Richard Dawkins has now taken aim at Tim Tebow’s Superbowl ad, using his “logic and reason”  to evaluate the ad at hand. The problem with Professor Dawkins’ logic is that is simply isn’t.

The Tebow ad has not yet aired, but it allegedly presents the story of Tim’s mother rejecting the option of abortion, despite pressure to do otherwise, and instead choosing to bring Tim into the world. Dawkins compares this ad to the popular (yet historically untrue) story of Beethoven that has made the e-mail rounds, usually in a form like the following:

“About the terminating of pregnancy, I want your opinion. The father was syphilitic. The mother tuberculous. Of the four children born, the first was blind, the second died, the third was deaf and dumb, the fourth was also tuberculous. What would you have done?”

“I would have terminated the pregnancy.”

“Then you would have murdered Beethoven.”

Dawkins is not convinced:

“It is amazing how many people are bamboozled by this spectacularly stupid argument.”

He criticizes what he thinks is the flawed logic of this story, writing:

“If you follow the ‘pro-life’ logic to its conclusion, a fertile woman is guilty of something equivalent to murder every time she refuses an offer of copulation.”

This is Dawkins’ argument: if abortion is evil because it deprives the world of musical and gridiron greats like Beethoven and Tebow, it must be similarly immoral to deprive the world of those greats by not conceiving them in the first place.

Dawkins does have something of a point here. The “Beethoven” defense is not the strongest pro-life argument, both for the reasons Dawkins provides — that every human life is the result of countless unpredictable events — and because we don’t want to imply that only “great” lives like Beethoven’s or Tebow’s are valuable.

But, as rhetorically stimulating as the story may be, it does not represent the true pro-life argument, and Dawkins is smart enough to know it, so he goes on to note:

“Religious apologists are unimpressed by this kind of argument because, they say, there is a distinction between snuffing out a life that is already in existence (as in abortion) and failure to bring life into existence in the first place.”

Maybe, you think, the good professor is actually going to engage in some intelligent debate of the real pro-life position. Unfortunately, you’re wrong. Since the distinction between destroying life that is already present and not creating life in the first place is too obvious in common sense, Professor Dawkins has to offer a non sequitur to continue his critique of pro-lifers:

“Look at it from the point of view of Tim’s unborn sister (let us say), who would have been conceived two months later if only Tim had been aborted. Admittedly, she is not in a position to complain of her non-existence. But then nor would Tim have been in a position to complain of his non-existence, if he had been aborted. You need a functioning nervous system in order to complain, or regret, or feel wistful, or feel pain, or miss the life that you could have had. Unconceived babies don’t have a nervous system. Nor do aborted fetuses. As far as anything that matters is concerned, an aborted fetus has exactly the same mental and moral status as any of the countless trillions of unconceived babies.”

Observe what has happened here: Dawkins has completely ignored the actual pro-life argument and replaced it with one of his own, a strawman he can (he thinks) more easily demolish. Instead of accepting the actual pro-life argument that it is the deliberate taking of human life as such that is morally objectionable, he shifts the terms and claims that it is the ability to experience the life that matters. Thus, he claims, non-existing lives and lives without the ability to consciously experience (that is, lacking developed nervous systems) are equivalent. His argument is that since it is absurd to claim that we are morally responsible for lives that don’t exist, and lives that don’t exist are equivalent to lives that do exist but cannot consciously experience that existence, our lack of moral obligation to non-existing people is the same as our lack of moral obligation to unconscious existing people.

Such a claim simply bypasses the pro-life argument that human life is sacred simply by virtue of being human life, irrespective of the state of development of the nervous system. In so doing Dawkins has not refuted what he calls the poor logic of the pro-life position, he has simply ignored it.

Dawkins’ tactic here has produced an even more absurd result, which reveals clearly his poor practice of logic and  philosophy. His argument ends up asserting that that the presence or lack of a physiological system is a more fundamental distinction than that between altogether existing and not-existing — and with that kind of astonishing claim he has the gall to accuse his opponents of being illogical and unreasonable.

Skijoring!

When I lived in Alaska, skijoring — being pulled on skis by a sled dog — was quite popular. Since it’s not as well known “Outside”, as Alaskans say, I thought I’d share this video from Discovery News on the sport you’ve never heard of.

Communication with “Vegetative” Patients?

A report in Science comments on recent studies indicating communication with patients in unresponsive — so-called “vegetative” — states may be possible in some cases:

“In the new study, published today in the New England Journal of Medicine, Owen and several colleagues used similar methods to examine 53 additional people who were in a vegetative state or in the slightly less severe minimally conscious state, in which patients show occasional flashes of responsiveness. In four of these patients, the researchers found distinct patterns of brain activity during the tennis versus house imagination task, hinting at some level of awareness that could not be detected by observing their behavior, says co-author Steven Laureys, a neurologist at the University of Liège in Belgium.

In one patient, a 22-year-old man who’d been in a vegetative state for 5 years, the researchers took an additional step, asking him to answer six questions by imagining tennis to indicate “yes” or picturing his house to indicate “no.” The questions all involved basic autobiographical details, such as the name of his father or whether he had any brothers or sisters. In a group of 16 healthy volunteers, this method worked 100% of the time, the researchers report.”

The source paper in the New England Journal of Medicine is available here.

Reflections on Progress and Space

Also over at First Things, Kevin Staley-Joyce posts reflections on “Obama, Progress, and the Space Program”:

“Who knows? There’s still more to this story. Having it both ways is more indicative of Obama’s frustrated ambitions than it is an oracle for our future in space. The president, by all accounts, considers himself a progressive, and it’s hard to think of any undertaking more clearly progressive than space exploration. But is he really? “Progressive” is an awfully nebulous term. The age-old critique submits that progressivism per se contains a logical fallacy: It fails to designate what makes progress identifiable as such, a goal or intended result. In other words, the concept of progress is incoherent without a conceptual framework that includes something toward which to progress.”

Ralph McInerny, Requiescat in pace

Legendary Catholic writer and Notre Dame professor Ralph McInerny has died. First Things posts this tribute from Thomas Hibbs.

“Ralph’s life and career will always be enmeshed with the university he loved, Our Lady’s University. He was of course deeply chagrined at the direction of the University. Of course, the concerns about Notre Dame’s Catholic identity have become very public in the past few years with the administration’s decisions to elevate the tawdry Vagina Monologues to the status of great art and to award an honorary doctorate of laws to a pro-abortion president. Before all that, Ralph objected to the premature firing of Coach Tyrone Willingham, in an New York Times op-ed piece “The Firing Irish,” and to the unseemly image of a president and priest chasing down potential coaches on airport tarmacs in the dead of night. Even prior to that, Ralph objected to hiring practices that focused exclusively on “academic” criteria and rendered irrelevant knowledge of, and sympathy for, the Catholic faith and intellectual tradition. For Ralph, the accelerating abandonment of things Catholic at Notre Dame was the direct result of a craven quest for success understood in conventional, and often quite secular, terms.

It is common to say that Notre Dame’s motto is “God, Country, Notre Dame,” but Ralph was quick to remind us that the official motto is “vita, dulcedo et spes”—words meaning “life, sweetness, and hope” from the Latin Marian prayer, Salve Regina. How fitting that Ralph’s last book, published just months ago, is Dante and the Blessed Virgin. Again, what he said of Jacques Maritain is equally true of Ralph. Teacher of teachers, he was a “model of the Christian philosopher, of the Thomist, both by what he taught and what he was.”

During my time at Notre Dame I was unfortunately never able to work in a class with Professor McInerny, a disappointment to this day. His legacy at both Notre Dame and in the Catholic world in general will always be edifying, and he will be sorely missed. Requiescat in pace.

Zmirak on Tolkien

Since this blog’s title is inspired by J. R. R. Tolkien, I thought I’d pass along this excellent article from John Zmirak at InsideCatholic on Tolkien. Go here to read.

“For me, as for every believer, Faith came as a gift. While God was its origin, it passed through many human hands — and Tolkien’s were the gentlest. He wrapped the starkness of Mystery in the exquisite fabrics of Myth, in gold-wrought watered silks that proclaimed its preciousness. The Pearl of Great Price can only come from Christ, but Tolkien packed it up for me in a bright blue Tiffany’s box. In an age when “experts” and “specialists” teach us the price of everything and the value of nothing, the generosity of artists may yet work our redemption. As Father Zossimov promised Alyosha Karamazov, “Beauty will save the world.”

Jimmy Akin on the Age of the World

Continuing his earlier series, Jimmy Akin furthers his investigation of Church documents pertaining to the age of the “world”, or the universe.

“The takeaway message from this is that the Magisterium’s openness to the idea that the universe is billions of years old is not some new, sinister, modernist, post-Vatican II thing. It was accepted–enthusiastically–by Pope Pius XII–the pope who defined the Assumption of Mary and, incidentally, just the year after he defined it.

He also used the finding of Big Bang cosmology and Old Earth science to buttress the idea of the existence of God, while noting a number of important caveats that this reasoning from science cannot be taken as definitive.”

I’ll note in passing before sending you to read Jimmy’s post that the current estimate for the age of the universe (or, more accurately the time elapsed since the Big Bang) is approximately14 billion years.

Read Jimmy’s post here.

Spirit in the Sand

Long after it was expected to stop working, NASA’s Spirit rover on Mars is still transmitting data. The only problem is, it’s stuck… in the sand… and it can’t get out. NASA now announces that Spirit will continue to send data, however, as an officially “stationary” science platform. NASA reports:

“After six years of unprecedented exploration of the Red Planet, NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Spirit is no longer a fully mobile robot. NASA has designated Spirit a stationary science platform after efforts during the past several months to free it from a sand trap have been unsuccessful.

The venerable robot’s primary task in the next few weeks will be to position itself to combat the severe Martian winter. If Spirit survives, it will continue conducting significant new science from its final location. The rover’s mission could continue for several months to years.

“Spirit is not dead; it has just entered another phase of its long life,” said Doug McCuistion, director of the Mars Exploration Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington.”

Sprit’s sister rover, Opportunity, continues its mobile study of Mars, an incredible six years after landing on the surface. It is fashionable to laugh at the gaffes NASA has suffered over the years in its planetary exploration missions. No one ever thought these two rovers would still be sending back valuable science data so many years after their landing, and the unexpected successes of the twin missions of Spirit and Opportunity more than justify the effort to send them to Mars.

Space Shuttle for Sale, Used

Sky and Telescope reports on NASA’s future plans for the space shuttle. For about $30 million, you can have one of your own!

“Here’s a recession bargain: the space shuttle. NASA has slashed the price of these 1970s era spaceships from $42 million to $28.8 million apiece.

The shuttles are for sale once they quit flying, supposedly this fall.

When NASA put out the call to museums, schools and others in December 2008, seeking buyers, about 20 expressed interest. NASA spokesman Mike Curie expects more interest, what with the discount.”

Crosses, Icons and Relics on the Space Station

Russian cosmonauts have carried crosses, relics, and icons on the International Space Station, Catholic News Agency reports:

“The Gospels, four icons, crosses and a relic of the True Cross have been taken aboard the Russian segment of the International Space Station (ISS), a Russian cosmonaut has reported. A photo taken by the station crew shows an icon and a crucifix floating in zero gravity in the ISS.

Writing on his blog at the website of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), Cosmonaut Maksim Suraev responded to readers’ questions about religious symbols on the space station.

“We have four holy icons on the Russia segment. We also have the Gospels and a big cross,” he said, according to a blog entry translated by Russia Today in November 2009.

Russia Today reported that the Lord’s Divine Cross was given to A.N. Merminov, the head of Roscosmos, by the late Patriarch of Moscow Aleksy II. The cross was delivered to the station in 2006 by the crew of Soyuz TMA-8.”

Read here.

Mystery Object Passes Earth

Don’t panic! Despite some sensational headlines, the mystery object passing by Earth Wednesday is not of that much concern. Everything else being equal, astronomers would have just assumes it was only another small asteroid of the sort that not infrequently passes through the inner solar system. What caught their eye, however, is the fact that this particular object has an orbital period of approximately one year — the same as the Earth. This peculiar coincidence has led some to speculate that it may be a piece of Earthly space-junk. In any case, some observers may be able to catch the object in telescopes.

Snow-Covered Britain

The image above was taken on January 7th, 2010, and shows Great Britain almost entirely covered in snow. This image, taken by NASA’s Terra satellite, dramatically illustrates the magnitude of this month’s severe winter weather which has struck both the US and Europe. Read here for more on the photo.

Study Rejects “Metabolism First” Origin of Life

A major obstacle to developing a model for the natural origin of life lies in the fact that all living organisms rely on genetic material in the form of DNA to direct their activities, but the DNA itself merely carries the information. A cell without DNA cannot operate, and DNA is useless without a cell to implement its instructions. So the challenge is to figure out a way that life could have originated without both of these systems in place.

“Metabolism-first” models propose mechanisms by which the non-genetic processes of life could have originated first, followed later by the encoding of the metabolic information in genes. ScienceNews reports on a study from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona which challenges metabolism-first models:

“Science more recently demonstrated that sets of chemical components store information about their composition which can be duplicated and transmitted to their descendents. This has led to their being named “compound genomes” or composomes. In other words, heredity does not require information in order to be stored in RNA or DNA molecules. These “compound genomes” apparently fulfil the conditions required to be considered evolutionary units, which suggests a pathway from pre-Darwinian dynamics to a minimum protocell.

Researchers in this study nevertheless reveal that these systems are incapable of undergoing a Darwinian evolution. For the first time a rigorous analysis was carried out to study the supposed evolution of these molecular networks using a combination of numerical and analytical simulations and network analysis approximations. Their research demonstrated that the dynamics of molecular compound populations which divide after having reached a critical size do not evolve, since during this process the compounds lose properties which are essential for Darwinian evolution.”

Read here.