Finding meaning in science

The proper reverence due to those who have gone before. From P.Z. Myers excellent Pharyngula weblog. Apart from the metaphyical musings on holding a human remains, and that this small fragment of hydroxyapatite is all that is left of a person with all their hopes, fears, loves and memories, this section was one of the most thought provoking.

"Nariokotome boy died 1.6 million years ago. Between Lucy and this lost son, how many Eves weeping over dead Abels where there? Enough to fill 800 Bibles.

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Now here's the shocking thing; Nariokotome boy only takes us halfway from Lucy to the modern day. We need 800 more books in this hypothetical lost library of humankind.

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Remember, each black bar is an icon representing a long, elaborate book on the scale of the Bible, which in turn is only a small representative subset of the human experience over a span of time. So much has been lost to us, and those few scraps we do have must stand in proxy for such a burden of history.

And, you know, there are people now who claim that one book is sufficient, that it is complete, that it is enough to explain who we are and where we came from.

I

Strangely enough, these are the same people who claim to be "spiritual". To me, though, they are the ahistorical, unthinking ones who fail to offer the proper reverence due those who have gone before." It makes me realise how utterly different the creationist mindset is.