Would you like to dance around the world with me?

Skiing!

Well I just seem to have a good thing going on here - I spent last weekend in Breckenridge with a large group of friends from MIT, and today we went to Mt Baldy and got to enjoy the powder there, just an hour from Pasadena. Let me tell you: ridiculously awesome. We went to Colorado midday Thursday, and after picking up the car, Lucy, groceries, and beer, we headed off to the cabin. It could have fit 26 people, but we only had 16, so there was plenty of room for everyone. And it was still crazy cheep. The best thing was the people, of course. We had a mixture of Wine Wednesday crew and Space Systems Lab people. It was great to see everyone together. We spent two days at Breckenridge and one day at Loveland. I think the coolest thing was skiing from the Continental Divide - the top of the mountain in the linked picture. It was scary (since I'm somewhat afraid of heights) but gorgeous all at the same time.

But I'm exhausted now writing this because we spent all day today at Mt. Baldy skiing. I am the smart one that went salsa dancing last night and got less than 4 hours of sleep, but the 2 feet of powder today was worth it for sure! We got to explore new territory, somewhat off trail, through powder that you had to keep moving through in order to not sink too far. We were also skiing through the clouds, literally, so we could barely see 30 feet in front of us. I would have rather had more visibility, but the powder was worth it! It's amazing to me to that Mt. Baldy is so close to Pasadena, yet its a completely different world. Because of the clouds, we couldn't see LA from the top, and the falling snow and fresh powder made skiing very quiet and peaceful (but of course thrilling!).

posted by Biff @ 11:02 PM 1 comments

Francis Collins' talk: The Language of God

I just got back from a talk by Francis Collins, who was the head of the human genome project, and wrote a book called The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief. I'd seen him speak at MIT about 2 years ago, and I find that my mind works (and not to use hyperbole, but it's true) just like Collins'. He was an agnostic who started looking into faith from a rational perspective, and he was able to come to the conclusion that there is a God, without going against science and logical thoughts. I will not do justice in reiterating his arguments, so here is the lecture if you'd like to take a look (it's long, but it's excellent): http://franciscollinstalk.stanford.edu/video. Or see him on the Colbert Report.

I suppose I like Collins so much because I don't feel so alone in my thoughts when I know someone as intelligent as he is is also thinking the same thing. It's okay to wonder about where we came from, how God got there, what we will evolve into, and pretty much anything else unexplainable through current science. At one point while thinking about all of these issues, I leaned over to Elliot and said "my brain is about to explode." Not 3 minutes later, Collins says "And how do you think my brain doesn't explode?" While we don't have all the answers, it's because all these issues are not contrary to science, and they're not contrary to faith.

The thing is, there is still doubt, of course, which is argued to be an element of faith. I really dislike doubt - it's a cloud that hangs over my head all the time. But it's talks like these that help me understand a little more of my own questioning, and at the same time, a little more of my own faith.

Next up: The awesomeness that was our Breckenridge trip last weekend.

posted by Biff @ 1:40 AM 0 comments