"I'm going to die." We never trivialized the meaning of death by pretending it was anything other than a final parting. It was a phrase of hers that he had adopted âItâs a lazy Saturday afternoon, and thereâs this couple lying naked in bed reading the Encyclopaedia Britannica to each other, and arguing about whether the Andromeda Galaxy is more ânuminousâ than the Resurrection. One of the criteria for national leadership should therefore be a talent for understanding, encouraging, and making constructive use of vigorous criticism. 212-213). What exactly is it conservatives are conserving? Of a necessity, institutions are preferred to strong leaders who often times end up acting as dictators with no regard for human life and will go to any length to sway and instigate their misguided followers to battle just to hold on to power. Widespread intellectual and moral docility may be convenient for leaders in the short term, but it is suicidal for nations in the long term. If we long for our planet to be important, there is something we can do about it. Incidentally, Africa is plagued with corrupt leaders and dictators that take delight in seeing an oppressed people who are misguided and ill-informed and so will cling to a political party instead of a governance system. It is the same for the entire skein of causality back to the origin of the universe. In any case, we do not advance the human cause by refusing to consider ideas that make us frightened. If out of over forty entries into the country, we have only four boarders doing screening for the virus, then what would be of the thousands of the hospitals in the country? Remember what they have to do to get where they are. Chapter 5, âNight Walkers and Mystery Mongers: Sense and Nonsense at the End of Scienceâ (p. 69). To find the time, the discipline and the motivation to train I have to decide what among the myriad of obligations of daily life is most important to me. Itâs a possibility, you know. If we long for our planet to be important, there is something we can do about it. The imperative to cherish the Earth and protect the global environment that sustains all of us has become widely accepted, and we've begun, finally, the process of reducing the obscene number of weapons of mass destruction. It is an island in the Pacific Ocean. If they have not succeeded with curbing cholera, then we can’t be certain with Ebola. It is important to distinguish between the amount of information and the quality of that information. The meaning of Pan-Africanism tends to be elusive; however, most scholars and activists concede that Pan-Africanism encapsulates the conscious attempts of blacks, “at home and abroad,” to forge a united front aimed at combatting the dehumanizing effect of slavery, racism, colonialism, and oppression of various sorts against all people of African descent. The most fundamental axioms and conclusions may be challenged. Over the years, the leadership has continuously gained more authority and the followership has in the opposite case lost the powers it holds to demand answers for decisions taken for and on their behalf. A demon had been exorcised. The APRM is a self-monitoring instrument voluntarily acceded to by member states of the African Union. The pain may be physical, as in war and rescue operations. When it comes to strikes, we are still noted to be very vibrant with that as a tool for getting the attention of the government. In the face of all this, many of the standard ideas of science fiction seem to me to pale by comparison. Fifty years after the first thirty-three (33) independent African states gathered in Addis Ababa to form the Organization of African Union, now the African Union, the continent is looking ahead towards the next fifty years. But if that's their purpose, they can keep their paltry icons. We are ignorant about the complex mutual dependencies of the beings on earth, and what the sequential consequences will be if we wipe out some especially vulnerable microbes on which larger organisms depend. This sharing of experience must begin from the basic school through to tertiary, within classrooms, on radio and television, in churches, etc. Oh! We’re going to be out knocking on doors, so we can hear what people are really concerned about, and we have other plans up our sleeves. Even at this moment when anyone would be forgiven for turning away from the reality of our situation, Carl was unflinching. There is a popular contention that half or more of the brain is unused. And it has the additional and important virtueâto whatever extent the word has any meaningâof being true. My own view is that it is far better to understand the Universe as it really is than to pretend to a Universe as we might wish it to be. But in my line of work, theyâre called hypotheses, not inspiration and not revelation. I don't ever expect to be reunited with Carl. You simply turn your mind off and say God did it. People from all nations came here to live to trade to learn, on a given day these harbours were thronged with merchants and scholars and tourists, it's probably here that the word Cosmopolitan realised its true meaning of a citizen not just of a nation but of the Cosmos, to be a citizen of the Cosmos. The admissions office, unknown to me, sent my application to Carl Sagan. Case in point is when doctor’s working in public hospitals go on strike, politicians and the well to do in society can afford private hospitals, but the poor citizen lose their precious ones because they can’t afford the private hospitals. Now that atmosphere, so thin and fragile, is under assault by our technology. But there is no evidence that its functioning is due to anything more than the 10, The choice is with us still, but the civilization now in jeopardy is all. But it does indicate, if a demonstration were needed, that near the core of the religious experience is something remarkably resistant to rational inquiry. The climatological history of our planetary neighbor, an otherwise Earthlike planet on which the surface became hot enough to melt tin or lead, is worth considering â especially by those who say that the increasing greenhouse effect on Earth will be self-correcting, that we don't really have to worry about it, or (you can see this in the publications of some groups that call themselves conservative) that the greenhouse effect is a "hoax". Science asks us to take nothing on faith, to be wary of our penchant for self-deception, to reject anecdotal evidence. The laws of physics suffice, without supernatural intervention. Courage is important because it allows people to develop a sense of leadership and confidence and provides benefits for businesses, through fearless, more productive employees. One of the major illusions of the African continent is that the periodic fixed term exercising of franchise is all there is to democracy. Indeed, the standard evolutionary practice of increasing the amount of genetic information as organisms increase in complexity is accomplished by doubling part of the genetic material and then allowing the slow specialization of function of the redundant set. How could she not? The idea that a God or gods is necessary to effect one or more of these origins has been under repeated attack over the last few thousand years. We make our world significant by the courage of our questions and by the depths of our answers –Carl Sagan Next Stop: Japan! Benefits and privileges such as free fuel, housing, etc are entitled to these same government officials and are paid for by the taxes taken from the poor citizens. We are besieged with messages about who we should be. And in this kind of nutritional triage, the body seems obliged to rank learning, last. Chapter 1, âBrocaâs Brainâ (pp. Whether we believe in God depends very much on what we mean by God. One of the popular words government has become famously known for using recently in all its speeches is ‘Sacrifice.’ Admonition the citizen to sacrifice for the betterment of the country is very much in line and necessary. Ten-year-olds do not read the scientific literature. To be in this world doesn’t just mean to exist. Ordinary Courage. But I do not see how we can deal with the universeâboth the outside and the inside universeâwithout studying it. Weâve arranged a society based on science and technology, in which nobody understands anything about science and technology. The principle obstacle is, of course, inertia, resistance to changeâhuge, worldwide, interlocking industrial, economic, and political establishments all beholden to fossil fuels, when fossil fuels are the problem. Chapter 19, âIn the Valley of the Shadowâ (p. 215). The last posture a bureaucratic religion wishes to find itself in is vulnerability to disproof, where an experiment can be performed on which the religion stands or falls. The open road still softly calls, like a nearly forgotten song of childhood. The reason that it seems counterintuitive is that is that we are not ordinarily down at the level of the very small, where quantum effects dominate. We cannot begin with an entirely clean slate, since we arrive at this problem with predispositions of hereditary and environmental origin; but, after understanding such built-in biases, is it not possible to pry insights from nature? Just how far along we are in working the various prophesied planetary catastrophes is still a matter of scholarly debate. In the best of them a few decades. Scientists, like other human beings, have their hopes and fears, their passions and despondenciesâand their strong emotions may sometimes interrupt the course of clear thinking and sound practice. What appeal could these teachings of. Finally, education must be vigorously undertaken in the country to ensure citizens are well aware of the menace at hand and the need to be cautious at all times. Chapter 8, âThe Future Evolution of the Brainâ (p. 224), The entire evolutionary record on our planet, particularly the record contained in fossil, Chapter 9, âKnowledge is Our Destiny: Terrestrial and Extraterrestrial Intelligenceâ (p. 240). This will in turn lead to a dereliction of the democratic governance that we are enjoying currently, thereby throwing the government into disarray as a result of the cowardice and timidity on the part of the followership to actively demonstrate to put the leaders on their toes as well as the insensitive attitude of the leaders towards responding to the grievances of the civilians. That is the irony of Africa. ...the reason that it does not correspond to common sense is that we are not in the habit of traveling close to the speed of light. Chapter 23, âA Sunday Sermonâ (p. 335). This appeal, I suspect, has been meticulously crafted by natural selection as an essential element in our survival. Once upon a time, the best minds of the human species believed that the planets were attached to crystal spheres. Same apply to our security personnel at the boarders of the country. Real science is as amenable to exciting and engrossing fiction as fake science, and I think it is important to exploit every opportunity to convey scientific ideas in a civilization which is both based upon science and does almost nothing to ensure that science is understood. I am not against any of these projects because I know full well they come with some merits. âLetâs see if Iâve got this straight,â he returned. Humans are primates. Natural selection has served as a kind of intellectual sieve, producing brains and intelligences increasingly competent to deal with the laws of nature. You canât convince a believer of anything; for their belief is not based on evidence, itâs based on a deep seated need to believe. They avoid rather than confront the world. Well, the way to winnow through all the differing contentions is to be skeptical. have still not found their feet. Instead of wanting everyone to share and know of their discoveries the Pythagoreans suppressed the square root of two and the dodecahedron. Itâs hard to kill a creature once it lets you see its consciousness. "That which can be destroyed by the truth, should be." The fact that several of our coups have been militarily engineered is very worrisome. We can also have foreign companies come and produce the things that no indigene has attempted producing or has the capacity to produce. In both countries, what passes for public debate is still, on closer examination, mainly repetition of national slogans, appeal to popular prejudice, innuendo, self-justification, misdirection, incantation of homilies when evidence is asked for, and a thorough contempt for the intelligence of the citizenry. I would love to believe that when I die I will live again, that some thinking, feeling, remembering part of me will continue. Our loyalties are to the species and the planet. Those who are skeptical about carbon dioxide greenhouse warming might profitably note the massive greenhouse effect on Venus. But actually the statement is made on very little evidence. Reflections on a Grain of Saltâ (p. 21). This resonance, extracted by natural selection, between our brains and the universe may help explain a quandary set by Einstein: The most incomprehensible property of the universe, he said, is that it is so comprehensible. The objective of such criticism is not to suppress but rather to encourage the advance of new ideas: those that survive a firm skeptical scrutiny have a fighting chance of being right, or at least useful. Being afraid of quantification is tantamount to disenfranchising yourself, giving up on one of the most potent prospects for understanding and changing the world. Chapter 16, âThe Golden Age of Planetary Explorationâ (p. 240). However, living a courageous life is one of the best ways to find success in business and in life. Other important human characteristics—such as a large and complex brain, the ability to make and use tools, and the capacity for language—developed more recently. If a marker were to be erected today, it might read, in homage to his scientific courage: âHe preferred the hard truth to his dearest illusions.â. We are pumping all kinds of stuff into it. But extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. On one level it … Many of us may think that courage is reserved for an extraordinary few or superheroes on the big screen. Africa comprises 54 countries who have signed on to building an integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa, driven by its own citizens and representing a dynamic force in the global arena. Recent developments in the University of Ghana which highlights the relegation of the interest of students who are the followership, makes me wonder whether our leaders have the interest of the followership at heart or they are just taking decisions to build portfolio for themselves. Members of the Trade Union Congress (TUC) and other labor unions on Thursday July 24, 2014 held a demonstration in all ten regions of the country to draw government attention to what they termed worsening economic crisis. By this notion, it will be very difficult to name just five leaders from the continent of Africa that have been successful. Here’s what I mean: Standing up for the customer. I think it is healthy for the religions themselves to foster skepticism about the fundamental underpinnings of their evidential bases. Sometimes political and business leaders meet together to discuss issues of regional or global concern. We need only look up if we wish to feel small. My point is different. By the time such meetings take place the Civil Society representatives have been working for sometimes months or even years to ensure they get these issues on the agenda. My god is a little god, and I want him to stay that way.". Chapter 17, âGettysburg and Nowâ (p. 195). Chapter 5, âNight Walkers and Mystery Mongers: Sense and Nonsense at the End of Scienceâ (pp. The world is so exquisite, with so much love and moral depth, that there is no reason to deceive ourselves with pretty stories for which thereâs little good evidence. Again, in the face of massive accommodation deficit in the premier University of the country, water shortage in most of the halls of residence, no plant for electricity supply during power outages and the numerous other challenges confronting this institution. Indeed, this is the central meaning of faith. The movie “Gran Torino” is an excellent example of how our own moral values define who we are as a person. We know who speaks for the nations. My fundamental premise about the brain is that its workingsâwhat we sometimes call âmindââare a consequence of its anatomy and physiology, and nothing more. Such that when the first born children and beasts of the Egyptians were deceased and nothing happened to the Israelites; the grief that Pharaoh and his people suffered forced him to let the Israelites go against his will. 339-340). Followership is another problem. The Newtonian gravitational superstructure replaced angels with. Many religions have attempted to make statues of their gods very large, and the idea, I suppose, is to make us feel small. Since this series' maiden voyage, the impossible has come to pass: Mighty walls that maintained insuperable ideological differences have come tumbling down; deadly enemies have embraced and begun to work together. This consciousness notwithstanding, Africans have been urged to emancipate themselves from mental slavery. ...A process that happens quickly is a process that is in some sense likely... this evidence suggests that. Sam, now five years old, came to see his father for one last time. The neurochemistry of the brain is astonishingly busy, the circuitry of a machine more wonderful than any devised by humans. Once intelligent beings achieve technology and the capacity for self-destruction of their species, the selective advantage of intelligence becomes more uncertain. Many scientists deeply involved in the exploration of the solar system (myself among them) were first turned in that direction by science fiction. That in nonarithmetic operations the small and slow human brain can still do so much better than the large and fast electronic computer is an impressive tribute to how cleverly the brain is packaged and programmedâfeatures brought about, of course, by natural selection. As we looked deeply into each otherâs eyes, it was with a shared conviction that our wondrous life together was ending forever. I was accepted at Cornell, and it's time to decide what school you go to, and a set of other schools as well. Those at too great a distance may, I am well aware, mistake ignorance for perspective. 13-14). Chapter 6, âSo Many Suns, So Many Worldsâ (p. 55), If we are not graced with an instinctive knowledge of how to make our technologized world a safe and balanced ecosystem, we must, Chapter 7, âThe World That Came in the Mailâ (pp. It is designed to help African States create an enabling environment for sustainable development by analyzing: (1) Democratic and Political Governance; (2) Economic Governance and Management; (3) Corporate Governance, and; (4) Socio-Economic Development. There are many hypotheses in physics of almost comparable brilliance and elegance that have been rejected because they did not survive such a confrontation with experiment. But why had science lost its way in the first place? You must care about the truth, right? If you know a thing only qualitatively, you know it no more than vaguely. On the economic front, Africa also faces great problems despite efforts to attain socio-economic progress through economic cooperation and all manner of economic integration initiatives between and among regions. In other words, African countries have never been challenged as they are now (Mazuri, 1977: Alli, 2005; Asobia, 2005 and Shivji, 2005). Far better, it seems to me, in our vulnerability, is to look Death in the eye and to be grateful every day for the brief but magnificent opportunity that life provides. A clear prediction in an area undergoing vigorous study permits doctrines to be subject to disproof. If I write the insight down or tell it to someone, then I can remember it with no assistance the following morning; but if I merely say to myself that I must make an effort to remember, I never do. For a long time the human instinct to understand was thwarted by facile religious explanations. Well, I honestly don’t see where the sacrifice is as long as these cut-offs are paltry and do not make the grade to be called sacrifice. Those who possessed poorly programmed brains eventually did not live long enough to reproduce. While the practitioners of such doctrines often wish there were no criticisms to which they are expected to reply, skeptical scrutiny is the means, in both science and religion, by which deep insights can be winnowed from deep nonsense. Anything you donât understand, Mr. Rankin, you attribute to God. There is a very stunning range of studies... of interstellar organic matter... the cold, dark spaces between the stars are also loaded with organic matter. This will ensure a sustained peace which will see to the achievement of the post 2015 development goals and actualization of the Agenda 2063. In some respects, science has far surpassed religion in delivering awe. Chapter 18, âThe Twentieth Centuryâ (pp. "No," I protested. Chapter 12, âEscape from Ambushâ (p. 131). It is beyond our powers to predict the future. Chapter 2, âCan We Know the Universe? This perspective is a courageous continuation of our penchant for constructing and testing mental models of the skies; the Sun as a red-hot stone, the stars as a celestial flame, the Galaxy as the backbone of night. The efficiency of the citizen is much reflected in the activities of civil society groups and organizations at least at the moment. Iâm not any more skeptical about your religious beliefs than I am about every new scientific idea I hear about.