Monthly Archives: June 2009

Science and Religion Mutually-Exclusive?

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I converted to Catholicism after I had already completed my BSc in Biology and Biotechnology.  Most of us who have learned of the history of science are familiar with religious figures in the past who made key scientific discoveries, too.

These days, I find it all-too-common now that we have advanced a certain amount in the sciences, that scientists have an arrogance that compels them to believe that their being a scientist precludes the possibility of being religious.

Personally, analogous to how substance theory explains how transubstantiation turns bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ but retains its outward appearance of bread and wine, I believe that science is how God chooses to make things happen.  And statistics explains how God can make things happen both probable and improbable.

I just returned home from a Sunday Mass (Saturday 17h) celebrated by Father Isaac Chackalaparampil of Precious Blood Parish in Toronto (www.preciousblood.ca).  In his previous life, he was a PhD Biochemist researching cancer genes.  Some of his publications can be found at http://biology.mcgill.ca/biopubs1997.htm

A young friend of mine who is about to complete his PhD studies in human genetics, also at McGill University in Montréal, is of the new generation.  He staunchly refuses to accept the notion that one can be both scientific and religious.  In an earlier Instant Message:

6/20/2009 5:15:41 PM Dave d??ob??c ??? sounds like a scamtome 6/20/2009 5:16:38 PM Dave d??ob??c ??? lol “conducting research in cancer genes” eh? 6/20/2009 5:16:40 PM Dave d??ob??c ??? hahaha 6/20/2009 5:16:46 PM Dave d??ob??c ??? you love the sham scientists 6/20/2009 5:17:33 PM Dave d??ob??c ??? roflcoptr

We’ll see if he accepts the references from his own university and the possibility that one can be both scientific and spiritual.

Rev. Isaac Chackalaprampil, CMI
(Pastor)

Father Isaac Chackalaparampil, ordained priest in April 21,1969, has a Batchelor’s [sic] Degree in Sacred Theology and a long stretch of Pastoral experience in India, Canada and the United States. He has a Ph. D. in Biochemistry and has been involved in the field of higher education, teaching and conducting research in Cancer genes at Universities like McGill in Canada, Cornell, Penn State and St. Louis University Medical School in the USA. Besides his previous assignments as associate Pastor in the Archdiocese of Toronto, he has been Pastor of St. Patrick Parish and St. Lawrence Parish in the diocese of Hamilton. Before the current assignment at Precious Blood parish, he was assigned as the Pastor of Holy Cross Parish, Toronto.

Why you should even do a B.Comm/BBA and/or MBA in the first place

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A couple of weeks ago I wrote an exposition regarding the value added by an MBA degree even with previous undergraduate business training.

In my non-conformist countercultural other life as a raver, I encounter many bright cynical people who state, “Book learning is of little utility in the real world,” or “A degree is just a piece of paper.”  Well, that may be true.  But like the many other pieces of paper with which you will part to get that degree, there is still value in that piece of paper.

For many of these people, the fact is they may be intelligent and may know a lot about a particular field.  But my experience has shown me that being self-taught (I have similar feelings about problem-based learning, by the way–a didactic tool developed at one of my alma maters: McMaster) has several disadvantages: without guidance and a formal course syllabus, you tend to learn what you’re interested in very well–and what you’re not interested in, little or not at all.

Now although I live part of my life as a vehement non-conformist, I still have completed an honours Bachelor of Science in biology and biotechnology and an MBA and spent part of my life as a financial analyst at a Bix Six Canadian bank headquarters.  And herein lies the second reason I believe that those cynics should put their money where their mouth is and get a degree too even if it is just “a piece of paper”:

It shows you have commitment, perserverance, and an ability to work within convention when required.  In most accredited programs, getting a degree isn’t as simple as just showing up to class for four years.  There are all-nighters, there is learning about prioritization and learning how to learn in a mature learning environment.  There is the ability to learn both what you like as well as what you don’t like and consider ideas that you do not agree with, critically.  There is the discipline in being able to live your ideals as well as within someone else’s framework.

So if you think a degree is “just a piece of paper,” then consider that it says more about you to have your own beliefs but be able to comply with others and compare them first-hand.

Wal-Mart to Charge $0.05 per shopping bag as of June 1, 2009

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In a largely me-too move by Toronto area Wal-Mart retailers, Wal-Mart Canada has announced as of June 1, 2009, it will begin to charge $0.05 per shopping bag required at the cash register–joining NoFrills, FoodBasics, and a handful of other, smaller, food retailers in the practise of charging for shopping bags to encourage “Green” alternatives.

I submit, therefore, that since Wal-Mart is now profiting from selling these bags, it should also face increased liability to pay damages for deaths caused to children (and adults) by suffocation with these bags, whether my proper or improper use.