Science and Religion

I am often asked, as a person who is trained in the ways of, and who follows science, how can I also be a believer in religion. To me the answer is clear and straightforward. I believe in gravity and the electromagnetic force, I can measure and observe their effects even though they are invisible. In the same way I believe in love, kindness and sacrifice and I can observe their effects on people. To me, those 'spiritual' qualities are just as real as the physical qualities of matter.
Science deals with the physical world and and religion deals with the spiritual world. They are not and never have been in conflict with each other. It is only people who do not fully understand either science or religion that have supposed a conflict.


"Weigh not the Book of God with such standards and sciences as are current amongst you, for the Book itself is the unerring balance established amongst men." (From the Baha'i Sacred Writings)

who is in control - us or Computers?

In speaking to friends who have worked in call centres, and in email conversations with Baha'is around the world, I am finding that call centre staff are for the most part not allowed to deviate from the scripts they are given. Whilst this is not really any great surprise to me, it does show how much we have given up control of our working environment to that we fit in with computers. And I thought that we invented computers to be our slaves, not for us to become their slaves!
In fact it really comes down to the lack of flexibility in the scripts, which after all were devised by humans. I differentiate those call centre staff who are just out to make a sale by calling you from those others whom we call when we have a problem to be sorted out. I think it shows a lack of knowledge on the part of the staff who are answering the calls, a lack of trust in those who manage the staff and a lack of understanding on the part of those who devised the scripts - all of which makes me less inclined to have any further dealings with such a company. Far from being a help, using fixed scripts is actually giving a bad impression of the company and ultimately losing its customers.

programming for posterity

(OR: how to write programs that can be easily maintained in the future)
I was reading today an article that lamented the skills (or rather the lack of them) exhibited by many who today call themselves programmers. The trouble, said the writer of the article is that programming in some common web languages such as PHP means that even untrained people are writing programs - programs that are later found to be hard to maintain and insecure. I agree. Like most everything else in life, programming requires skill and training, and no small measure of planning.

In Memoriam : Dr Ali Muhammad Varqa

Little known outside the membership of the Baha'i Faith, Dr Varqa passed away earlier this month. I met him on several occasions, and remember him as a quiet, self-effacing person, a true 'gentleman'. He was appointed one of the Hands of the Cause in the Baha'i Faith - tasked with spreading the teachings of the Faith. He was also responsible for Huquq'u'llah - a voluntary donation made by Bahai's. Unlike taxes or tithes in other religions, Huquq'u'llah is given only after basic living costs have been taken care of.

The Baha'i Faith has no clergy and has an elected administration at local, national and international levels. There are also positions of advice, guidance and counselling which are appointed but who have no administrative authority. These are the Hands of the Cause and the Counsellors. The first Hands of the Cause were appointed by Baha'u'llah the founder of the Baha'i Faith. Dr Varqa was the last surviving Hand, appointed by the Guardian of the Faith. I have met several of the Hands and without exception found them to be humble servants of humanity. Dr Varqa will be sadly missed.

So, who are you?

In this ever-increasing online world, we are all told how careful we must be when visiting web sites and giving our personal data. Are we sure the site really is our bank and not someone trying to get our account details, etc.
For a membership system, I am looking at the reverse situation. How can I trust that the person who is logging in really is who they say they are? This has led me to the "web of Trust" started by users of the PGP encryption system. I want to make certain, or as certain as I can, that only those who have permission can view or update records remotely. Problem is that PGP signing is used on email messages, not to authenticate access to web sites.
So how do we check someone when we can't see them? Do you, dear reader, implicitly trust every email that you receive just because you recognize the sender's name?
This is ongoing research, and I have no final answers yet.

In praise of Open Standards

I am working with others, spread across the country, on a project. As it is for charity, we are all working in our own time on our personal computers, not all together in one office. Now, how are we to share information if someone works on Windows and another works on Linux?
Of course, there is OpenOffice - which I have used successfully for months to send documents to colleagues who only use Word. Now I have added to my list - GnuCash to handle accounts written with Quicken, MDB Tools to read and import Access databases into MySQL, and a diagramming package called Dia that works on both Windows and Linux.