So I must be an elf. Of the Lost tribes of Ossiriand, and my ancestors escaped the Ruin of Beleriand and faded back to the East. See these points on my ears? I’m good with runes…

Dammit, why didn’t you people tell me hobbits were real? You know I barely have time to keep up on my science reading.

I’m a long way from my science days, but this is yet another story that makes me think a) science is really cool and b) human arrogance knows no bounds. We’re always so ready to believe that the sun revolves around our planet, that we’re the only “intelligent” species that has ever lived, that we can do anything to the environment and it won’t fight back, etc. Just look at the squabbling between even scientists here- each seems willing to go to any lengths to prove himself right, some with little regard for the truth. Sigh. That’s what making geeks and nerds fight so hard for increasingly limited funds does to them, but I digress.

The fact that science is very cool is one thing about it that really scares the fundies. Be truthful: if you were a little kid and had to choose as your religious text the Sillmarillion/LOTR or the Bible, which would you pick? Yeah, I thought so. Science is similarly exciting to little and bigger kids- how many kids do you know who love dinosaurs? Practically every one I know. When I was little, I was an budding environmentalist, having read this simple sci-fi fairy tale at an very young age. I began very early on to see “development” and destuctive corporate farming technique as an evil, and have mourned the lack of love for nature in people around me ever since. I suspect a lot of liberals have a similar connection to the “spirituality” of science; so much more is possible when one is allowed to look into all the mysteries of the universe, and not just the ones from a strip of land in the desert a couple of thousand years ago.

Anyway- I see this story as just another little “morality tale” from the sciences, once again reminding us we don’t know everything, and that the mysteries of our world are as limitless as the stars. I hope we can get there too, even as it seems many around the globe are more interested in destroying our home in the name of fiction books that on their own would probably not even make the top 500K on the Amazon fiction list, if left to compete on their own merits.