Bahrain is Killing F1

By now you will have heard that the Bahrain Grand Prix of 2011 has been reinstated to the calendar, due to take place on the 30th October. There are clear moral reasons why this Grand Prix cannot be allowed to take place, but aside from the fact that these seem to have been ignored, its reinstatement confirms exactly where F1's loyality lies - money.

For many years Bahrain held a race that was entirely devoid of enjoyable racing. It was hideously apparent that the main, or perhaps only reason F1 had been drawn there was money. Bernie Ecclestone himself admitted that F1 - as a global sport - would expand globally where there was interest. The interest in this case was money. There are other tracks on the F1 calendar where attendance is pitiful and the race tracks are boring. There is also a lack of racing culture and a lack of proper promotion by CVC, so nobody hears about these events, and if they were not aware of them to begin with, why would they attend?

So Bahrain as a track never contributed much to the F1 season - this may explain why so many people felt glad when the race was called off at the start of the year, even with the long winter of waiting for the new season to begin. From a fan's point of view, and I imagine many others agree, the race itself is simply not entertaining enough. There is also a complete lack of atmosphere - contrast it with Interlagos or Silverstone, you will be in for a shock. So, then, the dull Grand Prix has for years now been filling a spot in the calendar which could have been replaced by another new, exciting track.

What really stands out about Bahrain, though, is that civil liberties and basic human rights appear to have been totally abused. The Bahraini authorities have attempted to cover up the atrocities that its security forces have committed, but the world has outgrown this backwardly governed country, and the figures speak for themselves. 36 people have been confirmed dead, 66 are still missing, approximately 1000 have been wounded and at least 4 people have been returned from police custody having lost their lives. There have been beatings at checkpoints and medical care has been denied to the public.

Now I ask you this, would it be the correct decision to honour this country with the huge publicity and large amount of funding from tourism that F1 brings? No, of course it wouldn't. So join together with other members of the F1 community and make the FIA understand how so many of us feel.

Mark Webber has come forward and publicly said that he doubts the race will happen, while also mentioning the abuse of basic human rights that has taken place in Bahrain. He is a popular driver, and I am convinced he will not be alone in publicly refusing to race there, if he decides to protest. There were several teams that said that they would refuse to race in Bahrain even before the decision was made to cancel it last time around, so it would be unsurprising if they registered their disgust before October too.

The whole Bahrain issue has brought a great deal of attention to F1, and to Bahrain. Why is Bahrain killing F1? Not only is it associated with it, but the country is unashamedly endorsed by the FIA. They have ignored issues that are far more important than sport. One is a pastime, the other an entire country with its future dependent upon this year. This will undoubtedly reflect badly upon the sport, and I hope it does if the FIA go ahead with their decision. As an F1 fan or just a reader of this blog, you can contribute to the protest against the FIA's decision too.

There are a number of petitions and twititions that you can easily find if you search for anything about the Bahrain Grand Prix, and the FIA will listen to these because F1 is a sport: it depends upon its fans. If there is enough of a protest, they must listen, so I urge to you lend your support to these campaigns. F1 must not remain in Bahrain - don't let the sport die.

Evolution is 'just a theory'

How many times have you heard this? It is usually the first line of defence a creationist hides behind when their ridiculous views come under scrutiny, and I think this is all down to a simple misconception. 

In general terms, yes, a theory is just a hypothesis. But in scientific terms (and these are certainly applied to Evolution) it is so much more than this. A scientific theory is not simply an idea; it is an empirical explanation of how something happened.

I would have hoped that by this stage in history Evolution would be accepted as fact by everyone, but apparently some people find the concept of empirical evidence being more valuable and convincing than religious belief based on no logic whatsoever completely baffling.

Why is this still so difficult to grasp? Evolution is not a theory, it is proven fact. The theory of evolution is an explanation of how we evolved to what we are today. Why can't people accept this?

I think partly education is to blame. There's even a girl in the same school year as me (13) who has made it into the second year of sixth form but refuses point blank to accept that evolution is correct. When someone offered to argue this with her, she refused because if she did she would become 'really angry'.

I think this sums up the attitude of creationists perfectly in today's world. Bigots. Please do your bit for science by taking these people into a quiet corner and performing a lobotomy. You'll be doing society a favour. If they still haven't accepted empirical evidence by this stage, well, what hope is there for them in the real world?

The Intellectual Restraints of Religion and the Migration Away from Delusion

Ever since organised religions have emerged in human society, they have limited scientific discovery and human advancement to a considerable degree.

At around 0AD, the European populace had reached its peak of scientific discovery and advancement that it would achieve for many hundreds of years. After the Roman era, the foundations were laid for many societies that could begin to discover great and life changing things. However, with the creation of the major modern religious faiths that we know so well today came a gigantic, impenetrable barrier that would scar human development forever.

Although in a prime position to develop and learn much more about the world around them, our 2,000 year old ancestors knew astonishingly little when compared with people today. Religions were formed to fill in these huge gaps in people's collective knowledge and due to the fact that there was no alternative at the time, religions were almost entirely adopted worldwide.

For hundreds of years this had the effect of steering people away from reality and towards fantasy. Religion offered answers when it was first born and science did not, but as science feebly developed, hampered immensely by the iron ceiling of religion, answers were found. People were used to religion and it was accepted 'fact'. Anyone who questioned or opposed it was condemned to hell and in many cases, killed.

It is unacceptable that something so detrimental to human advancement is still widely accepted in today's world. Look at how much we have achieved since the shackles of religion began to loosen. We know so much more about the universe we live in now than we did two millennia ago, and yet the majority of us choose to listen to the logic of books written by unknown authors, many years ago when we knew so astonishingly little.

Is it not obvious that science is the way forwards, and that religion is simply a defunct void from which no development emerges? We require science to propagate.

I appreciate the fact that religion is much more than a source of 'knowledge' for many people and is a way of life, but we must do as we humans have been doing ever since our emergence: develop and change. Let us use this knowledge we possess now to propagate and carve an enlightened path into the future. Turn away from these fallacies that still dominate the world over and reject them for the nonsense that they clearly are.

There is some hope, though. Since the late 19th century people have begun to reject religion and turn their attention to science. I sincerely hope that this growing trend continues and that we can look back at religion in a few decades' time as a restriction on our own success as a species.

I hope we move on and leave religion behind. I hope we change our culture so that it is centred upon knowledge and propagation, rather than myth. But above all I hope that this article has influenced your own opinion, and that after reading this you do some serious thinking about your own beliefs. Do they make sense? Are they really relevant in a modern, advanced society? Well, the choice is yours, but I would rather back teams of the world's most intelligent people working on cutting edge technology than a two thousand year old organisation formed when the geocentric model was widely accepted as fact.