Science Doesn't Prove Anything

At first, the line in the movie, "science doesn't prove anything" stirred my pot up a bit; the global warming statement read by the radio show host made me livid; Levi's mother made me want to feel nauseous. But, I calmed down and found articles online about Evangelical environmentalism and decided to discover why those claims evoked such a passionate response in me.

 (Articles about Evangelical environmentalism)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evangelical_environmentalism
http://www.christianpost.com/news/majority-of-evangelicals-believe-global-warming-is-man-made-and-dangerous-65837/
http://nae.net/lovingtheleastofthese

I decided that science does not actually prove anything.  It takes an equal amount of faith to believe in squiggles and scientists as it does Jesus and the Bible. Like we said in class, Levi seems to be very intelligent and an interview with him at 20 years old verifies that. He's capable of reading a science textbook and I'm capable of reading the Bible. We simply choose to perceive one as truth and one as fallacy.

I never questioned my teachers, just like Levi doesn't question his mother. It's no different. I put a lot of faith in what I believe about space, weather, geography, and history. I've never been to mars or met the president, but I believe they're real. Levi has never been to Jerusalem or met Adam and Eve, but believes they're real.

(How are the Bill Nye videos any different from the video Levi was watching about creation?)

We're all brainwashed by our parents. That's how we learn and grow as a person. That's how we have culture. Extreme religious faith is nothing new in the world. It only made a good documentary because they're speaking English and living in Kansas.

It's up to us individually to decide which truth verifies our existence. It doesn't matter if that's God or Bill Nye.

The following quote form Ayn Rand often helps me get back on track. It's been on the wall next to my bed since my sophomore year of high school.

As a human being, you have no choice about the fact that you need a philosophy. Your only choice is whether you define your philosophy by a conscious, rational, disciplined process of thought and scrupulously logical deliberation—or let your subconscious accumulate a junk heap of unwarranted conclusions, false generalizations, undefined contradictions, undigested slogans, unidentified wishes, doubts and fears, thrown together by chance, but integrated by your subconscious into a kind of mongrel philosophy and fused into a single, solid weight: self-doubt, like a ball and chain in the place where your mind’s wings should have grown. - Ayn Rand

Kind Warrior

While watching the film, a theme of dichotomy consistently caught my attention. It was once explicitly mentioned in Herzog's narration when he said nature did not favor harmony but instead chaos, hostility, and murder. I think a similar dichotomy exists in his personality. Consequently, I interpreted Herzog's representation of Treadwell's personality as a metaphor for nature.

Treadwell referred to himself as a "kind warrior." In one scene he scolded a grizzly bear for coming too close, and even showed physical agression. He then followed the rebuke with praise by saying, "I love you. I love you."

He was meticulous and yet brash. He repeated takes excessively and constantly fixed his hair, yet succumbed to passionate fits of anger, and even had mismatched buttons at one point. In one shot there is a wild fox sleeping by his side, in another he's screaming profanity about the Park Service.

After I shut my laptop, I sat there and was forced to rethink my attitude towards nature and the environment. Are humans and animals really that different now? Timothy Treadwell spent a large portion of his life immersed in the natural world and he still didn't overcome his anger and his arrogance. Are those negative qualities therefore now inherent in us as humans? Do those qualities fill the void where "wildness" once was? Do other qualities, perhaps beneficial ones, fill that void as well?

Grizzly Man definitely gave me more questions than answers.