Sunday, May 8, 2011

Living with Nature in Our Times, Self-Administered Test (25 Items, True or False)

Abe V. Rotor

The general pattern of evolution is progressive biodiversity. True or False?
(Seaweeds on Coral Reef, acrylic AVR)

1. Man is a recent creature on Earth. If the 5 billion years of the earth’s existence is compared to a calendar (365 days), man came into this world only in the eve of December 30. Man is only one-day old on earth.

2. “Tailor the land to the crop, and not the other way around,” is a cardinal rule based on accord between man and nature.

3. We can actually transfer genetic materials from one organism to another irrespective of species or class or subkingdom by means of genetic engineering, resulting in the formation of what we call as GMO.

4. "Going back to nature” means we have to live the lives of our ancestors and renounce our modern living.

5. There is no question about a human clone of not having a soul because, the soul of the parent transcends to offspring which is the clone.

6. We live under different ages all at a given time - atomic age, computer age, age of genetic engineering, and space age – all rolled into what scientists called the age of postmodernism.

7. Going back to nature requires us to lay down the terms of treaty between nature and man for man’s greater advantage.

8. Splitting the atom lead to the development of the microchips and the computer, opening to us the Computer Age.

9. Genetic engineering actually started with Gregor Mendel, the father of the science of genetics and heredity nearly two hundred years ago.

10. “Our lives are being run and outrun by science and technology.” This statement can not be generalized; it is not applicable to all people and societies.

11. Homeostasis means dynamic balance – Nature’s way of renewal, renaissance, seeking stability as continuing goal.

12. Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid – our radio program – is a joint project of PBS-DZRB with volunteer resource persons. The thrust is Functional Literacy to augment formal and informal education particularly at the grassroots.

13. Average span of human life will be doubled in ten years time – thanks to human cloning.

14. Even without the human species, Planet Earth will continue to “go round” so to speak in the same way as it did in the last 5 billion years – and perhaps go on for another 5 billion years. We just don’t know what will be the kind of dominant species after us.

15. Going back to nature is to become a strict vegetarian – giving up animal products. Unless we do this we can’t truly say we have gone back to nature.

16. “Ecological paradigm of salvation” means “we express our love and care to people by protecting nature.” Plant a tree, for example, is reverence to nature and therefore to the Creator; kill a tree and you commit a sin – more so it caused flood and erosion leading to death and destruction.

17. If you have sinned against Nature, you really can’t earn forgiveness – and salvation – unless you actually restore what you have destroyed. – according to the Ecological Paradigm of Salvation.

18. Universities without walls or distance education will enable mass education to the grassroots. It will break the cartel or control by elite universities and colleges.

19. Toxic metals abound on land, sea and air – from kangkong to tuna to fowls – unless we control the emission and spread of these toxic metals.

20. It is good to go back to classics without aristocracy, spirituality without religious dogmatism; philosophy without ideological bias; realism without barbarism – to have a better view of life, and a firmer basis of our decision and faith.

21. Today it takes weeks for man to make diamonds in special oven chambers the size of a washing machine, when it would take nature thousands of years to make one. There are thousands of units of diamond making chambers in China alone.

22. Alchemy – a pseudo science is true science after all. We can make diamonds, we have man-made amino acids, man-made elements. Maybe the next thing a man discovers is King Midas at work.

23.Petrodollar is the life of the world economy – so that we support the idea that there is plenty of oil yet to be discovered. There should be no letup in tapping these reserves.

24. There is bromate in your sugar, sulfite in your wheat flour, nitrate in your meat, human hormone in your milk.

25. When we say splitting of the atom we are referring to the breaking up of molecules into their respectively atoms, so that we can use hydrogen into fuel after which it join back oxygen to form water.


Answers: 1f, 2f, 3t, 4f, 5f, 6t, 7f, 8f, 9t, 10t, 11t, 12t, 13f, 14t, 15f, 16t, 17t, 18t, 19t, 20t, 21t, 22t, 23f, 24t, 25f.
Answer to photo question - True

Rating:
24-25 Outstanding
21-23 Very Good
18-20 Good
15-17 Fair
12-14 Passing

No comments: