About
About Me
My name is Jeremy Jackson Berg. I am a freshman at the University of Wisconsin-Madison pursuing a double major in biology and religious studies. The biology one is for sure, and the religion one will be only if I have the time. Throughout the past few years, I have attempting, until recently in vain, to find a concise answer to the question, “How would you describe yourself?” My answer? I am a skeptic. My beliefs about nature of life and the universe are grounded in that which we can empirically observe, and in cases where I cannot know, I will readily admit that I do not.
On another note, my number one hobby is competitive distance running. I compete in cross country and track for the Wisconsin Track Club, because I haven’t realized the glory days of high school running are over and I was too stubborn to go to a school where I had a legit chance of making the team.
I plan on living out the rest of my life on a college campus (or various ones) somewhere, as there really is no better place to be, in school for probably the next 7 years, and then hopefully working my way up to a position as a Professor of Biology at a major research University.
I am so far left on the political spectrum that I tend to be frustrated with the right of center policies of the majority of the Democratic Party in America. I typically have strong criticisms of the way we do things here in American and a sort of delusion that I may some day just skip the country and head to a more civilized Europe. (It’s a good thing I don’t ever plan to run for political office as that comment would just about kill any chances a liberal atheist might have had, someone’ll dig that statement up if I ever try.) That’ll probably never happen though because there’s just something about the familiarity of this mixed up country that would be hard to leave behind.
Title of the Blog
The name comes from a line out of Carl Sagan’s book The Pale Blue Dot, concerning the photo of the same title. You can read the excerpt at the above link, or hear Dr. Sagan himself read it below:
This photo really says a lot to me, and I think Dr. Sagan echoes my thoughts exactly right at the end when he says:
“…it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.”
If we don’t clean up our act, take care of this planet, and stop killing each other over whose imaginary sky daddy is bigger, we will destroy ourselves. We only get this one chance. Planet Earth is, for now, where we make our stand.
