RE: [RELIGION] Re: Creationists

Sean Parker (seanp@uu.net)
Wed, 24 Jun 1998 15:20:37 -0400


A little recommended reading... Freeman Dyson has a few words to be said on
this subject. I can't recall offhand which of his books addresses the issue.
However his central argument concerns the Judeo-Christian tradition of
theology--descended from the Greek fixation on reason--and its effect on
rational/empirical/scientific thought.

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On Wednesday, June 24, 1998 11:03 AM, Brian D Williams [SMTP:talon57@well.com]
wrote:
>
> From: "Jonathan Colvin" <jcolvin@ican.net>
>
>
> >Sorry, but that is an incredibly facile explanation for religious
> >origin myths. Two thousand years ago, when people didn't even
> >know what stars were, there were many smart people who wondered
> >why there was something instead of nothing, and why the world was
> >the way it was.
>
> Sorry, but people have been wondering this for many hundreds of
> thousands of years, or possibly millions, depending on when you
> start calling our ancestors people. Either way, clearly the
> beginnings of science.
>
> >In those days, and even a few hundred years ago, the idea of a
> >creator was a perfectly rational, metaphysical explanation for the
> >universe.
>
> A hypothesis, lets see the facts.
>
> > Unfortunately for religion, there are now better explanations for
> >why this world exists (although we are still working on why there
> >is something rather than nothing). But dismissing religion as
> >mindless, unjustified belief does a major disservice to what has
> >been a central intellectual force in this world up to the
> >beginning of science, a fairly recent phenomenon indeed.
>
> Science has been around as long as man ( L scire, know). Religion
> has been one of the least intellectual of forces. But don't take my
> word for it, ask Galileo, or Copernicus, or better yet Giordano
> Bruno (burned at the stake by the inquisition) The Inquisition,
> there were some intellectual giants!!!
>
> > I am an atheist, but having studied the history of science and
> >religion extensively, I become irritated when religions are
> >dismissed lightly. Fundamentalists are loony-tunes. But science
> >as we know it today would not have existed without the
> >Judeo-Christian belief in "rational explanation", which contrasts
> >greatly with Buddism for example, where the question of origin is
> >not really considered at all. The first scientists were
> >theologists, observing the universe around them and trying to
> >explain it.
>
> I too study both the origins of science and religion (patristics)
> extensively which is why I haven't the slightest idea where you get
> your conclusions. Rational explanation has nothing to do with
> "Judeo-Christian" belief for example, and Buddhism most certainly
> discusses the question of origin. The first scientists were
> theologists? Theologians study theology: the study of God and
> religious doctrine, by definition.
>
> "A man without religion is like a fish without a bicycle."
>
>
> Brian
> Member,Extropy Institute
> Current reading:
> Genius: the life and science of Richard Feynman James Gleick
> The Gnostic Gospels Elaine Pagels
> Everyday Zen: Love and Work Charlotte Joko Beck
>