On 10/4/09 2:36 PM, Tim wrote:
I dont' normally make a cut and paste, but i did like this guys
comment:

"pherzen: The Jesuits in particular were instrumental in fanning the
early flames of what's generally acknowledged as the Scientific
Revolution, beginning around 1600 (or post Copernicus and Harvey in
any event.) The Jesuits were the only religious order to have actively
sought out and even contributed to advancements in the natural
philosophy of the day. They offered a notoriously thorough education.
"If only they were ours," Francis Bacon wrote, but of course without
their "sundry doctrines obnoxious." The list of luminary thinkers
coming out of Jesuit institutions fills volumes of history and
includes Galileo, Descartes and Mersenne. There are many excellent
histories of that time, which show that much could be said about
nature without causing the religious authorities to get too bothered.

The issue over religion and science is so predictably perennial, so
yawn and shrug worthy in its framing and discussion that I dare say
the above article contributes not a shred of new perspective. A brief
mention of Galileo's persecution and an even briefer mention of
Mendel, and we are expected to infer from this tenuous gossamer of a
thread that the religious and scientific pose no inherent tension? I
would say that while individuals may hold both religious and
scientific perspectives, institutions tend to be exclusively biased
either way. Insofar as both approaches to understanding presume to
speak for all peoples, places and times, it should be no surprise that
people will fundamentally disagree depending on what they've been
taught and the extent of their curiosity and laziness. I come from
Alberta, and I've had my share of idiotic conversations about
evolution (why bother qualifying it with 'natural selection'?) where
the trump card of my interlocutor is unfailingly "the fossil gap."

So a religious man also likes looking through telescopes? Amazing,
will wonders never cease? ..."

OK, so I'm a yawner and a shrugger. ?;^ )


The conflict arises when the religious attempt to substitute their faith
for science and insist others do so, too.


--
Birther-Deather-Tenther-Teabagger:
Idiots All