Friday, December 22, 2006
Science
Dadmanly took an interesting look a while back at the fact that "science" seems to keep picking a fight with religion.
Why is religion viewed as irrational and science not? Is it just the nature of the inquiry? - science being natural inquiry and religion being revelatory inquiry? I think that lies at the heart of it, but the assumption that revelatory inquiry is irrational simply does not hold up, and most in science that have read past a book or two knows that. Besides, the fight is usually not picked by practicing scientists - rather it is picked by those that choose to use science to further some other agenda, and do so in the name of science.
Bottom line, I think it is because religion has boundaries and purely natural inquiry does not. That is another way of saying it is the oldest problem in the world - sin. We simply think we know better, isn't that the the basic definition of sin?
Bottom line is this, we will never win this battle intellectually because it is not at its base an intellectual battle. We need to reach the hearts of those that pick the fights. We need to reach out to the people, not just their ideas.
Related Tags: science, faith, reason, rationality, sin
To blame declining math and science fluency in the US on religion, faith, or religionists is bizarre, counterproductive, and just plain wrong.Whenever this subject arises, it strikes me that science is indeed the one picking the fight and I am most curious about the "Why?" question.
Liberal ideologies -- socialism, secularism, multiculturalism -- are more responsible for a greatly decreased emphasis on those studies or subject matters that lead naturally to the hard sciences and math.
Those who learn in America have been less and less likely to pursue Math and Science, because they've been spoon-fed, spoiled, and discouraged from hard learning.
Why is religion viewed as irrational and science not? Is it just the nature of the inquiry? - science being natural inquiry and religion being revelatory inquiry? I think that lies at the heart of it, but the assumption that revelatory inquiry is irrational simply does not hold up, and most in science that have read past a book or two knows that. Besides, the fight is usually not picked by practicing scientists - rather it is picked by those that choose to use science to further some other agenda, and do so in the name of science.
Bottom line, I think it is because religion has boundaries and purely natural inquiry does not. That is another way of saying it is the oldest problem in the world - sin. We simply think we know better, isn't that the the basic definition of sin?
Bottom line is this, we will never win this battle intellectually because it is not at its base an intellectual battle. We need to reach the hearts of those that pick the fights. We need to reach out to the people, not just their ideas.
Related Tags: science, faith, reason, rationality, sin
