> i would offer that we make up our science to fit our myths. the myth
> for members of the Faith is that anything that causes us to forget God
> is not as good as anything that causes us to remember.
You are quite right in general. Because of the high status of the
material sciences and technologies, believers of all faiths today
sometimes go to ridiciulous lengths to aline their religions with
hard sciences. "Scientific" reasons are proposed for the prohibition
on eating pork, or shellfish, for the uncleanliness of dogs but not
of goats, for the wearing of the beard or hair in one or other way.
In fact, these religious practices are often simply arbitrarily
chosen markers of religious identity. A person doing them (or not
doing them when others are), remembers who he or she is, and what
that means. There is a science involved, because we can see this
pattern of identity markers working in many different societies and
we can see how it works. But this is in the realm of the science of
religion, not the material or medical sciences.
However, in your account of alcohol, you make no mention of
alcoholism. That is a rather large omission, is it not?
There is a public health argument that it would be desirable to
remove alcohol from the "normal diet" category, for the sake of that
part of the population who are disposed to become addicted to it. It
is like vaccinating all children to eliminate a disease which would
only kill a few of them. But in practice the elimination of alcohol
by legislation and enforcement is impossible and should not be
attempted, as we saw in Prohibition days in the USA.
Sen
Sen McGlinn
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When, however, thou dost contemplate the innermost essence of things,
and the individuality of each,
thou wilt behold the signs of thy Lord's mercy . . ."
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