On Fri, Feb 13, 2009 at 10:11 PM, Jim Davis wrote: > >> -----Original Message----- >> From: denstar >> >> What do you mean by compromise? Personally, my "faith" mixes quite >> will with my "science". > > Your "faith" seems far from "Religion" - and that's the problem with > generally spiritual people chastising the genuinely religious.
Yeah, I wouldn't call my stuff religion, as in, millions know the dogma and follow it, but the basic premise, I believe, is... hell, free will vs. fate? At least that's where I'm coming from here. I'm keying off of what I took for "you can't have god and science without compromise". Not so much dogma, but the actual belief in a higher power. > No matter how well it works for you (or for the millions like you) a belief > in a higher power does not equal religion. Religion codifies truth as a > matter of faith, science as a matter of investigation. "Truth" is a funny deal. "Religion" is a funny deal. Let's just focus on an easy one: did you mean that you can't believe in a higher power and also believe in science? (whatever that means... guess even this isn't simple. Believing in science? Heh.) What if you had a religion that codified investigation as a matter of faith? Or some such strange deal. Like Science as a matter of fact, to complete the flip example. > Truth in the former may be questioned but is ultimately inviolate, truth in > the latter is malleable and under constant refinement. One encourages, by > definition, the idea of supernatural intervention in the natural world while > the other, by definition, rejects it. It seems pretty cut and dry when you say it like that, but remember my story about the scientist who came to my school and told us all that faster-than-light travel was an impossibility, and what you saw on star-trek wasn't "real", or some such? I don't think the definitions are that cut and dry, I guess is what I'm getting at. > Again, compromise can make religion and science happily coexist, but they're > not naturally compatible. It may be that one brand of religion (or, more > likely, a cobbled-together, uncodified spiritual world-view) is more > compatible with science but that doesn't mean it's reasonable to say "there > should be no problem". I don't agree. Perhaps Einstein was a bad example, since he disliked distant spooky actions and a gambling god, but, you know, whatever. Poor example. Maybe some, more eastern-ish type deal would be a better example. Taoism, for instance. Is that a religion? Does it not fit pretty well with the big S? Eh. I know how you feel about the Dancing Wu Li Masters and whatnot, but you have to admit, those dudes don't seem to be compromising much. In fact, they're like, "woah, I'm getting ideas for one from the other, and vice-versa" or, well, something like that. Maybe. > Saying so dismisses as ridiculous one of the most serious issues facing our > society. I don't dismiss how bad wrong-headed-ness is, I'm dismissing the idea that there cannot be co-existence. Harmony, even. Maybe that's what you meant by compromise, and if so, right on, I was assigning a different value to the word compromise. And FWIW, that we would let our ideas stand in the way of our progress is ridiculous, but I think the problem is more inherent in humans than it is inherent in ideas, if that makes sense. Bah. We're a weird lot: peoples (he says, LOL). =] -- The way of fortune is like the milkyway in the sky; which is a number of small stars, not seen asunder, but giving light together: so it is a number of little and scarce discerned virtues, or rather faculties and customs, that make men fortunate. Francis Bacon ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;207172674;29440083;f Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:288429 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
