That may be true of American scientists, but in Europe anyone in the academic
community in the sciences is almost certainly an atheist. I've taught in
Germany and have talked to colleagues all over the EU. Atheism is the rule for
almost everyone except theology departments.
----- Original Message ----
From: ruthsimplicity <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Thursday, January 10, 2008 3:13:19 PM
Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: The Same Grandfathers of Physics Speak
Out.......was/The Grandfathers of Phy
--- In FairfieldLife@ yahoogroups. com, Angela Mailander
<mailander111@ ...> wrote:
>
>
> That competent scientists would impose some sort of schizophrenic
state upon themselves, such as being mystics on Sundays and being
scientists denying any truth to the Sundays stance on weekdays seems
absurd to me on the face of it.
Not schizophrenic at all! It is incredibly human. People are filled
with inconsistencies and tendencies to justify long held beliefs.
Like Mitt Romney holding what he calls the "faith of my fathers."
Not all scientists are atheists, some probably have strong faith in
one religion or another. Usually the religion of their fathers.
Which they, like many others, have lived a lifetime of believing. Now
odds are an evolutionary biologist is not going to literally believe
the creation story, but he still may justify the faith of his fathers
by believing a non-literal interpretation. Others are like Einstein
and simply appreciate the mystery of the underlying logic of the
universe.
Angela also said:
"> It seems crazy to me, since the proposition that consciousness is
not an emergent property of the brain seems not only
attractive, but absolutely necessary if there is to be any sort of
life after death. But, again, you and I are not going to make a dent
unless there is some openness to a new idea or to having been wrong
about some things."
Absolutely necessary? Not hardly. We don't know anything about life
after death so we don't know what is or is not necessary. I love new
ideas, but I like meat with my potatoes.
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