Hi,
I'm getting double and triple mail that seems to defy what we know about
time.
Gerry Grzyb wrote:
At 10:51 AM 8/29/2005, Del Thomas Ph. D. wrote:
A recent report found that 90+ Americans believed that the universe
was created by a supreme being. I have no more information, and it
could be spin.
However, there have been a series of "findings" indicating that close
to half the population has been born again and or rejects Darwin.
Students and sociologists will be included
in these findings. That leads me to the following questions.
1. Can you be a sociologist and believe that the universe was
created by a supreme being?
Sure. Sociology has nothing to say about the origin of the
universe--it isn't even an object of scientific inquiry for sociology.
If the universe was created by a supreme being Darwin would not be
correct. With out Darwin there is no science of sociology. Sociology
would be a faith based
system that would not involve testing. This may be the case. But a
faith based would be mechanical and primitive and fail to be what some
sociology has been. It would fail to adapt.
Of course there are degrees. So sociology could imitate the faith based
and become extinct.
As such, sociology can neither confirm or deny such a belief. More
generally, any scientist could hold such a belief since there is no
way for such a belief to be subjected to a scientific evaluation of
evidence.
There are ample ways to test this question. The use of Hubble has bee
able to see back 10 billion + years. Durkheim distinguished between the
created, mechanical and the evolving, organic. Things that are created
or made behave differently from things that happen. Science is usually
based on observation of happenings.
The problems arise when believers convince themselves (and try to
convince others) that their beliefs ARE based upon scientific
research. As such, a big part of my job is just to get students to
see the difference between scientifically-established fact and belief.
I personally believe in a jolly, roly-poly, red-coated guy with a
beard who brings an end to every fall semester just before I go nuts.
Oddly part of my comments were a result of Brock Chisolm's paper on
world mental health. He cites Santa as the first of many lies in the
adopting process, handing down information
to the next generation that is not to be tested or adapted. He says it
much much better.
Del
Gerry Grzyb
