Paul Smith wrote:
My point was about the current situation, as was Michael's original point, I think. Of course I could be wrong about there being a more friendly relationship between rationalism and religious belief in the current situation, but I do think it's worth considering.
It is hard to generalize about religion as a whole, for there are as many kinds of religion as one would care to name. That said, if I were to attempt to generalize about current *trends* in religious belief in the US (i.e., which forms of American religious belief now seem to be ascendant), I would say that the currently dominant forms of (particularly protestant Christian) religious belief are almost explicitly *irrationalist* (as opposed to, say, the Thomistic Catholicism of the past) in that, for the most part, they view faith alone (e.g., the literal interpretation of the Bible) as virtually the sole epistemic criterion and appear to be largely disinterested (contrary to the culturally predominant religious forms of the fairly recent past) in integrating faith with either the dictates of reason or of observation (i.e., the two foundational principles of modern science).
Three caveats: (1) I do not believe this that protestant Christianity is alone in this. The currently ascendant forms of Judaism and Islam appear to irrationalist as well. But we were talking about the US, in which protestant Christianity holds the most sway by far. (2) I do not mean by "ascendant" simply "that which holds the allegiance of the majority," but rather that which currently seems to be most powerful (politically, socially, culturally), regardless of what the majority of practioners of a particularly religion might believe. (3) I do not use the term "irrationalist" as a pejorative (although I am obviously not personally enamored of the position), but rather simply as a description of a particular approach to epistemological questions.
Regards, -- Christopher D. Green Department of Psychology York University Toronto, Ontario, Canada M3J 1P3 e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] phone: 416-736-5115 ext. 66164 fax: 416-736-5814 http://www.yorku.ca/christo/ ============================ . --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
