Hi
On Wed, 11 Apr 2001, Jeff Ricker wrote:
> For me, the teaching message I have learned from these many threads is
> this: for many of our students (as well as for many of our teachers),
> there are strict limits to the lesson that one must collect and evaluate
> evidence before one can accept a claim as likely to be true. For certain
> claims, evidence is seen as unnecessary. For those of us who believe
> adequate evidence is always necessary regardless of the nature of the
> claim, we must ask ourselves to what extent we need to challenge the
> faith-based perspective in order to teach our lesson about the need for
> supporting evidence.
I agree entirely with Jeff's position up to a possible
implication of this last part that we do not need to challenge
the faith-based perspective. Although live and let live (Gould's
separate magisteria) might seem like a reasonable idea, we should
not neglect the very real possibility that we are the only ones
turning the other cheek (Ok, so I'm stretching a metaphor
... turning a blind eye would be better). I do not want to become
one of the paranoid supporters of conspiracy theories, but go to
John Templeton's website www.templeton.org and look around at the
massive amounts of money being spent to promote a religious
perspective in academic and scientific matters. Martin
Seligman's name appears front and center, as Templeton is a
(the?) primary supporter of the so-called Positive Psychology
movement. Of course, the foundation is only concerned with
"constructive" relationships between science and religion, which
would seem to rather prejudge possible difficulties in the
relationship between science and religion (e.g., that science
reveals truths that contradict religion).
Best wishes
Jim
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James M. Clark (204) 786-9757
Department of Psychology (204) 774-4134 Fax
University of Winnipeg 4L05D
Winnipeg, Manitoba R3B 2E9 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
CANADA http://www.uwinnipeg.ca/~clark
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