Mike Britt started his thoughtful post: >I think most of us try to stay away from the >science vs. religion thing, but I might as well jump in...
I really didn't see my post as yet another pot shot in the science vs religion skirmishes. (At this point nowadays I'm supposed to say that I'm sorry if anyone felt offended by what I wrote, I didn't intend to do so, not to mention that no animals or trees were hurt in the course of my writing and sending the post, and I must remember not to leave my TV on standby tonight.) I'm fascinated by the phenomenon of giving thanks to God for some peoples' lives being saved, whereas others have lost their lives (in the same, or corresponding circumstances) despite there being as much prayer devoted to them. Watching football (soccer to you lot :-) ) on TV one sees players crossing themselves as they come onto the pitch at a substitution (especially South American and African players, and perhaps to a lesser degree Spanish and Italian players). Obviously their teams sometimes win and sometimes lose, and the guy crossing himself every game must sometimes have bad days and sometimes good ones. And as far as I know, those who regularly have mediocre games don't cross themselves any less than their more talented colleagues – now there's an idea for a study which could win an Ignoble Prize. :-) Obviously the players know this, but it makes no difference. So surely something else must be going on other than a belief that God is going to give them a special boost that day. But what is it? I'll finish with a quote providing a way of looking at religion historically that I think is food for thought for atheists and agnostics, from the philosopher Simon Blackburn in a review of Richard Dawkins's book of essays *A Devil’s Chaplain: Reflections on Hope, Lies, Science, and Love*: "It is a good question whether the Wittgensteinian account [previously discussed] chimes very well with the self-understanding of believers, and whether it matters if it does not. It has consequences for one problem that troubles Dawkins, which is the extent to which even atheists seem drawn to ‘respect’ the attitudes and beliefs of religious people. Why should anyone ‘respect’ the belief that there is a china teapot orbiting the sun? It is just dotty, and there is an end of it. But if we see a religious tradition as a record of a culture’s ongoing attempts to cope with fear and hope, life and death, gain and loss, then it becomes a candidate for respect, just as much as the other poetry and songs of our ancestors." http://www.phil.cam.ac.uk/~swb24/reviews/Dawkins.htm Allen Esterson Former lecturer, Science Department Southwark College, London allenester...@compuserve.com http://www.esterson.org ----------------------------------------------------- Re: [tips] Why don't we hear more about such things? Michael Britt Tue, 19 Oct 2010 05:23:04 -0700 I think most of us try to stay away from the science vs. religion thing, but I might as well jump in... The explanation of 'God saved them" always seems to come up whenever anything "miraculous" occurs after a tragedy and it has always bothered me because of course, one could always wonder why God didn't save other people who died or why God allowed the terrible event to occur in the first place. I heard the "God saved them" argument so many times in the Catholic church that it was one of the reasons I became an Episcopalian. Our minister/priest (whatever they call him) this past Sunday decided to discuss the "God saved them" argument during his sermon and he said this kind of thinking "makes for a brittle kind of religiousness" because the opposite argument (why did God allow this to happen) makes just as much sense. His opinion was that he didn't know why the tragedy happened or whether God was involved at all. Religion, he said, is a journey and we do not have all the answers. That's a definition of religion I can live with. Michael Michael Britt mich...@thepsychfiles.com http://www.ThePsychFiles.com Twitter: mbritt --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: arch...@jab.org. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=5799 or send a blank email to leave-5799-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
