<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1"> <title></title> </head> <body> <blockquote type="cite" cite="mid87ll5g2tdd.fsf@localhost.localdomain"> <pre wrap="">Yoshie Furuhashi <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:furuhashi.1@osu.edu"><furuhashi.1@osu.edu></a> writes: The virtue of science is that it has made it unnecessary for us to have any hypothesis concerning God or gods or goddesses. </pre> </blockquote> Historically, that's very wrong. Modern science has its roots in the devotio moderna and the high-middle age mystical assertion/realization  that God (order) is immanent in all of creation and that God can come to be known through the unprejudiced observation of his creation. The entire middle ages devoted itself to the problem of how the infinite can be accessed through the finite -- what issues from their effort is the notion of functions (ultimately enabling Calculus), the high regard given to observation and expriment _rather_ than the blind trust in authority. For a beautiful, lucid, and terse discussion, see Ernst Cassirer The Individual and the Cosmos in Renaissance Philosophy or Alexander Koyre "From Closed Cosmos to Infinite Universe." Nothing is more dispiriting than the really crude theist/atheist discussions on this list. Joanna <blockquote type="cite" cite="mid87ll5g2tdd.fsf@localhost.localdomain"> <pre wrap=""> </pre> </blockquote> </body> </html>