[lbo-talk] Age of Sexual Enlightenment?

[ravi]

On Dec 2, 2007, at 4:10 AM, B. wrote:
> ravi wrote:
>
> "Given that the relevant kind of scientific enquiry
> corresponds in its goals with the religious, and that
> human inquiry and learning follows standard patterns,
> I for one am not very puzzled by the above. The
> difference between the two, I believe, is primarily
> one of ambition,  encoding and transmission -- causing
> one (religion) to atrophy at  times and the other to
> flourish."
>
>
> Ravi &others,
>
> As Dana Carvey's John McLaughlin would bellow,
> "WRONG!" (re: Your claim that "the relevant kind" of
> scientific inquiry "corresponds in its goals with the
> religious" and that science and religion's difference
> is one of "encoding" and "ambition.")
>
> This is from U. Mass. physicist (and American Physical
> Society president) Robert Park's most recent column
> (http://www.bobpark.org/):
>
> "It’s time we had a little talk. _The New York
> Times_ on Saturday published an op-ed by Paul Davies
> that addresses the question: 'Is embracing the laws of
> nature so different from religious belief?' Davies
> concludes that, 'until science comes up with a
> testable theory of the laws of the universe its claim
> to be free of faith is manifestly bogus.' Davies has
> confused two meanings of the word 'faith.' The Oxford
> Concise English Dictionary on my desk gives the two
> distinct meanings for faith as: '1) complete trust or
> confidence, and 2) strong belief in a religion based
> on spiritual conviction rather than proof.' A
> scientist's 'faith' is built on experimental proof.

I think the last sentence in itself is an article of faith among elder  
scientists, contradicted by empirical data. But really, this is not  
relevant to my point... I was not talking about "laws of nature" vs  
belief... the original poster was talking about how religious tenets  
(moral tenets) prefigure [quasi]scientific findings. I was not  
surprised by that since moral tenets codify empirically arrived at  
common sense findings.

	--ravi