I can understand somebody following the teachings of Christ. I can understand somebody being a pantheist (Universe is God is the universe). What I have trouble understanding is people who believe the literal truth of the Old Testament and the related books. These books seem to me to be at best teaching stories and parables and at worst rather bad explanations of the universe born of ignorance, mixed in with a bit of inaccurate mythical history. On that basis, I don't see any contradictions between Religion and Science and it does seem as if at least the mainstream Protestant and Catholic churches are finally reaching the same position. They still seem to be a bit hung up on miracles but they're getting there.

Where I have a real problem is with fundamentalists of any religion using faith to deny science and poisoning the minds of children to spread that viewpoint. If you're prepared to throw out the scientific method when it comes to the creation myth, then it seems to me you really ought to throw out all the other results of the scientific method. So no antibiotics, SUVs, air-conditioning or HDTV for you then.

This is basically the message that Richard Dawkins is pushing. What's unfortunate is that he comes over as an intellectual prig. He just can't resist sneering at people he considers stupid.


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[ 19-Aug-08 7:40am ] [ , ]