ITRchampion, please change your attitude to science or change your profession.
Background: The very idea that some religions could have originated without divine inspiration is ludicrous, says he. Steady on, say I. I don’t expect theists to agree with me that all religions started naturally – they wouldn’t be theists in that case. But to not afford my natural worldview any respect whatsoever? Surely if I did my best and tried, where possible, to cite respected scientific sources and reference material, I could convince him that my position is reasonable, at least ?
And what did we learn in the process? Well, you know those academic institutions where the world’s most eminent scientists compete for Nobel prizes and seek to understand the world we live in? They, and the research carried out therein, are apparently unworthy of any respect. This is because the people in ITR’s church are more sensible, and because ITR submitted work he suspected to be worthless when he was at university. Intellectual dishonesty like this is the bane of academia , and ITR appears to think that when Groucho Marx said “I would not join any club which would have me as a member”, he wasn’t making a joke, but an argument.
Nor should we apparently believe anything anthropologists tell us about tribal religions since they don’t “know themselves” well enough and, in any case, the tribes might just be having fun with us. As for psychology, ethology, neurobiology or cognitive science, forget it: These can be summarily dismissed along with any data contained in their numerous and rigorous scientific journals.
Now, it’s a shame that ITR doesn’t have the courage to explore religion objectively, but I’ve come to expect this from the American religious right, and am generally sanguine about it. Even when confronted with the choice of changing their worldview slightly or rejecting whole swathes of scientific research, I am usually merely amused when their immoveable mindset decides the latter course for them, cognitive dissonance be damned. And so, I was preparing to let the thread die, satisfied that I might have planted seeds and facilitated an interesting debate (and thanks for your appreciation, Digital and Hentor.) So I clicked ITR’s profile to check he had indeed been active without posting, and was now ignoring my entreaties to stay engaged. And what did I find?
The guy’s a frigging science teacher.
I dread to think what kind of negative view of science he might be formenting in his charges, to say nothing of the “submitting nonsense” issue. Just as troubling was his recommendation of E.F. Schumacher’s A Guide for the Perplexed, essentially one long God-of-the-Gaps argument based on a laughably inept grasp of science even in 1977 when it wasn’t 30 years out of date. If he is unaware what happens when science teachers posit that certain natural phenomena require some kind of Intelligent Designer, I’m sure the Dover area school board could remind him.
So thanks to everyone for these few weeks, I’d forgotten how enjoyable and addictive this place is. But I’d also forgotten just how disturbingly backwards American attitudes can be sometimes, and how much more positive I am about humanity in general when I’m not immersed in them so deeply.
Cheerio. I assure you all I will endeavour to avoid letting the door, or indeed any other metaphor, slapping my ass on the way out.
