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I am with you! sam
posted by
sam444
on March 11, 2008 at 3:23 AM
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Ah, the many splendoured argument that belief and fact are somehow
inextricably intertwined; how imperial and not empirical. Loved your line about how nondramatic were the Copernican and spacetime revolutions. Perhaps if they were explained by William Shakespeare as interpreted by William Shatner?
posted by
saul_relative
on March 10, 2008 at 3:27 PM
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Re:
LOL, TAPS, I'm gonna start yelling for
help if you girls start ganging up on me! Like from gomedome, for instance! Oh, and you can tell Collins that Naut's glad to hear all that!
posted by
Nautikos
on March 8, 2008 at 1:35 PM
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Nautikos, I take a moment away from my breading of the crappie to run away to blogit and what do I find in the latest comments but you yelling at Ariala.
"science is not threatened by God; it is enhanced" and "God is most certainly not threatened by science; He made it all possible." --Collins
posted by
TAPS.
on March 8, 2008 at 10:53 AM
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Re: Nautikos
They can do whatever they want, Ariala. It's just that, when they're doing that, they're not thinking as 'scientists', but as 'believers'. Even Einstein did not think as a scientist when he rejected some of the implications of quantum theory because the 'Old One' (
der Alte'), as he called God, 'doesn't play dice'...As it turns out, he was wrong, the 'Old Guy' does...The thing is that you just
don't try and plug the huge holes in our knowledge with what you 'believe', nor do you explain the unexplained by invoking scripture...
Serious scientists just shrug and walk away...
posted by
Nautikos
on March 8, 2008 at 10:24 AM
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Nautikos
Your statement to TAPS "The only other thing, one that doesn't so much anger rather than amuse me, is the way many 'believers' attempt to support the 'correctness' of their faith by some spurious 'scientific' arguments..." makes me want to ask you, what if these believers are physicists, geologists and other scientists? Can they not seek support for their faith from their indepth research in science, too?
posted by
Ariala
on March 8, 2008 at 7:04 AM
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Re:
TAPS, as always, thanks for your extensive comment. Of course, the Psalmist didn't speak of Earth's rotation because he simply didn't know. He merely reflected the knowledge of his day.
And yes, as I try to treat seriously my 'belief' in the inherent difference between 'faith' and 'knowledge', and hope that is demonstrated in my writing. And because of that I cannot treat 'faith' with contempt. In defense of my fellow non-believers I would argue, though, that their frequent display of intolerance is often a reaction against the intolerance directed at them by the 'faithful'.
While that no longer takes the vicious forms it once did in the Christian world, need I remind you of the monumental intolerance shown by Islam, and what is being done by many of their 'faithful'? There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that some Muslim would gladly cut off my head for what I have written, and will continue to write...
The only other thing, one that doesn't so much anger rather than amuse me, is the way many 'believers' attempt to support the 'correctness' of their faith by some spurious 'scientific' arguments...
posted by
Nautikos
on March 8, 2008 at 6:51 AM
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Re: I wonder what the big brains would think of my accordion theory.
Pat, in some ways your 'accordion theory' ain't even that far-fetched. I may come back to that later...
posted by
Nautikos
on March 8, 2008 at 6:20 AM
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Re: The earth is spinning
It's a good thing you're happy with that idea, Sira. Heaven help us if you weren't...
posted by
Nautikos
on March 8, 2008 at 6:18 AM
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What a fascinating post. I love to see how your mind works by reading the things you share with us. Most non-believers that I know either don't want to talk about religion at all or else they become a bit angry that they cannot persuade me with their vast store of knowledge. I have never quite figured out why they should care if I continue to believe. I like it that you do not show anger and that you do not treat me as some uneducated fool. Having said that......I really like it that the writers of the Scripture wrote from the perspective of the world in which we live. From the vantage point of the people at that time, the sun did (and does) rise and set. If the writer of The Psalms had spoken of the
earth's rotation as giving the
impression of the sun in motion across the sky, taking exception to that would have become the focal point of interest instead of the Majesty of God. Since man has become more scientifically knowledgeable, it is wonderful to focus on God who created the cosmos and makes our world go round.
posted by
TAPS.
on March 7, 2008 at 10:56 PM
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I wonder what the big brains would think of my accordion theory.
To me time (if it exists at all) seems to work like an accordion. Sometimes it gets squeezed together so that "yesterday" of 50 years ago is "yesterday" as in five minutes ago. And things that happened earlier this week are half-forgotten and distant. I realize this is all perception, as opposed to physics and space-time etcetera, but can they prove I'm wrong?
posted by
Pat_B
on March 7, 2008 at 6:24 AM
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The earth is spinning
and I'm okay with that--as long as I don't start getting dizzy, I'm quite content to twirl around the sun
posted by
Sira890
on March 6, 2008 at 9:43 PM
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