The article reminded me of something shown on UK tv this week (God’s Nexy Army on Channel 4) which was about the fast-track to the White House for crazy Christian extremist students.
As a Christian myself (albeit one of those liberal-ish ones) who believes that Church and State should ALWAYS be seperate, this scared the piss out of me. See if you can find the torrent for it and have a look.
One of the really worrying things I noticed was the number of blonde, blue-eyed types. There was another group in the last hundred years who liked that look…
This kind of thinking really bothers me enormously. It seems to indicate that if you’ve become comfortable with the fact that there are some things in the universe that may never be wholly understood that you are somehow empty headed or opiated. I suppose some people struggle with the fact that sometimes it is the emptiness of something that makes it useful.
This argument belittles the concept of enlightenment or illumination – as though belief and intelligence were somehow mutually exclusive. Darwin himself was unusually devout. So was Einstein.
I cannot accept that confused, broken-hearted nihilism is a more satifactory or “smarter” way to exist. Why does faith have to be the end of critical thinking? I’ve always viewed it as a result of critical thinking. It’s not a complicated idea that there are certain concepts and realities that normal humans cannot fully comprehend (yet). That doesn’t mean that we cannot hypothesize or elaborate based on what we “believe” to be true.
It probably won’t happen in my lifetime, but I’m sure everything in the universe will or can be understood via the scientific process. After all, why not? Your quote about “some people struggle with the fact that sometimes it is the emptiness of something” can be applied to people who believe in God, or the afterlife, or the human soul – I have come to terms with the fact that my creation and death have no meaning – no grand purpose – the universe is full of emptiness and to try to relate some kind of deep meaning to biological processes and riddle the already incredible world with superstitious platitudes does in fact belittle the wonders that are all around us to explore if only we’d take the time and effort.
I become enlightened and illuminated whenever I learn about a new species that’s been discovered, or I find out how a plant and an insect have a symbiotic relationship, or how there may be water ice on one of the gas giants in our solar system.
That doesn’t address everything you brought up but I’ll have more to say later on. Basically, I think superstition and religion are holding us back from making the world a better place for everyone and everything.
The article reminded me of something shown on UK tv this week (God’s Nexy Army on Channel 4) which was about the fast-track to the White House for crazy Christian extremist students.
As a Christian myself (albeit one of those liberal-ish ones) who believes that Church and State should ALWAYS be seperate, this scared the piss out of me. See if you can find the torrent for it and have a look.
One of the really worrying things I noticed was the number of blonde, blue-eyed types. There was another group in the last hundred years who liked that look…
This kind of thinking really bothers me enormously. It seems to indicate that if you’ve become comfortable with the fact that there are some things in the universe that may never be wholly understood that you are somehow empty headed or opiated. I suppose some people struggle with the fact that sometimes it is the emptiness of something that makes it useful.
This argument belittles the concept of enlightenment or illumination – as though belief and intelligence were somehow mutually exclusive. Darwin himself was unusually devout. So was Einstein.
I cannot accept that confused, broken-hearted nihilism is a more satifactory or “smarter” way to exist. Why does faith have to be the end of critical thinking? I’ve always viewed it as a result of critical thinking. It’s not a complicated idea that there are certain concepts and realities that normal humans cannot fully comprehend (yet). That doesn’t mean that we cannot hypothesize or elaborate based on what we “believe” to be true.
It probably won’t happen in my lifetime, but I’m sure everything in the universe will or can be understood via the scientific process. After all, why not? Your quote about “some people struggle with the fact that sometimes it is the emptiness of something” can be applied to people who believe in God, or the afterlife, or the human soul – I have come to terms with the fact that my creation and death have no meaning – no grand purpose – the universe is full of emptiness and to try to relate some kind of deep meaning to biological processes and riddle the already incredible world with superstitious platitudes does in fact belittle the wonders that are all around us to explore if only we’d take the time and effort.
I become enlightened and illuminated whenever I learn about a new species that’s been discovered, or I find out how a plant and an insect have a symbiotic relationship, or how there may be water ice on one of the gas giants in our solar system.
That doesn’t address everything you brought up but I’ll have more to say later on. Basically, I think superstition and religion are holding us back from making the world a better place for everyone and everything.