[FoRK] This is the problem...

[Jeff Bone]

On Jan 11, 2008, at 2:59 PM, Dr. Ernie Prabhakar wrote:

> Sure, there are lots of anti-intellectual, anti-scientific  
> Christians.  But there's an awful lot of serious, practicing  
> scientists who are also serious, practicing Christians.  And some  
> of them actually work pretty darn hard to come up with coherent  
> epistemic models of reality.

The fact that large numbers of intelligent, well-meaning people work  
very hard to reconcile the irreconcilable --- is a tragedy, not an  
accomplishment.  All that horsepower wasted, by the very people that  
could, and should, be saving the planet.  But no --- they're too  
wrapped up in saving their own (and everyone else's) souls...  the  
afterlife of course being far more important than this mortal coil...

The fact that historically large numbers of scientists professed some  
kind of faith is clearly a testament to the pernicious epidemiology  
of these insidious beliefs;  a testament to the oppressive power of  
social norms and tradition;  and a clear indication of the difficulty  
of being both logically consistent and public with ones ideas.  It is  
certainly not in any sense obviously *causative.*

>> of course, that isn't what they're doing.  but you know that.
>
> Sure, that may not be what "they" are doing, but it is exactly what  
> *I* am proposing we do.  Why not give it a shot?

Yes, and if we all just wish hard enough, we can bring Tinker Bell  
back to life.

jb