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Dear Dr Donaho, Every religion that I have bumped into over the years
believed they had a monopoly on truth, but it depends on how you interpret the
word. One thing I am certain of, and that is the word ‘truth’ is a
much misused and abused term when the pious get hold of it. I suspect that the
worshippers of Zeus, Amun & Re, Gaea or the
Rainbow Serpent were all certain that it was they who were the purveyors of truth.
What this gets down to is essentially a “my god is better than your god”
argument, which interests me only in that it so perfectly demonstrates human stupidity,
the one infinite of which Einstein was certain. What interest
me above all else is the search for truth in the sense of the first option one
sees in a dictionary, i.e. “the state or quality of being true or factual,
in accordance with fact or reality; not false, wrong or made up”. That is
the truth I want. You ask if one must choose religion or science. I suspect
not, as I know quite a few people of religious bent who are very competent
scientists. In being so, they must keep the two compartments of their lives
separate, otherwise confusion results. It is possible to be religious and a
scientist but you cannot be a religious scientist. That is the nub of the
problem that we all face, the religious minority trying to impose their
peculiar brand of religion on science. I like the irony inherent in Duncan McLean’s message, in
that it is now the protestant churches who are trying to force modern day ‘Galileos’ to recant. However, we must never surrender
because, if we fail, then the whole world will sink into the abyss of a new
Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of
perverted science (apologies to W.S. Churchill). ----------------------------------------------------------------- Petroleum and Marine Division GEOSCIENCE Street Address: ABN 80 091 799 039 |
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