I’m reading a terrifically fascinating book.← Breaking The Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon, by Daniel C. Dennett.
"... no deeply religious person should object to the scientific study of religion with the presumption that it is an entirely natural phenomenon. If it isn't entirely natural, if there are really miracles involved, the best way -- indeed, the only way -- to show that to doubters would be to demonstrate it scientifically. Refusing to play by these rules only creates the suspicion that one doesn't really believe that religion is supernatural after all."
-- Daniel C. Dennett, in Breaking The Spell --
Have a great Friday!
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5 comments:
Have you been considering questions of faith, lately?
(word verification: pawdre... no doubt, read with a thick, John Wayne drawl.)
I read it. Great book. Much mind-bending.
Yes, Kingmonkey. I have been considering questions of faith, but not only "lately."
No, for quite a long time, now.
And shall never stop.
Read it also. Some good points but once again, as do others such as Dawkins, Dennett is a little too fundamental in his assurance that he is right. None-the-less, he has some execellent insights of how and why religion exist.
Bottom line, religion is power over the masses ... nothing more
LBR
while I'm not religious, I am into cultural relativity and anthropology. Therefore the sentence " indeed, the only way -- to show that to doubters would be to demonstrate it scientifically" doesn't work unless you hold that the be all and end all of truth for the entire planet is western scientific empirical testing.
Now, I'm not going to comment here whether it IS in fact the be all and end all, but I just want to raise awareness that, for the vast majority of the world, so-called rational scientific thought is pure mumbo jumbo hocus pocus. In fact, it looks the same to these people as religion does to you people.
Interesting stuff...
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