Of God and Mammon
In 80's view there is little chance of
reconciling religion and science, at
least not without unacceptable compromises. The former requires faith in
things that are just not verifiable and that in many cases contradict the way
in which science has shown the Universe to function. Religion relies not only
upon faith but also upon argument from authority which is a dead end with
regard to learning anything about our cosmos - God said so, or Moses said so,
is not good enough. Science is universally applicable and a properly conducted
experiment in say, London will produce the same results as the identical
experiment in Riyadh. In religion, despite what ecumenists fondly hope, there
is little agreement amongst the world's many faiths, and this is true even
within denominations - Roman Catholicism and the Evangelicals for instance -
or Sunni and Shiite. Yet there are many who would like to reconcile religion
and science - and one person in
particular is prepared to back it with big money. Sir John Templeton,"arguably
the greatest global stock picker of the century"
has established an
annual prize,
of about a million dollars, in order to " ...encourage
the concepts that resources and manpower are needed to accelerate progress in
spiritual discoveries, which can help humans to learn over 100 fold more about
divinity. We hope that by learning about the lives of the awardees, millions
of people will be uplifted and inspired toward research and more discoveries
about aspects of divinity. The Prize is intended to help people see the
infinity of the Universal Spirit still creating the galaxies and all living
things and the variety of ways in which the Creator is revealing himself to
different people. We hope all religions may become more dynamic and
inspirational."
Noble
Prizes? The list of
past prize recipients makes for interesting reading. Freeman Dyson, Paul
Davies, Ian Barbour, Arthur Peacocke are all scientists as was the most recent
winner John Polkinghorne - and all have very different opinions and beliefs
about faith, religion and science. Just to take a couple, Davies,
physicist and well-known author
of several popular books on physics and cosmology,
seems to espouse a
very philosophical "god",
akin to Einstein's, more of a shorthand for the
rules by which the universe operates. (In fact it has been a recent and
regrettable trend for popular physics and cosmology books to contain the G
word in the title - Davies being a major perpetrator - perhaps it helps boost
sales in the Mind, Body and Spirit section of the bookstore.) To many members
of the public, however, this is seen as an endorsement of the Judaeo-Christian
mythology of a personal God, with all the trappings of miracles, resurrections
and the rest, which is far from Davies'
intention as he is on record as detesting miracles. (BBC Radio 4, Devout
Skeptics, Sept. 17th). The most recent recipient, Polkinghorne, was also a
physicist, but is now an Anglican priest, a calling which certainly does
embrace "the Judaeo-Christian mythology of a personal God, with all the
trappings of miracles, resurrections and the rest". How he manages to
reconcile his religious faith with his scientific knowledge is perhaps
something of a miracle in itself. Which goes to show that the Templeton
definition of God and spiritual realities must be very wide indeed to include
Davies and Polkinghorne, and certainly far
too wide for these
folk.
Sanity Clause
A far more interesting and rational voice
commenting on
religion and its often disastrous
effect on the world is
Richard Dawkins,
evolutionary biologist and the Charles Simonyi Professor For The Understanding
Of Science at Oxford University. There are a number of essays by, and
interviews with, Dawkins on the web of which the following are a few. This
first is from
Free Inquiry
magazine and is entitled
The Improbability of God.
More impassioned and certainly more relevant to current events are two essays
written in the aftermath of the September 11th atrocities, which, readers may
recall, were carried out by devout believers. (See Past View -
Baneful Biblical Basis?)
One is from the UK Guardian newspaper,
Religion's Misguided Missiles
and the other
Time To Stand Up
(which memorably contains quotations from
Douglas Adams,
Gore Vidal and Billy Graham - strange bedfellows indeed!) is published
courtesy of the Freedom
From Religion Foundation. One sentence
in particular from the latter essay stands out
"....respect people for what they individually think, rather than respect
groups for what they were collectively brought up to believe." Somehow
80 doubts that the Templeton Prize Office will receive many nominations for
Dawkins......................
Fallacious Factoids
We have all heard them - little nuggets
of information or factoids dropped into a conversation - that upon
examination are untrue but are often unexamined purely because they are
trotted out so often and are accepted by dint of sheer repetition. Example " Aerodynamic studies show that a bee's wings cannot
sustain it in flight and yet the bee, blissfully ignorant of this, flies
anyway".
UNTRUE
Then there is this old chestnut " Human beings only use
10% of their brain" again
UNTRUE.
Or this "The Great Wall of China is the only man-made
object visible from the moon."
UNTRUE.
80 is confident that you can think of more examples. A more recent false
factoid is "Half the world has never made a phone call"
usually made to point out the (very real) divide in access to technology
between the "developed nations" and the Third World. Recent users have been
Thabo Mbeki (South African President) Al Gore (internet pioneer) and Kofi
Annan (Secretary General of the UN). Now, Clay Shirky, puts that little
statistic to the test and finds it greatly wanting. Describing that particular
factoid as something journalists categorize as "too good to check" (apparently
a principle behind many Fox TV documentaries) Shirky does do some checking and
finds
no current basis for the statement.
How many other false factoids are regularly used by journalists and happily
repeated by us all as though true? A
trawl through the
Urban Legends Reference
pages at Snopes.com can supply a good selection and give you the information
to rebut such unthinking repetition - and provide much harmless amusement
along the way.
Psychic
Soap Psychic as defined by
the New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary "A person who
is regarded as peculiarly susceptible to supernatural or paranormal influence;
a medium...." Medium as defined by the NSOED " A
person thought to be in contact with the spirits of the dead......."
Given this, when 80 came across a
website entitled
Psychic Mediums
it was obvious these people really wanted to make a point. The site's
creators, Craig and Jane Hamilton-Parker, promote themselves as the "psychic
family" and are pictured with a
child and their apparently psychic dog. (A word of warning - you may want to
turn your speakers off - unless dirges are your thing) What follows when you
click on the link "to read about the Psychic Family and
the spiritual advisors" is a long page of what appears to be a
psychic soap opera
full of anecdotal incident and gullibility. One
example - Jane's sixth sense can tell her when Craig
is in danger -
"Once, I was sitting at home relaxing when a mental
image flashed before me of Craig and a red car, and then I saw a stag. A
bright red aura filled the room and I sensed danger. Half an hour later, Craig
came home and said: 'You'll never believe it- I've just hit a stag. I could
have been killed.' He was very shaken"
This sounds very spooky but we only have their word for it - and more
importantly what actual use was Jane's sixth sense? Did it enable her to warn
Craig (or more importantly the stag) of the impending danger?
No. Hence even if her psychic flash was true it appears to be pretty
useless. More worrying, and this is a point 80 has made before (see Past Views
-
Unicorn Kids Rump
- Loco Parentis) is that these people are
encouraging their children to believe in this claptrap - what sort of training
are they getting in understanding the real world?
Psychic Sell
A couple of further clicks will bring you
to the
Psychics and Mediums network - which
is where the children will at least learn how to
make money out of the gullible, the uncritical and the plain daft. This page
has many elements - the first and most noticable is a floating ad for
telephone readings at £1.50 a minute. Down the left hand margin is a list of
links with all the usual suspects, from Angels and Astral Travel through
Clairvoyance, Coincidences and Earth Energy to Numerology, Psychic Pets (of
course),and Spiritualism. Few items of bunkum are left unmentioned in this
fairly comprehensive list. You can also buy
any of Craig's 12 books on mediumship, dreams and psychic development. Also
for £25 you can join the Elysium community and enjoy special events and
psychic training with Craig and his team - and you don't have to be psychic to
join (surely that would be a slight handicap?). Best of all, on the
right hand side is a list of endorsements of Craig and Jane's powers. In
keeping with the intellectual rigor shown elsewhere on this site these
endorsements do not appear to stem from any form of serious testing by the
likes of say, the
Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit,
or far more financially rewarding,
ASKE or
the
James Randi Research Foundation.
No, to help us believe in the Hamilton-Parker family's powers (not forgetting
the dog) we have statements from a couple of DJs, a couple of TV celebs and
David (Beware the Lizard Dynasty) Icke,
and they can't even spell Icke's name correctly.
(Past View of Icke -
Reptile Spooks Belief -Soccer
Saint)
Miscellany
Poor old NASA takes a lot of knocks these days - some justified and some the
result of political meddling - creaky old shuttles, an
astronomically costly space station and lost Mars probes come to mind. For a
change of tack do take a look at the
Origins
program pages, whose goal is to pursue answers to two very big questions - Where do we come from? Are we alone? The
site is well laid out with a
Timeline of the Universe,
pages on telescope design and the search for extra-solar planets and
astrobiology amongst other features. Also good to see is a discussion of the
origins of life and the universe without once resorting to religious
fantasies - refreshing to see under the current
US administration.
A
thoughtful piece
by Christopher Hitchens from
Free Inquiry
magazine looks at the
case of French author Michel Houellebecq,
who stands accused of racism for referring to Islam as "the
most stupid of all religions." The fact that his remark is about a
religion and not a race seems to have passed the court and his accusers, the
National Federation of French Muslims (FNMN) and the World Islamic League,
completely by. Also, as observed by Hitchens, how responsible is an author
for the views of a character depicted in his fiction? Perhaps the late Ian
Fleming should be accused of terrorism for inventing Ernst Stavro Blofeld,
evil mastermind of SMERSH? Mind you, remember Salman Rushdie? He was
sentenced to death by fanatics for the
content of a dream of one of his characters, a character already
described as deranged. This incredible touchiness on the part of some
religionists reflects badly on their deity, who apparently has to be
protected from fictional entities, and says little for the dignity of their
creeds. This whole episode would be funnier if Houellebecq wasn't facing up
to a year in prison and a 52,000 euro fine. Besides, even if it was his own
statement and not a fictional character's how does he know Islam is the
"most stupid of religions"? After all,
there are so many to choose from.
Professor Tangent has done a
great job in putting together an entertaining site for adults and children -
let him tell you himself.......
"Nutrition for the mind. Fact or Opinion? Common Sense
or Nonsense? Explanation or Excuse? Open-minded or Empty-headed? Just as
some foods that taste good might have little nutritional value, or could
even be harmful, ideas sometimes seem emotionally satisfying but have little
basis in fact or logic. Such ideas could be harmful if they become so
entrenched as to obscure alternatives that might lead to the truth. Be at
least as careful about what goes into your mind as you are about what goes
into your stomach. Professor Tangent can help with skeptical inquiry,
brainteasers, games, logic, common sense and humor."
A truly excellent set of pages 80 can
wholeheartedly recommend to people of all
ages.
Farewell
80 was
saddened to learn of the death of
Robert L Forward, scientist and author, whose ideas were in many ways "far
out" but founded always in real science and the laws of physics. He
exemplified the ability to dream great dreams and enthuse others with the
excitement of science - his first novel "Dragon's Egg" he himself described as
"A textbook on neutron star physics disguised as a novel." A
true original and a sad loss - many of his papers can be downloaded from his
website .
Quotes
"Good judgment comes from experience,
and a lot of that comes from bad judgment." Will Rogers
"You can't depend on your eyes when
your imagination is out of focus." Mark Twain
"There is nothing in the dark that
isn't there when the lights are on." Rod Serling
"I like pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats
look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals." Winston Churchill
"True wisdom is less presuming than
folly. The wise man doubteth often, and changeth his mind; the fool is
obstinate, and doubteth not; he knoweth all things but his own ignorance."
Akhenaten
©Copyright 2002
Eighty Ross W Sargent All rights reserved
