Re: Science versus religion

rs2405 wrote:

Anthropologists and others often wonder why in primitive man, religion
is so prevalent in virtually every hunter-gatherer society known to
man. The fact is, as Darwin pointed out in Descent of man, the more
advanced religions (ie, a god who is invisible, cant be handled, felt,
touched, held) emerged along with written language (writings or
escriptures) along the great river valleys of the world.


It was out of literacy that the Enlightenment emerged (this was a
northern European phenomenon, when male literacy was very high among
the gentrified classes). We must never forget that the Englightenment
was an achievement of white man. It was not an acheivement of women or
non-whites.


Only in a highly indirect manner did literacy give rise to the
Enlightenment. Do not conflate "literacy" with "The Enlighetnment".
Men only? How about Mary Wollstonecraft?



[...]



Science is concerned with the physical facts exposed to human
perception (including perception heightened through instrumental
agency). Freud gave the world a "sicence" which was anything but
scientific. The foundational intro to Freudian psychoanalysis was the
interpretation of dreams. The very word psyche or psuche (Greek for
SOUL) is a hint to the essential non-physical subject matter that
Freud had focussed on.

I'd say human psychology is a science. Psychoanalysis may not be, but
psychology certainly is.


[...]

A few atheists (and others) have noted this apples and oranges
dilemma. We are not even dealing with the same subject matter. NOMA
(non overlapping magisteria).


I would say the "magisteria" are not so much a matter of subject matter
as point-of-view: a scientific point-of-view and a theologic
point-of-view. That is, e.g., it's possible to take a scientific and a
theologic point of view re creation. I say these are non overlapping.
For instance, if we formulate theological "theory" of creation of the
physical world, and that "theory" turns out to be at odds with new
understanding of the facts of the physical world, we must as willing to
reformulate our theological "theory" just as we would a no-longer-valid
scientific theory. From the theologic POV, this in no way means we
"change" "eternal-truth"; we merely acknowledge a new understanding of
"eternal-truth".



Science couldn't care less about SOULS, and eternity, and life after
death (or not).

These topics could be subject for scientific enquiry, depending on how
we can define them and make them testable in the physical world.



[...]




To get into show-down battles royal over god's existence,

probably not amenable to scientific study...


or about human origins, or life origins,

unqeustionably amenable to scientific study ...

is a bit of an exercise in futility.
We're talking apples and oranges here. (NOMA)

Not exactly ...


Regards,
Stephen


--

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