Re: An insult
- From: Dave Smith <david@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 27 Aug 2007 13:42:50 -0700
On 27 Aug, 07:56, Lance <LanceG...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Surely atheists contradict this claim? And note that atheism is not a
modern phenomenon - there were plenty in roman and Greek times.
Yes, I think in that quote Wilson gets a little carried away. Later
in the same chapter he discusses how science challenges religion:
" ..the final decisive edge enjoyed by scientific naturalism will come
from its capacity to explain traditional religion, its chief
competitor, as a wholly material phenomenon. Theology is not likely to
survive as an independent intellectual discipline. But religion itself
will endure for a long time as a vital force in society."
The perseverance of religion is due to its emotional appeal and:
"The spiritual weakness of scientific naturalism is due to the fact
that it has no such primal source of power. While explaining the
biological sources of religious emotional strength, it is unable in
its present form to draw on them, because the evolutionary epic denies
immortality to the individual and divine privilege to the society, and
it suggests only an existential meaning for the human species.
Humanists will never enjoy the hot pleasures of spiritual conversion
and self-surrender; scientists cannot in all honesty serve as
priests."
.
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