[Boon[_2_]]

On Mar 19, 2:11*pm, Glanbrok wrote:
On Mar 19, 12:23*pm, Boon wrote:

The degree to which blind faith can overcome human beings' innate
ability to reason is astonishing. What could motivate these activists
to spurn teaching kids how to search for knowledge? At what point in
their lives do they lose their ability to distinguish between
knowledge and faith? Why does the advance of science frighten them?
Christians are in a panic as their numbers dwindle. The amount of
American college kids who consider themselves religious has been cut
in half over the last 20 years. In Western Europe, where many
countries are enjoying a higher standard of living than in the US,
atheism and agnosticism are even more prevalent. Look where
Christianity (and especially Catholicism) has a stronghold: third-
world countries. It's easy to sell religion to the poor and the
superstitious because of all the false promises that are made.

I'm sure that's true, but I was only using the recent business in
Texas as an example. I also mentioned Galileo, who wasn't American. He
defied Big Religion at the height of their power, at a time when
heresy was a hanging "crime".

Besides, the Texas foolishness has been going on for at least 80
years. Other states have served as the epicenter of dumb christian
excess several times. A few years ago it was Kansas, and in the '20s
it was Tennessee, when they railroaded
John Scopes. Not to mention the original national panic attack when
Darwin's Origin of Species was published.

Underlying my point was the fact that in Darwin's time, and more so in
Galileo's, science and technology were only nascent compared to today.
In the 21st century, it should be easy for anybody (even Scottie) to
see the benefits of unfettered scientific research.

And yet I keep meeting people who claim to be men of science (or
scieencece) and still go to church on a regular basis. That reminds me
of the fact that physicists are still trying to reconclie the fact
that the universe and the molecular world operate under contrary
theories, and that's why the String Theory is so popular these days.
Maybe scientists will apply similar efforts to reconcile religion and
science.

Then again, I think that religion will be the opiate of the primitives
in a few generations. The statistics bear that out.