On the "Spiritual Left" and Science
I read an interesting article the other day in one of my science magazines. I am used to reading countless articles about how horrible "right wing" Christians are to science and how they must be stopped at any cost. It is pretty scary reading the vehemence with which these scientists write, and I am getting sick of it. (Now, while I think that most Creation science is not science at all[1], the arguments made by the hard-core Evolutionists are so emotionally-driven, it is embarrassing.)
So it was refreshing in a way to read this article, because it was an acknowledgment of another "enemy" to science -- the "spiritual left". By this, it is meant the New-Agey, mystic, "spiritual" but non-Judeo-Christian folk, those who talk of Mother Earth, for example.
The idea of a "Mother Earth" is dangerous to science because of the view that Mother Earth is always good, that is, the idea that if it is natural -- not in the Greek philosophical sense, but in the birds-and-trees sense (αυτοφυης autophues, not φυσις phusis) -- it therefore must be good. One need not look far to see how absurd an idea this is.[2] Animals massacre each other, sometimes just for sport. Parasites live to painfully drain the life out of their hosts. Lightning burns down forests; tornadoes and hurricanes destroy habitats; volcanoes dump more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere than any humans. From this faulty idea come ideas that "organic" foods somehow must be better[3], that holistic therapies must be better than drugs, and that animals have as many rights as humans.
(Ironically, many Christians hold to many of these beliefs, not realizing their pagan origins. While we believe in a universe that was originally good, we also believe in a Fall. It seems that many Christians forget that, thinking, "Well, if this is how God made it then we should not mess with it." Frankly, we have no idea how God originally made anything. Not only is the universe in a state of decay, but everything adapts to its environment and changes constantly.)
So of course, the scientists, as a whole, hate these sort of "primitive" beliefs. Scientists want to mess with genes, design new drugs, and continue experimenting on animals. And I am glad that they do these things.
Anyhow, it was nice to have a break from slamming the right and seeing them slam the left instead.Edit: The original articles are:
http://www.the-scientist.com/2006/7/1/48/1/
and
http://www.the-scientist.com/2006/7/1/13/1/
(In the first, the writer also refutes the idea that Gaia behaves like a single organism based on "experiments" done on computer.)Edit 2: Apparently, you need to subscribe to The Scientist to read the articles. Sorry.Edit 3: added links
So it was refreshing in a way to read this article, because it was an acknowledgment of another "enemy" to science -- the "spiritual left". By this, it is meant the New-Agey, mystic, "spiritual" but non-Judeo-Christian folk, those who talk of Mother Earth, for example.
The idea of a "Mother Earth" is dangerous to science because of the view that Mother Earth is always good, that is, the idea that if it is natural -- not in the Greek philosophical sense, but in the birds-and-trees sense (αυτοφυης autophues, not φυσις phusis) -- it therefore must be good. One need not look far to see how absurd an idea this is.[2] Animals massacre each other, sometimes just for sport. Parasites live to painfully drain the life out of their hosts. Lightning burns down forests; tornadoes and hurricanes destroy habitats; volcanoes dump more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere than any humans. From this faulty idea come ideas that "organic" foods somehow must be better[3], that holistic therapies must be better than drugs, and that animals have as many rights as humans.
(Ironically, many Christians hold to many of these beliefs, not realizing their pagan origins. While we believe in a universe that was originally good, we also believe in a Fall. It seems that many Christians forget that, thinking, "Well, if this is how God made it then we should not mess with it." Frankly, we have no idea how God originally made anything. Not only is the universe in a state of decay, but everything adapts to its environment and changes constantly.)
So of course, the scientists, as a whole, hate these sort of "primitive" beliefs. Scientists want to mess with genes, design new drugs, and continue experimenting on animals. And I am glad that they do these things.
Anyhow, it was nice to have a break from slamming the right and seeing them slam the left instead.Edit: The original articles are:
http://www.the-scientist.com/2006/7/1/48/1/
and
http://www.the-scientist.com/2006/7/1/13/1/
(In the first, the writer also refutes the idea that Gaia behaves like a single organism based on "experiments" done on computer.)Edit 2: Apparently, you need to subscribe to The Scientist to read the articles. Sorry.Edit 3: added links