she blinded me with science, betrayed me by prayer
I wonder how many generations back one has to go, on average, to find shared ancestry between Palestinian Arabs and Palestinian Jews? Would DNA evidence of this relatedness have any impact on the animosity between the two groups? Not likely at all.
DNA evidence purportedly shows no recent Hebrew ancestry among Native Americans, which has some LDS theologists worried, as the book of Mormon says that there should be.
DNA evidence is also being used by African Americans to trace their ancestry back to Africa, sometimes with unscheduled stops in Europe along the way.
See anthropologists for info on the latter two items.
What's going on here? Will such things force society to eventually come to a more nuanced understanding of race and culture? There's only so long you can claim the physical world is flat after you've seen it from outer space.
And while an astronaut's picture says little about metaphysical affairs, I do think that modern society may someday have to re-imagine its religious symbology. It's happened before, many times over. Will we find a new prophet or at least new framework for faith in the DNA age? We are not far from being able to map faith to brain activity, or indeed even genetics. That won't change who we are, or our collective need for faith.
Faith may be radically different from how we think of it today -- as a deity who is described primarily by historical documents. Perhaps a conceptual analog of what lights up a believer's brain when sie thinks of deity can be found in a atheist's brain when sie thinks of ______.
Will science and theology co-evolve? In the future, will brainscans suggest which church a child may prefer? In some of these churches, will the concepts and symbols used to inspire awe accord with science? In such an environment, will literalist religion still have relevance for some? Has science already exceeded the threshold of public understanding, having become so ramified into specialities that future discovery and education won't radically change the current standoff between naturalism and faith?
Anyone know of any really good sci-fi that explores these issues?
DNA evidence purportedly shows no recent Hebrew ancestry among Native Americans, which has some LDS theologists worried, as the book of Mormon says that there should be.
DNA evidence is also being used by African Americans to trace their ancestry back to Africa, sometimes with unscheduled stops in Europe along the way.
See anthropologists for info on the latter two items.
What's going on here? Will such things force society to eventually come to a more nuanced understanding of race and culture? There's only so long you can claim the physical world is flat after you've seen it from outer space.
And while an astronaut's picture says little about metaphysical affairs, I do think that modern society may someday have to re-imagine its religious symbology. It's happened before, many times over. Will we find a new prophet or at least new framework for faith in the DNA age? We are not far from being able to map faith to brain activity, or indeed even genetics. That won't change who we are, or our collective need for faith.
Faith may be radically different from how we think of it today -- as a deity who is described primarily by historical documents. Perhaps a conceptual analog of what lights up a believer's brain when sie thinks of deity can be found in a atheist's brain when sie thinks of ______.
Will science and theology co-evolve? In the future, will brainscans suggest which church a child may prefer? In some of these churches, will the concepts and symbols used to inspire awe accord with science? In such an environment, will literalist religion still have relevance for some? Has science already exceeded the threshold of public understanding, having become so ramified into specialities that future discovery and education won't radically change the current standoff between naturalism and faith?
Anyone know of any really good sci-fi that explores these issues?