RE: Francis Collins and Acceptable Criticisms

I think Mark is clearly right when he talks about generally recognized religious doctrines in part because we know as an empirical matter that individuals who hold these beliefs are capable of engaging in first rate scientific work, practicing medicine with great skill, and doing all kinds of o

RE: Francis Collins and Acceptable Criticisms

Many list members whose email programs block attachments may have wondered, as I did, what Will Linden's point was. If you let the attachment through you will see that it includes his photo, in which, in my view, he simply looks respectably hirsute. You may be able to see it below. With appreci

RE: Francis Collins and Acceptable Criticisms

At 04:35 PM 8/6/09 -0700, you wrote: explains his belief on the grounds that there's a probability, however infinitesimal, that he'll turn into a werewolf, would you be satisfied about his qualities? Turn INTO a werewolf?

RE: Francis Collins and Acceptable Criticisms

Mark has stated much more precisely what I was trying to get it by distinguishing what Collins says about science from what he says about religion. Collins has to be committed to methodological naturalism (roughly, the pursuit of exclusively natural causes and phenomena by exclusively natural

Re: Francis Collins and Acceptable Criticisms

Wasn't Galileo was tried and convicted by those who wrongly rejected his theories, as they conflicted with the scientific and religious beliefs of the day? Lisa Volokh, Eugene wrote: As to the aether theory, I don’t know what the view was at the time; I suspect that it wasn’t vie

Re: Francis Collins and Acceptable Criticisms

The courts have told us that a statute that coincides with a religious belief, and that may have been enacted by legislators whose votes were influenced by their personal religious beliefs, is not thereby an establishment of religion. E.g., Harris v. McRae (no tax funding for abortions). Why s

RE: Francis Collins and Acceptable Criticisms

If scientists want public support for their effort -- support that I for one am happy to give even if it means taxes are somewhat higher than they otherwise would be -- then scientists need to show that they do not consider most of us to be fools. If belief in the basic traditional doctrines of

RE: Francis Collins and Acceptable Criticisms

I appreciate Eric's suggestion, but I wonder whether it works. I take it that the response to "But all our instruments show that there's no elephant or turtle down there" would be the same as the response to "But all our experience with medicine tells us that there can't be a virgin

RE: Francis Collins and Acceptable Criticisms

I'm delighted to learn that we can count on the Becket Fund to assist the ACLU in our recurring litigation against public schools that use science classes to teach religious doctrine. Michael R. Masinter 3305 College Avenue Professor of Law Fort La

RE: Francis Collins and Acceptable Criticisms

Why do you hate elephants and turtles? From: religionlaw-boun...@lists.ucla.edu on behalf of Volokh, Eugene Sent: Thu 8/6/2009 5:53 PM To: 'Law & Religion issues for Law Academics' Subject: RE: Francis Collins and Acceptable Criticisms I do think th

RE: Francis Collins and Acceptable Criticisms

Isn't one of the lines to draw whether the idea is scientifically testable or not? We can make scientific observations now about whether the world rests upon turtles, but we cannot observe the birth of Christ. Also query whether the "natural order" we've been discussing isn't overly Newtonia

RE: Francis Collins and Acceptable Criticisms

I do think this raises a troublesome question for those of us who recognize the importance of religious toleration, and yet have to evaluate people's qualities for various purposes. Say someone sincerely tells us that he thinks the world literally rests on the back of four elephants

Re: Francis Collins and Acceptable Criticisms

To be clear, I did not make that characterization. I was repeating Mr. Harris's argument. (My view would be different.) Again, I don't want to get into a religious argument (I don't think it's the point of this list) but Mr. Harris's argument was different: Even if the virgin birth is outside t

RE: Francis Collins and Acceptable Criticisms

Are we sure this is so as a legal matter? I don't support a Senator's voting against a nominee based on the nominee's religion, but it doesn't seem obvious to me that a Senator's so voting violates the Religious Test Clause - or is there some conclusive historical or doctrinal evide

Re: Francis Collins and Acceptable Criticisms

It is you who are begging the question. The question is whether religious faith and scientific commitment are inherently inconsistent. You assumed the answer to that question when you characterized his views as antithetical to the values underlying science. The virgin birth, if it happened

RE: Francis Collins and Acceptable Criticisms

As a legal matter, the claim that someone's religious views are disqualifying comes close to, if not actually constituting a prohibited religious test for public office especially as the NIH to which Collins was nominated is a federal institution subject to the tests clause directly.However there a

Re: Francis Collins and Acceptable Criticisms

I think that begs the question, in a sense. You say, "If he has said anything about science that is antithetical to sound science, that would be a fair ground of criticism." Mr. Collins states that he believes in the virgin birth. Is that antithetical to sound science? I don't really want to ge

Re: Francis Collins and Acceptable Criticisms

The alleged "ideas that are antithetical to the values underlying the job" are simply his religion. Some consider his religion antithetical; he does not. It is not antithetical unless you accept certain other assumptions about the relation between religion and science -- assumptions that his

Francis Collins and Acceptable Criticisms

Francis Collins has been selected to be the head of NIH, where he will have substantial authority to allocate the nation’s scientific research funding. There are a few criticisms of Mr. Collins being made regarding his religion. For this list, I wanted to set aside a specific criticism. Specific

RE: Ireland Charities Act 2009: Regulating the Sale of Catholic'Mass Cards'

Sorry, my earlier post was not clear - by "Church" in quotation marks I meant the defined term in the statute, not the word "Church" on the card. I agree completely with Doug and Marc. My point was only that if the Mass card said e.g. that a mass had been arranged to be said in a Roman Catholi

RE: Ireland Charities Act 2009: Regulating the Sale of Catholic'Mass Cards'

Does not US v Ballard (US 1944) state the applicable rule-which is (unsurprisingly) the rule Doug proposed? Marc Stern From: religionlaw-boun...@lists.ucla.edu [mailto:religionlaw-boun...@lists.ucla.edu] On Behalf Of Douglas Laycock Sent: Tuesday, August 04, 200