On 5 October 2014 10:04, SS <[email protected]> wrote: > On Sat, 2014-10-04 at 18:47 +0530, Udhay Shankar N wrote: > > Spencer Tracy’s character, > > fashioned after the defense attorney Clarence Darrow, stands in the > > empty courtroom, picks up a Bible in one hand and Darwin’s “Origin of > > Species” in the other, gives a knowing smile and claps them together > > before putting both under his arm. Would that it were so simple. > > This is a uniquely American problem. If the problem exists in Europe, I > have not heard about it. > > As an "outsider" in every one of several different ways, I think that > the Bible has some good things (morality) that should not have been > discarded and other things (like creationism) that need to be discarded. > The church-rationality/church-science conflict has raged for centuries. > The church lost a major battle in the mid 1600s after the Thirty years > war and the "Peace of Westphalia". The untrammelled power of the Church > was broken back then but it continued to hold out till the 1950s and 60s > when science began to play God by solving human problems where God did > not appear to be helping out much. > > What America has done after that time is to discard morality as demanded > by religion in favour of a mixture of "rights" mandated by laws. I am > not sure that this has helped society in America. I think morality has > been discarded simply as a reaction against religion and > pseudo-scientific reasoning has been applied (along with, I believe) > fake and contrived evidence to show that Biblical morality can be > trumped by science. > > shiv > > > My armchair theory explaining the rise in the numbers of the loonies, FWIW: The problem with deciding to follow one part of religion because it makes sense and jettisoning another because it doesn't is that the follower comes up against the very reasonable question - if parts of it are silly, is it really divine at all? and soon concludes in the negative. That leaves with only the everything-is-literally-true people whose tribe seems to be increasing not so much because their numbers are swelling as because the more rational guys are choosing not to believe in any of it at all. And politics being what it is, the loonies are always the first to be heard.
-- Narendra Shenoy http://narendrashenoy.blogspot.com
