Linda Woolf wrote:
> Michael Sylvester wrote:
> >
> > And now that Bush seems to ascertain that Faith based programs do a
> > better job in alleviating addictions and other social ills than all
> > psychology programs combined,I would say that teaching
> > some aspect of religion could be beneficial in Courses like Social
> > Psychology and Psychology of Addiction.
>
> Science by presidential proclamation! Cuts out all of that nasty data
> collection and analysis.
To his credit, when he announced the faith-based program office,
Bush explicitly said that the goal was to only promote programs that had
supporting empirical evidence. An interesting contradiction, but I'm
certainly happier funding programs that reflect Bush's lack of faith. I
would be inclined to say off the top of my head that I'm not at all
concerned about the use (in principle!) of scientifically-validated programs
that use manipulations of religious faith to solve social problems. Of
course, in practice is a vastly different matter, and the religious
fundamentalists have consistently shown themselves completely unworthy of
our trust. I do wish that someone would just simply bring that out into the
open.
Paul Smith
Alverno College
Milwaukee
