jim clark wrote:
> this idea!). Same for any proposal (didn't someone refer to
> religion as the "opiate of the masses"?).
I believe it was Lenin. I have a hypothesis about the creationism vs.
science issue for which I have absoutely no proof, but will share anyway. I
think the tendency to look at the Old or New Testament and believe these things
_really_ happened is a symptom of our current age, in which we often _can_
determine what really happens. When a ship sinks, when a coupe occurs, when an
earthquake hits, the BBC and CNN are there videotaping. And we know that either
the BBC and CNN is there - or at least could have been there videotaping. Those
who spent their lives re-copying manuscripts knew that CNN and the BBC were not
in existence. And being otherwise intelligent people (smart as us - ignoring the
Flynn effect), they must have realized that what they were recording is not
subject to simple empirical proof or disproof. If they believed there was CNN
footage of the first several days of the world, they might have been disturbed
by the fact that the book of Genesis actually has 2 creation stories in it -
from 2 different tribes (in which cases the early Christians would have held a
Council to decide what was true - as they held Councils on other matters). Most
modern-day fundamentalists, in my opinion, live in a time when questions about
"what is real" is subject to reliability checks and rules of science. They then
impose this scientific view (unwittingly) on something never intended to be
treated scientifically. Even the fundamentalists who rail against science cannot
help being affected by its basic assumptions imo.
--
---------------------------------------------------------------
John W. Kulig [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Department of Psychology http://oz.plymouth.edu/~kulig
Plymouth State College tel: (603) 535-2468
Plymouth NH USA 03264 fax: (603) 535-2412
---------------------------------------------------------------
"What a man often sees he does not wonder at, although he knows
not why it happens; if something occurs which he has not seen before,
he thinks it is a marvel" - Cicero.
