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Wednesday, May 31, 2017

Needed: A New "Christian Science"

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Alan: This post is an excerpt from: 

"Trump Is The Symptom Of A Broken Educational System. (Howard Zinn Is The Fix.)"
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2017/03/reprise-trump-is-symptom-of-broken.html
Insofar as conservative Christians are responsible for spearheading the recent right-wing assault on knowledge and factuality (mostly to protect their "literal" understanding of The Bible or to validate their diehard passion for "salvation assurance"), it has become crucial that a "critical mass" of Christians subscribe to a new kind of "Christian Science" in which scientifically-demonstrated "findings" will be considered central to humankind's understanding of the world, and, correlatively, beliefs-and-personal-opinions will be held in such a way that the verb "believe" is central. Belief will no longer masquerade as certain knowledge and believers will no longer publicly deny scientifically demonstrated data, facts and information. 

In our commonly-apprehended world of sensory experience, scientific evidence is primary. 


Similarly, for this new generation of "Christian scientists," scientific evidence will be considered a necessary prelude to the formation of an individual's political, economic and social views. 

Obama’s 2006 Speech on Faith and Politics: Abraham Prepares To Kill And Immolate His Son


It is also true that every citizen is free to use The Scientific Method to try to overturn scientific findings currently considered true by scientific consensus. (Notably, The Scientific Method is the only epistemological technique so far devised which actively tries to prove that its findings are wrong. Religionists are wisely advised to pay close attention to this "miraculous" fact.)

Thomas Aquinas, widely revered as Catholicism's guiding theological light, summarized the interaction between science and faith. Arguing against those who said that natural philosophy was contrary to the Christian faith, Aquinas writes in his treatise "Faith, Reason and Theology" that "even though the natural light of the human mind is inadequate to make known what is revealed by faith, nevertheless what is divinely taught to us by faith cannot be contrary to what we are endowed with by nature. One or the other would have to be false, and since we have both of them from God, he would be the cause of our error, which is impossible." "Aladdin's Lamp: How Greek Science Came to Europe Through The Islamic World," by John Freely


"Natural History is the antidote for piety."
Gregory Bateson


Pax on both houses: Thomas Aquinas On The Relationship Between ...

paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2016/.../thomas-aquinas-on-relationship-between.htm...

Aug 10, 2016 - One or the other would have to be false, and since we have both of ... as Aquinas elucidated in the lyrics of the Catholic hymn, "Tantum Ergo" ...

Pax on both houses: Do Science And Religion Conflict? It's All In How ...

paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2015/10/do-science-and-religion-conflict-its.html

Oct 22, 2015 - "Tantum Ergo". Conservatives Trust In Science (From The Latin Word For "Knowledge") Hits All-Time Low. U.S. News & World Report.

Pax on both houses: Averroes' Impact On Thomas Aquinas And The ...

https://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/.../averroes-impact-on-thomas-aquinas-and.html?...
Jul 4, 2015 - One or the other would have to be false, and since we have both of ... dictum in his text "Tantum Ergo" which I'm sure you sang thousands of ...

Aquinas' observation concerning the epistemological primacy of "the natural world" is re-stated by biologist P.Z. Myers: "If you've got a religious belief that withers in the face of observations of the natural world, you ought to rethink your beliefs -- rethinking the world isn't an option."

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