Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Carl Sagan's lectures on science & religion
Carl Sagan's widow, Ann Druyan, has collected his lectures on science and religion, given in Glasgow in 1985, and retitled them (with a nod to William James) "The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God." I supposed that Sagan can be considered a generational precusor to the shrill, overrated Richard Dawkins ("The God Delusion"). These lectures support that POV which says that "religion is bad", particularly in its "fundamentalist" form (see also Sam Harris' "Letters to a Christian Nation"). It seems that the pejorative term "fundamentalist" is applied to anyone who believes in revealed truth (which is particular, exlusive truth) concerning what lies beyond the metaphysical veil. I have to admit that I've never thought of myself as a "fundamentalist", just an orthodox Christian who confesses the historic, biblical Christian faith. And I certainly have never thought of myself as being part of the same cloth as Islamic terrorism. I cannot see how a snapshot of my life and a snapshot of the life of a member of al Qaeda would in any way overlap. The fruit of our lives is different, to say the least. The claim is absurd. But nonetheless it is made. The same folly is repackaged generation after generation with an academic gloss. And people go on surpressing the knowledge of the truth in unrighteousness (Romans 1). Read the New York Times article on the Sagan/Druyan book here: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/13/science/13carl.html?pagewanted=1&8dpc&_r=2
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