[ExI] Religious Idiocy Triumphs Over Science Yet Again

[William Flynn Wallace]

Maybe this is a new thread - maybe not.

John Clark thinks it is dumb to be religious.  That got me to thinking of
all the really really smart people in history who were religious - or said
they were for reason of power, money, etc.

For one, Ben Franklin, clearly one of the greatest geniuses ever, denied
that he was an atheist.  He was a Deist, he said.  Of course, he was also
one of the world's greatest liars, so who knows?

Then there is Isaac Newton.  Most all of you know of some of the really
goofy spiritualist things he believed and got into.
Many others we could name.

So I don't think that John is right.  There is no conflict between being IQ
smart, creative smart, and being religious.

I fully share John's attitude towards religion, by the way.  Accept
miracles, gods imitating comic book heroes?  Nah.

​bill w

​
On Thu, Dec 10, 2015 at 10:30 AM, Will Steinberg <steinberg.will at gmail.com>
wrote:

> I don't really care about whether the telescope gets built or not.  But I
> do think the psychically significant and powerful nature of a sacred space
> provides a lot of insight into the universe...maybe not in the same way as
> a telescope.  The point is that the cthonic nature of the sacred space
> means it cannot be moved.  It derives its power from its long-standing
> location.
>
> And yeah, the mountain IS the place where the blah blah mother father
> thing happened.  Metaphor is important.  Shared beliefs construct of
> reality.  These beliefs may not hold up to SCIENCE, which is a mark against
> them, but science is also not the only way to interact with the world.  The
> world of consciousness is important too, and I would argue that its
> exploration will produce insights on the composition of the universe and
> the nature of being that are as profound, if not more, than what we will
> see with a telescope.  But I mean, we really ought to build that
> telescope.  Actually, hell, build it on the mountain.   But don't discount
> the VALUE of ancient beliefs, even if they should maybe get ignored once in
> a while.
>
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