Richard Dawkins points out that the scientific method was formulated only 350 years ago.
From "The First Ten Years" in A Hundred Years and More of Cambridge Physics:
The systematic teaching of practical physics is a modern development. Until the second half of the nineteenth century was well begun, no teaching laboratory and no regular course of instruction were known . . . All the immense amount of scientific knowledge built up before the 1870's was the result of individual work in essentially private labs.And, for much of the 150 years that science has been taught, it was only available to the academic elite. The real impact on the thinking of the masses is only just now beginning with the availability of the internet.
Given the dramatic changes that science has brought to our lives in just the last 100 years, one wonders what will happen in the next 200 or so years. And, what will be the impact of scientific thought processes on the religious views of the masses once the majority have been exposed to the teachings of science and the strength and productivity of clear, rational thinking? Will the fables and mysticism of religion be able to sustain respect?
I don't think so.
Bob
1 comment:
It seems like religious factions have become increasingly like warring parties having territorial disputes over the promised land. Meanwhile I just heard the 'televangelist' Jack Van Impe and his wife 'Rexana', talking about the coming of 'Chrislam', a bastard synthesis of both faiths into an abomination (God told him that. But, God also told him that us true believers needn't worry because the rapture is coming before that, and we will all be beamed up into heaven. I felt relieved knowing this.)
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