Jim Price on scientism, fundamentalism, and alchemy

Posted on by Frank DeMarco

In response to my post titled When Science and Religious Beliefs Conflict, my friend Jim Price proposed a way of reconciling opposites.

Fundamentalisms and alchemy

Jim Price

I feel I have something important to say about scientism. Of course, scientific authority needs to be questioned. Religious authority needs to be questioned. De-mythologize, label the imprints of the human condition, and then elevate the conversation.

I agree there is a thing we might label as scientism. There is bias in every human endeavor. But if it is really true that 40% of Americans believe that the earth is only 6,000 years old (and I find that hard to believe), then this nation is in a bit of trouble. An unsophisticated public is easily manipulated by various authorities. Blind faith leads to Fundamentalisms.

Fundamentalisms are probably the biggest problem in the world today, be they religious, scientific, left, right, or center. Pointing fingers may be traditional. But what is needed is some good old-fashioned alchemy. This science/religion split is another opportunity to distill from the tension of opposites.

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Obama’s Peace Prize speech

Posted on by Frank DeMarco

I don’t usually insert anything even vaguely political in this blog, though I have plenty of comments in my newsnet email list that I send around to long-suffering friends. But  President Obama’s speech to the Nobel Peace Prize committee transcends politics and statecraft, and makes points that too many people prefer to forget.

Peace, after all, is not merely the absence of war, and it doesn’t come about merely by people wishing for it. Peace is necessarily borne on the back of soldiers, for otherwise it would be at the mercy of the first person taking control of a country and insisting on it being either his (or her) way or else. One would think that Hitler and Stalin would have taught the world that lesson, or good old revered Comrade Chairman Mao, who taught that “power comes from the barrel of a gun.” But it’s hard for some people to give up their dreams of living in a perfect world among perfect people.

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When science and religious beliefs conflict

Posted on by Frank DeMarco

This interesting article from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life (found via one morning’s Schwartzreport) may be found at http://pewforum.org/docs/?DocID=275. (The original includes charts that I can’t figure out how to get into this post.)

It is interesting not least as an unconscious indicator of the bias known as scientism. The article says,

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The Downside of Science Education

Posted on by Frank DeMarco

Michael Tymn is a member of a forum I belong to. I don’t know him, but when I saw this, I asked permission to reprint it here, which he graciously gave me. Mr. Tymn said, “I wrote the below item yesterday for the commentary section of the Honolulu Star Bulletin. They probably won’t use it. I’m sure many will disagree with me.”

The Downside of Science Education

by Michael E. Tymn

At first glance, President Obama’s recently-announced campaign aimed at encouraging middle and high school students to pursue science, technology, engineering and math classes and careers seems like a very worthwhile one. (SB, 11/23/09 pg. 16)

Who can possibly find fault with such a plan? Perhaps the Amish or some religious cult that rejects modern medicine, maybe even extreme religious fundamentalists who see science as a threat to long-established dogma and doctrine. I have no such religious beliefs, but I have real reservations about encouraging more education and careers in science and technology.

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The Coming Evangelical Collapse

Posted on by Frank DeMarco

Sometimes a blog can be a time machine. For some reason unknown to my conscious mind, a minute ago I went looking in the March 2009 Archive and found this, which I find extraordinarily interesting, and which I can’t quite remember reading, let alone posting.

Gives me hope that my past-life review will be more interesting than I sometimes think! But then, I am so rarely really “here,” really conscious, that I have said that much of my past-life review will be a first-run movie!

Anyway, this extraordinarily interesting message from a man who calls himself the internet monk.

http://hologrambooks.com/hologrambooksblog/index.php/2009/03/11/the-coming-evangelical-collapse

2012 – the fantasy

Posted on by Frank DeMarco

Given the interest readers showed in Paul Blakey’s post on how he uses the Mayan calendar in his daily life, I thought it worthwhile to post this comment on the movie 2012. Dr. Carl Johan Calleman is author of several serious books about the Mayan Calendar, among them The Mayan Calendar and the Transformation of Consciousness, a study of the processes measured by the Mayan sacred calendar. Naturally, he takes a dim view of the latest cynical Hollywood fantasy  exploiting a theme it knows nothing about and cares nothing about. (So what else is new?) This blog entry appeared in The Mayan Calendar Portal http://www.maya-portal.net/blog

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