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Subject: 
Science & religion are not the only options
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.off-topic.debate
Date: 
Wed, 17 Jul 2002 23:13:33 GMT
Viewed: 
204 times
  
I haven't read the entire thread because there's just too darn much of
it.  But I've read a fair chunk of it, and I'm struck by the
insistence that there are only two ways to look at things: science or
religion (specifically, Christianity).

The reality is that there are a lot of different ways to look at the
universe and issues of unexplain{ed|able} phenomena.  From Jesus to
Loch Ness to liking purple, there are lots of things in this world
that haven't been explained, and that don't appear to be explainable
by science as we know it today.  But that doesn't mean there's a God,
especially that He is the one described in the Bible.

*Can* science explain these things?  Maybe, but I doubt it.  I believe
that there will always be some unexplained things in the universe.
Maybe they can be brushed aside as coincidences or optical illusions
or simply the product of an overactive imagination, but there are too
many things in this world that just don't seem to fit the universe
described by "sciencists".

Does that mean there's a God?  Maybe, but I don't think so.  I just
can't accept the idea of a big guy in the sky pulling strings and
rewarding the good and punishin the bad.  Sounds too much like the
Greek myths mixed with Santa Claus and the boogeyman.  But I do think
there's something.  I believe (with all the faith of the most ardent
Christian) that there is more going on between my wife and me than can
be explained with phereomones and hormones and biochemistry, to take
one small but (to me) very important example.

So what am I?  Not a Christian, that's sure.  If there is a Higher
Consciousness, it's not the same sort of consiousness we have - it'd
be infinitely, well higher.  It's not a Father who sends a Son to save
people.  It's not a big man with a long white beard who sends people
on strange errands.  But I think there is *something*, I just don't
know what it is, and I doubt that any of us ever could.

Christianity has some things right.  So do all of the other religions
of the world.  We wouldn't *have* religion if there weren't things
that need explaining.  I just think those explanations are all well
and good if you want to keep the masses happy and productive but to
me, they're just myths.  The reality is so much more than that.

I think we're all like leaves on a tree, but we are too insigificant
to know what a tree is, much less a forest or a lumberjack or a forest
fire.  We just keep on keepin' on, hoping for sun and praying that a
caterpillar doesn't find us.

--Bill.

--
William R Ward            bill@wards.net          http://www.wards.net/~bill/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
AMAZING BUT TRUE: There is so much sand in northern Africa that if it were
                  spread out it would completely cover the Sahara Desert!



Message has 1 Reply:
  Re: Science & religion are not the only options
 
In lugnet.off-topic.debate, William R. Ward writes: <snip> (...) Actually, my 'little' understanding of the druidic, I'm kinda intrigued. Anybody have links and/or a good resource about being a druid? My curiosity is piqued. Dave K. (22 years ago, 18-Jul-02, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)

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