From: Mike Schnobrich (hoofenit@ris.net)
Date: Sun Aug 31 1997 - 10:54:53 MDT
I really enjoyed reading the post about Franklin's and other's fight
against all the backward superstitious things people think. It's got me
thinking about some of the discussions I have been reading in the various
chat rooms and NGs; particularly the ones dealing with religion or social
issues. For the most part, Christians and other "main stream" religions are
comfortable with scientific reasoning even though they may not always agree
with the moral implications of the technology that science makes possible.
But there seems to be a strong presents of others on the net that
categorize themselves as witches, pagans, and other similar religions that
attack not traditional theology issues but scientific thinking its self.
They are very preoccupied with magic and belief systems that could care
less about the natural environment as understood by the scientific
community
What is of interest to me is they claim to be growing in numbers. I believe
their growth just may be true because the primary motivation for their
growth is a hatred of science its self - something I hear more and more of
every day from lots of different people. Many of the things that science
makes possible can be real scary to people who don't have the benefit of a
good education. This, combined with the fact that the cutting edge of
science in many fields is no longer intuitive and understandable to an
average person makes many people want to go to a simpler belief system that
is pre-enlightenment in nature.
I get the sense that many of these people are spiritually scared to death
about the very subjects that this list talks about on a regular basis. I
also think that they are gaining in influence and isolating science from
everyday life replacing it with superstition. That is real bad. One day,
science just may find that it is locked in a castle with the peasants
outside the gate with their pitchforks and torches wanting to burn it for
its heresy.
It seems the enlightenment is very fragile indeed and we should not take it
for granted.
Mike
Hoofenit@ris.net
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