From: Natalie@yabbs
To: daved@yabbs
Subject: re: Science
Date: Mon Aug 15 00:11:47 1994
oh, i hate to tell you this, but religion changes too.  do you think that 
the christian of today's view of God is the same as the Christian of 500 
years ago?  i'd be willing to bet money on the fact that it isn't.  i'm 
reading a book right now, called "A History Of God" (can't remember the 
author and i'm too lazy to go uptairs and look).  the author's MAIN THESIS 
is that people's perceptions of God change as their lives and needs do.  
religion is NOT a static thing, it changes with the people who believe in 
it.  the God of the Old Testament is NOT the God of Pope John Paul II.  
and while the God of Judaism and the God of Islam are the same God of 
Christianity, He manifests in different ways for Jews and Muslims, because 
they have different needs from God.  

I agree with laelth's assertion that science is replacing God in our 
lives.  Doctors and scientists have the same power over us today that 
priests did 500 years ago.  If you don't believe in the religion of 
science, then you're seen as hopelessly backwards and naive, unenlightened 
to the true facts.  (note the parallel here between the scientists and {he 
missionaries of the imperialist period.)  But what are facts?  Just whatwe 
see, or SEEM to see.  In a few hundred years, it might be discovered that 
what we believe (and you have to have justas much faith in science as you 
do in religion) is wrong, just was many seem to think that science has 
discovered the errors in religion. a doctor can condemn a patient to death 
with a few simple words, his diagnosis of his illness...but what if the 
doctor is wrong?  a priest could condemn a person the death by proclaiming 
them a heretic...but what if the priest was wrong?  the only difference 
between science and religion that i see is that science has technology on 
its side (all those fancy machines and equations), while religion has art, 
poetry, and imagination on its (religion has produced more great art than 
science could ever hope to).  

Science speaks to our brains, religion speaks to our hearts and souls.  I, 
for one, gladly choose religion over science any day.  BUt what religion?  
That i could not tell you.

natalie
who believes in SOMETHING, but isn't sure what...