When news hit that Bill Nye, the popular US science commentator, would debate Ken Ham, a Christian minister from Kentucky who runs a museum about creationism, I rolled my eyes. It sounded like another publicity scam for the far right Christians. Who cares whether religionists’ assertions based on personal belief or scientists’ attempts at more objective observations form the basis of what a society decides are its laws and mores? The stadium hosting that debate sold out quickly. It also fulfilled the publicity expectation; loads of sympathizers clicked onto Ham’s museum website. Maybe I should leave the tempest in its teapot, but the old debate, science v. religion, still troubles me in the context of contemporary news about wars around the globe.
On my blog I have commented about war already. http://hamiltonfinanceservices.com/?p=1503 The troubles in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Egypt, Thailand, South Sudan, Ukraine, Venezuela, and Mali highlight one over-arching theme: War, particularly about who is in charge, plagues this planet almost continually. That theme sounds like the second law of thermodynamics writ large in human history. You know the law, however you word it: Disorder increases. In terms of human history, war persists.
The Nye-Ham debate caused no war although the same cannot be said of similar debates between Sunnis and Shiites. Why don’t Nye and Ham resolve their differences with an agreement such as, “Some prefer to see with their imaginations without further testing and others prefer to see with their imaginations but only if confirmed by testing.” That impresses me as a resolution of the religion-science tension: Individuals choose to believe whatever comforts them more, simple fantasy or apparently verifiable fantasy.
That resolution solves nothing. People build societies based on their beliefs about reality and goodness. Without implicit agreement on how to form a worthy belief, society will shake itself into oblivion. Observe how the United States has fared since its realization that it has no shared soul, that is, no shared belief in God or secularism or materialism or … anything. I wonder when the US will descend into civil war. Will it happen soon after it falls into servitude due to indebtedness?
Nye and Ham won the approval of their established followers and from what can be gleaned from news coverage no one moved towards one view or the other as a result of the debate. Does that mean the wars, even if won or lost, will never change the beliefs of those who communicate through violence?
What do you think?
http://news.yahoo.com/bill-nye-bible-doesn-39-t-tell-earth-093334127.html?vp=1
Remember how Google sued to reveal its role in the US spy program called PRISM brought to light through Edward Snowden’s disclosures. That was in June 2013.
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