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<TITLE>Re: [Sca-cooks] OT: Faith and challenges</TITLE>
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<FONT FACE="Verdana">You seem to be confusing “Dogma” and “Faith” which are two entirely different things. <BR>
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This (and the mini-debate which spontaneously sprouts every time this kind of subject matter pops up on a list) seems to be an unfortunate representation of the Atheist/Believer antagonism that exists in North America (and maybe elsewhere, I just can’t attest to its presence outside North America). Whereas the former seem to be unable to define themselves, except by opposition to the latter, and the each tend to vilify the other. (Ok, it’s a rather gross caricature, but you get the point. Your list of bones of contention for example is rather convenient for a militant atheist, except that it casts aside the whole of the social and historic context in which all of these phenomenon did occur, and without this context the argument is invalid). <BR>
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Back to our topic. I am not a man of faith, and actually do not recall ever being one, or losing faith, or whatever. I just don’t have it. Incidentally, Catholics believe faith to be a grace – not something to be acquired, but something which is bestowed through divine intervention. I have had the good luck of knowing many different persons who were possessed of such strong faith, and seemed to me to use this faith to become much better individuals and citizens. In all cases faith transcended dogma. I am happy to have investigated faith with them, and while it still eludes me to a certain degree I at least got to know and develop a new respects for those men and women. <BR>
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I am glad that you included sociology in your list because, well, it’s not a science. I would have added art, history, music, philosophy the whole of the humanities to the list. Instead of precise answers to just as precise and culturally meaningless questions, these domains seek to appropriate these answers and include them in a coherent vision of our world. There is no “truth” to them, and these fields tend to change pretty damn fast, but they at least “try” to make sense of the entire mish mash instead of being purely oppositional. <BR>
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Petru<BR>
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(Eventually this thread will make some people uncomfortable – I suggest that when this happens you take the debate to another list or to private e-mails instead, as this is a period cookery list, after all). <BR>
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On 30/05/06 17:21, "tom.vincent@yahoo.com" <tom.vincent@yahoo.com> wrote:<BR>
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</FONT><BLOCKQUOTE><FONT FACE="Verdana">And you see those declarations as *good* things?!? <BR>
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I mean, everybody's welcome to believe what they wish, but when overwhelming evidence is presented to the contrary of a belief (such as racial inferiority, age of the planet, human genetics, leadership by 'divine right', papal infallibility, female subservience, slavery, stoning children that misbehave, talking serpents, talking bushes, a global flood, a boat with all the planet's species, talking donkeys, floating iron, leaping fetuses, that pi is 3, etc) ... well, that's pretty much what education and the quest for knowledge is all about, isn't it? <BR>
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Learning the truth about geology, biology, sociology, archaeology, astronomy, chemistry, physics?<BR>
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Whenever someone urges me to accept something 'on faith', I grab a tight hold on my wallet because it's a sure bet that they want to control my money, my actions, my voice, my body and/or my mind.<BR>
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