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Government and the dark side of science

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dark side of moon/Apollo 16

From Robert Arvay at American Thinker:

Many scientists no longer regard us as having any special place. We are no longer regarded as having a spiritual dimension, but only a physical one. We are seen to be products of a cold, uncaring universe, indeed, not even a product, but only a mere byproduct, an accident, an unlikely outcome of events that had no plan, no purpose, no meaning.

Indeed. Nearly 50% Americans now think humans are not special.

The inevitable extension of this purely physical view of humanity is technological barbarism. If we are mere atoms, biological machines, then by what right can we expect to be treated as anything more than that? Indeed, there would be no rights at all, but only force.

Of course, such dismal interpretations of science are not at all scientific, but only ideological. Most people, however, confronted with the scientific arguments for physics devoid of spirit, find themselves ill equipped to counter those arguments. All too many people have subscribed to the material paradigm, and have come to regard religious faith as mere superstition at best, as harmful at worst. More.

It finds its way into government, for example into the scientism displayed in recent statements by Canada’s governor general, former astronaut Julie Payette, making clear that a random origin for humans is the “science” view. And the Prime Minister praised her.

Part of what is wrong with scientism, as Payette brilliantly exhibited, is that science is presented to the public as a totem, not to be critically examined as most enterprises are.

The actual record is, of course, mixed. There was the human genome map but then there was also eugenics.

The best way to perpetuate the bad stuff is to make “science” a kind of totem. One cringes to hear people say, smugly, “I am a scientist.” Would those people wish to hear a list recited of all the frauds, perps, and villains who could properly say the same? Being a “scientist” has about the same status as being a “citizen”; it is a classification devoid of moral or intellectual significance, unless qualified by the very factors so many such persons wish to avoid.

Note: Sound travels. From Deborah Gyapong at The Catholic Register:

Speaking at the ninth annual Canadian Science Policy Convention Nov. 1, Payette dismissed divine intervention as a factor in evolution and lumped those who believe otherwise into the same category as climate deniers and horoscope readers.

Denyse O’Leary, a Catholic author who specializes in the intersection of faith and science, said “making fun of Canadians” who believe in divine intervention “is not a recipe for good government.”

“Payette seems to think that it is reasonable to believe that our amazingly fine-tuned universe and its known life forms arose from a random process,” said O’Leary. “Science does not require us to accept a random origin of highly complex life forms. The evidence suggests the opposite.”

Elia pointed to the many universities in the western world founded as Catholic institutions where faith and reason are not opposed.

“Some of the greatest scientists responsible for the many concepts and theories which enabled her to engage in space travel are Catholics,” he said. More.

Sound travels but not necessarily into closed ears. When unexpected changes in government happen, that is often a reason why.

Thanks for the tip, re Robert Array’s piece, to editor and journalist Ken Francis, author of  The Little Book of God, Mind, Cosmos and Truth, via a road trip through the United States. Here he reflects on the absurdity of naturalism

See also: Astronaut Julie Payette did not KO God in the first round

Comments
This is where "science" is now at. Enjoy! “What If There Are No Laws Of Nature? How nothingness can explain everything about reality.” Cover Page - New Scientist 11th November 2017 "Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing." Stephen Hawking (Scientist)ronvanwegen
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Two notorious quotes from Planck and Pauli, respectively, spring to mind: Planck: 'Science advances one funeral at a time.' Pauli: It's not even wrong. I don't see possessing several degrees as necessarily denoting intellectual brilliance. Often quite the contrary. A vanity project for a butterlfly mind. Less so in science, of course, but when it is the case, as evidently with La Payette, it's going to be a humdinger.Someone ask her if she or any of her atheist friends can name any of their historical antecedents who would figure in a list of major physical paradigm-changers, in any way comparable to the long list of theists, who, were mostly, in our wonderful modern parlance, religious 'nuts', notably Christian and Jewish. Men such as Galileo (only his powerful faher was able to stop his becoming a priest, though he remained very devout all his life), Newton, Kepler, a canon in the Catholic church, Pauli, a professed mystic, in terms of his inspirations, who checked his inspirations; Planck, a Lutheran church sidesman all his adult life, and the highly revolutionary originator of quantum physiics, which no atheist would have considered in a million years. Scorning paradoxes as 'counter-intuitive', in favour of Lego- and Meccano-type physics. They have no choice today, if they want to earn a crust. Bohr, who though chiding Einstein for bringing God into everything, saw Taoism, Buddhism and such eastern religions as best depicting the nature of 'matter' at the microscopic level; Einstein, who was 'blown away' by the 'luminous figure of Jesus in the Gospels, and has to be the Poster Boy for intelligent design - were it needed, since it is the most elementary common sense. Kurt Godel, a convinced Lutheran; Georges Lemaitre of the Big Bang' singularity; Gregor Mendel, the originator of genetics, etc, etc; And what does La Payette have to proffer, other than a multiplicity of degrees? What comparable, atheist paradigm-changers?Axel
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We are not just special. Animals and trees are special too. We are Gods.FourFaces
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