[X] My Assistant

[ljk4-1]

Cornell President Rawlings Condemns Intelligent Design

Drawing from sources ranging from Cornell's founders to Voyager
space missions, Interim President Hunter R. Rawlings III condemned
the push to teach intelligent design in public schools Friday. The
attack came during the president's State of...

http://www.cornellsun.com/vnews/display.v/...4/435c7762cf891


"The desire to understand the world and the desire to reform it are the two great engines of progress." - Bertrand Russell

[mike]

I don't feel I've researched enough about exactly how afraid of science the catholic church has been throughout history, so I won't comment on that.. but look at just how well they've been doing lately.

Regardless of that, I think that science and spirtuality can eventually merge together quite nicely. There is no reason to think that one couldn't produce so much evidence of what happens once you're clinically dead (no oxygen in the brain for some time) that only an insane person wouldn't believe there is life after death. Whether that life after death involves good ole' heaven and hell and some 'God' sitting on a throne and judging you I highly doubt, but hey, I could be wrong. There are so many religions, though, I wonder how exactly the Great One in the Sky expected me to know which one to follow, exactly.. I guess he's just a BIG JOKER. YOU GOT ME, BIG GUY!

[dvandorn]

There are so many religions, though, I wonder how exactly the Great One in the Sky expected me to know which one to follow, exactly..  I guess he's just a BIG JOKER.  YOU GOT ME, BIG GUY!

My opinion of religion, on the level of this discussion, is that whatever or however you express your spirituality, I think you do so most *usefully* when you take, as a basic truth, that your deity is a practical joker.

I think David Brin has it exactly right in his Uplift War series of novels. He populates the Universe with a myriad of intelligent species, and one which we get to know well are the Tymbrimi. They are the Universe's practical jokers. Their jokes can be downright nasty, and/or destructive. The idea behind their jokes is expressed, approximately, as "sometimes you need to have a chunk taken out of your ass to get you to where you can see what you need to see, and do what you need to do." The Tymbrimi's practical jokes, large and small, were usually designed to help their fellow beings -- but that didn't mean people didn't get hurt in the process.

So, my basic take on the deity I can see, feel and sense around me is this:

God is a Tymbrimi.

-the other Doug