RE: [MLUG - DISCUSSION] Is science a religion?

["F Vernon Green" <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

Without actually reading all of this article, frankly I found it a bit
boorish and much too hard of a read. I really don't care about any of that,
but I can tell you that I do believe that science can be as much a religion
as any religion out there.

I am of the opinion that when studying such things as the earth and what we
are doing to the environment, no one can claim that science has all the
answers. We can project that if we do this, then this is going to happen,
but face it folks, we have only been able to study the ozone effectively in
the last what 30 years, 100 years. Even if you give the benefit of the doubt
and can go back 200 years, your 200 years is but a fraction of a millisecond
to the lifespan of the earth.

So to say that what we are doing by industrialization and colonization is
causing the problems with the ozone, is as much a leap of faith as me
believing that Jesus Christ walked the earth, in fact I might have even more
evidence.

How does any scientist know for sure that what is happening to the ozone is
not a naturally occurring phenomena? How do we know? We have not studied it
enough to know any different. While it would stand to reason that burning
fossil fuels and destroying the rain forest is a bad thing, how can we be
sure that this is what is going to lead to our doom? I find it equally as
plausible that the earth can only handle so many living beings and at some
point has to kill everything off and start over.

So to me, groups like Greenpeace, WWF and *insert your favorite
environmental group here* are as much a religious fanatical cult living in
their belief that science has the truth. When you consider that you have to
look at the radical environmentalist the same as you would a radical
Christian, Muslim or Buddhist? (Is there such a thing as a radical Buddhist?
Hmmm, interesting notion).

Anyway, that is what I believe, in as much as I have read about 10% of the
article, this whole thing might have been totally off base and if it is,
then so be it, but it might stir up a good side discussion.



-----Original Message-----
From: EMAIL:PROTECTED
[mailto:EMAIL:PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Stephen
Montgomery-Smith
Sent: Monday, May 03, 2004 6:57 PM
To: MLUG Off-Topic Discussion
Subject: [MLUG - DISCUSSION] Is science a religion?

I remember some members of this group expressing the opinion that perhaps 
science is a religion.  It seems that there was an early twentieth century 
scientist turned philosopher called Michael Polanyi, who at least in my
view, 
came close to eloquently expressing this kind of view.  I found this very 
interesting essay "The Stability Of Beliefs" British Journal for the
Philosophy 
of Science 3:11 (November, 1952): 217-232, which you can read at 
http://www.mwsc.edu/orgs/polanyi/mp-stability.htm.  I would reproduce the 
article here, but I feel that this would be too much of a copyright
violation. 
I must admit that I have only skim read the article, but I'm feeling ready
to 
enter into a discussion about it if anyone else wants to comment on it.

Best, Stephen
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