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   From: TKeske@Comcast.net   
      
   >   
   > It is all very well to point out that important scientists, like Louis   
   > Pasteur, have been Catholic.   
      
   In a world where the Catholic Church ruthlessly persecuted   
   a great many people who resisted conversion to their   
   religion, a great many people will be nominally Catholic, who also   
   happen to be scientists.  That fact does not particularly prove   
   a point about the compatability of science and religion, so   
   much as it proves a point about human schizophrenia-   
   a marvelous ability to to maintain contradictory beliefs,   
   even among the educated.   
      
   I read recently that it is a "myth" that science and religion   
   are at odds.   
      
   Actually, the myth that is popular these days is just the   
   opposite- that science and religion are peers, and that   
   science and religion are friends.   
      
   Science will eventually lay waste to every one of the   
   most basic tenets of religion.   
      
   It might have been a shame to lose our comforting delusions,   
   just as it is a shame to lose the charming notion that the   
   earth is the center of the universe, around which everything   
   else spins.   
      
   However, seeing how religion has done so much to make   
   bigotry seem respectable, and to foment hatreds, it will   
   be welcome to see a future where religion is progressively   
   undermined and increasingly on the defensive.   
      
   The first to go will be the notion of human "soul".   
   The science of the brain will produce detailed understanding   
   and control of the phenomenon of human consciousness   
   and brain functioning.   
      
   If the "immortal soul" goes, then of course Heaven goes.   
      
   When Heaven goes, "God" will have no place to dwell.   
      
   Then, you will be free to look at a tsunami, at least without   
   confusion.   
      
   It won't be so bad.   The sun still comes up.  Babies are   
   still born and flowers still bloom in the spring.   Everything is   
   just as it has always been.  You will just be seeing it more   
   clearly.   On the plus side, there will be fewer religious wars.   
      
   Tom Keske   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)