Skip to Main Content (access key 1)
Skip to Search (access key 2)
Skip to Search GO (access key 3)
Skip to comments (access key 4)
Skip to navigation (access key 5)
Skip to top of page (access key 6)

Comments by mmurray


51. A moral test for true believers, Rudd style

Comment #189312 by mmurray on June 6, 2008 at 2:32 am

Ramases -- click here

http://richarddawkins.net/commentNotes.html

It is the link above the comment box called
[Comment Posting Guidelines] where all will be revealed.

--------------------

Wikipedia has some projections of future global population numbers from the US Census Bureau:

Year Population
(in billions)
2010 6.8
2020 7.6
2030 8.3
2040 8.9
2050 9.4

Jarrod Diamond in his book Collapse estimates that giving all the current world population a first world lifestyle would require 12 earths.

Michael

52. A moral test for true believers, Rudd style

Comment #189306 by mmurray on June 6, 2008 at 2:23 am


Lol - we all know our president was assassinated last year by a lone sting ray, or was he???


Wasn't that Harold Holt ?

Michael

53. Storm erupts over 'virginity' divorce

Comment #189291 by mmurray on June 6, 2008 at 12:56 am

Whatever your interests I would keep away from these little kitties.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/06/06/2267441.htm


Michael

54. A moral test for true believers, Rudd style

Comment #189180 by mmurray on June 5, 2008 at 4:29 pm

Further information on this can be found here

http://www.arha.org.au/index/AusAID_FP_Guides.pdf

In this case it wasn't so much theists exercising a disproportionate amount of power but one single theist who held the balance of power in the Senate -- Australia's upper house. I hope that in the future when historians look back on the ecological disasters that occurred in the early 21st century due to excessive population growth Senator Brian Harraddine gets a good billing along with George Bush and successive Popes. Assuming there are any historians of course.


Michael

55. A moral test for true believers, Rudd style

Comment #189156 by mmurray on June 5, 2008 at 2:55 pm

The more I read about Australia on this site, the more it sounds like the U.S. And that is not a good thing most of the time.


Except that in cases like this our influence internationally is minor, thankfully.

Michael

56. When two worlds collide: threat of class warfare over faith-based schooling

Comment #188304 by mmurray on June 3, 2008 at 8:24 pm

Comment #188294 by R5T2_Nate

As Dr Spock would say `These are religious schools Jim but not as we know it.'

The issue isn't the older established moderate religious schools you (and I) went to it is the newer christian ones which are run by more fundamentalist and born-again type christians. Have a look at

http://www.csa.edu.au/

Of course they will try and hide behind the banner of the older moderate schools.


Michael

57. When two worlds collide: threat of class warfare over faith-based schooling

Comment #187977 by mmurray on June 3, 2008 at 5:17 am

But although people and cultures are diverse, the truth isn't. The origins of the universe and of life are not something that vary from person to person or culture to culture.


I take it you are not a post-modernist Cartomancer ? A few years back in Australia we nearly got a national physics curriculum written by post-modernists. It was going to allow all creation stories to be equally valid.

Michael

58. Storm erupts over 'virginity' divorce

Comment #187939 by mmurray on June 3, 2008 at 4:25 am


Comment #187932 by mmurray

It *was* raised, but ignored. It's okay when *they* do it, you see.


Sorry I was busy editing my comment when you replied. I thought it was getting a bit long winded.

Michael

59. Storm erupts over 'virginity' divorce

Comment #187932 by mmurray on June 3, 2008 at 4:18 am

Of course instead of all this hypothetical stuff one could look at the evidence

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_parenting




The American Psychological Association states in its Resolution on Sexual Orientation, Parents, and Children (adopted July 2004):
there is no scientific evidence that parenting effectiveness is related to parental sexual orientation: lesbian and gay parents are as likely as heterosexual parents to provide supportive and healthy environments for their children"; and "research has shown that the adjustment, development, and psychological well-being of children is unrelated to parental sexual orientation and that the children of lesbian and gay parents are as likely as those of heterosexual parents to flourish."[1]



So end of story IMHO unless you are homophobic and clutching at straws to attack homosexuals.

Michael

EDIT: Just so the thread makes sense (??) let me put back the bit I had removed while people where replying. Briefly I was making the point that I thought that when gay couples first started raising children it was reasonable to ask the question of whether the lack of two parents of opposite genders was an issue. It would seem it was unlikely as we knew single parent families worked OK. However the evidence, such as the quote above, show this question has been settled.

60. When two worlds collide: threat of class warfare over faith-based schooling

Comment #187891 by mmurray on June 3, 2008 at 2:01 am

you have to choose from religious based private schools


That's true but there is the occasional `non-denominational' one like I send my kids too. You can also avoid the fundie ones which the guy in this article represents.

http://www.csa.edu.au/


He is being disingenuous by confusing his type of school with the mainstream religious private schools. The latter are usually not too bad in terms of overt religion. I learnt all my school biology in a Marist Brother's College in Melbourne. They had many issues but they would have laughed at creationism.

Michael

61. When two worlds collide: threat of class warfare over faith-based schooling

Comment #187868 by mmurray on June 2, 2008 at 11:26 pm

This article seems to me to be a little haphazardly written. Also, it feels like the narrator changes stances at the end. Am I supposed to be revolted by the earlier statements? They make perfect sense to me.


I think you missed the : signs. This is two people talking with different opinions.

JOHN KAYE Greens NSW MP and education spokesman:

STEPHEN O'DOHERTY Chief executive, Christian Schools Australia:


Michael

62. Storm erupts over 'virginity' divorce

Comment #187786 by mmurray on June 2, 2008 at 4:38 pm

This thread takes me back to the mid 80's when HIV/AIDS was just being discovered.

Michael

63. Storm erupts over 'virginity' divorce

Comment #187257 by mmurray on June 1, 2008 at 4:44 pm


Don't ask others to do something you're not willing to do yourself.


I'd be willing to clean out my own drains if I had the machine and the experience but I'm also willing to pay someone else to do it :-)

While on the topic of septic tanks I live in an area where there are lots of lanes behind the houses. These are regarded as desirable -- in real estate terms `valuable rear access' (no gay pun intended). No-one seems to remember when the toilet was against the back fence and the `night cart' came past and some poor sod had the job of pulling out the bucket and emptying it into the truck.

Back onto gender differences these graphs are interesting.


Michael

64. Storm erupts over 'virginity' divorce

Comment #187239 by mmurray on June 1, 2008 at 3:28 pm

I live in a house built about 1750 with drains to match. A couple of weeks back they blocked up and I had to rod them, about 6m of shit. Nasty job, I needed several baths afterwards to clean the smell off me.


Yuck. Don't they have plumbers in your part of the UK epeeist ? :-)

Michael

65. Probe lands on Mars, NASA says

Comment #187028 by mmurray on June 1, 2008 at 6:00 am

Thanks mesomodel,

I'm sure a manned missioned would be better but for us oldies in our 50's sooner is better than later :-) It would be nice to see the life on mars question settled. Of course I would like to see people walking on Mars and on the moons of the Jupiter and Saturn but I think these things might be receding into my children's lifetimes.

Nice pictures of what looks very much like ice

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/phoenix/main/

Michael

66. Storm erupts over 'virginity' divorce

Comment #186943 by mmurray on May 31, 2008 at 11:05 pm

Hi Keith

Ah sorry. I should have put a smiley on that -- I've fixed it now. It was supposed to be a facetious alternative to the idea that women could be regarded as `damaged goods' which I find pretty offensive. Actually I think the idea of women being goods is pretty offensive. But I guess that's just my left-wing, dogmatic atheism coming to the fore :-)

Michael

67. Storm erupts over 'virginity' divorce

Comment #186920 by mmurray on May 31, 2008 at 8:02 pm

I don't understand this virginity thing. Surely you want your partner to have had lots of experience so they know how much better it is with you ? Otherwise they are always going to be wondering ... :-)

Michael

68. Storm erupts over 'virginity' divorce

Comment #186556 by mmurray on May 30, 2008 at 3:17 pm

I think that anyone who is going to get divorced the first time they discover their partner has deceived them should give marriage a pass. People are more complicated than that.

"I don't think I'd divorce over it, just mope for a while and get out of doing dishes. "

This a more realistic point of view :-)

Michael

69. Group wants Wi-Fi banned from public buildings

Comment #186290 by mmurray on May 30, 2008 at 4:37 am

Hi Quetzalcoatl


Electrical Hypersensitivity.
Hypochondria.
Stupidity.


I suspect the first two are the same but not the same as the last. There might be some people who are stupid and as a result believe in silly things but hypochondria can also be a nasty obsessive type psychological disorder.

Michael

70. Group wants Wi-Fi banned from public buildings

Comment #186280 by mmurray on May 30, 2008 at 4:00 am

There is a lot of this about not just Glastonbury

http://www.electrosensitivity.org/

I like the definition


What is ElectroSensitivity?
A unhealthy sensitivity (or sensitivities) to a particular source of electricity, for example mobile phones, computers, power lines or even minor electrical equipment. Symptoms are wide-ranging and can include skin problems, headaches, fatigue, fainting, light sensitivity, heart problems and much more. Electrical HyperSensitivity is a name given to those who are severely affected.


Classic anxiety symptoms except for the light sensitivity.

It is possible you could treat electrosensitivity by exposing a glass of distilled water to wifi and then put a single drop into another glass and repeating say 30 times and then taking a small amount daily.

Michael

71. Group wants Wi-Fi banned from public buildings

Comment #186255 by mmurray on May 30, 2008 at 2:48 am

Wikipedia has some good stuff on electro-sensitivity

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_sensitivity

in particular:


It is a matter of controversy whether electromagnetic field exposure causes sufferers' symptoms, and the balance of evidence from provocation studies so far indicates that the link is false. In a recent review of the literature regarding whether sufferers are genuinely affected by electromagnetic fields, seven studies were found which did report an association, while 24 could not find any association with electromagnetic fields. However, of the seven 'positive' studies, two could not be replicated even by the original authors, three had serious methodological shortcomings, and the final two presented contradictory results.[9]


The best evidence for treatments suggests that cognitive behaviour therapy if effective.

Oh and this article from a prestigious :-) UK newspaper is interesting.


Michael

72. Group wants Wi-Fi banned from public buildings

Comment #186241 by mmurray on May 30, 2008 at 2:28 am

If I understand Bonzai's broader point, it is that whether the injury is organic or psychiatric, the appropriate response might be to press on anyway. That is a potentially viable moral approach - sometimes the public good does demand that a few individuals take their own countermeasures. But it would be very difficult to sell, let alone get through the courts, in our current society. So I'd support the double blind test, regardless of the problems mentioned.


I don't see why this is a viable moral approach if what is being suggested is to not bother to find out what the problem is. What if it turns out we can modify the WiFi signal in some way that eliminates the problem without diminishing the usefulness of the technology? Shouldn't we do that ?

If there is an effect don't we need to know who is going to be affected? Maybe it is worse for children below a certain age or pregnant women or people with certain diseases or taking a particular medication.

If it really is an issue then I think we need to know to avoid making it worse and what we can do to ameliorate it. Once we have the facts we can decide on the morality of the possible trade-offs we need to make.

Michael

73. Group wants Wi-Fi banned from public buildings

Comment #186154 by mmurray on May 29, 2008 at 6:07 pm

This concern has been around for awhile

http://www.indxependent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-wellbeing/health-news/wifi-children-at-risk-from-electronic-smog-445725.html

I think we need to be careful not to dismiss these people as delusional without doing the research although the advice from WHO above would suggest that some research has been done.

Michael

74. Probe lands on Mars, NASA says

Comment #185565 by mmurray on May 28, 2008 at 4:47 am

Are there any robot missions planned to bring back samples or are we just going to wait until people get there?

Michael

75. Probe lands on Mars, NASA says

Comment #185032 by mmurray on May 26, 2008 at 6:24 pm

Even though it has landed the video on the NASA site of the minutes between atmosphere entry and confimation of landing are still fun to watch (IMHO)

It is in the archive here

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/phoenix/multimedia/video_archive_1.html

They also have a nice photo of phoenix hanging under the parachute taken from orbit

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/phoenix/images/press/9227-PHX_Lander.html


Michael

EDIT: Sorry I missed the fact that these had been posted on the previous page. Good enough to repeat though. :-)

76. Town moves against Islamic school

Comment #185029 by mmurray on May 26, 2008 at 6:15 pm


And those destroyed or threatened our civilization exactly how?


Obviously they haven't destroyed it but they have changed it deeply in the level of security we are increasingly getting used to putting up with. `Terrorist risk' is being used to justify a level of policing (at least in Australia) we wouldn't have put up with in the past. The lock down of Sydney during the recent APEC conference is one example as is the overkill response in Canberra to the Olympic Torch relay.

I think the threat comes from the way the terrorists and these internal changes we make to combat them feed off each other. There is also the danger that terrorists will find some serious biological or nuclear weapons and use them. I agree that even in a scenario where a US or Europe city was destroyed with appalling loss of life civilization would go on but I think the political response to it might make it hard to recognise and very unpleasant to live in.

Michael

77. Town moves against Islamic school

Comment #184969 by mmurray on May 26, 2008 at 3:13 pm

To simplify the matter, muslims are the more nutty and less equipped religious group and the christians are the less nutty and more equipped religious group. For the former group, they probability that they'll do something idiotic and violent is pretty high but the damage they do is about a couple of embassies and for the latter so far the probability of them being able to do something idiotic is small but if they get the chance they might really wreck havoc in the globe.


A couple of embassies ? Are you forgetting 9/11, the London bombings, the Bali bombings, the Madrid train station ?

Michael

78. Mail-boat record 'proves Darwin stole his original ideas from a Welsh scientist'

Comment #184687 by mmurray on May 26, 2008 at 1:18 am

Would a group of TRUE scientists get really upity about who got there first? What matters is what's discovered. Richard Feynman said something like that in the book I'm reading.


Yes of course. The one who gets there first gets the fame, the Nobel Prize, the money, the offers of jobs are the best Universities etc.

Michael

79. Tribute to a Beloved Mentor

Comment #184386 by mmurray on May 25, 2008 at 12:21 am

Hi ghost9,

Welcome. Have you tried the forums ?

http://richarddawkins.net/forum/

Which ones are the other Big 3 by the way ??

Michael

80. Does Time Run Backward in Other Universes?

Comment #184344 by mmurray on May 24, 2008 at 5:58 pm

qomak:

The problem with the article is that for the average person it is indistinguishable from a crackpot article putting forward hypotheses for a pseudoscience.


Except they can check the source and see it is Scientific American which is reasonably reputable.

Michael

81. Tribute to a Beloved Mentor

Comment #184184 by mmurray on May 23, 2008 at 8:53 pm

Many bright lights of Wadham College have been going out in recent years. Michael Cullen, John Fleming, Stuart Hampshire, my own dear tutor Peter Derow, and only this year our dean Robin McCleery. Alas the current generations are not a patch on what once was...


Ah but they produced some excellent graduates :-)

Michael

(DPhil 1983)

82. Tribute to a Beloved Mentor

Comment #184093 by mmurray on May 23, 2008 at 3:08 pm

There is only a very short entry in Wikipedia for Mike Cullen

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Michael_Cullen

Maybe someone should add Richard's eulogy and the photo.

Michael

83. Teenager faces prosecution for calling Scientology 'cult'

Comment #183897 by mmurray on May 23, 2008 at 6:08 am

Good to see the police have been advised on what to look for in future demonstrations. I assume this will not include people saying that scientology is a cult.

Michael

84. Sun's properties not 'fine-tuned' for life

Comment #183840 by mmurray on May 23, 2008 at 2:13 am

An article on life in extreme situations

http://environment.newscientist.com/article/dn13960-huge-hidden-biomass-lives-deep-beneath-the-oceans.html?DCMP=ILC-hmts&nsref=news2_head_dn13960

Michael

85. MPs reject calls to cut abortion limit

Comment #183762 by mmurray on May 22, 2008 at 6:26 pm


My understanding of the situation is that the vast majority of those abortions that happen post 20 weeks are in instances of medical need.


The article epeeist pointed out at

http://www.soton.ac.uk//lateabortionstudy/late_abortion.pdf

is interesting. Quite a few women ended up having late abortions (second trimester = 13-24 weeks) because they didn't realise they were pregnant until then.

Michael

86. In God's Name

Comment #183727 by mmurray on May 22, 2008 at 4:19 pm

The difficulty is that they are independent. Are you going to try and impose a standard curriculum on independent schools? I suspect that would be pretty hard to do.


Thanks for the explanation of UK independent schools epeeist. I was going to suggest that you can make the argument that they have to satisfy some legislative definition of school which could include curriculum or the children are truants. But I guess the same would be said of home schooling. Is that allowed in the UK?

I guess the simplest thing is to get them at the university entry point. Unless they are Exclusive Brethren or similar and don't want their children to go to university.

Michael

87. In God's Name

Comment #183440 by mmurray on May 22, 2008 at 6:20 am

I presume as they are indepandent, they are independent of my Taxes too?


Is it really true that non-government schools in the UK receive no government funding? In Australia equivalent schools receive quite a bit of funding. Partly this is because traditionally it included poorer often catholic schools and more generally because a lot the electorate send their kids to non-government schools.

Ah OK sorry I should have looked at wikipedia first

"An independent school in the United Kingdom is a school relying upon private sources for all of its funding, predominantly in the form of school fees"

Michael

88. MPs reject calls to cut abortion limit

Comment #183259 by mmurray on May 21, 2008 at 4:19 pm

Surely nothing demonstrates better the mismatch between the Catholic/Christian god-based world view and the actual godless world in which we live than the never ending argument over the correct time for an abortion. There is no magic date before which an abortion is morally fine and after which you are a murderer. The world isn't black and white, good and evil, sin and non-sin. Have a look at post 12.

Michael

89. MPs reject calls to cut abortion limit

Comment #183236 by mmurray on May 21, 2008 at 2:55 pm

I'd rather see contraception enforced than encourage late terminations.


How are you going to do that ?

Michael

90. MPs reject calls to cut abortion limit

Comment #182873 by mmurray on May 21, 2008 at 4:42 am


I cannot think of many reasons, though I'm sure there are some, why a woman would go almost SIX months before having a termination.


CraigB I don't think the issue of late abortions is usually about women not being able to make up their minds. There are tests that are done at this late stage such as amniocentesis where they insert a needle and sample amniotic fluid. This lets you test for Down's syndrome and spina bifida and some other things. When this is done depends on when there is enough amniotic fluid surrounding the fetus to make it safe but the dates suggested online are no earlier than 14 weeks and up to 20. The results can take a couple of weeks to arrive.

Interesting data on wikipedia
In 2004, there were 185,415 abortions in England and Wales. 87% of abortions were performed at 12 weeks or less and 1.6% (or 2,914 abortions) occurred after 20 weeks.

More detail in the pie chart

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:UKAbortionbyGestationalAgeChart2004.png

attached to this article

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion_in_the_United_Kingdom

Michael

91. Teenager faces prosecution for calling Scientology 'cult'

Comment #182852 by mmurray on May 21, 2008 at 3:38 am

Grumpy Max. Thanks for that info. I hadn't thought of that particular twist. It makes it even worse.

jam007. Excellent idea. Unfortunately I am on the opposite side of the world!

Michael

92. Edgar Mitchell ushers in the Next Epoch in Evolution

Comment #182793 by mmurray on May 21, 2008 at 1:22 am

Sam Harris has a nice description of the classic selfless experience here

http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/sam_harris/2007/01/consciousness_without_faith_1.html#


As I sat and gazed upon the surrounding hills gently sloping to an inland sea, a feeling of peace came over me. It soon grew to a blissful stillness that silenced my thoughts. In an instant, the sense of being a separate self an "I" or a "me" vanished. Everything was as it had been the cloudless sky, the pilgrims clutching their bottles of water but I no longer felt like I was separate from the scene, peering out at the world from behind my eyes. Only the world remained.



If the experts are right and the feeling of self is a construct the brain is putting together second by second I guess it is no surprise you can turn it off (with or without chemical help!). Sam, of course, has a slightly more sensible approach to this.


As someone who is simply making his best effort to be a rational human being, I am very slow to draw metaphysical conclusions from experiences of this sort.


Michael

93. Edgar Mitchell ushers in the Next Epoch in Evolution

Comment #182765 by mmurray on May 21, 2008 at 12:34 am

'In February, 1971, as Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell hurtled earthward through space, he was engulfed by a profound sense of universal connectedness. He intuitively sensed that his presence and that of the planet in the window were all part of a deliberate, universal process and that the glittering cosmos itself was in some way conscious. The experience was so overwhelming Mitchell knew his life would never be the same.'


Yes, yes we know this happens to human brains just like heartburn happens to human stomaches. It is nothing to do with mankinds ultimate destiny because we don't have one.

Sigh.

Michael

94. Teenager faces prosecution for calling Scientology 'cult'

Comment #182623 by mmurray on May 20, 2008 at 4:37 pm

People are stupid. The boy/man was within his rights, especially if he had a court judge say it!


Do you mean he was within his legal rights ? I don't see that on the basis of the Public Order Act as posted above. It doesn't appear to me that telling the truth is a defense. Unless the courts have in the past used the reasonable clause as including telling the truth.

Michael

95. Teenager faces prosecution for calling Scientology 'cult'

Comment #182581 by mmurray on May 20, 2008 at 2:59 pm

So what does Section 5 of the Public Order Act say ?

Michael

96. Surviving an unholy school war

Comment #182310 by mmurray on May 19, 2008 at 4:28 pm

One of the ironic things about corporal punishment is that the children get bigger. I spent my last two years of schooling in a Marist Brothers College. Although it was mid 70's one or two of the Brothers still used the cane. But it was a kind of public admission of incompetence as they were the ones who couldn't control the class and as the kids were mostly pretty large by then they could wear the pain of six of the best. One class was famous for having decided on the last day of term to have a competition to see who could get caned the most. I expect the Brother involved put his back out with the effort. The good teachers (some were not Brothers and some where) had that effortless control of the class where somehow you knew when you walked in your were not going to mess about.

I guess all I learnt from this that nothing makes you look more like a pathetic human being than losing total control of yourself and belting someone with a cane.

Michael

97. Surviving an unholy school war

Comment #182007 by mmurray on May 19, 2008 at 5:36 am

Beating up someone who has previously harmed your family, but is no longer in a position to do so is not 'protecting your family', it is vengeance. It achieves nothing but giving you the same kind of sadistic pleasure in another person's pain that we are condemning these Catholic teachers for.


And also lays you wide open to an assault charge or worse should perhaps the person have a weak heart and die as a result of your punch.

Far better to use assault laws against them than have them used you. Get the teacher charged with assault and bring a civil action against the religious order and the school for everything you can get.

Of course back in the 60/70's the teacher would possible have got off on the grounds that schools were allowed to do this kind of thing. In the late 60's I went to a state run primary school in rural Australia where the principal used a leather strap on primary age kids.

Michael

98. Brown says embryo research is key to life

Comment #181993 by mmurray on May 19, 2008 at 4:13 am

In the nations which have an overwhelmingly Islamic majority, even the poor nations where we would expect public health to be much worse than in the USA and Europe, the rates of HIV infection are amazingly low.


Why are you surprised ? We have it from the President himself that there are no gays in Iran and I imagine there are no injecting drug users either. So, unless they have transfusion problems, there will be no HIV/AIDS in Iran.

Seriously how reliable are those numbers likely to be? How well is an Islamic country going to count HIV/AIDS sufferers if it can't count gays.

Michael

99. Brown says embryo research is key to life

Comment #181991 by mmurray on May 19, 2008 at 4:09 am

bah i cant edit my post, now i made it look like Prof. Dawkins said stuff he didn't...doh.


You need to be logged in to edit.

Michael

100. God and Science Collide in Nation's Capital

Comment #181752 by mmurray on May 18, 2008 at 6:46 am

These essays were also commented on in Bob Park's What's New this week


1. BIG QUESTION: DOES SCIENCE MAKE BELIEF IN GOD OBSOLETE?

Yesterday at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, DC, William Phillips, 1997 Nobel Prize for Physics, answered "Absolutely not!," while Michael Shermer, well known skeptic and author, said "It depends." Their stimulating debate was co-sponsored by the Templeton Foundation, created in 1987 to act as a "catalyst" for scientific studies into the "Big Questions." Shermer noted that "belief in God," cannot be obsolete since most people, including many scientists, are believers. Science, by contrast, begins with causality; supernatural causes don't count. To Phillips, however, that simply means that belief in God is not a scientific belief. Like most religious scientists, Phillips keeps science and religion separate. The God/Creator doesn't do much these days. He must be emeritus. Or perhaps quantum-indeterminacy exists to allow God to do stuff without being detected. You may recall that Templeton once went directly to the American Association for the Advancement of Science with a million dollars to create the AAAS Dialogue between Science and Religion. What Templeton bought was elaborate sound effects supporting his conviction that science and religion will find common ground. Many scientists found this relationship inappropriate and it was ended. For the American Enterprise Institute it seems perfect.




Michael

More Pages: Previous | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 | Next