Strolling in a rainforest area inland from and a bit to the north of Cairns this morning, my wife and I watched as this rather large bird strolled past us, quite unconcerned at our presence. We think that it must be some sort of turkey, so I post this photograph (taken by my wife) in honor of American Thanksgiving Day. (Please don\u2019t disabuse us of our error if it actually isn\u2019t a turkey at all.) \u00a0Happy Thanksgiving!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
We were in an area of the rainforest of northern Queensland today that, according to what we read and although we never saw them, has a resident family of tree-kangaroos. \u00a0We looked. \u00a0Too bad we missed them. \u00a0(Apparently most people do. \u00a0They\u2019re somewhat reclusive, and hard to spot.)<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
In a similar fashion, although he\u2019s quite visible and extremely vocal, my blog has a resident devotee of scientistic atheism. \u00a0(I\u2019m not sure exactly what to call him in that regard. \u00a0He\u2019s definitely not a scientist, as he himself will freely admit \u2014 well, not<\/em> freely, actually; the sequences of neurochemical brain processes that result in that \u201cadmission\u201d or emission were set in motion approximately 13.7 billion years ago with the Big Bang, and, even allowing for quantum indeterminacy, were perhaps inevitable even then \u2014 but it seems that the term scientologist<\/em> is already taken. \u00a0So I typically stay with dogmatic ideologue<\/em> as the most appropriate descriptor.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Anyhow, one of the sequences of phonemes that frequently result from the involuntary neurochemical events that occur within his skull typically runs approximately as follows: \u00a0\u201cYour belief in God\u00a0makes a mockery of the methods and accomplishments of the science that built the world you\u2019re living in.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
I believe that this emission is an example of what na\u00efve sentimentalists, with their tendency to anthropomorphize random products of biochemical evolution, call \u201cthought.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not a very good one, though.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Along with others, I\u2019ve regularly asked this particular meat-unit exactly which element of the scientific method theists are obliged to mock or reject. \u00a0I\u2019ve routinely sought to know precisely which accomplishment of science this particular carbon-based life form imagines that I\u2019m compelled to disdain or to disavow.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
But it never answers.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Because there are plenty of theists who are fully and seriously involved in the sciences \u2014 much more so than this specific cell colony is involved. \u00a0And there is, to the best of my knowledge, nobody who comments on my blog who hates, despises, rejects, fears, mocks, or laments science. \u00a0Certainly I don\u2019t.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
John was silent for a few minutes.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nThen he began again: \u201cBut how do you know there is no Landlord?\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\u201cChristopher Columbus, Galileo, the earth is round, invention of printing, gunpowder!\u201d exclaimed Mr. Enlightenment in such a loud voice that the pony shied.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\u201cI beg your pardon,\u201d said John.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\u201cEh?\u201d said Mr. Enlightenment.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\u201cI didn\u2019t quite understand,\u201d said John.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\u201cWhy, it\u2019s as plain as a pikestaff,\u201d said the other. \u201cYour people in Puritania believe in the Landlord because they have not had the benefits of a scientific training. For example, I dare say it would be news to you to hear that the earth was round \u2014 round as an orange, my lad!\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\u201cWell, I don\u2019t know that it would,\u201d said John, feeling a little disappointed. \u201cMy father always said it was round.\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\u201cNo, no, my dear boy,\u201d said Mr. Enlightenment, \u201cyou must have misunderstood him. It is well known that everyone in Puritania thinks the earth flat. It is not likely that I should be mistaken on such a point. Indeed, it is out of the question.\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nC. S. Lewis,\u00a0The Pilgrim\u2019s Regress: An Allegorical Apology for Christianity, Reason, and Romanticism<\/em>\u00a0[1933] (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1992), 20-21.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Posted from Port Douglas, Queensland, Australia<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 We were in an area of the rainforest of northern Queensland today that, according to what we read and although we never saw them, has a resident family of tree-kangaroos. \u00a0We looked. \u00a0Too bad we missed them. \u00a0(Apparently most people do. \u00a0They\u2019re somewhat reclusive, and hard to spot.) \u00a0 In a similar fashion, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1014,1543,171,62,243,138,117],"class_list":["post-67614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-atheism","tag-c-s-lewis","tag-reductionism","tag-religion-and-science","tag-science","tag-science-and-religion","tag-scientism"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a>