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13th May 2008

“The low esteem in which many evangelicals hold academic inquiry is a function of fear, a lack of confidence that faith can survive rational scrutiny. And so they build walls around their minds and colleges, desperate to keep at bay the dangerous lessons of the Enlightenment.”

Mark A. Nol

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 13th, 2008 at 1:00 and is filed under QOTD. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

4 Responses to “13th May 2008”

  1. Critic Says:
    May 13th, 2008 at 14:41

    Religion perpetuates ignorance. It longs to return society to the good-old pre-enlightenment days of dogmatic rule by the church. Where science is under control of the church and scientific understanding is first filtered through a religious sieve. I give you the “Discovery Institute” as a prime example.

    http://www.discovery.org/csc/

  2. Terence Meaden Says:
    May 13th, 2008 at 20:28

    Yes Critic. Quite right.

    As for the faith-holders, most nevertheless have plenty of faith and no lack of confidence—which they achieved by the setting up of a protective screen that blinkered them and their acolytes from the splendours of the natural world of science, astronomy etc. that we freethinkers know so well.

  3. Chris Says:
    May 13th, 2008 at 21:37

    Hey Godless – unrelated but nice little article. A letter written by Einstein that outlines his religious beliefs was put up for sale.

    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24598856/

    Among his gems: “the word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honorable but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish.”

    Enjoy.

  4. Terence Meaden Says:
    May 14th, 2008 at 0:16

    Thanks Chris for finding this item on the web. Here’s a bit more from the letter:

    The letter up for sale, written to philosopher Eric Gutkind in January 1954, suggests his views on religion did not mellow with age.
    “For me,” he added, “the Jewish religion like all other religions is an incarnation of the most childish superstitions.”
    Addressing the idea that the Jews are God’s chosen people, Einstein wrote that “the Jewish people to whom I gladly belong and with whose mentality I have a deep affinity have no different quality for me than all other people. As far as my experience goes, they are also no better than other human groups, although they are protected from the worst cancers by a lack of power. Otherwise I cannot see anything ‘chosen’ about them.”