Bertvan@aol.com wrote:
> Fear of religion seems to be common among people either promoting Darwinism
> or opposing ID. (I'm unsure which most of you are doing, fighting traditional
> religion or promoting your own religion - materialism.
Neither. My concern is not with religion but with the political
goals of some religious groups. To be fair, I'm less concerned
about organizations like the Discovery Institute than I am about
more literalist creation groups. But the latter will use the idea
of ID if they can.
There is no religion called materialism to my knowledge. If there
is, I will not join. It would be very boring for one thing. And I
am dubious about the kind of people who would want to be members.
> No one is ever going to prove the nonexistence of God.
I agree. I cannot imagine how anyone could devise a test that
would confirm there is no God. If there is a God and He is capable
of inventing universes and He wants to hide from scientists, He will
undoubtedly succeed.
Of course, there are some ID enthusiasts who are convinced that they
can ferret Him out regardless of God's wishes.
> Those trying
> to explain the universe materialistically are as doomed to failure as the
> alchemists were. I suspect we have to consider things we now regard as
> "supernatural", such as mind, free will, creativity, intelligence,
> consciousness, spontaneity, etc.
I don't think of any of those things as "supernatural." To my mind,
the supernatural consists of creatures who are never there when they
are supposed to be and actions such as incantations that never succeed
when tested.
Ivar
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