Hi Susan (all),
S.B.C.>> Even just examining the quote we have at hand we see that Morris,
not widely known for his honesty, inserted the word "religious" in front of
the word "faith,"--and you quoted Morris blindly--rather changing Dawkins's
original meaning. Dawkins is almost certainly talking about faith in the
sense of "belief without evidence." Evidence is acutely important to
scientists and belief is not possible without it. <<
I don't think your charge about Morris's use of word "religious" will stick
(see below), but you're right about the "belief without evidence" part.
Here is the immediate context of the quote:
"It is fashionable to wax apocalyptic about the threat to humanity posed by
the AIDS virus, "mad cow" disease, and many others, but **I think a case can
be made that _faith_ is one of the worlds great evils, comparable to the
smallpox virus but harder to eradicate.**"
"Faith, being belief that isn't based on evidence, is the principle vice of
any religion. And who looking at Northern Ireland or the Middle East, can
be confident that the brain virus of faith is not exceedingly dangerous?
One of the stories told to young Muslim suicide bombers is that martyrdom is
the quickest way to heaven - and not just heaven but a special part of
heaven where they will receive their special reward of 72 virgin brides. It
occurs to me that our best hope may be to provide a kind of "spiritual arms
control": send in specially trained theologians to deescalate the going rate
in virgins."
"Given the dangers of faith - and considering the accomplishments of reason
and observation in the activity called science - I find it ironic that,
whenever I lecture publicly, there always seems to be someone who comes
forward and says, "Of course, your science is just a religion like ours.
Fundamentally, science just comes down to faith, doesn't it?""
"Well, science is not religion and it doesn't just come down to faith.
Although it has many of religion's virtues, it has none of its vices.
Science is based upon verifiable evidence. Religious faith not only lacks
evidence, its independence from evidence is its pride and joy, shouted from
the rooftops. Why else would Christians wax critical of doubting Thomas?
The other apostles are held up to us as exemplars of virtue because faith
was enough for them. Doubting Thomas, on the other hand, required evidence.
Perhaps he should be the patron saint of scientists." [Richard Dawkins, _Is
Science a Religion?_ in _The Humanist_ (Jan./Feb. 1997), pp. 26-27
(**section quoted by Morris**)]
Bye
Troy Britain (Amateur Naturalist)
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