Scrambles

In New Zealand, there has recently been a case of a 7th day Adventist couple going into hiding with their sick child (lack of vitamin B in mothers breast-milk because of vegan diet) , preventing medical treatment, leading to the death of their baby (and a 5 year manslaughter sentence).

An article appeared today in "The Press" (local paper) by some fellow who obviously has an axe to grind. I'll give you the highlights (can't be bothered typing the whole thing out).


*He says the Moorheads (the couple in question) were victims of the "secular myth" that science and religion are incompatible.

*He says that science came about because of christianity. All early scientists were christians etc.

*The analogy of the devout believer caught in a flood was used: ie the believer refuses to be rescued by boat or helicopter because "God will save me", but dies. He gets to heaven and asks God why he didn't save him. God says "For fucks sake I sent a boat and two helicopters you fucking idiot...begone from my sight into the everlasting fire!!!!!" (something along those lines).

*He then starts attacking conservationists (WTF!?) and basically accuses them of being fanatics.


If anyone knows about the origin of science and it's relationship with religion (Christianity in particular) I would appreciate some information.

As for the other points, it seems to me that he must be related to eternal in some way or other.

Scrambles

Godless Dave

Aristotle would be surprised to hear that.

ex-idaho

Mathematics, navigation and a large part of archetecture were all developed and mastered by Afro-Asian cultures like the Egyptians, Phoeniceans and Sumarians.

The Greeks were highly skilled astronomers.

The Chinese were skilled sea men and metalurgist and chemist.

The guy obviously has not done any independent study. he listened to his minister and that was good enough for him.

Scrambles

Thanks guys. One of the things that really pissed me off about that article was his comment about the "secular myth" that science and religion are incompatible.

Yeah, blame the secular for the problems of a religious fanatic couple. What a turd.


Scrambles

seebs

I do think it's a myth that science and religion are incompatible, and I do think that Christianity may well have helped build the worldview that eventually got us "over the hump" from alchemy and suchlike to "real science"... at the same time, the family were obviously dangerous kooks, who should not have been trusted with the responsibility of a child.

However, the existance of theists who are incompatible with science doesn't mean that religion is incompatible with science. It just means that certain religious beliefs may be incompatible with certain science, just as certain political beliefs may be incompatible with certain science.