The May 2010 Euthanasia Prevention Coalition Newsletter can now be found at: http://www.euthanasiaprevention.on.ca/Newsletters/Newsletter108(May2010)(RGB).pdf Bill C-384 was soundly defeated by a vote of 228 to 59. Check how the Members of Parliament voted at: http://www.euthanasiaprevention.on.ca/HowTheyVoted.pdf On June 5, 2010, we are co-hosting the US/Canda Push-Back Seminar at the Radisson Gateway Hotel at the Seattle/Tacoma Airport. The overwhelming defeat of Bill C-384 proved that we can Push-Back the euthanasia lobby in the US and Canada and convince people that euthanasia and assisted suicide are a dangerous public policy. Register for the Seminar at: http://www.euthanasiaprevention.on.ca/2010SeminarFlyer(RGB)(LetterFormat).pdf The Schindler family are being attacked by a Florida television station and Michael Schiavo. The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition is standing in solidarity with the Schindler family. My blog comments: http://alexschadenberg.blogspot.com/2010/05/att
Reflections from the pastoral ministry of an Evangelical Catholic Priest.
Scientism "insists that if something cannot physically measured or observed it is not real; it does not exist at all."
ReplyDeleteI don't know of any scientist that ever said that. Many things in science are postulated are possible without being able to measure them. Extrasolar planets have been postulated for centuries, but only in the last 15 years did anyone come up with a way of detecting their existence.
This is a strawman argument.
What science is skeptical about is religious claims that by define themselves to defy measurement. Obvious ones are the definition of God, the change of the Eucharist based upon Aristotelian metaphysics and even the efficacy of prayer.
All this hiding of the divine leaves two conclusions, either God abhors reason and inquiry (maybe that's the lesson of the Garden of Eden) or God doesn't exist.
Michael:
ReplyDeleteYou missed an obvious conclusion that your comment leaves open, and that is that God's ways are so far above our ways that we cannot grasp them in their fullness, and that God is not in fact just like us.
However, your conclusions are logical and compare to the conclusions that we all make from the available data we encounter in our daily lives.
The bigger question is do we have all the required data to draw to our counclusions? And, following that do we have the brain power, if we have all the data, to conclude as we do, or is there a superior intelligence to our own?
God Bless You
The other Michael
So you have a solution by definition. You define God (or any other tennet of faith) in such a way that you can believe what ever you want and smile and say that it is beyond all testing.
ReplyDeleteANd if we do not have all the required data to draw a conclusion, why not reserve judgement. One does that (or should) do that in all otyher aspects of one's life, why does religion get an exemption?
"...God's ways are so far above our ways that we cannot grasp them in their fullness, and that God is not in fact just like us."
ReplyDeleteIf you are content to believe that and wish to explore no further, that is your affair. It is not, however, the position that everyone else will take.
"The bigger question is do we have all the required data to draw to our counclusions? And, following that do we have the brain power, if we have all the data, to conclude as we do, or is there a superior intelligence to our own?"
Again, those are your questions. They are not mine, nor are they the questions most people would ask. You never get anywhere by undermining your own power.
A little touchy aren't we?
ReplyDeleteMichael came up with two possible valid conclusions. I suggest that there is a third conclusion that is equally valid. That is all.
We, as human beings draw conclusions based on available data, and how we interpret that data. Our conclusions might be correct. They might be flawed.
No big deal!!
I'm not sure what you mean, MBrandon (if you're talking to me, that is...). There are more options available than either of you can name. How is that being "touchy?"
ReplyDelete