A Dialogue of [Un?]Reason ...

[Dean]

Reason and Faith in the Black Community. I wrote the title the way I did, as, I have only watched half of the debate so far, and I have not found it to be a dialogue of reason, as such. Although, I shall continue watching it and give my opinion later.

Thoughts?

 

[Dean]

Not surprisingly, this has been a disappointing panel discussion for me. I find it bad enough to hear this positivist notion of science being virtuous and religious of no value whatsoever, much more when coming from black scholars so inured to that paradigm; all the while, Dawkins just tactically and encouragingly sits back to let his peers be his mouthpiece then steps in to round up with that absolute pronouncement of scientific virtue vs religious deficit.

It's a group of like-minded individuals giving each other self-congratulatory hi-fives and pats on the back for their mutual reinforcement. As far as they're concerned, science has nothing to do with modern racism and religion has much to do with it, while assuredly any mainstream racist culture and policy derived from historic interpretation of scientific findings would be conveniently apologised for and excused as "pseudo-science".

As I tire of saying, the science and religion are as much cultures as they are disciplines (practices), such that practically all of us here touting acceptance or understanding of science are informed by some idiosyncratic and collective mythos or other about the field, bold as the assertion is. Far more, since at most there can be only specialists or generalists and not a fusion of the two, given the stupendous proliferation of information and disciplines, we're forced to fill-in the gaps and connect the dots coloured by our personal experiences. And no, I do not reject science. Science is about building inductive models of predictive utility, as c0nc0rdance put it ever so wonderfully A core tenet of which is obviously Methodological [not philosophical] -- Naturalism, hence scientific instrumentalism...

 

[televator]

I disagree. It is a dialogue of reason. It lacks the emotional appeal, dogma, and lose interpretations that seems to inherently accompany theistic apologetics.

It is a pretty one sided view of religion and science, but I still think it's a good discussion to have. It might be purely a rational/scientific discussion, but compared to how much pure religiosity and mysticism people are surrounded by in their lives, I think it's a very good thing to have a purely rational/scientific conversation penetrate through some of that once in a while. I also like particularly in how this is aimed at the African-American community in the US. It's a segment of the US population which has largely and regrettably been subverted by much of the same religious doctrines that once justified the enslavement and denial of rights of their ancestors. I see a similar thing in Mexico.

So it my not be a 2 sided debate, but it wasn't called "a debate about science and religion in the Africa-American community." It's simply a dialogue.

 

[whatsinitforme]

How is religion/faith different in the black community? And why? Isn't it all the same thing?