Thread: Have just realised it’s the traditional season for journalists & ‘opinion writers’ to trot out their ‘science v religion’ rants. Science is not a religion; if u think it is you’re not a scientist. Scientists are generally not all atheists either. 👇

I once had a chat with a respected & heroic Scottish professor of science (won’t be too specific as I don’t want to share his identity) which turned into a real heart to heart. This man was a personal hero to me.
He was born into extreme poverty as a child in the Gorbals in Glasgow. His dad died when he was 14 & he got a job to support his mother. Later he put himself thru A-Levels & was awarded a scholarship to a famous University. That’s heroic.
His abilities, kindness, understanding & support to colleagues, staff & students was legendary. As were the books & papers he wrote. His campaigning ranged from social issues to conservation. It’s no exaggeration to say he changed his adopted country.
So in the heart to heart, amongst ancient oak bookshelves, I asked him what did he make of ghosts (rather than how I’d ask now - what does the scientific community think of ghosts). Maturity means thinking how you pose questions (& maybe one day I will!).
So his eyes crinkled & he laughed with surprise. ‘Well’, he said, ‘it’s impossible to prove that they don’t exist (here he was teaching me the ‘prove a negative argument’). ‘And no one has proved that they do. So it’s a case of ‘not proven’ (a Scottish legal term - look it up)’.
Then he leaned forward & said almost wistfully ‘wouldn’t it be a very bleak world if there wasn’t any mystery?’ He sat back. ‘And there’d be nothing for us to do’, - gesturing towards me. I left delighted to have been called a scientist for the first time by a scientist &
It was later i considered the many layers of the conversation. Now as to God, does she exist? Is the Dagda grumbling at my lack of hunting or is the God of Christian Fundamentalists upset with me for trying not to hate people? Well I don’t believe in bleak worlds.
So have a mysterious Winter Solstice & remember to be good. Merry Christmas! (And yes I know there are some celebrity scientists who are ATHEISTS! I’m not sure they don’t believe in a higher power, but I am sure they like to be angry). Let’s just live & let love.
The drawing of the Madonna & Child is for someone who does believe in God & is one of those people that you meet that radiates a spiritual goodness (I’ve met only three in my life). Now I see it on a tiny screen She looks like She’s looking to our right, but zoom in &
She’s looking down & to the left. Mystery! Nollaig Shona Daoibh go Léir! (& remember correlation & causation are two different & mysterious things).
Just to be clear I’m not doing down religiosity or atheism. As long as each is personal, & not forced on others, we’re grand!

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MISREPRESENTED CONTEXT

1. I am indeed disgusted with attempts to misrepresent and take out of context what I wrote on my blog yesterday.


2. Those who did that highlighted only one part of paragraph 12 which read: “Muslims have a right to be angry and to kill millions of French people for the massacres of the past.”

3. They stopped there and implied that I am promoting the massacre of the French.

4.If they had read d posting in its entirety & especially the subsequent sentence which read: “But by & large the Muslims hv not applied the “eye for an eye” law. Muslims don’t. The French shouldn’t. Instead the French should teach their people to respect other people’s feelings

5. Because of the spin and out of context presentation by those that picked up my posting, reports were made against me and I am accused of promoting violence etc… on Facebook and Twitter.

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I just finished Eric Adler's The Battle of the Classics, and wanted to say something about Joel Christiansen's review linked below. I am not sure what motivates the review (I speculate a bit below), but it gives a very misleading impression of the book. 1/x


The meat of the criticism is that the history Adler gives is insufficiently critical. Adler describes a few figures who had a great influence on how the modern US university was formed. It's certainly critical: it focuses on the social Darwinism of these figures. 2/x

Other insinuations and suggestions in the review seem wildly off the mark, distorted, or inappropriate-- for example, that the book is clickbaity (it is scholarly) or conservative (hardly) or connected to the events at the Capitol (give me a break). 3/x

The core question: in what sense is classics inherently racist? Classics is old. On Adler's account, it begins in ancient Rome and is revived in the Renaissance. Slavery (Christiansen's primary concern) is also very old. Let's say classics is an education for slaveowners. 4/x

It's worth remembering that literacy itself is elite throughout most of this history. Literacy is, then, also the education of slaveowners. We can honor oral and musical traditions without denying that literacy is, generally, good. 5/x
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