On 16/11/06 16:27, "Ian Russell" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> This is where S J Gould's NOMA (Non-Overlapping Magisteria) principle
[SNIP]
> Many people are fully committed to both viewpoints, without conflict
> and with no compromise to pure Darwinism. They are in the strongest
> possible position to communicate a vital area of science to a highly
> resistant sector of the public, and many are quietly doing so.
> Meanwhile they are marginalised by creationist and evolutionist
> fundamentalists on either side who are heard most loudly in this
> controversy. Even excluded from opinion polls...
If a religion espouses that, for example, the Earth is less then 10,000
years old then NOMA is irrelevant. Claims such as this are demonstrably
false. IMO the discoveries and explanatory theories of the last 300 years
(or so) have shown that the tenets of the 3 big Abrahamic religions, as
handed down in their texts and verbal history, are false.
If a follower of one of the 3 Abrahamic religions are using the term
religion for a belief that includes acceptance of the evidence that shows
that the Universe is 13.7Ga, that the Earth is 4.6Ga and that the
biodiversity we see on Earth is a result of Darwinian natural selection,
then I think the term religion, in this context, is now meaningless.
Ian
--
Ian Robinson - Belfast - UK
Soapbox - <http://www.canicula.com/wp>
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