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No Peace Talks

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No Peace Talks II Wednesday 25th February 2009 by Eymard de Silva Though measurements taken of tions but also because they recoiled at institutional religion’s role in society. evolutionary faith is purely an exhibi- Wijeyeratne the solar eclipse that occurred on 19th what they regarded as the bludgeoning The Gospel tion of verbal prolixity and no more. It May 1919, by a scientific expedition to influence of parsons and their fenced- In talking of the Gospel (Good only serves to confirm that the appar- “The earthworm is useful, the Principe Island in the Gulf of off kingdom. Their biting sarcasm News) of Evolution, Fr. Mervyn says ent conflict between science and reli- Guinea, confirmed the validity of was directed more at ‘parsondom’ than gion was stage managed by the Church but not beautiful; the tiger is that “Dowd’s solution is to take the Einstein’s General Theory of at God’s kingdom. Though the avail- wind out of the sails of the science vs. which took upon itself, as part of its beautiful, but not useful. Relativity, there is always the possibil- able data that supports Darwin’s the- religion debate by taking a meta-view magisterium, to decide and promul- Darwin (who was not a ity that future observations could sis of Natural Selection, and the ‘Big of both science and religion, a view as gate what the faithful should accept as Romantic) praised the earth- invalidate it. The propositions of reli- Bang’ theory of the origin of the comprehensive as to include cosmic the permissible bounds of science. worm; Blake praised the gion on the other hand being meta- world, are based on sound evidence, history, psychology, mythology, sociol- Long before the advent of Crick and tiger”. physical in character are not falsifi- they cannot be extended to debunk the ogy, spirituality and the human others, the Church violated the rights – Bertrand Russell able because no verification is possible origin of man and the creation of the future”. Father Mervyn is to be of Galileo in the process of clinging to in principle. In these circumstances, world as depicted in the Book of admired for his views which are in no the vain anthropomorphic view of the write with special reference To Fr. we can only say that the theories of Genesis. On the other hand the narra- way inhibited by his role as a priest in sun revolving round the earth. A Mervyn Fernando’s article “Thank science are tentatively accepted on tive in this sacred Book cannot be the Church that is ruled by Pope change in the attitude of the Church IGod for Evolution”(The Island, rational grounds, whereas the proposi- taken literally in all its details as they Benedict XVI, who is obsessed with will not be brought about by Rev. 11th February 2009). Before I proceed Dowd’s intervention as a specialist in further I must make it clear that the conflict-resolution, but because it Blake, I refer to, is not Robert, the US realises that absence of a conjugal Ambassador, but William. This clarifi- church-State relation no longer per- cation is necessary in the context of mits the enforcement of its will in the several references made to him in rela- secular sphere. The distinction that Evolved beauty & Rev. Dowd has made between private tion to a negotiated settlement of the war in the North. Russell refers to the revelation and public revelation is both Bengali variety about whom Blake’s specious and mischievous. Scripture namesake William has said, was and will always be a form of pub- lic revelation. It is an offering for “Did he who made the Lamb make man’s acceptance in the context of the primeval beast life he leads in an environment of com- thee? Tyger, Tyger burning bright, munion with nature and his fellow In the forests of the night” the threat of religious relativism. This beings. The notion that sacred Scripture was a form of private revela- The Debate: Science vs. admiration cannot be extended to Rev. Dowd’s claim to have unified spiritual- tion prior to the advent of a newly-dis- Religion ity and rationality. His ideology is in pensed gospel of evolution is a prepos- Craig Mello’s statement, “The sci- the nature of an eclectic brew: one terous claim. Darwin’s contribution to ence vs. religion debate is over. that cheers in an emotional sense, does science does not require Rev. Dowd’s Michael Dowd masterfully unites not inebriate in a physical sense, but re-evaluation and rehabilitation. The rationality and spirituality in a world induces euphoria of trivialised reli- latter’s attribution of flat-earth status view that celebrates the mysteries of gious experience. Religion, as we know to eastern religions such as Buddhism, existence and inspires each human it, is a meta-view of reality, its origin Hinduism and Confucianism is a clear being to achieve a higher purpose in and man’s place in it. Adding meta- indication that he is far off the mark in life”, is no more than a manifestation layer upon meta-layer is the equiva- grasping the essence of these religions. of evangelical exuberance. We need to lent of building the Tower of Babel Buddhism in particular has never been bear in mind that there is no essential that trivialises both religion and sci- a flat-earth faith because it has not conflict between science and religion. ence. What Fr. Mervyn calls the Gospel imposed any blind-alley impediments They have, and will run together on of evolution is a travesty of the unique in the path of those who accept it as a two parallel planes that will not con- Gospel of Jesus Christ, which con- way of life. verge. This position is clarified by Max firms the richness and variety, inher- Belief in God Planck in the following words, “There tions of religion are believed on relate to historical time and the ent in the throb of life. The throb of I agree with Fr. Mervyn when he can never be any real opposition grounds that are not unreasonable. In sequence of events that led to the life is the human predicament that says, “Ultimate reality or God is the between religion and science, for the these circumstances the imputed con- world as it stands now. The allegorical man shares with Jesus Christ. Just as One and only whole that is not part of one is the complement of the other… flict between science and religion and character of the Biblical story is what much as he did not promise to rescue some larger or more comprehensive Science enhances the moral values of the passions generated in debate are matters. Karl Popper admits that sepa- man from the tragic consequences of reality. Because we humans are a sub- life because it furthers a love of truth fuelled by the strong confessional posi- rate elements in the theory of Natural this predicament, he did not assure set of the Whole we cannot step outside and reverence - love of truth display- tions taken up by religious institu- Selection are scientific to the extent man that he would lay bare the finely it to grasp the full nature of the ing itself in a constant endeavour to tions and the views of some scientists that they are empirically testable. Yet, defined boundaries of knowledge Ultimate Reality, which will always arrive at a more exact knowledge of who believe the theories of science he argues that the overarching theory acquired from sense experience, remain known and unknown”. As far the world of mind and matter around reveal a strict one-to-one correspon- of Darwinian evolution “is not a knowledge derived from the discipline the Christian is concerned the us, and reverence, because every dence with the ultimate reality.Wiener testable scientific theory but a meta- of the scientific method and knowl- Ultimate reality is known because the advance in knowledge brings us face to Heisenberg who developed the physical research programme” (Karl edge of the nether world, which ‘elan vital’(life force) of Jesus Christ face with the mystery of our own Principle of Uncertainty in the Popper: Unended Quest, Glasgow: includes both religious beliefs and runs through him as a matter of exis- being” (Max Planck: Where is Science observed relationship between the Fontana Collins, p.151). He explains atheistic metaphysics – blessed are tence and duration in time. Yet, it is Going?). Albert Einstein explains the position and momentum of elemen- this further by saying: “The earlier, those who have not seen but yet unknown because God is mysteriously status of science in the following tary particles explains the imputed naturalistic revolution against God believe. In this context it is apposite beyond expression like the vowel-less words, “The belief in an external hostility of science to religion in the replaced the name God by the name that I quote an extract from the article YWH. I appreciate the direction in world independent of the perceiving following manner, “The nineteenth Nature. Almost everything else was “How life has preserved its mystery”by which Fr. Mervyn has moved in order subject is the basis of all natural sci- century developed an extremely rigid left unchanged. Theology, the science James Le Fanu that appeared on the to disabuse the minds of Christians of ence. Since, however, sense-perception frame for natural science, which of God, was replaced by the science of same page as Fr. Mervyn’s tract in The looking at creation and evolution as gives information of this external formed not only science but also the nature and God’s laws by the laws of Island: “Certainly for the foreseeable static concepts.
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