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Politics : View from the Center and Left

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To: JohnM who wrote (255174)7/7/2014 12:49:49 PM
From: koan  Read Replies (1) of 542068
 
That is not what I had in mind at all. What I had in mind was how dogma trumps education and science around the world; and this dogma is almost always tied to religion which makes it almost impossible to over ride.

And the immutable dogma makes it very difficult (almost impossible) for those cultures and countries to evolve fast enough to address the necessary modern problems. You don't see that?

What I did have in mind is perfectly described by what we see going on in the Middle east. Total chaos caused by cultures who value religion over education.

Those are 7th century cultures cemented with religious dogma so strong neither democracy, science or new ideas seems able to penetrate it.

And so they not only seem incapable of establishing democracies, they seem incapable of doing any of the things necessary to save the planet, like get control of their population. We see the same thing in the south American countries where the church forbids birth control and education is subordinate to religion, or in Africa where the church forbids using condoms even to prevent AIDS (state of mind).

I am talking about major cultural mediums (The medium is the message!), the way in which cultural evolution manifests. A good example of how this works is that in the middle east 95% of the people think you have to be religious to be a good person. But in China it is 14%. In the US it is 53%.

I don't think you would deny that it is culture of religion in the middle east (Pakistan/Afghanistan, etc) that is preventing both democracy and education from flowering and making it impossible for them to adapt to the modern world in a way that is necessary.

While in China they celebrate science and as they don't have religious dogma to overcome can evolve very quickly.

This has nothing to do with some people you know who have managed to integrate science and religion. This is the worldwide problem of religious dogma versus education and science.

And I am surprised you don't seem to see the same picture I have painted above. It is a pretty simple concept I would expect a man of your intelligence and education to see as easily as the light of day.

PS and I never saw a scientist get upset because of an equation they didn't like. And I am simply presenting an equation.

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This distinction is far too simple. There are a great many very religious folk including the leaders of most of the major Protestant denominations (I refer to them only because I know about them) who are quite enamored with serious science, believers in evolution, and much in favor of much more serious measures to stop global warming than the present administration has put forward. By the same token, there are many quite religious scientists.

I knew two faculties rather well in the past century. There were quite a few dedicated scientists on those faculties who were quite serious about their religion.

You have in mind a certain form of religion, generally fundamentalist, literalistic.
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