Moorad
-----Original Message-----
From: Paul K. Wason <pwason@abacus.bates.edu>
To: asa@calvin.edu <asa@calvin.edu>
Date: Thursday, May 06, 1999 9:10 AM
Subject: Re: Article in NATURE / Cause and Effect
>
>Rather than step into the current debate (I haven't read the article yet),
>I just wanted to highlight something EGM wrote that I think is of immense
>importance, though easily overlooked:
>
>> I am one who believes that there is a
>>fine connection between the physical and supernatural; the scientists
>>finding a chemical responsible for my persistant prayer life (I wish)
>>would be finding the "physical" cause of my experience without access
>>to the pre- or supra- physical cause. However, the crucial point of
>>the questions was not address by your short comment. Thanks anyway.
>>
>>EGM
>
>I believe this is important because there is a tendency among scholars (and
>in the "popular imagination") to assume that when chemicals are involved,
>they are the cause. I realize that when put baldly like that most people
>would recognize that this is an inadequate view of the world, but in
>practice, I believe many people think of chemicals as basic and more likely
>to cause other phenomenal than the reverse.
>
>I don't know if this is what this article claims or (regardless of what
>they claim) how people will want to interpret their work, but I suspect
>that if an experiment correlates chemical conditions with spritual
>experience, many people will skip the fine print and jump to the conclusion
>that they can now dismiss spiritual experience as simply a result of
>certain chemical conditions which, thanks to Science we can now identify.
>
>But EGM makes the crucial point that the chemical condition may itself be a
>Result -- if a result of one's prayer life, then it would be a result of
>real contact with the supernatural. Finding chemical markers for spiritual
>experience would not be evidence that spirituality is merely an
>epiphenomenon of chemistry, even though it is likely that our experience
>itself is, like any human experience, has been mediated by the chemical
>condition.
>
>Paul
>
>
>***************************************************************************
***
>Paul K. Wason tel (207) 786-6240
>306 Lane Hall, Bates College fax (207) 786-8342
>Lewiston, Maine 04240 pwason@bates.edu
>***************************************************************************
***
>
>