Re: Another heresy

One of the things I appreciate most about Robert Boyle, and there's a lot to
appreciate, is the following point that he made early in his career as a
scientist--er, natural philosopher, the word "Scientist" not having been
coined until the 1830s.

"I love to speak of Persons with Civility, though of Things with
Freedom." followed shortly by, "I think such a quarrelsome and injurious
way of writing does very much mis-become both a Philosopher and a
Christian..."

I wish I could say that I had always adhered to this myself, but I do know
I've tried. It's a great temptation to use words deliberately to hurt
persons or to belittle them for holding ideas you don't accept yourself. We
all know this, I supsect, and electronic bulletin boards only encourage it
in most cases. Of course unbelievers are given to this no less (even more
in many cases) than believers are; for example, the simply insulting things
said about religion/religious believers on blogs like pandasthumb. But we
believers need to treat others like they're made in God's image, do we not?

ted
Received on Mon Dec 12 12:23:46 2005