Re: [asa] AAAS President Keynote Address

On 2/21/07, Janice Matchett <janmatch@earthlink.net> wrote:
>
> At 10:34 AM 2/21/2007, Rich Blinne wrote:
>
> On Feb 20, 2007, at 8:08 PM, Janice Matchett wrote:
>
> At 10:43 PM 2/19/2007, Rich Blinne wrote:
>
> President Holdren's address ... drew a standing ovation when *he called on
> them to "tithe" 10% of their time to "to working to increase the benefits of
> science and technology for the human condition and to decrease the
> liabilities." *
>
>
> *@ *http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1787818/posts?page=2#2
> <http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1787818/posts?page=2#2%C2%A0>
>
> ~ Janice :)
>
>
> On the web site *Janice said:*
>
> Eden, the fall of man, the loss of grace, the coming doomsday---these are
> deeply held mythic structures. They are profoundly conservative beliefs.
> They may even be hard-wired in the brain, for all I know. I certainly don't
> want to talk anybody out of them, as I don't want to talk anybody out of a
> belief that Jesus Christ is the son of God who rose from the dead. But the
> reason I don't want to talk anybody out of these beliefs is that I know that
> I can't talk anybody out of them.* These are not facts that can be argued.
> These are issues of faith.*
>
>
>
> *@@ *Excuse me??? *"I" said nothing of the sort*, so the rest of your
> post is a non sequitur.
>

It's near impossible to know what you *do *say. There was no "Michael
Crichton said, ..." merely a bunch of text signed by you and another one of
your obscure web links. *Please, please, please* change your quoting style
with only direct, attributed, quotes and no links.

Now that we have gotten this misunderstanding straightened out, let's deal
with Michael Crichton. So, are you saying you don't approve of what Michael
Crichton said? Then why did you quote him? I guess I am safe to assume that
you do not agree with Crichton's epistemology (whew, I am glad I was
mistaken). Then, why should I trust his conclusions when his epistemology is
so flawed? Crichton wrongly assumes because I am a religious person I
 cannot think rationally and that there exists no rational basis for my
Christian faith as no faith can possibly rationally based. Further, Crichton
apparently believes it is wrong for my faith to inform my rational thinking.
If he got the motivations of all of the ASA and myself wrong, is it not
possible that he is wrong about others?

From the quotes I have already provided it should be clear that the ASA as
an organization is dedicated to being simultaneously rational and Christian.
You now have had many members of said organization who are working
scientists and engineers and many with PhDs in science repeatedly show you
that there is a rational, scientific and indeed compelling basis for climate
science. Yet, you don't trust us who share your epistemology and rather side
with one who rejects it merely because it reinforces your pre-conceived
ideas of people you don't know and never met. And to make matters worse,
this kind of false accusations destroys our relationships with our secular
colleagues to the point that they will have nothing to do with Christianity
-- not because they found Christianity wanting but because Christians were
jerks.

To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@calvin.edu with
"unsubscribe asa" (no quotes) as the body of the message.
Received on Wed, 21 Feb 2007 12:12:27 -0700