Re: [asa] AAAS President Keynote Address

Rich, hang on a second. I still think you are missing
Janice's point.

Even though tithe literally means %10, it is clearly
associated with religion, with churches, wouldnt you agree
with that?

Janice is pointing to Holdens use of this term as an
example of what Crichton is calling Environmentalism.
 That is a zealous religion of defending the environment.

This has nothing to do with Christianity and rationality.
 Crichton is trying to make the point that there are
environmental scientists that are zealots, and have their
judgement clouded. I dont agree with him, and you dont
agree with him. But unfortunately, Holden's use of a term
that has religious connotations, makes it appear that
perhaps Crichton is correct. That is Janice's point. It
has nothing to do with her faith, fideism, or anything of
the sort.

On Wed, 21 Feb 2007 12:12:27 -0700
  "Rich Blinne" <rich.blinne@gmail.com> wrote:
> 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.

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Received on Wed Feb 21 15:33:25 2007