[Osx-nutters] The separation of church and state.

[Chris Gehlker]

On Dec 5, 2007, at 12:23 AM, Mark Smith wrote:

> At the very best, this person is a part-time scientist and I would
> argue, that as long as the person is "susceptible" to belief, that
> they are susceptible to being non-scientific.

There clearly *are* people who can be genuinely scientific in one  
aspect of their lives and complete raving religious lunatics in  
another. I know someone who is a  very good geologist and a Mormon  
bishop.

> You cannot be a real dyed-in-the-wool scientist and really believe in
> anything of this type.

Clearly, some people can. They hold incompatible beliefs in different  
compartments of their lives. This ability is not particularly rare. I  
suspect we all do it to some extent.

> I can't really "believe", that you really "believe" the contrary.

Darwin himself noted that people who rejected his theories could still  
be quite successful animal and plant breeders. We modern Darwinists  
must get past that tiresome 'you can't say you don't believe in  
evolution and still get a flu shot' argument. Many people do exactly  
that.

--
The fundamental delusion of humanity is to suppose that I am here and  
you are out there
  -Yasutani Roshi, Zen master (1885-1973)