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David J. Demko, PhD, Editor-in-Chief AgeVenture News Service, Boca Raton, Florida 08-21-07 |
I was browsing through the September 2007 issue of Scientific American recently. It's a special issue devoted to the irony that the impoverished half of the world is literally starving to death while the wealthy half of the world on a diet desperately trying to lose weight.
A thought-provoking issue guaranteed to raise both much needed awareness, debate, and hopefully some resolutions to world health and hunger. 
Ironically, my reading of the magazine's irony of a feast and famine world, led me to discover the proverbial irony of the co-existance of science and religion. An "off-the-topic" news item in the September issue proved to equally as controversial as the magazine's feature issue on world hunger.
The article I read was on "Rational Atheism" by Michael Shermer. Insightful and thought-provoking. Shermer's article discussed what he envisioned as three threats to science and freedom. Shermer's artcle aptly cites authors such as self-proclaimed atheist, Richard Dawkins (photo). Ironically, Dawkins invests so much energy and ink ("The God Delusion" 2006) denying God that it makes me wonder if he is, in reality, a Closet Cleric? Why else would this "man of science" be so pre-occupied with the existence of God? Methinks he doth protest to much. In psychological terms, individuals sometimes publicly advocate positions which are, in reality, directly opposed to their true beliefs. There are many myths that I profess not to believe in such as the Easter Bunny, Santa Claus, and Lindsay Lohan ever getting a license to drive again. Having disavowed those beliefs, I must say that the majority of my time is spent frantically professing the non-existence of Santa Claus. Dawkins, on the other hand, appears to revel in producing evidence against what he firmly believes is not at all evident. Is not the first rule of enlightenment to "keep an open mind?" Go figure. Richard Dawkins' intellectual curiosity appears "closed for business" ... the business of enlightenment. The philosopher, Spinoza once said, "No matter how thin you slice something, there are still two sides." Tragically, there are those who see no value in the dialectic of dissenting views of the world. Sadly, the narrow-minded believe the pursuit of enlightenment must be a one-way street. Dawkins may very well go to his grave, a devout atheist. God willing, of course. AgeVenture News Service welcomes your point of view at: demko@AgeVentureNewsService.com Submissions may be edited for content and length. |
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