Elbo
pesky scooter kids git off ma lawn
I'm not surprised, I completely agree. Its in your best interests to defend your profession, as it is in my best interests to defend my beliefs. Your profession is your belief, of course you will defend it. I'm not saying you are stepping beyond the line of defence Arete, but there is definitely a difference that exists between defence and belittling someone who doesn't agree with you.If someone's going to attack evidence based scientific theories with garbled moralising and jibberish in printed media they deserve to be gunned down in a blaze of you know, facts and truth. If he's going to publically announce these opinions, and they're based on completely not understanding Evolutionary theory or the functional role of DNA in biology along with a few downright lies, it needs to be shown.
You may be astounded to know that people such as myself for instance, dislike having our profession attacked by nonsense - say I was to publish an opinion that all Christians are pedophiles based on the acts of a minority of Catholic priests, you'd want set the record straight, right?
People search for answers in different ways. For some, if everything can be explained with logic and physical evidence, they are happy. Others look at the universe and believe there is something out there that is greater than them. Despite what some people believe, they aren't stupid or ignorant. They think deeply about it and come to a different conclusion.
1. If you take advice from an opinion piece in the Herald Sun, then yes. Obviously you don't, so its really a non-issue.1. The only thought that provoked was "great, another born-again hypocrite telling me I need psychological drugs to live a happy life".
2. Everyone stands by what they believe, otherwise they change their opinion.
3. See PoSM's post.
4. Why the attack on science? Are you that threatened by reality?
5. Science isn't inherently opposed to religion, and this is what most religious types don't get: science is the pursuit of truth, WHATEVER THAT TRUTH IS. Instead of coming to a conclusion then looking for evidence to support it, science is the faculty of seeing what evidence exists then drawing a conclusion from it. The fact that "science" does not support "religion" indicates that by and large, the evidence for how we came to be and all that stuff does not correlate with the tall tales told by the various religions (none of which agree with each other anyway).
6. As far as ethics and all that go, consider this: if there isn't a god, and all the "religious wisdom" including morals/ethics/rules to live by WERE actually created by man... then that simply proves by default that the claim that we need "God's law" as a moral compass is utter bullshit since that law was written by man anyway.
There is a proverb - "Follow those who seek the truth, and run from those who claim to have found it". Science seeks the truth, Jebus allegedly claimed to BE the truth.
2 & 3. Precisely
4. Reality as I see it is that God created the world. The only reality that matters to me is mine. Here you claim science is reality, and therefore truth (see your proverb).
5 & 6. Science is the pursuit of truth… have they found it yet? Because it seems they are pretty sure of themselves. Yes, Jesus said he was the way, the truth and the life. He said he was the only way to get to God. Jesus also said "they hated me without a cause"… seems pretty accurate if you ask me.