Dragaera

The Great Debate....to DDB

Sat Nov 30 14:09:31 PST 2002

On Sat, Nov 30, 2002 at 01:20:39AM -0600, David Dyer-Bennet wrote:
> rone at ennui.org (definitely what) writes:
> 
> > David Dyer-Bennet writes:
> >   I'd say you accept Pluto on authority, rather than faith.
> > 
> > Do we not have faith in authority, then?
> 
> No, we have some level of trust.  Depending largely, I hope, on the
> *particular* authority.  I don't take Linus Pauling to be a
> first-class authority on medicine, for example.
 
I think this illustrates a difference.  Scientific or historical or medical
authorities we trust as convenient.  They're not absolute; they're open to
challenge and question, at which point they should cough up some evidence.
(Scientists get helped by technology, which is like having miracles of your
faith every single day...)

I mean, if you choose not to take Pluto on authority, you can be dragged to a
telescope to see it, and you can see the parts of a telescope, and how lenses
affect light, and such.

With religion it seems more like the authority is unchallengeable.  The Church
hands down teaching about various mysteries.  The Bible, or the Koran, is just
there.  If you challenge you don't get new demonstrations of evidence, you
just get pointed back to the Book.  Or a lecture on how faith makes your
religion stronger.

You can challenge Hawking about black holes or Dawkins about evolution and get
an argument.  You can't challenge the Pope about some fact about Mary; he'll
just say it's a revealed truth.

-xx- Damien X-)