You will have noticed by now that I tend to quote from Harper's Magazine a fair amount - well, at least when I am blogging - which has been some time now. However, Harper's is known as a fairly left-leaning journal. As such it is often extremely critical of stereo-typical religion and its perceived closed-minded attitude. It would appear that the editors and contributors to the magazine would suggest that to belong to any particular religion, particularly evangelical Christianity requires the individual to commit intellectual suicide. However, a recent edition of Harper's included an editorial criticizing the narrow minded view of science - in particular the branch(es) of science and 'scientists' (Dawkins for one) that would argue logic proves the non-existence of God or mystery which transcends humanity. The article also offered visions of the possibility of the openness offered by genuine spirituality (not religion). Some quotes are below:
"The (scientific) theories that we possess are magnificent...difficult, sometimes phenomenally accurate. But, they also make up a tantalizingly inconsistent scheme of things. This has made the world more mysterious than it ever was. We now know better than we did what we do not know and have not grasped. Beyond the trivial we have not other doctrines. We (Science) can say nothing of interest of the human soul. We do not know what impels us to right conduct of where the form of the good is found. On these and many other points as well, the great scientific theories have lapsed. The more sophisticated the theories, the more inadequate they are. This is a reason to cherish them. They have enlarged and not diminished our sense of the sublime."
"If science stands opposed to religion, it is not because of anything contained in either the premises or the conclusion of the great scientific theories. The do not mention a word about God. They do not treat of any faith beyond the one that they themselves demand. They compel no ritual beyond the usual rituals of academic life, and these involve nothing more than the worship of what is widely worshipped. Confident assertions by scientists that in the privacy of their chambers they have demonstrated that God does not exist have nothing to do with science, and even less to do with God's existence."
And, my favourite:
"While science has nothing of value to say on the great and aching questions of life, death, love, and meaning, the religious traditions of mankind have a good deal to say, and what they do say forms a coherent body of thought. The yearnings of the human soul are not in vain. There is a system of belief adequate to the complexity of experience. There is recompense for suffering. A principle beyond selfishness is at work in the cosmos. All will be well. I do not know whether any of this is true. I am certain that the scientific community does not know that it is false."
