Hi David B, Roger, others,
Being upset that morals and physical science don't mix makes almost as
little sense as being upset that oil and water don't mix. You're better
off accepting it. Attempts to re-integrate the former are compelling for
about 5 seconds, which is also about how long it takes for oil and water to
separate again after a vigorous stir. Just because Aristotle's science and
Christian theology were wedded and Galileo's science and Christian theology
were not, doesn't imply a "defect" or "contradiction" in Galileo's science
or his style of thinking. Even the Church, afterall, did not claim his
telescope showed up any morals.
On the contrary, the pock-marked blemishes found on the moon by Galileo's
telescope showed that the defect was with the Aristotlan/Christian view that
says the Moon is a perfect celestial body. It showed that the comfy,
touchy-feely Aristotlan/Christian view was based on ignorance and its
staying power was due to people's unflinching belief in its infallibility.
In order to integrate Galilean science with a spiritual world-view, you'd
have to somehow explain the moral purpose of thousands of lunar crater
impacts, not to mention the myriad other physical processes that don't
appear moral "under the microscope". Granted, you can brainwash people into
believing anything, such as "molecules are morals", but this just dulls and
erodes the normal meaning of morality and shoe-horns a reconciliation.
Ultimately this isn't any better than the Aristotlan/Christian worldview -
a worldview based more on wishful thinking than empiricism.
Glenn
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