God, Science, Anarchists, Terrorists
No, the four words in this post's title don't go together. They are, however, subject matter for two interesting and entirely unrelated articles:
1. This one from the NY Times dovetails nicely with some of our recent back and forth regarding evolution, intelligent design, and religion.
2. This article is from the current print edition of The Economist. It's not the sort of article you'd be likely to find anywhere else, as it draws parallels between today's terrorists and yesterday's anarchists, which ain't exactly USA Today material. ("Here's a pie chart on terrorism: 98% of Americans are opposed to terrorism and 2% say they 'don't know' how they feel about it".) I can't comment intelligently regarding how insightful the analysis is, as I'm not much of an expert on European anarchists in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but it's interesting stuff.
And that'll likely do it for my postings for a few days. I'm going to be quite busy through Sunday, so talk amongst yourselves.
posted by Kevlar Pinata @ 11:04 AM
2 comments
2 Comments:
Great articles.
Re: #1. I have never, ever understood why so many people want to be in so many other people's spiritual kitchens. Why can't scientists...good ones...great ones...follow their own spiritual journey that average folks like me are allowed to take? I haven't found my spirituality yet. I search. I seek. But I haven't been personally affronted in the press about why that makes me less of a good psychology student or, prior to that, a good writer or businessperson (I've been both). Why do we need to question the morality (different than spirituality or riligiousity) of scientists? I know I know, dangerous, ethical dilemmas. But good scientists take ethics into account all the time, and why do certain elements of society demand that someone work out these dilemmas in church on a Sunday morning or with a Pastor? I don't like the implication that scientists are Godless creatures any more than I like the implication that God fearing individuals are nutcases. I think both of those groups are in the minority. I think the reality is that most scientists are doing the right thing for the right reasons, and that should leave room for individuals to take their own spiritual journey...which may include NOT taking a journey. Some people are just fine as they are, no? If someone doesn't want to read C.S. Lewis, that's OK by me. It doesn't mean that he or she is a bad or morally bankrupt person. It probably just means that he or she is really, really interested in the results in the test tube, and the experiment is still probably A-OK by many definitions of spirituality (life saving techniques, development of new technologies, etc.).
Re: #2. The world has always been violent. Sometimes much more so than today. (The wild west was no mere myth.) But today, our access to the violence is unprecedented (despite the Govt's and media's censorship of images), and the ability of our leaders to manipulate those images and actions for their own cause is probably at an all-time high. Though that's probably debatable. Nations of millions have shaped historical atrocities for millenia, so we've seen mass manipulation before.
What I take from the article is that maybe these times aren't all that different than other historical times. It's just that we are in these times, and we do have access to technology like never before, so it feels different to us.
Sometimes I think about the summer of 1968, and I get chills thinking about how scary that summer must have been. Vietnam, MLK, RFK, Chicago riots, Kent State, a presidential election...man, everything was going down in '68. That was a scary-ass year. Everything was falling apart.
I don't mean to minimize a terrorist threat or a current war or fear of radical elements...but we've been here before, and most times the radical elements of society were of our own making and contained within our own borders. (Some would say that's true today. Some would also say that I'm absolutely clueless about whatever I'm talking about.) So I guess I'm trying to have faith that we'll dig out of whatever time it is that we are in, and the cycle of peace will rear it's beautiful head once again. Naive? Maybe. But it's my choice.
I am so behind. This is good stuff. I must catch up.
You all rock.
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