An interesting article putting forward a hypothesis concerning a social balance that I’d say is most likely true. Sadly, the author stayed on the safe turf of history and stopped short of taking the hypothesis to its’ logical conclusion in regards to the specifics of the modern Western world.
That category of thought known as Religion, which draws its’ social power by providing the framework and vocabulary of the ethics which collectively create the morality of a society, is indeed in distress. The factor the author does not mention is that unlike what is found in history this conflict is not between competing deities. From a social perspective a genuine faith in Jehovah or an equally sincere faith in Gaia makes no difference whatsoever… either will serve the same social need. The conflict debilitating modern society is between any faith based in and on that which transcends mortality and the ever enlarging fraction who trust the functions of faith to a purely mortal power known as science.
The most basic principles of Faith and Science are not compatible, not in a social sense, one really cannot do the job of the other. The state of modern society makes a pretty solid proof of that statement. Psychology cannot do the job of Jehovah, micro biology makes a sorry substitute for Gaia. But… until people understand the true function of faith in society it will be impossible to explain to them why science cannot take the place of what they don’t understand in the first place. They’ll be totally vulnerable to being manipulated into any form of totalitarianism imaginable.
April 6, 2022 @ 7:00 pm
An interesting article putting forward a hypothesis concerning a social balance that I’d say is most likely true. Sadly, the author stayed on the safe turf of history and stopped short of taking the hypothesis to its’ logical conclusion in regards to the specifics of the modern Western world.
That category of thought known as Religion, which draws its’ social power by providing the framework and vocabulary of the ethics which collectively create the morality of a society, is indeed in distress. The factor the author does not mention is that unlike what is found in history this conflict is not between competing deities. From a social perspective a genuine faith in Jehovah or an equally sincere faith in Gaia makes no difference whatsoever… either will serve the same social need. The conflict debilitating modern society is between any faith based in and on that which transcends mortality and the ever enlarging fraction who trust the functions of faith to a purely mortal power known as science.
The most basic principles of Faith and Science are not compatible, not in a social sense, one really cannot do the job of the other. The state of modern society makes a pretty solid proof of that statement. Psychology cannot do the job of Jehovah, micro biology makes a sorry substitute for Gaia. But… until people understand the true function of faith in society it will be impossible to explain to them why science cannot take the place of what they don’t understand in the first place. They’ll be totally vulnerable to being manipulated into any form of totalitarianism imaginable.