[Alamo-Girl]

Thank you so much for your reply! It's good to hear from you, my sister in the Lord!

I agree with your analysis of the underlying cause and that it has always been this way.

IMHO science is at a crossroad because certain subjects it is now tackling will tilt one way or the other depending on which side has the "upper hand" in influence and money.

The subjects include artificial intelligence (consciousness, qualia, epiphenomenons of the physical brain) - information theory (functional complexity, self organizing complexity, abiogenesis) - strong determinism (geometric physics, dualities, string theory, supersymmetry, cosmologies).

IMHO, it could go either way because of political ideology and correctness.

[bondserv]

We can only pray for intellectual honesty on all sides. When I see decisions by President Bush I feel he relies on principles to guide him. (Kyoto, Stem Cell Research, Cloning, AIDS help to Africa...)

Unexpectedly for many conservatives, he chose to aid those suffering souls in Africa, which in principle is the right thing to do. I hope his leadership continues to influence other leaders in science and politics to dictate the courses of future research.