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To: DaveLoneRanger
Science can sometimes be a devil's bargain: a discovery is made, some new aspect of nature is revealed, but the knowledge gained can cause mental anguish if it contradicts a deeply cherished belief or value.

The fellow writes this as if it applies to only one side. :-)

9 posted on 09/22/2005 5:11:36 AM PDT by Tribune7
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To: Tribune7
The fellow writes this as if it applies to only one side.

No, actually he doesn't--but the snip I had to make to fit the extract into 300 words meant sacrificing the short paragraph in which he gives other examples for context; sorry if my truncation here caused confusion on this point.

The history of science is full of unedifying tantrums and bouts of "mental anguish" by scientists who found out they were barking up the wrong tree (cf. cold fusion)--but those are cases where science invalidated their faulty findings. The current issue--ID--isn't about a scientific challenge, it's about an ill-intentioned attempt to either require science to confirm one narrow set of religious doctrines, or else to dispense with science altother.

10 posted on 09/22/2005 5:43:21 AM PDT by SeaLion ("Belief in a cruel God makes a cruel man" -- Thomas Paine)
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