I'd hazard a guess, but its application to our friends RWP and js1138 would be pure speculation, and therefore not to be indulged.
Still, having said that, I am keenly aware that at least some people nowadays place their faith in science because they believe that it has the ability to explain the world without God. Our friend b_sharp expressed this idea very well in noting that (to paraphrase) as the sphere of science expands, the sphere of God shrinks. I think it's clear that this theme is evident in Richard Dawkin's public commentaries on his own work. For whatever reason, or maybe no reason at all, some folks are convinced that God is not necessary to human purposes at all, nor to the origin and structure of the Universe, nor to the very foundation of truth and reason.
If people are convinced in this manner, then how can they be reasoned with by folks of opposite worldview, who believe that, without God, the Universe could neither have come into existence, nor maintain itself as a Universe ever since? Etc. There are other dimensions to this issue, but these remarks are probably the most basic to our present concerns.
Whatever. I pray for God's grace and light on all of the parties to these debates. And I thank my friends for taking the time to write to me every now and then.
You don't need to guess. I am tired of having ascribed to naturalists the most idiotic caricatures of reductionist views, rather than an honest discussion of their actual arguments. I am tired of seeing the same old slurs against intellectuals like Pinker. I am tired of sanctimony.
If people are convinced in this manner, then how can they be reasoned with by folks of opposite worldview, who believe that, without God, the Universe could neither have come into existence, nor maintain itself as a Universe ever since? Etc. There are other dimensions to this issue, but these remarks are probably the most basic to our present concerns.