Worth Re: [FoRK] Faith and/or Science - Newton et al

[Jeff Bone]

On Nov 28, 2007, at 6:42 PM, Luis Villa wrote:

> On Nov 28, 2007 7:33 PM, Jeff Bone <jbone at place.org> wrote:
>>
>> On Nov 28, 2007, at 5:29 PM, Tom Higgins wrote:
>>
>>> On Nov 28, 2007 1:50 PM, Dr. Ernie Prabhakar
>>> <drernie at radicalcentrism.org> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Religion is about creating shared meaning, and that cuts both ways.
>>>
>>> That is an interesting definition of religion.
>>
>> Indeed it is, particularly given how ABOMINABLY BAD religion has
>> been, historically, at achieving that stated end ("shared meaning")
>> and how very precisely science-as-method is a means of achieving the
>> same thing far more reliably.
>
> Uh... meaning? Science does a lot of things, and I love science, but
> it is pretty bad at creating meaning.

Though it occurs to me that I may have conceded your point too  
easily.  Science does indeed create --- and is the only reliable  
mechanism for creating any form of --- "shared meaning."  If  
"meaning" is the interpretation of input data, then indeed --- a  
duplicable, rigorous process of observation and measurement can  
ensure, for example, that you and I "mean" the same thing when we  
refer to "the color red."  Etc.

And that kind of meaning, I would say, is the only kind of meaning  
that is meaningful.


jb