I can imagine there are many on this list who are going to groan at the=
sight of yet another post dealing with the religion question, but I can't=
help myself. I'm finding it one of the more interesting threads we've seen=
in a while. I think it's very appropriate to explore the potential=
spiritual aspects of science and agriculture. I was especially impressed=
with Dennis' observation that science in America has been elevated to dogma=
(a religion in itself) and that is the reason we are the only country=
debating evolution vs creation. I would modify that to say that science has=
been elevated to dogma throughout the whole world, but America is the only=
country where Christians are still strong enough or free enough to argue=
the point.=20
What I don't understand is the assumption that faith and the acceptance of=
God and absolute truth have to result in the end of critical thinking. I=
imagine the whole wing of the Jesuit priesthood, men of faith who somehow=
manage to think their way through numerous PhDs, scoff at this notion. Many=
of our most famous scientists from long ago made huge advances in thinking=
despite the fact that they were devout Christians. The consensus of the=
scientists who have contributed to this thread seems to be that those who=
believe in absolute truth have skipped ahead to the end of the book (the=
wrong book) to read the last page and then in laziness put the book down. I=
want to suggest that the acceptance of the existence of God and absolute=
truth is a starting point, a presupposition, just like belief in no God and=
no absolute truth is a presupposition. I would also argue that the blind=
acceptance of the latter presupposition is just as non-scientific as the=
blind acceptance of the former. Neither can be proven or disprove. Both=
have to be accepted by faith as true. Secular scientists don't believe in=
God because they don't want to believe in God, not because the "hypothesis"=
of God has been rejected scientifically.=20
As a Christian, I can spend my whole life using the tools of science to=
investigate how the world works, think just as critically about=
agriculture/biological processes and get just as far down the road as a=
secular scientist/thinker. Where Christian presuppositions do "inhibit" my=
thinking is in the moral/ethical/social realm. I believe there is right and=
wrong. I believe God gave us rules for living and relating to one another.=
I accept these rules by faith, but believe they are also logical and work=
when people understand and adhere to them. These rules provide boundaries=
to behavior, not boundaries to thinking. I would suggest that such moral=
rules are inherent to a sustainable agriculture. Sustainable agriculture is=
agriculture with social and environmental boundaries that will have to=
based on some moral imperative. Science alone is ill equipped to provide=
such imperatives. It gets too bogged down in the variation and the=
pseudo-moral obsession with not offending ANYone.=20
Modern ag has been dominated by scientific application without moral=
boundaries. Ag development in the western world has been guided by the sole=
ethic of Increased Production (money). Now we're trying to justify the=
expansion of that to developing countries with a "Feed the World" cause.=
Believe me, money is still at the heart of it. We need additional rules for=
behavior if we're going to do this without destroying the earth and=
ourselves in the process. For rules to work they have to come from a higher=
authority. They must be imposed from outside ourselves (and that includes=
our science). Thus the need for God.=20
<bold>Dan Anderson
</bold>Agroecology/Sustainable Agriculture Program
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Dept. of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences
W-503 Turner Hall
1102 S. Goodwin
Urbana, IL 61801 MC-047
217/333-1588
217/333-7370 fax
aslan@uiuc.edu
To Unsubscribe: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command
"unsubscribe sanet-mg". If you receive the digest format, use the command
"unsubscribe sanet-mg-digest".
To Subscribe to Digest: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command
"subscribe sanet-mg-digest".
All messages to sanet-mg are archived at:
http://www.sare.org/htdocs/hypermail