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The following excerpt is from the writings of George Sarton, the Harvard pre-eminent historian of science in the early 20th century. It fits in well with Cliff Wagner's thoughtful comments.
Al Read, Science Discovery Center of Oneonta (NY)
(from "Four Guiding Ideas" in Sarton, George; Introduction to the History of Science, Vol. 3, part 1, pp. 19-26 (1947) and reprinted in "Sarton on the History of Science", p. 15)
"Science is not distinct from religion or art in being more or less human than they are, but simply because it is the fruit of different needs or tendencies. Religions exist because men are hungry for goodness, for justice, for mercy; the arts exist because men are hungry for beauty; the sciences exist because men are hungry for truth. The division is not as clear-cut as that, but it is sufficient to mark out main oppositions. Think of a triangular pyramid; the people standing on different faces near the base may be very distant from one another, but they come nearer as they climb higher. Bigots, little scientists, mediocre artists may feel very distant from one another, but those whose religion is deeper feel very close to the great artists and the great scientists. The pyramid symbolizes a new kind of trinity culminating in unity."
-----Original Message-----
From: Informal Science Education Network on behalf of Clifford Wagner
Sent: Wed 3/23/2005 11:25 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: IMAX and evolution
ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
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From: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: IMAX and evolution
Date: March 23, 2005 10:49:28 AM EST
To: [log in to unmask]
Anybody remember some guy called Galileo and his struggles when the
science he discovered clashed with the bible?
Jared Diamond in his latest book, "Collapse" gives a great definition
of Science: "Science is the acquisition of reliable knowledge about
our world."
Well, Galileo had reliable knowledge. Even the Catholic church now
thinks so:
One of the first steps of John Paul's papacy, which began in 1978, was
to begin procedures leading to the rehabilitation in 1992 of Galileo,
the Italian astronomer persecuted by the Church for teaching that the
Earth revolved around the sun.
The Inquisition condemned Galileo in 1633 because his teachings
clashed with the Bible, which read: "God fixed the earth upon its
foundation, not to be moved forever." Galileo was rehabilitated after
359 years.
Evolution is reliable knowledge. Scientists don't make this stuff up
to fit preconceived ideas. It comes from studying all the evidence and
figuring out what fits the facts. My personal opinion is that those
of us who believe in God can look at evolution and say Wow! that's how
s/he did it!
Here is a great web resource for Science and Evolution.
http://www.aaas.org/spp/dser/evolution/index.shtml
Their take on this is probably the best route for science centers to
take: science is science and religion is religion.
Science can never prove or disprove there is a God, but science can say
this is the way our world is, whether or not there is a God behind it.
The other fact that gets mentioned with complaints about evolution is
the age of our world. The layers, counting back from present trees,
to layers of dirt and ice to layers of rock laid down, are proof, as
much as science ever has proof, that the Earth and it's biological
world are as old as biologists and geologists say; hundreds of millions
of years for life and five or so billions of years for the planet.
It's the interpretation of the layers that makes sense; we see in our
recent past layers of tree rings and ice, laid down on the yearly cycle
of seasons, match up to the recent layers in stone and get a scientific
idea how to interpret the stone evidence in terms of time.
Irrefutable. Stick up for it. It is reliable knowledge about our
world.
Those who let their religious beliefs deny or try to alter the facts of
science to fit those beliefs make science no longer reliable. Guess
what? It stops being science.
If you give creationism equal billing with evolution please remove the
word science from your name, because you are no longer about science.
Peter Anderson is right. We have to stand on our principals.
We need to write a position statement that we can post for our visitors
to see, most especially for the Science Centers in the most religious
communities, based on Science is Science and Religion is Religion with
a positive tone. I'm not a good writer. Anyone want to do a first
pass to post for feedback and tuning so we all have it as a tool?
Clifford Wagner
On Mar 23, 2005, at 3:18 AM, Peter A. Anderson wrote:
> ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology
> Centers
> Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related
> institutions.
> ***********************************************************************
> ******
>
> Charlie,
>
> If we can't stand on principal on important items because of our
> financial
> support system, surely, we need to work to change that support system
> so that we can stand on the principles.
>
> Being fanatically principled is unproductive indeed; we must roll with
> the
> punches to a degree, but there comes a time .......
>
> Regards, Peter Anderson
>
> ***********************************************************************
> More information about the Informal Science Education Network and the
> Association of Science-Technology Centers may be found at
> http://www.astc.org.
> To remove your e-mail address from the ISEN-ASTC-L list, send the
> message SIGNOFF ISEN-ASTC-L in the BODY of a message to
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More information about the Informal Science Education Network and the
Association of Science-Technology Centers may be found at http://www.astc.org.
To remove your e-mail address from the ISEN-ASTC-L list, send the
message SIGNOFF ISEN-ASTC-L in the BODY of a message to
[log in to unmask]
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More information about the Informal Science Education Network and the
Association of Science-Technology Centers may be found at http://www.astc.org.
To remove your e-mail address from the ISEN-ASTC-L list, send the
message SIGNOFF ISEN-ASTC-L in the BODY of a message to
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