Revking wrote:

Keep in mind that many of the early scientists, including Copernicus, were also clergy. Galileo remained faithful to his spiritual beliefs, despite being persecuted by obscurants and bigots around him. Blame the bigots, not the church. Sir Isaac Newton was very devout in matters of religion. J.B. Priestly, the co-discoverer of oxygen was a minister. Gregroire Mendel, the founder of genetics, was a monk. And there are many others.

Granted, History remembers those who were able to overcome the adversity of the Church. But, for every Copernicus, how many Hypatia's did we lose? We can never know.

If we are to survive as a species, we need a major change on attitude. Religion, at least Western Religion, teaches that "all will be forgiven", the intimation being that you'll be alright, personally, just Pay The Lady. The facts, our burgeoning population, the massive loss of plant and animal species, and the current ruin of the biosphere, suggest otherwise. We must change our priorities.

I live in a very beautiful part of the World, the South Pacific. We get a lot of Cruise Ships coming here. In 2005, passengers around the World invested 14 Billion dollars on Sea Cruises. Last year, worldwide, 400 billion was spent on cigarettes and 80 billion on Beer. Since 1985 the World Wildlife Fund has donanted 1 billion dollars toward various projects.

Crisis? What Crisis?

Last edited by Wolfman; 05/11/07 05:08 AM.