I am glad you agree that it is okay to have personal convictions. After all, perhaps all that we call the sciences, today, got their beginning when someone started with a personal conviction that such and such could be possible. Too bad many of the early scientists--some of them clergy--for example, Copernicus--had to suffer, and not just ridicule, for their convictions.

I like the saying, which I think Will R. Durant uses in is his great STORY OF PHILOSOPHY: All science begins as a philosophy and ends as an art. This is why I believe we always need to make room for the "not quite sciences", yet.

BTW, who here is willing to actually say: "I am not a spiritual and human being. I am not a soul, a free and unique individual--one who has some self-awareness that I am me and not someone else. I am simply a clever, domesticated animal.

Any time someone more clever than I chooses, they are free to own and use me. I hope to be lucky enough to be someone's pet. I hope I will at least get a rich owner who is willing to feed me well and take me for my daily walk." smile laugh

Last edited by Revlgking; 07/03/07 05:07 AM.