[Buddha-l] science #3

[Dan Lusthaus]

Erik Hoogcarspel carped,

>Maybe you should stop listening to mullahs and rabbi's and read a book
about science.

Is that an either/or?

 >Medieval times and Enlightenment are over, we live in the postmodern era
now.

Are you an irremediably ignorant fellow, or do you just play one on email
lists? As I made clear a number of times in those posts, they were about
rhetorical strategies for addressing the zealous rightwing religious idiots
who are hell bent on returning western culture to the middle ages. Their
numbers and political power in the US today are formidable, so they can't be
ignored, and effective strategies need to be forged. I took Richard's
approach as a useful strategy up to point, but suggested there might be a
better (and as it turns out, more historically accurate) strategy available.
If they are going to return us to the middle ages, it can either be the
hate-mongering, witch-burning, Jew and Turk despising one Europe still
perpetuates in various ways, one which despises "science" and knowlege (just
as the religious right in this country is still fighting the American Civil
War, and turning over aspect after aspect of it, e.g., states rights,
federalism), OR with a less confrontational approach it can be one that
embraces science, pluralistic universalism, etc. Imagine if diehard
Christians actually were seduced into doing real science instead of simply
rejecting Darwin, physics, plate techtonics, stem cell research, etc., by
caricaturing it in ignorance ("I don't come from no monkey!). What the
religious right is doing is trying to take us back 500 years, to when faith
and knowledge parted company. The last time knowledge and science triumphed
in the culture at large; this time they want to make sure thatfaith (or
their narrow version of it) wins, plunging us all into another Dark Ages. If
you think that hasn't reached your part of the continent yet, you probably
haven't stepped outside lately with your eyes open.

No one lives in a postmodern world. To call anything postmodern is to say
one is only looking backward (post-) at a past one no longer is comfortable
with or belongs to, but has no idea where to go from here -- which is to
cede control of the future to others, such as the religious zealots who at
least know what they want the future (and present) to look like.

Once you figure out how to tell the difference between rhetorical strategies
and personal convictions, you may be ready to re-read what I wrote and
recognize it had nothing to do with my personal beliefs, whatever they might
be. I do not bow to Allah or mullas five times a day. Nor do I practice
science. I do, from time to time, study nonwestern and western history, and
think more modern or postmodern people would have a better clue about who
they are and what they think if they recognized that they are merely
historical embodiments (Yogacara Buddhists called that vasananas, Husserl
called it sedimentation).

Dan Lusthaus