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Finally, a President with Faith in Science
I couldn't agree more with President Obama and his decision to restore scientific inquiry and integrity. And I can't help but say the obvious: it's been a long eight years of hearing another claim made in the name of "faith."
The Bush administration often staked the claim that it was speaking for all people of faith, or the right-thinking people of faith, when it injected a particular point of view into the moral mix. At least, President Obama speaks in the singular "a person" of faith, and he makes his position with the words "I believe."
When you consider that only a plurality of Americans believe in evolution, the President is taking a leadership position -- for education and human reason. Shame on the churches generally, and particularly on those who have influenced people to think that science and faith in God are incompatible.
I feel strongly called to speak from within my own faith tradition that science as a disciplined way to pursue knowledge is something we need to promote always and defend when necessary. I believe it's a positive plank of our credo, not some rebellion against it.
Of course, just as we're free to plumb the depths of creation, we're conscientiously called to wonder where our limits are, and when we may go too far. Many progressive faith communities assert that we've gone too far in warming and abusing the planet. In stem cell research or in using science to enhance methods of destruction--to name just two areas -- the place where we exceed our limits in a place for moral and ethical wariness.
After all, as President Obama has observed from his reading of the 20th century Christian theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, if there was an original sin, it was denial of our "finitude," our limits. We may be given very wide berth to explore, but there is a line.
I think the President has wisely put us back to work both to do good with our science and to stay conscientiously restless about where that line is.
By
William Tully
|
March 10, 2009; 12:28 AM ET
| Category:
Morality
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Posted by: colinnicholas | March 18, 2009 12:02 PM
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"Finally, a President with Faith in Science"
Back that statement up and see if the 10 patients who are about to be tested with embryonic stem cells will be cured or die of cancer.
Bush did not ban embryonic stem cell research . There were a set stem cell lines which were made available. It was a better setup because there was some form of "uniformity" because everyone was studying the same stem cell line.
NOw everyone has different lines and therefore will complicate the research results.
Evolutionist biologists are stupid. The same can be said of religions which believe in evolution.
Posted by: spidermean2 | March 18, 2009 10:29 AM
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Still, I can't believe Obama actually believes in the mighty skygod. He's way too smart.
But you can't be a successful politician in this country unless you claim to be a believer. It's a bizarre dilemma, and I wouldn't blame him for staying in the atheist closet until he's done being prez.