Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!dimacs.rutgers.edu!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: cole@maverick.uswest.com (Cole Keirsey) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: understanding the Bible Message-ID: Date: 22 Jun 91 04:27:48 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Lines: 31 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu John Clark writes: > >[non-religious] researchers offer a explanation of why(or how) people >develop the diety concept and of course they are not eoeo-centric'. Which is >probably you real criticism. > "Eoeo-centric" is a new one on me -- from context, I take it to mean God-centered. I'm not necessarily critical of of scientific research that isn't God-centered. I think the big bang and the evolution of species are perfectly reasonable theories about the physical universe. (IMHO, creationists are wasting their energy on an argument that isn't very important to faith.) I believe that our relationship to God is spiritual, and we shouldn't look to the physical sciences for direct evidence of that relationship. Of course, many people who have faith see evidence of God's love throughout their experience. When a cultural anthropologist undertakes to explain humanity's relationship to God scientifically, things get complicated. In the case in question, I think the author should have said at the outset "I believe that God exists only as a human concept." Instead, that assumption about God was hidden in the conclusions, which were presented as based solely on the scientific evidence. I criticized the research, not for its humanist point of view, but for dishonesty. By the same token, if a researcher who believed in God were doing the same research, he or she should state that point of view. I see no reason to accept as a matter of course that a researcher's explanation of faith should not be God-centered. One reasonable explanation for people's belief in God is that God exists. I think it's a myth that doing scientific research is incompatible with faith in God.