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From: mmt@dciem.UUCP (Martin Taylor)
Newsgroups: net.followup
Subject: Re: Faith, Science, and Andy Tannenbaum
Message-ID: <488@dciem.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 17-Nov-83 16:58:57 EST
Article-I.D.: dciem.488
Posted: Thu Nov 17 16:58:57 1983
Date-Received: Thu, 17-Nov-83 17:26:40 EST
References: <774@ihuxr.UUCP>
Organization: D.C.I.E.M., Toronto, Canada
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I think (or rather, hope) that Lew Mammel misinterpreted Andy's
"I find it just as odd to hear a scientist tell me that
the world is a few billion years old as it is to hear a rabbi tell me
that the world is 5744 years old, if not more so.  The scientist is
trying to represent the truth, the rabbi is trying to tell me that this
is what faith has him believe."

Andy's comment strikes a strong chord in me, although I would not
for a moment believe the "religious" statement. Science is the
art of wonder. It is indeed odd that the facts have led to such
a wonderful conclusion as that the world is 4 billion years old.
Think of it! Four ... thousand ... million ... years.

Science forces you to believe that this result is the current best
interpretation of the facts we have at hand. It is a much more
wonderful deduction than the mundane idea that it all happened because
of a whim of some Creator a few thousand years ago. Anyone could
dream up that idea; it isn't wonderful at all. But it is "odd"
to hear somebody espouse it as a reasonable statement.

Personally, I find it extremely odd that I can hear an orchestra
when I know that the source of the sound is a vibrating membrane.
It is even odder that someone could have predicted that it would
happen.

Martin Taylor