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From: laura@utcsstat.UUCP (Laura Creighton)
Newsgroups: net.misc,net.religion,net.philosophy,net.physics
Subject: Re: Can Creationists Contribute to Science?
Message-ID: <1614@utcsstat.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 7-Jan-84 06:17:56 EST
Article-I.D.: utcsstat.1614
Posted: Sat Jan  7 06:17:56 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 7-Jan-84 06:43:25 EST
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Organization: U. of Toronto, Canada
Lines: 77

Laura Creighton, the addled philosopher here. :-) 
What Steve says is very true. Moreover, I am prepared to prove it.
for those of you who are reading this in net.religion, Russell
Anderson has presented a lovely intorduction to the Patristic
period and has begun to show how Christianity has been influenced
by Greek philosophy. I am going to do one further and discuss
how more modern philosophy has influenced both science and
religion. 

What prompted me to do this was the Fundamental statements in the
article "can Creationists contribute to Science". they are pretty
good postulates to believe in, but you don't have to. In 
particular, the British Empiricists *didn't* believe in them.
They got an awful lot of science done. Therefore, these
postulates do not adequately describe science. 

Now these postulates can be traced back to Descartes. (Actually
you can trace them further, but I want to start with Descartes
so that is where I am going to start). Then I am going to
present an Empirical viewpoint. Finally I am going to present
Hegel (a rationalist) an Kierkegaard (and existentialist).
Now it is quite possible to spend all of your life discussing,
analysing and thinking about any of these men, so when I say
"I am going to present" what I really mean is that I am going to
give a capsul summary. I will tell you where i got what I am saying
so that you can go look this up.

The fundamental problem (the way I see it anyway) is most clearly seen
in the conflict between Hegel's "Truth is the Whole" and
Kierkegaard's "Truth is Subjectivity". However, most people I
know don't even know who Kierkegaard and Hegel were, so I am
going to have to present Descartes and Hume (he's a British
Empiricist) or Berkeley (he's another British Empiricist, and
he pronounces his name "Barkly" *not* like the place where 
4.1 bsd comes from) so that these people can understand what
these people mean.

So expect one article on Descartes, one on Hume and/or Berkeley
and either one on Hegel and one of Kierkegaard or, more likely,
one on both. Those of you who know who these people are
probably know what I am going to say as well. You can either
use your 'n' key, or read them and add to them, or read them
and *don't* add to them, or pick nits. I don't care.

For those of you that are still interested: WHERE. 

I am getting out of net.physics. (Loud cheer from the people
who wish I were already out -- I hear it now). I am also
getting out of net.misc. Steve, you are going to have to
read it in net.philosophy or net.religion if you are
interested, because I am leaving it both places. Posting it
to net.misc will not save me from the nit-pickers -- they
follow me wherever I go.

For those of you who are reading this in net.religion -- yes,
I am going to post Descartes' proof for the existance of God,
be patient, it has been a long week and I've been busy.

Lastly, there is a subset of you who think that philosophy has
nothing to do with religion and that I should get out of net.religion 
as well. I am attempting to post something which should change your
mind about this, but I have tried changing people's minds in
net.religion before and I know that it doesn't work all that well.
Or at any rate, that I am not very good at it.

Will those of you who morally obligated to send me mail
explaining to me that philosophy has nothing to do with religion
and so I should stop posting this swill to net.religion please
use a descriptive Subject: line in your mail? That way I can
delete all of those messages without bothering to read them.
Don't expect a reply.

Hmm. While I am at it, the same goes for those who want to
call me a Satanist. you can do that in the Subject: line as well.

Laura Creighton
utzoo!utcsstat!laura