BEGINNING WITH CONCLUSIONS

As I listened to the Engines of Our Ingenuity on NPR, I was struck by the commentary on BEGINNING WITH CONCLUSIONS.

Here is a snippet...

We've read so much lately about attempts to turn Intelligent Design into science. I hadn't meant to put my oar in this water; but I realize that all this is much larger than a few people trying to build science upon religious belief. Everywhere we look, we see the same dismaying increase in attempts to build arguments upon foregone conclusions, which can never be disproved. We see it in Internet blogs, religion, science, politics, the law ...

You can read (and hear) the rest here.

The Engines of Our Ingenuity

From the University of Houston...

No. 2229: CHILDREN AND SCIENCE by John H. Lienhard

The part that struck me was this...

"The same's true of our origins: children leap to the obvious notion that animals and humans were created in their final finished form in an instant. Here again, we must work to face the complex mechanics of biology and evolution. Once we do, the process can well become more, rather than less, miraculous. But the hurdle must be met and overcome.

The authors also watch children dealing with scientific facts in a world that sends mixed messages. One would never speak of a belief in gravity; gravity is simply the way things are. Nor would one speak of believing in a round Earth. Once digested, a round Earth is a simple fact of life. But many grownups are still stuck on their childhood view of the Creation. So children learn to see evolution as a belief instead of as a well-grounded scientific fact.

The article mentions a child's bent toward teleology -- explaining things in terms of purpose rather than cause and effect. Asked to explain clouds, a child might say they exist to make rain. Scientific literacy can follow only when that child learns to trace evaporation and condensation. It can follow only when she learns to trust the scientific process that reveals workings of the brain, of evolution, or of our lovely round planet's gravitational field."

Read the whole episode here.

The Engines of Our Ingenuity is a radio program that tells the story of how our culture is formed by human creativity. Written and hosted by John Lienhard, it is heard nationally on Public Radio and produced by KUHF-FM Houston. Among other features, this web site houses the transcripts for every episode heard since the show's inception in 1988.

Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori on NPR

Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori was interviewed on NPR on Sunday. You can listen to it here. It is a very good interview. The interview runs just under 9 minutes. Around 8 minutes in, we have the following exchange:

Bishop Katharine: "I think my leadership, in this season, is about reminding the Church of its mission, its broader mission. Reconciling people over issues of sexuality is a piece of our work, but the larger piece is about human suffering around the world."

Norris: "Do you think there's too much emphasis being put on the debate over homosexuality in the Church?"

Bishop Katharine: "It's a very easy way to neglect, to ignore, the other suffering in the world. It's important but it's not the centerpiece of what we're about."

Norris: "What other reforms do you hope to bring to the Church under your leadership?"

Bishop Katharine: "I think my basic hope is that we remember that, as the Archbishop of Canterbury in the 40's said, the Church is the only institution that exists primarily for the benefit of those who are not its members, that our focus needs not to be so much on internal politics but on serving the world, on helping to heal a world that's broken."

(Thanks to the Admiral of Morality for the snippet.)