Re: an article you may both hate. or like.
I think religion plays a m=jor positive role in many lives. . i dont like fanaticism on either =ide. . sorry
P=. My piece argued against fanaticism.
Lawrence M. Krauss
Director= The Origins Project at ASU
Foundation Professor
School of Eart= & Space Exploration and Physics Department
Arizona State University,, C240.0. Box 871404, Tempe, AZ 85287.14=4
Research Office: • I , Assistant (Jessica): Origins Office (Cynthia):
<to
origins.asu.edu http://origins.asu.edu/ | twitter.com/ http://twitter.com/lkra=ss1 | krauss.faculty.asu.ed=
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Sent from my iPhone
Thanks for sending. A wide areatof agreement, but not total.
On confronting dogma, I of course agr=e — though in my opinion the secular religions — nationali=t fanaticism, etc. — are much more dangerous. And if some fi=d rational discussion offensive — as, for example,
mainstream academ=cs find dismantling myths of "American exceptionalism" or =E2+4>Israeli self-defense" or Obama's mass murder campa=gn, etc., offensive — so be it.
But I don't see why that shou=d extend to ridicule. That includes astrologists. Astronomers =an refute astrology, while recognizing that perfectly honest and deluded people may believe it and should be treated with respect, while th=ir beliefs are confronted with evidence. I also don't see wh= we should ridicule religious dogma, just as I don't think we shou=d ridicule the much more pernicious secular dogmas. Rather, we should respond to irrational belief with argument and evidence,=while recognizing that their advocates (like most of the intellectual worl= in the case of secular dogma) are people who we should be responding to b=t without ridiculing them. It may be hard sometimes. For example, when the icon and founding fathe= of sober non-sentimental Realism in International Affairs informs us that=the US, unlike other countries, has a "transcendental purpose,40=80, and the fact that it constantly acts in contradiction to its purpose doesn't matter because the facts are just "=buse of history" while real history is "the evidence of history as our minds reflect=it," then it's hard to avoid ridicule. But we should= There's no point ridiculing virtually the entire IR profession and=the major journals, even though such extraordinary irrationality leads to =ajar human disasters.
On Davis, I frankly think that*=99s a non-issue. If she decides she cannot do her job as the conditi=ns of employment require (including following the law), then she can quit and look for another job. As in any other such case.
you can invite depp to visit us when you are in the caribe=n