The Gazette recently published a short letter from Peter Kidd, in which he extols the virtues of a life with Christ. In the interests of fairness and balance, I have written a short letter to recommend a life of science instead.
Science has a lot going for it. Modern medicine, automobiles, indoor plumbing -- all these were brought to you by men and women using their brains, not by praying but by thinking.
Science is a method of understanding the universe based on observation of real evidence, not wishful thinking. There are not imaginary friends involved.
I would recommend, that if any reader is confused about the world, they should go to their local bookstore or library and delve into the world of science.
Any book will do for starters, but I would mention those by Carl Sagan, Dr. Karl, Michio Kaku, and Oliver Sachs, as they are not just informative, but also highly entertaining. Science has the real aanswers. Happy thinking!
If you want to reply the editor is at the following email.
editorial.bmgazette@ruralpress.com
My own reply is below:
If Mr Tankard wants to spend his life contemplating indoor plumbing, I guess that is his lookout; but science only gets us so far. It is great at its job of helping us understand how the world operates, but it tells us nothing about our relationships with each other and our past. For that you need history; that tells us where we came from and how.
Mr Tankard jibes at the Christian perspective, but it is this that has given us the history that takes us back to our Creator. On this basis we come, not from meaningless matter bumping around in a pond, but the intention of someone who made us purposively: God, of course.
Interestingly it is only on the basis of this Biblical view of creation that modern science has emerged in the first place. Before it observation of the natural world was either mired in myth and superstition, or was simply contemplated as a theoretical curiosity; such as in Ancient Greece, where science was 'still born' and had few practical outcomes.
Thus Christians didn't pray and not observe, but because they prayed, they could observe and draw conclusions not based on wild speculations.
So, Ben, you settle down with your indoor plumbing; I'll sit with the words of our Creator who invites us to a realist understanding of life, the cosmos and relationships within it.
