From ronc Mon May  8 18:49:04 1995
Date: Mon, 8 May 95 18:47 BST
From: ronc (Ron Chrisley)
To: letters@guardian.co.uk, ronc
Subject: letter submission


Peter Lennon ("Science's New God Squad", May 3) seems bent on
preserving his cosy atheistic beliefs, no matter what the evidence,
scientific or otherwise, to the contrary.  Worse, his use of the first
person plural smugly assumes that the majority of Guardian readers are
willing to join him in his rationalizations.  But I believe that
Guardian readers are more sophisticated, and more honest, than that.
The modern view does not in itself deem the spiritual invalid; rather
it enjoins us to follow where reason and experience lead, even if they
lead to theism.  Lennon's misunderstanding of science (e.g. he thinks
Newton and Einstein, unlike the God Squad, "could prove their
theories", when in fact, as Popper pointed out, scientific theories
can only be disconfirmed, not proven) suggests that he is not the best
one to determine where it is that reason is taking us.  Given this,
and his a priori rejection of the new theories on offer, I suggest
that Lennon, and any who might agree with him, give up the pretense of
basing their atheism on scientific fact, and recognize it for what it
is: mere irrational opinion.  Then they will no longer be a hostage to
scientifc fortune; and they may rest secure in the belief that their
views are right, inconvenient scientific evidence to the contrary be
damned.

Ronald L. Chrisley (ronc@cogs.susx.ac.uk)
School of Cognitive & Computing Sciences             Tel: +44 273 678 581
University of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9QH, UK           Fax: +44 273 671 320
http://www.cogs.susx.ac.uk/users/ronc/index.html