tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8501799411663758190.post7303595883911878805..comments2016-10-17T00:03:35.516-07:00Comments on Cafe-philo at South Kensington: Crucifixionxiaoweihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05410549531710952189noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8501799411663758190.post-83862037599461921832010-09-03T14:07:47.164-07:002010-09-03T14:07:47.164-07:00Whoops, I should not have relied on a second-hand ...Whoops, I should not have relied on a second-hand newspaper account. What Jonathan Sacks actually said (The Times, 3 September 2010, page 27) is immune to the criticism I made above. His words were: "The Bible is relatively uninterested in how the Universe came into being. It devotes a mere 34 verses to the subject".<br /><br />However, he also said, in the same article: "The mutual hostility between religion and science is one of the curses of our age, and is damaging to religion and science in equal measure". I cannot see how the last part of that claim can be even remotely plausible. The hostility may be damaging to religion, but science does not suffer in the least.Richard Baronhttp://www.rbphilo.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8501799411663758190.post-63136111070601375372010-09-03T07:38:43.663-07:002010-09-03T07:38:43.663-07:00In this age of enlightenment of the 21st century, ...In this age of enlightenment of the 21st century, only the likes of Tony Blair and George Bush would still pray to their God...xiaoweihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05410549531710952189noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8501799411663758190.post-26231145943466875792010-09-03T01:59:40.231-07:002010-09-03T01:59:40.231-07:00There has, of course, been much work done to const...There has, of course, been much work done to construct elaborate theologies of the Trinity, and to deal with points such as those that you raise. I see such work as an attempt to reduce the gap between a hypothetical adequate account of God, an account that would be incomprehensible to human beings, and our understanding, using concepts like "love" and "sacrifice" to build out from our end. Where difficulties arise, as with God's foreknowledge, one has to pile on the epicycles.<br /><br />The failure to produce anything that will satisfy everyone, despite centuries of effort, the abundance of epicycles, and the absence of decent evidence for the existence of God, suggest to me that we should give up and be atheists (as I am).<br /><br />Joke of the day: Jonathan Sacks, responding to Stephen Hawking, is quoted as saying "The Bible simply isn’t interested in how the Universe came into being". So what is the opening of Genesis all about, then?<br /><br />(I have the Sacks quote from the Telegraph website, but it seems that the ultimate source is the Times.)Richard Baronhttp://www.rbphilo.comnoreply@blogger.com