"Bridging the Chasm between Two Cultures"

[Fredrik]

Interesting article, in case you haven't read it already.

[myk]

I hear ya. The account reminds me of certain points touched in this thread, both in theory and in practice.

[exp(x)]

We love to say that we embrace mystery in the New Age culture, but that's a cultural conceit and it's utterly wrong. In actual fact, we have no tolerance whatsoever for mystery. Everything from the smallest individual action to the largest movements in the evolution of the planet has a specific metaphysical or mystical cause. In my opinion, this incapacity to tolerate mystery is a direct result of my culture's disavowal of the intellect. One of the most frightening things about attaining the capacity to think skeptically and critically is that so many things don't have clear answers. Critical thinkers and skeptics don't create answers just to manage their anxiety

Quoted for truth. Thanks for the link; that was a good essay.

[Piezo]

Too bad it wasn't about one of the more popular religions.

[pritch]

A good article, similar to divides between different schools of literary criticism around right now, identifiable in the divergent romantic period revisionists for one. It's interesting how many things actually boil down to some essentials listed in this article in the search for discoursive 'truth'.

[Sharessa]

Too bad she acted like there were only two souch cultures.

Personaly, I like to take a good mix of science and spirituality. People who stick to either side of the spectrum tend to be very dogmatic and close-minded.

[myk]

Danarchy said:
Personaly, I like to take a good mix of science and spirituality. People who stick to either side of the spectrum tend to be very dogmatic and close-minded.

Dogmatism can be quite eclectic, and usually is so. When you aren't really critical, you mix things that should not reasonably go together. The article is precisely pointing to the issue where after specialization and thorough investigation you must discard intellectual structures wholesale or else wade in a mishmash of nowhere. Science is the anathema of spiritualism, if anything. Religious scientists of any importance separate their spiritual considerations from science to such a point that their religious practice is not affected by science, and their religious learning does not inhibit their observation, the same way someone may be able to separate their sex life from their studies.