Literary Discussions

THESE VARIOUS THREADS started a week or two ago with this statement:

Lair: The question is, how "good" can a mind be that finds it necessary to believe in imaginary friends? It doesn't seem unreasonable to be suspicious of science produced by people who accept as fact things that are incapable of being proven scientifically.

I disagree with that statement. I believe that it is possible to have a brilliant scientist or mathematician who is also deeply religious. Blaise Pascal is one obvious example. I am sure there are many defiantly Atheist scientists and mathematicians also.

Even Charles Darwin gave serious consideration to a career in the Church of England and wanted to be a country pastor. It was not consuming atheism in his youth which drove him to The Beagle to refute God and Religion by proving Evolution. In fact, when "The Origin of the Species and the Descent of Man" went to press, Darwin assumed that only a few hundred scholars would purchase his work. He was shocked when every butcher, tailor and candlestick maker purchased a copy. As I see it, those trades people did not buy the book because they are driven by reason or logic but because they wanted anything which might discredit an organized religion which seemed to tyrannize them in some fashion.