Sunday, March 6, 2011

Philosophy Wire: Alien bacteria, human, Dawkins and the exploitation of discoveries


Philosophy Wire by Spiros Kakos [2011-03-06]: An astrophysicist claims that he discovered fossils of alien bacteria in a section of a meteorite. The same scientist believes that life is very common in the universe. What are the implications of the discovery of life in the universe, something which seems not far away? If life is so common everywhere in the universe, what does this mean for the (authentic) religion and (true) science? Authentic religion deals with morality and human values and those do not change with a SEM analysis of a meteorite. And true science deals with modeling interpretation of the world and has nothing to do with questions of purpose. For many years we have experienced the exploitation of such discoveries by people like Dawkins, who like to "prove" how "insignificant" is the man in the universe (and to sell some books ... of course). Whatever the meaning of this discovery is, let's hope that it becomes the cause of new bright thoughts and not the cause of new doctrines from either side...

PS. One can read the astrophysicist's publication here.

Articles for further reading
The limits of science

Evolution and Intelligent Design - The way to an agreement

Harmonia Philosophica [English]

Religion and Science unification - Towards religional science

Earth at the Center of the Universe?


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