@Comment #373997 by Jerry Coyne on May 7, 2009 at 11:44 am

"Believe me, I thought about going and ranting. But the downside is that I would have had to take Templeton money to do so. In the end, I decided that I'd feel too tainted to do that. And the "discussion" format, especially when the table is loaded with religious apologists and theologians, is not one conducive to promoting non-accommodation of faith and science!"



I completely agree with your position and it is rather distressing that there are any respectable scientist or thinkers who are wasting so much of their precious time on accommodating the incompatible.

I think is this part of a general picture that I describe as the cosy consensus conformity that has blighted modern politics. Many great advances in civilisation have happened through conflict, clashes of ideas as well as the cut 'n' thrust of rational debate but the organisations like the Templeton Foundation exist purely to iron out such differences.

To attend would only legitimise the idea that there is some kind of accommodation to be reached.

Why anyone would want to go probably owes more to the mental acrobatics or torturous excuses that some undergo to justify their blatant double-think and cognitive dissonance.




Dark Matter.