paisano writes:
The question proposed for discussion is based on the following observations:
1) Fundamentalists tend to advocate faith ,or mysticism, as superior to reason and the scientific method.
Not necessarily. Fundamentalism does believe that the source of creative wisdom originates from God and not from Man. Humans did not "invent" God, thus the issue is what our faith is in.
2) Fundamentalists tend to insist that if scientific data conflict with their religious texts or dogmas (as interpreted by the fundamentalists), the religious text or dogma is to be preferred as the arbiter of truth.
I don't always do this. I am not so naive as to dismiss scientific progress, but my faith is strong enough that I am not so naive or vain soas to dismiss a supernatural realm unproven and undocumented by human wisdom. I merely contend that human wisdom should not be the final arbitrator or yardstick of proof.
3) Nevertheless, most fundamentalists usually have no qualms about taking advantage of technologies that could not have been developed without the scientific concepts that conflict with their religious concepts.
So? What good would it do to try and navigate through the city with a horse and buggy? We are not trying to save the planet!
(Although it is best not to be a hog and drive an SUV with a WWJD bumper sticker either!)
Some examples of this are, antibiotics and evolution, computers and quantum physics, petroleum and mainstream geology.
More generally ,many fundamentalists regard the process of open scientific inquiry as inimical to , and in conflict with, their religious beliefs.
In conflict only in that we maintain our God (faith) as the penultimate source of true wisdom)
I propose a discussion of the following questions:
Is the use of technologies by fundamentalists, that depend on fundamentalist-rejected science, hypocritical or a form of intellectual freeloading?
Only if we bash science in general.
Would fundamentalists who reject scientific reasoning in favor of faith or mysticism based epistemologies, be more intellectualy honest to adopt lifestyles that exclude the use of modern technologies that depend on the scientific reasoning they reject, much as the Amish do ?
Personally, I don't think so. The world is irrelevant in the matter of things. The world is only relevant in the matter of the souls and destinies of its people.