September Reflection

On Saturday night, we gathered at Ruth S.'s apartment for our September reflection with Dr. Kurt Johnson. Constance was researching a Dorothy Thompson online and unexpectedly stumbled across several Humanist Poems by a Dr. Dorothy B. Thompson, a completely different person. We based our discussion around them.

Dr. Thompson's poems, written in the 1930's or so, were in perfect sync with the type of humanism that flourished in that era: a complete denial of religion, and a surety that science and nature are all that there is. As Kurt pointed out, that era was heavily invested in either/or thinking, and today we are moving past that. Science and spirituality can co-exist, just as the physicists have put their argument over the nature of light to rest: "Is light a wave, or is it a particle? It's both, dammit!"

While I agree with Dr. Thompson about religious dogma, I don't agree with her attitude. Her poems portray an arrogant scientist looking down on those foolish people who believe in God, calling their beliefs "ant faith."

I mentioned the book I read recently about evolution, Only a Theory. While the author showed a number of examples that provide very clear evidence of evolution as the answer to the riddle of species origin and gradual change, he also calls himself a Christian and does not say there can't be a grand design, but he does say, we can't simply explain away anything we don't understand by calling it "intelligent design," because to do so is unscientific and a denial of what has already been researched and subjected to experimentation.

His conclusion is that the "intelligent designers" are not only creationists in sheeps' clothing, but that their ultimate aim is not just to discredit evolution. Their own documents show that their intent is to bring down the scientific method and replace it with Christian dogma. That's a frightening thought, and if Dr. Thompson had read this book her poems might have been even more vehemently anti-God and anti-religion.

We talked about how moving away from that either/or dichotomy can be seen playing itself out in politics as well.

The food was delicious as always, and the company was delightful. We have two more events this week, a planning meeting on Thursday evening, and Tony's talk on "The Ethics of Lying" on Sunday afternoon. Our second season is off to a great start!