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Re: a belief equal to that of astrology



Dear Mark,

So you WOULD agree that Rev. Pat Robertson and his devoted followers deserve
the same contempt you reserve to astrologers and their followers? Or not?

I'm still getting a feeling that a double standard is being applied. It is
hip in the scientific community to bash astrology lately, and I too have
participated in that. But when "respected" religions like Evangelicalism
come up, you pepper your responses with qualifications. I get the feeling
that we are becomming intellectual bullies: picking on "weak" faiths
mercilessly, but tipping our hats to similar belief systems just because
they have political or social clout.

Date: Tue, 10 Jul 2001 10:32:40 -0700
From: "Shapiro, Mark" <mshapiro@EXCHANGE.FULLERTON.EDU>
Subject: Re: a belief equal to that of astrology
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1

Dear Mike,

The answer to your question, like the answer to most prayers is, no.

I do think that in general there are differences between religious beliefs
and astrology. Most core religious beliefs are untestable. I certainly
agree with you that some religious leaders do make predictions that they
claim are based on their beliefs. And these predictions have a no higher
probability of being correct than one would expect from chance. I don't
think, however, that making such predictions is a requirement of religious
faith. There are plenty of ministers, priests, rabbis, etc. who are quite
content to focus on the untestable claims of their religions.

Mark
-----Original Message-----
From: mike sloothaak set L DIG [mailto:mike.sloothaak@EXCITE.COM]
Sent: Tuesday, July 10, 2001 10:05 AM
To: PHYS-L@lists.nau.edu
Subject: a belief equal to that of astrology


I would disagree with the conclusion that there is no difference between
degrees in divinity and degrees in astrology. While there are some
similarities between religious claims and astrological claims, there also

are major differences. Religious claims are untestable for the most
part.
Astrologers, on the other hand, make claims that can be tested; and, as
David Lunney has noted the claims fail the test.

A few years ago, Rev. Pat Robertson stated very clearly that a catastorphe
would strike Jacksonville, FL in the (then) near future because city fathers

supported a gay pride event. That was a clear prediction of cause and
effect, observable and verifiable. Anyone who attended an evangelical
service would know that observable and verifiable predictions are made
routinely.

Knowing that, may I now assume that The Irascible ProfessorSM advocates
treating evangelical divinity degrees with the same contempt he gives to
Astrology degrees?





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