Sunday, April 24, 2011

If I Won A Million Dollars...

“Science and faith are completely compatible”
This statement should never offend—
And the truth is, we know
It will always be so
Just as long as we see,
When the two disagree,
That religion’s the one that must bend.

The vertebrate eye is a kind of a miracle
Which science and faith both explain
An empirical quest
Is the method that’s best
When we see it evolved
There’s a mystery solved
With the sacred reduced to profane

Some questions and problems had lingered for centuries
For instance, the age of the Earth
They’d add up the ages
On biblical pages
Or measure instead
Decay ratios of lead
And only one view shows its worth

Some say that religion and science are one;
And some say that’s rubbish and lies
If you watch what you say
There’s a way it can pay:
Be a spiritual type
Garner headlines and hype—
It’ll win you the Templeton prize!


So yeah. Martin Rees, Templeton Prize winner, has a million reasons to tell atheists to shut up and play nice.

4 comments:

Melissa said...

This is why I'm not rich. I'm just not willing to sell out. I actually think the winners of the Templeton price are worse than people like Ken Ham, to some extent anyway.

Speaking of Ham, I may have to borrow his ark. It hasn't stopped raining here in days.

Martin said...

Melissa:
I wondered where all those Texan prayers went (see Gov. Perry's "3 days of prayer for rain and no fire"). Looks as though you got them.

Anonymous said...

Maybe a bit more humility and respect at both extremes would serve us all. Nothing wrong with arguing for one's position... but as a practical matter, we all live together. Maybe that's all that Rees is saying. Sure, have whatever view you think is right, and sure, go ahead and argue for it. But when someone beats people over the head with it, that's not about us--it's about them.

entropy said...

"But when someone beats people over the head with it"

Yeah, we're tired of the relentless religious beatings. How are we expected to react? If the religious would stop trying to insinuate their religions into places they don't belong, secular folks, including atheists, won't have to fight against these things.

Atheists have tired of striving for peaceful coexistence unilaterally. Any "campaign" on the part of atheists, like Cuttlefish's well-spun poem, are nearly always responses.