Politics vs. Science and Religion

[stickmaker]

I am confused by people who keep talking about the conflict between science and religion, since as far as I can tell the only conflict is due to willful ignorance on the part of some of those involved. I am further confused that the majority of these people ignore the fact that both science and religion have vastly more to fear from politics than they do from each other.

A prime example of a conflict between politics and religion is the furor over the Kenniwick Man skeleton. I'm not going into the details here, but suggest anyone who doesn't think there's a problem look them up. In brief, a federal bureaucracy tried to remove a major archeological find from the archeologists by claiming it _was_ something every expert studying it has flatly stated it clearly _isn't_: a Native American ancestor.

And anyone who doesn't think politics is a threat to religion simply isn't paying attention. To anything, including thousands of years of history.

Comments

[scott644.livejournal.com]

The Kenniwick Man skeleton is such a good example because of what you pointed out; it's NOT a native American ancestor. However it IS older than any human skeleton found in North America to date. This threatens one of the primary supporting aspects to Native American autonomy and power; that they were the first humans to settle this continent. A very sensitive political issue.

Politics in one corner..

[(Anonymous)]

Politics, overall, is a threat to anything it doesn't understand, or hasn't figured out how to control/tax it...Scott