Faith, Science, and Revolution (was Felix Morrow on religion)

[Yoshie Furuhashi <critical.montages@xxxxxxxxx>]

On 2/24/07, Mark Lause <MLause@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> The process of socialization from infancy on 24/7
> usually has a heavy dose of religion and religious stories,
> and it's the main course for most people.
> It would only make sense that it resonates with
> peoples' sensibilities.  On the other hand,
> the understanding and appreciation of science comes later,
> making it, for most people, something of an acquired taste.
>
> This indicates that there is nothing about religion
> that makes it particularly any closer to values that
> are more innately human than science
> does.  Religion just excites a more well-trained reflex.
>
> This says nothing, of course, about how "the Left"
> should or should not address issues of faith.
>
> The problem is less one of what people "believe" than their confusion
> between what they "believe" and what they "know."  The latter is
> demonstrable, the former is not.  It's when the line gets blurred that
> problems arise.

It seems to me that no amount of science, and knowledge produced by
it, can motivate people to socialism.  A faith that socialism is
_possible and desirable_ in a given country, which cannot be
empirically demonstrated until people actually pull it off themselves
and prefer it to capitalism (of other nations as well as of the
previous regime in their country), must precede science.  (We'll never
Bentham our way out of capitalism, for sure.)  Science, which may or
may not help people figure out how to pull off a revolution, how to
run a revolutionary government, and so on (for science can err as
badly as religion when it comes to what people do), is useless to
those "of little faith."  In this sense, one might say that all
revolutionaries are religious first and scientific second.  Just
because science comes second doesn't mean it's unimportant, though.
For instance, it is a great prophylactic against adventurism.
--
Yoshie
<http://montages.blogspot.com/>
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