SV: attack on Professor S. Bahulkar

[Alfred Collins]

Colleagues,

The issue is not only one of traditional societies being offended by science and rationalism.  Western (US as much as European) politics are filled with social and religious fundamentalism, and I think this has been true throughout the 20th century at least, Hitler being a prime example (his "volkisch"-ness, etc.).  People are seeking spiritual/religious values (and this includes nationalistic, "epic" ones) they feel to be absent in modern rationalist culture.  Hence the popularity of hobbits, angels, pentecostal religion in the American south and many developing countries, Ramraj, etc.  We must find a way to be "religious" without tearing down the fabric of science and civilization.  I am not optimistic in the short run. Over the longer course, all depends on whether the religious/idealizing attitude has genuine value or is merely an "illusion." This question was debated (for example) between the Enlightenment and Romanticism, and is at issue in William James and Jung vs. F
reud, etc. (See Eugene Taylor's books.)  Ultimately this is probably a neurophysiological question, or maybe one for physics.  In the meanwhile, our brave new world stumbles on and is likely to get much worse.

Al Collins
Anchorage