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To: Heartlander; JimSEA; Tax-chick; afsnco; ConservingFreedom
Barash from article: "Moreover, no literally supernatural trait has ever been found in Homo sapiens..."

You must, must understand that the good professor here is simply playing word-definition games.
He does not tell us anything that he might consider "supernatural", but that is less important than the fact that the very word "science", by definition, natural-science only looks for natural explanations of natural processes.
In other words, it is literally and physically impossible for a scientist as-scientist to see super-natural events, or their Cause.

So just suppose: if the good professor were to see a super-natural event -- i.e., a miracle -- as a scientist he could not recognize it as a miracle, and if he did somehow see the miracle in it, and tell somebody about it, then our good professor would no longer be speaking as a scientist, but rather as a normal, religious human being!

So, don't you see -- it's all word games; since science by definition cannot see the super-natural, any claim that "no literally supernatural trait has ever been found" is just, well... do you "get" it?

8 posted on 09/30/2014 5:57:56 AM PDT by BroJoeK (a little historical perspective..)
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To: BroJoeK
Newton, Copernicus, Maxwell, Lord Kelvin, Faraday, Pascal, Harvey, Boyle, Pasteur, Mendel, Carver, et al. maintained that nature manifests the design of a preexistent mind or intelligence. The US Constitution assumed all human rights were bestowed to us by our Creator through Natural Law .
… These are the eternal, immutable laws of good and evil, to which the creator himself conforms. Such among others are these principles: that we should live honestly, should hurt nobody, and should render to every one his due.

As the creator is a being, not only of infinite power, and wisdom, but also of infinite goodness, he has been pleased so to contrive the constitution of humanity, that we should want no other prompter to pursue the rule of right, but our own self-love. For he has so intimately connected the laws of eternal justice with the happiness of each individual, that the latter cannot be attained but by observing the former. This is the foundation of what we call ethics, or natural law.
- William Blackstone

Current science is attempting to apply Methodological Naturalism to all aspects of humanity. This removes from society; good and evil, right and wrong – and introduces relative morality.

As you point out, Barash states “ Moreover, no literally supernatural trait has ever been found in Homo sapiens..." I believe that human consciousness and conscience is ‘supernatural’ and cannot only be electro-chemical reactions merely following the laws of physics. We could not be held responsible for our actions otherwise.

9 posted on 09/30/2014 7:28:05 AM PDT by Heartlander (Prediction: Increasingly, logic will be seen as a covert form of theism. - Denyse OÂ’Leary)
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