When Will the Enlightenment Reach the Shores of the United States?
The fact that there still exists a conflict between science and religion in the U.S. is a condition, which never ceases to amaze, frustrate, and disappoint me. Two hundred-thirty years ago, our founders took the Enlightenment philosophy from Europe, applied it to the nation state here in North America, and in doing so created a nation as near to perfection as could be achieved given the level of understanding and sentiments of the society of the time. Since then, it appears to me, that instead of increasing the understanding of society, so as to more perfect the Union, we have been on a path of regression which will no doubt cause us to lose ground in the areas of science, technology and, consequently, standard of living.
When theologians try to argue for insertion of the supernatural, they frame their argument as “why shouldn’t a supernatural explanation be explored?” This makes it seem reasonable enough on first glance, but they never allow answer to be given to the question. Well for those maintaining that line of thought, here is your answer “It has been tried many times over and it has always failed!”
Francis Bacon, an unsung intellectual founder of the United States (for more on this please see the writings of Thomas Jefferson), had this to say about the issue:
“ The same tendency is shown (though in a different manner) by the treatises of those who have not been afraid to deduce and confirm the truth of the Christian religion from the principles and authority of philosophers. With much pomp and ceremony they celebrate the marriage of faith and sense as a legitimate union, and charm men's minds with a pleasing variety of things, but at the same time mix things human with things divine, an unequal union. Such mixtures of theology and philosophy find room only for what is currently acceptable in philosophy; new things, though a change for the better, are all but dismissed and excluded. Finally you will find that some theologians in their ignorance complete block access to any philosophy, however much emended. Some are simply anxious that a closer investigation of nature may penetrate beyond the permitted boundaries of sound opinion; they misinterpret what the holy Scriptures, in talking of divine mysteries, have to say against prying into God's secrets, and wrongly apply it to the hidden things of nature, which are not forbidden by any prohibition. Others, more cunningly, conjecture and imagine that if the intermediate causes of things are unknown, individual events can more easily be attributed to the hand and rod of God (which is, as they suppose, very much in the interest of religion); this is simply an attempt 'to please God by a lie'.”
Now, Bacon published that in that 1620 and you would think that after nearly four hundred years of testing and proof we would have gotten it by now. But, alas the Enlightenment has not arrived for a large number in our country. Luckily, Bacon also leaves with a hope to grant an epiphany to fellow citizens.
“There remains one simple way of getting our teaching across, namely to introduce men to actual particulars and their sequences and orders, and for men in their turn to pledge to abstain for a while from notions, and begin to get used to actual things.”
