🚀 go-pugleaf

    A recent article in the New York Time reminded me why religion and
science have little in common and are not very compatible.
    The article described how the Catholic bishops in America have spent
nine years (yes nine years) trying to write a pastoral letter that condemns
sexism and says that women should be equal.  The reason for the delay is
that the more liberal Americans draft seemingly obvious statements about
women's rights that the conservatives in the Vatican strongly oppose.
    While it is amazing that these people can't accept that laws and rules
governing men and women should be invariant (except for the symmetry breaking
of childbirth), a statement in the article shows the vast gulf that exists
between the religious and scientific mind.
    In the article, Dr. Susan Muto, a professor at Duquesne University in
Pittsburgh, and a principal writer of the pastoral letter for the bishops,
comments on the very lengthy process to write a seemingly simple letter by
stating  "Who knows what the Holy Spirit will want from us 50 years from now,
but this seems as far as we can go now".
    God needs another 50 years to decide women have eqaul rights with men?
If Dr. Muto is serious, her statement illustrates how different the religious
and scientific mind is, and why you have to choose between them.  If Dr. Muto
is being sarcastic, her statement reflects the complaint that religion sticks
to outdated views of the world that eventually become silly.

    In fifty years, science will probably be on the verge of creating life
(by using self-replicating molecules that can process simple algorithms
discovered by the artificial life computer programmers).  Meanwhile, religious
people will still be trying to figure out if women are equal to men.  (and
four hundred yeas ago I would have been burnt to death for writing this
comment).

Gregory Aharonian