[Buddha-l] science #2

[Richard P. Hayes]

On Fri, 2006-01-13 at 04:54 -0500, Dan Lusthaus wrote:

> I recommended several books on Islamic science, something you
> seem disinterested in learning more about because you have already concluded
> that the term Islamic science is an oxymoron.

You're right. I have no particular interest in Islam or in Islamic
culture, but not for the reasons you suggest.

> 1. First, the bifurcation you are insisting on maintaining between science
> on the one hand, and various religions on the other, is one forged in the
> late Middle Ages and consolidated during the Renaissance.

Yes. I have admitted as much.

> Thus, doing science (i.e., chemistry, physics, etc.), far from being an
> unreligious pursuit, or something done in spite of or apart from one's
> religious telos, was the highest order of religious pursuit. To understand
> the universe through science was to gain a greater knowledge of its creator.

Yes, I have already made that point. 

-- 
Richard Hayes
Department of Philosophy
University of New Mexico