Letters to the Editor
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@jazztao
"The fury with which the first atheist posters here at Salon have attacked this article comes as no surprise to me (King's sports-blog post on George Carlin last week features a lengthy dialog regarding what I refer to as "fundamentalist atheists"). Strict materialism, or positivism (a more sophisticated form of materialism) always ultimately bumps up against "that which it cannot explain". The fact that the science that these materialists have bound themselves to--in full integrity, I might add, with the belief that it can answer all of life's mysteries--hasn't answered all of life's mysteries pisses them off so intensely it has become one of my favorite entertainments!"
As an athiest, materialist, positivist, or as I prefer, a spiritually-challenged person, allow me to step in and clarify something about our "beliefs". Science is just a process of learning. It makes no claim to answer all of life's questions now or ever. There are likely many things that are simply unknowable.
However that does not diminish the value of science as the ultimate authority in furthering our understanding of the universe. The lack of a better tool to understand the natural universe does nothing to validate the existence of the supernatural -- it simply means that a better tool does not exist.
Jason