What I like about the Catholics is their position that science and religion are pursuing the same (one) truth. So they aren't scared of it. That's a very different response than is given in certain protestant sects, especially down in the Southern states of the US.
The fringe protestant sects of the Southeast are the American animists, the lowest common denominator of populism and religion. Their practices are often used as examples by the anti-religious left because of their untempered boldness in opposition to some results of science. However, they do not represent the whole of religious experience, and they could not, given that the scientific advances of the last thousand years have coincided with a deeply religious world. And, it should be noted that the scientific knowledge of the rural poor is probably below average anyway, before taking religion into account.
I'm actually impressed at the reasonableness of the discussion so far on this thread. Geeks often bristle at the mention of religion, largely due to the anti-intellectualism mongered by some of those rural protestant sects. The last time there was a thread on an article mentioning religion, the discussion quickly turned hostile and the article was deaded. This time, things went better due to the early appearance of reasonable and calm voices. Color me impressed.
The ability to discuss a religious topic in a calm and rational manner is a hallmark of intellectual maturity, especially on the internet.
Edit: Nevermind. This article went dead too, despite the good quality of the discussion thread. It looks like there is no place for religion on Hacker News. Maybe that's a good thing.
The is a good reading regarding similarities of religion (especially ancient east philosophies) and modern science. If anyone is interested take a look at F.Kapra's book "Dao of physics".
I've read it on my philosophy class in uni. After it I see much less contradictions.
