So yesterday was a full day. I attended a talk by Tony Coady, coincidentally of my alma mater Melbourne, on whether religion is a danger. He argued, well, I thought, that it was no more a danger than any other human activity. However, one of the ways he did that was to suggest there is a “pure religion”, citing the Epistle of James, that evades the political and social corruption, and that is why religion is not a danger (I am unfairly compressing a complex and sophisticated argument here). In my question I suggested that this was to define the problem away, and that the only sensible approach was to empirically look at the correlations (he had cited some sociological studies that argued that the religious were no more likely to commit acts of violence than anyone else), and not to make a priori arguments either way.
Then a mad rush to London by bus, where I finally located my B&B stay in Chelsea, and rushed to meet David Williams, my friend who is a botanist and systematist at the Natural History Museum, at a local train station, from whence we found a nice Italian restaurant, and ate and drank. And drank. And then we went to a local pub and drank. By the end of the night I was feeling no pain. I hope I didn’t say anything I shouldn’t have. Probably did.
Dave and I talked about lots of things, ranging from Leon Croizat, to the cladistics revolution, to Dostoevsky, to smoking. It was a great evening, and I’m glad we got together, although I always seem to have too short a time with him when we meet. Right now I’m sitting in Heathrow waiting for the internet to work. I’ve tried four providers and each one hangs when the login screen comes up, buggrit. Ah… got one….
I enjoyed Coady’s book on testimony, which I read back when I was trying to write a dissertation on social epistemology.