Stephanie

I'm the type that moans like a baby when I have flu, and so I can't even pretend to appreciate what you go through daily. I also smoke like a chimney despite knowing what damage it does. So I feel like a hypocrite even replying here and it would be easier to feel sympathy and leave it alone. But I doubt you want sympathy - just to feel well like so many of us take for granted. The thing is that there is more suffering in the world than any of us can concieve of, and the small bit we can conceive of is appaling. And that is enough to make any sane person consider that either god does not exist, or he is cruel and enjoys watching people and creatures suffer, or he is pathetically weak and actually can't do anything about it. Those used to be my views anyway, and going into why I now rekon that is an upside down way of thinking that started with Decartes is not allowed here and probably not appropriate. But Joanne is right using this word "scientism" as a distinction from science. Science itself grew out of religion and I know doctors who consider god gave them gifts so that they could help people using science. It is not a case of science versus religion. Both religion and science are aspects of mans search for truth, health and wholeness. What is the issue is the boundaries of what makes life what it is. And this is where religion and scientism do conflic because this is nothing to do with science itself, its about our tendancy to be 'too clever by half'. Another expression is that 'a little knowledge is a dangerous thing'.

Its difficult to say these things, especially if there is a chance that genetic manipulation or stem cells taken from a human embryo could possibly provide a cure for you in the future. Or for that matter even if its for any disease that causes suffering for anyone. I was going to say "I don't think its fair to characterise the debate...", but who am I to talk about whats fair. But I honestly don't think this debate is about who is against science finding a way of helping people with these diseases, conditions that are all too easily dismissed sometimes by those of us who don't have to live with them daily - either in ourselves or those we love. Its about balancing that fierce and powerful desire to help suffering wherever possible, with issues around what life is, understanding the difference between what we can do and what we should do, and trying to understand why there is so much suffering in the first place.

These are the most difficult questions we have to face, but they are also profound in understanding why we are here on earth in the first place. I hope that doesn't seem like a glib comment. I have battled with the question of suffering in the world from when I was a teenager and it made me an atheist. And even now having changed my views, I think it troubles me because I have never suffered despite a fairly reckless life. There are two things I've come to believe with confidence. One is that this life here is not fair. The other is that the whole of creation as a whole is perfect, nothing has gone wrong despite how crazy that may seem in so many parts of it, and that we will all see as much so clearly one day.

Simon