If you say them enough tymes, eventually they begin to loose thier meaning ... When that happens they all begin to mean the same thing. In everyday use, it seems to be that way in the first place. After all, what we are talking about are Man's three great paths to "TRUTH". Certainly there are other paths ... Art for instance, Mathmatics; but these three seem to have each taken a strangle hold on the Western mind at various points in history and have refused to let go.

I know they have certainly grabbed ahold of mine at various points in my life. Kierkegaard, Hume, Bohr ... Crowely, Kant, Fermi ... Luther, Plato, Einstien... It's like some bizarre Gregorian chant that I can't seem to dispell from my mind. However, I don't think that any of these three have offered me with any degree of certainty, any understanding of myself or the world I live in. Indeed, between the three of them, I think I am more confused now than I ever have been in the past.

Religion is there to answer the ultimate questions of man's existance. It is there to eradicate the prolems that have plagued men from the dawn of tyme. Is this all there is? What happens when I die? Is there something wrong with me? But religion, most especially since the Reformation, and reinforced with the Existentialists, tends to require you to leap a grand chasm on faith alone. Sola Fides! It grabs your heart, but it ignores your mind and your eyes.

Philosophy is there to answer the ultimate questions of man's existance. It is there to explain and extrapolate the answers that are within us all, waiting to come out. What is the _right_ course of action? Is this _real_? What is _Beauty_? But in philosophy you must wield reason like a 'razor' ... or throw up your hands in disgust at the inpenetrable word-game. It grabs your mind, but ignores your heart and eyes.

And Science. Dear Science. Science is there to answer the ultimate questions of man's existance. It is there to deduce and verify the tenets that influence every facet of our lives. Where did the Universe come from? Are we Alone? What is our Mind? But science is a bigot, and believes that the pieces are more real than the whole. It grabs your eyes, but shuns your reason and heart.

Not that religion has always been kind to me. Far from it. I've wandered through whole realms of perceiving the world only to be thrown violently back ... or worse. I've wandered across the world of the universal love of Christians and the world of the universal acceptance of the Pagans only to find myself sinking into dark, meaningless caverns of spiritual null.

With philosophical understanding, I reconstructed my view of myself and of humanity. With scientific understanding I reconstructed my view of the world. But religious understanding continues to elude me.

What? Science/Philosophy/Religion?

These three dance a funny dance of acceptance. Throughout history, one dominates the other two, then another rises to power, and finally the third overthrows them both until the entire cycle begins again.

Advocates of each attack the others. Science is full of Godless Heathens, as is philosophy and religion. Religion is full of Irrational Zealots, as is philosphy and science. Philosophy is full of Pompus Academics, as is religion and science. They all generally use the same method of attack. First, demonize the opposition, next, victimize yourself. Then, noone has to give anyone else the consideration they give their pets.

But all three of these human endevors aim at the same goal. Understanding. They all three seek some understanding of the world around us. The problem arises because they all three look to understand different facets of the world. Science yearns for the how. Religion yearns for the why. Philosophy yearns for the what. Each seeks entirely different faces of the same diamond, but each confuses those faces with the diamond whole.

There is no reason why, as near as I can tell, that a person cannot be a rational thinker, a scientific thinker, and a religious thinker. After all, I search for an understanding of my wife in a completely different fashion than I search for an understanding of, say, a mathmatical proof. The proof is pulled apart. Examined for logical consistancy, for the correct application of axioms and theorems, the proof is accepted only when it has been examined to the fullest. Everyone knows you cannot treat a loved one in that manner.

We do it everyday. We use different mental systems for handling different facets of our lives. Why should the different facets of understanding be any different?

Does this mean we avoid ever looking at our religious beliefs in a rational or scientific way? Or that we refuse to hold our philosophy or our scientific beliefs up to our religious paradigm? Of course not. That's as foolish as saying you never approach your wife as anything more than a carrier for your children (well, lets all be glad we no longer live where that reality tunnel is prominent!). In order for us to be honest, truthful and to have personal integrity, all parts of the whole need to be placed together to view the greater picture.

Does this mean that we should promote one of the trinity over the the other two? Again, no. We need only realise that each of the three are specially designed to deal with the facet they reach for. Noone in her right mind eats soup with a knife. That's not what a knife is for. Just as noone in their right mind rejects the truely religious beliefs they hold because of scientific advances. And why noone in their right mind rejects the philosophical tenets they hold because of scientific arguments. And why noone in thier right mind rejects scientific results based upon religious teaching.

Aren't I oversimplifying? Well, yes. *laugh* The truth of the matter is that while these are three distinct facets of understanding, as often as not, they aren't presented in that fashion. They are presented with two or even all three cleverly mixed in together. It is why Science will never kill God, even though it continues to destroy the pre- and proto-science that runs rampant in the Bible. It is why religious leaders continue to, and will continue to renouce claims they, or thier organization had made concerning the validity of scientific advancement. (I believe the Pope has Ok'ed Evolution now .... and 'Spiritualists' are turning to Jung and Freud for their apparitions.)

The task is to examine carefully ... everything. Find out which facet you are looking at, and match the tool to the task. Then when you are finished with the facet ... hold it up to the rest of your map of the diamond. Hold it up and be honest.

Then begin again.