[Avodah] HQBH speaks through History

[Ben Waxman]

The ability to read an article critically has nothing to do with someone's
world outlook but rather how well he learned how to read in school. What you
write below  "THIS strand is based on  facts and data but THAT strand is
based on the secular scientist's own biases  and preconceptions" is true, to 
some extent,
about all sorts of people that that I know, and they have a
wide range of outlooks, from atheists to hareidi. When I say to some extent, 
I mean that you have to take into consideration the fact that readers, ALL 
readers, also have biases and preconceptions, not just the scientists and 
journalists.

Secondly what you write below may be true for an article in the NYT. For the
vast majority of humanity, it is not true for an article in a scientific
journal.

Ben

Rb Tk wrote:
>
> A TIDE-ist /could/ accept R' Slifkin's wonderful books on science and
> Torah
> but could not read science articles in the NYT uncritically. In fact,
> critical and independent reading of secular sources is a hallmark of
> TIDE.  It is
> what enables us to pick out strands in a science article, like  picking
> out
> individual strands of spaghetti, and say, "THIS strand is based on  facts
> and data
> but THAT strand is based on the secular scientist's own biases  and
> preconceptions."  Reading through Torah glasses is what TIDE is all
> about.