I think all of this questioning and experimenting is important. I've put a lot of faith in Western research, especially that which is done by MJFF (because if anyone pushes the boundaries of the traditional, Western research paradigm, it's them). But it is becoming increasingly clear that we know nothing! Or next to nothing, or something but not everything ... whatever ....

For years we had been told that HDL cholesterol is "good." Turns out it is = when in the blood stream. But a report released last month indicates HDL is bad when deposited on artery walls. They just hadn't bothered to look there yet.

http://www.news-medical.net/news/201...iscovered.aspx

Which brings me to a more thoughtful, philosophical take on the question of finding answers in science or religion (or any other place that claims to have irrefutable laws), this piece in a recent New York Times on the "Dangers of Certainty," about the great PBS series in the 1970's called "The Ascent of Man." Although 40 years old, I think this truth remains: there are no certainties in science; that the more we know, the more we don't know.

It says, in part:

"He began the show with the words, “One aim of the physical sciences has been to give an actual picture of the material world. One achievement of physics in the 20th century has been to show that such an aim is unattainable.” For Dr. Bronowski, there was no absolute knowledge and anyone who claims it — whether a scientist, a politician or a religious believer — opens the door to tragedy. All scientific information is imperfect and we have to treat it with humility. Such, for him, was the human condition.

This is the condition for what we can know, but it is also, crucially, a moral lesson. It is the lesson of 20th-century painting from Cubism onwards, but also that of quantum physics. All we can do is to push deeper and deeper into better approximations of an ever-evasive reality. The goal of complete understanding seems to recede as we approach it."

I put this here because it confirms my own view of the situation, and that the point is to never stop searching - but come to some sort of understanding that we all are doing the best that we can.