On Thu, 19 Sep 1996 11:32:15 -0500 jpcrooks@indy.net (Patricia & John
Crooks) writes:
>Am I being really nit-picking to say that I really wish you people
>would
>stop tossing the word dogma around like it has no specific meaning?
[clip]
>Dogma is a specific church teaching, generally specific to Catholicism
>always specific to Christianity (a small part of religion).
dogma [Latin 'dogma'; Greek 'dogma', that which one thinks true, an
opinion, decree, from 'dokein', to think. seem.]
1. a doctrine; tenete; belief.
2. doctrines, tenets, or beliefs, collectively.
3. a positive, arrogant assertion of opinion: dogmatic utterances.
4. in theology, a doctrine or body of doctrines formally and
authoritatively affirmed.
I reserve the right to use the word 'dogma' in the first three senses as
well as in the fourth. If we limitted the meaning of the word to only
the last usage, scientific dogma would be a logical impossibility.
Obviously many people are concerned over their perceptions of scientists
holding to dogma in the third sense of the word. John, you yourself have
repeatedly expressed concerns about the arrogance of science (which I
take to mean the arrogance of scientists).
Take care, all.
-KMO