This is http://www.essayz.com/a8605081.htm         
Previous-Essay      <== This-Essay ==>     Following-Essay
Click HERE on this line to find essays via Your-Key-Words.
{Most frequent wordstarts of each essay will be put here.}
==========================================================
             %REFLEXIVE SCIENTISTS RELIGIOUS PRAYER 860508

     Prayer  and  religious  activities  are   essentially
reflexive; having to do with the needs, desires, emotions,
fears,  hopes,  aspirations, decisions, actions,  personal
relationships,   regrets,  ideals,  values,  etc.  of  the
participants.    In  prayer and religious  activities  the
focus  of attention is essentially reflexive as contrasted
with scientific activities where the focus of attention is
supposed   to   be  objective;   upon   other   than   the
participants--- with the participants playing as minimal a
role as possible in  the determination of the consequences
of   impersonal  circumstances.     Once  the   impersonal
circumstances have been arranged the role  of the  persons
is  to  watch,   record  and  analyze  as impersonally  as
possible;  seeking to avoid personal considerations in the
perceptions and interpretations. Personal needs,  desires,
emotions,  fears,  hopes, aspirations, decisions, actions,
relationships,  regrets,  ideals,   values,  etc.  of  the
participants---are not supposed to play a significant role
in determining the results which flow from an experimental
procedure.

     The fruits of scientists' activities are not supposed
to bear the personal stamp of the unique identities of the
scientists.  The laws they discover are not supposed to be
their  creations,   not  uniquely  expressions   of  their
personality,   but  pre-existing realities which  they  to
discovered.  Credit and honor goes  only  to the  very few
scientific  explorers  who discover  new  realities first.
This makes  competition rather than cooperation central to
scientific  respect.   Respect is not based upon  creative
personal expression of  unique  personalities,   but  upon
convergent thoughts, regarding  which  universal agreement
can be reached. Scientists can only rarely feel good about
their   work   as  expressions  of  their   own   personal
identities.   They do not have  professional  grounds  for
feeling   good  about  their  scientific   activities   as
expressions of their own personal  identities.    They can
not  with professional integrity  engage  in  professional
prayer   and   religious  activities   which   are   self-
referential;  for self-referential activities are taboo to
people who are committed to exclusive objectivity.

                                                                                                                               
                         (c) 2005 by Paul A. Smith in      
                    (On Being Yourself, Whole and Healthy)  
                                                                                                                               
==========================================================