Science and Religion not in direct conflict?

[Minimalist]

All that means is that you are delusional, Lek.

Maybe if you could slip anti-hallucination drugs into the water supply, you could eliminate christianity.

Worth a try.

[Minimalist]

"God hears our prayers."

"The Holy Spirit is in all of us."

"Our souls go to heaven when we die."

"God has a plan."

The scent of frying astronomers long ago ceased to ascend to Yahweh.
— H L Mencken

[drfuzzy]

I think it is a direct conflict. I happen to work with a lot of Christians and am in the scientific field. After all these years, I still do not really understand how people rationalize it all but they do and will continue to do so. I guess it has to do with at what point God jumped in and made everything.

Yes exactly.  There seems to be a trend in some of the mainstream mega-churches to view the Bible as allegory and myth.  I have a number of very xtian friends who have told me that they don't believe anything in the Bible is literal.  That includes the virgin birth and the resurrection of Jesus.  And yet they still treat it as a "very special" collection of myth and allegory, given by god to speak to them spiritually.  They believe Jesus is the savior of the world, even if there was no original sin, no Adam and Eve, and no hell.  

This completely confuses my raised Pentecostal soul. I don't even understand what they think Jesus is supposedly saving us from?  My stance automatically goes to "well, either they believe and follow the book, or they don't - - but they say that they are following it in a different way, and that Jesus is still god.  They still sing their "Shine, Jesus, Shine" praise songs with their eyes closed and hands in the air.  Shine . . . how?  My snarky sarcastic observation is that they aren't ministering to the poor and needy.  They're ministering to themselves.  They just build more and more big churches and keep singing their feel-good songs.  Is this a bad thing?

They're much more pleasant to deal with than the fundies, I gotta give 'em that.  

Perhaps I shouldn't judge.  Just do the Atheist thing "to each his own" and leave it alone. But they completely confuse me - it's so different from the way I was raised.

[God of Mr. Hanky]

I think it is a direct conflict. I happen to work with a lot of Christians and am in the scientific field. After all these years, I still do not really understand how people rationalize it all but they do and will continue to do so. I guess it has to do with at what point God jumped in and made everything.

Yes exactly.  There seems to be a trend in some of the mainstream mega-churches to view the Bible as allegory and myth.  I have a number of very xtian friends who have told me that they don't believe anything in the Bible is literal.  That includes the virgin birth and the resurrection of Jesus.  And yet they still treat it as a "very special" collection of myth and allegory, given by god to speak to them spiritually.  They believe Jesus is the savior of the world, even if there was no original sin, no Adam and Eve, and no hell.  

This completely confuses my raised Pentecostal soul. I don't even understand what they think Jesus is supposedly saving us from?  My stance automatically goes to "well, either they believe and follow the book, or they don't - - but they say that they are following it in a different way, and that Jesus is still god.  They still sing their "Shine, Jesus, Shine" praise songs with their eyes closed and hands in the air.  Shine . . . how?  My snarky sarcastic observation is that they aren't ministering to the poor and needy.  They're ministering to themselves.  They just build more and more big churches and keep singing their feel-good songs.  Is this a bad thing?

They're much more pleasant to deal with than the fundies, I gotta give 'em that.  

Perhaps I shouldn't judge.  Just do the Atheist thing "to each his own" and leave it alone. But they completely confuse me - it's so different from the way I was raise

The Chamelion Dance - what church people do

[Edwardo Piet]

If religion trespasses onto the realm of science, then it's not science. If it doesn't, then all its claims are pointless because they don't even affect the world. Either way it's bullshit.

[brewer]

Science and magical fantasy do not mix.

[Brian37]

Yes, science and religion are not compatible. But not just Christianity, ALL religions.

If you hear anyone argue that most people believe, while true, that is not because any god is real, it is because humans find it easier to go with social norms, than it is to question. And it is an easy way to escape facing our finite existence.

The God Delusion, explains in evolutionary terms why our species gap fills. Our species perceptions of reality are notoriously flawed.

Victor Stenger's "God The Failed Hypothesis" and " The New Atheism"(especially this), explain why science does have something to say about god.

There is not one religion that when it cannot debunk religion, will try to co opt it. There is no "separate but equal", that attitude is not coming from science, that well intended empathy is coming from our species sense of fairness. Fairness is a mater of law. In a controlled lab with testing and falsification and peer review, the objective is to go where the evidence leads, not where we want it to go.