RE: Is There a Difference Between Trusting Scientists and Trusting Preachers?
July 13, 2016 at 4:37 pm
(This post was last modified: July 13, 2016 at 5:11 pm by SteveII.)
(July 13, 2016 at 1:54 pm)Whateverist the White Wrote: If a scientist approaches her work with integrity what she finds out will either be reliable or distorted by human error. If a priest approaches her work with integrity you can be pretty sure what she tells you will be consistent with her aims as a priest. In many cases that includes enlisting as many more believers as possible. The goal of science is to understand the empirical world. The goal of religion is institutional. If you must be dependent upon experts, science is far preferable.
You said a preacher's goal is "enlisting as many more believers as possible". That description is incomplete. You are missing a very important component: motive. A preacher's motive is not numbers, it's changing people's lives.
In general, the comparison "why do I accept the scientists and reject the preachers?" in the OP is just nonsense as well as a false dichotomy. I accept both.
