RE: Why science and religious fatih need not be in conflict: It's as easy as 1-2-3!
May 7, 2017 at 11:41 am
(This post was last modified: May 7, 2017 at 11:42 am by Simon Moon.)
(May 7, 2017 at 5:52 am)Little Rik Wrote:(May 1, 2017 at 12:11 pm)Whateverist Wrote: These are instructions for how to be religious without being a science moron. To be fair the market for these instructions is apt to be minuscule. I am not therefore seeking any trademark.
Instructions:
1) Think about the core mystery of your religion. (Okay, I'll break "think about" down for you; I realize you may be a little out of shape.) Whatever it is that you think of as supernatural, consider how it is that anyone ever found out about that stuff. I mean all of the priest class agrees you can't detect it with an instrument of science nowadays. The usual story is that the mystery itself reached out to some ancient scribe, possessed his body and wrote out everything He/they/it wanted known about itself .. and then went back into hiding. At this point you have to decide whether your faith is in the core mystery of your religion or the claims of some ancient scribes. If it's in the latter, you're doing faith wrong. Try again.
2) Okay, if you got past step one you now realize that faith requires open ended-ness. You can't dictate the details of God's nature or intentions. If you're feeling a little insecure and humbled, you're actually on the right path now. Keep it up.
3) Next step, think about the nature of science. It is not a body of facts. It is a method of empirical investigation, the observational facts and theories which arise are always subject to reinterpretation. But the beauty is in the openness of process and how readily one can assess the soundness of the experiments proposed to test the hypotheses. You can trust science-the-method to investigate the nature of the empirical world more than any other method ever proposed. In the absence of an authoritative alternative, scientific theory represents the best operating hypotheses for what's out there. Embrace it, it won't bite - and cannot conflict with your religious faith if done correctly.
You may now walk in faith regarding the central mysteries of who and what we are and any purposes you feel accrues to that, keeping in mind that little ole' you do not control the nature of that mystery; presumably the actual state of affairs is vice versa. But by picking up and embracing the mantle of science you need not go blindly into the (empirical) world. Rather you may stride confidently knowing you enjoy the fruits of a long history of careful investigation, which at its core is just as humble and open as you're now trying to be. That's it. Carry on.
Here we go again and again along the same demented path in which if something is not understood by physical science then it doesn't exist and the blind followers clap their hands to the new Messiah. (Kudos in abundance)
How sad Whatever!
In the past when jets didn't exist it was thought that the eagle fly higher.
Now people think that jets and other objects fly higher.
In the future when the mind-consciousness of our future generations will be able to communicate telepathically to other beings from different evolved planets then human consciousness will reach new
heights and the knowledge will exit the sky limits to merge into the real McCoy but idiots still don't get it.
I do not see anywhere in Whateverist's post where he states that "if something is not understood by physical science then it doesn't exist".
It is well known by scientists, that there is a incredible amount of things not currently known by science, that do exist. Whateverist never contradicts that fact.
What can be said, is that, there is no justification to believe things exist until such a time there is scientific evidence to support them.
Gods my exist, but without demonstrable evidence and reasoned argument (neither of which you know anything about) what is the warrant to believe they do?
You'd believe if you just opened your heart" is a terrible argument for religion. It's basically saying, "If you bias yourself enough, you can convince yourself that this is true." If religion were true, people wouldn't need faith to believe it -- it would be supported by good evidence.