(July 9, 2017 at 3:36 pm)Astonished Wrote:(July 9, 2017 at 3:33 pm)mordant Wrote: Science cannot test anything that's not part of the natural world (= supernatural). If something's supernatural it's irrelevant to discussion, knowledge claims or decision making of any sort.
What science CAN test is the claimed results of certain activities prescribed by supposedly supernaturally originated beliefs or holy books. If "prayer changes things", as the saying goes, then those "changes" should be measurable. Alas, they are not.
Except when they prove how much extra stress religious belief puts on the patients when they know they're being prayed for. So much for it not making them welcome death and a blissful afterlife. Almost like they don't actually really believe that even though they say they do...
I agree.
I would say everything makes some kind of sense when one realises we are just primates.