RE: Proof that God exists
January 16, 2018 at 8:28 pm
(This post was last modified: January 16, 2018 at 8:50 pm by The Grand Nudger.)
I can say with complete and unassailable authority that "faith" isn't the reason I keep trying at anything in life, Cor. I honestly doubt it's why anyone does..and if it were, that seems like an incredibly impoverished life.
It's certainly not what science is doing, why it's done, nor is it driven by yadda yadda yadda.
I'm the most meaningful sense, we seek to explain the universe because we do -not- have faith in it. We're not content to hope that malaria will go away and life will go on, none of our prayers were working. I doubt that the universes heat death really informs anyone's actions today. We keep at it because it keeps working....and that's the crucial, practical, difference. No one has faith in theoreticians or experimenters. We demand that they show their work, and they do. Whether science ever discovers every mystery of the universe is irrelevant. It discovers plenty today and that plenty is important enough. More is icing, because the universe doesn't owe us jack. Some of us even think it's fun and exciting...imagine that, no other motivation required.
We get this song and dance with regularity, here, and it's -always- been bullshit. Sometimes troll bullshit, sometimes earnest bullshit...but always bullshit. I don't think there's a variant of the conflation between faith and science that I haven't heard over the years. Yours is a variant of "the promissory note of science". We generally see it in criticism of alleged scientism, and..ofc, how science is totally like religion...faith faith faith faith faith.
Compare this with a less novel concept of faith in contrast. Gods never show their work, they do not produce results..and have solved precisely zero of these mysteries of the universe....and yet people to continue to grant them credibility. If the thing religious people are doing is "faith"..you can use the word faith all you like to describe science or confidence in science...but it;s painfully obvious that you're still talking about two things that are as different as night and day.
This is a semantic game, not a profound comment on the nature of science or it's relationship to faith, or our relationship to either.
It's certainly not what science is doing, why it's done, nor is it driven by yadda yadda yadda.
I'm the most meaningful sense, we seek to explain the universe because we do -not- have faith in it. We're not content to hope that malaria will go away and life will go on, none of our prayers were working. I doubt that the universes heat death really informs anyone's actions today. We keep at it because it keeps working....and that's the crucial, practical, difference. No one has faith in theoreticians or experimenters. We demand that they show their work, and they do. Whether science ever discovers every mystery of the universe is irrelevant. It discovers plenty today and that plenty is important enough. More is icing, because the universe doesn't owe us jack. Some of us even think it's fun and exciting...imagine that, no other motivation required.
We get this song and dance with regularity, here, and it's -always- been bullshit. Sometimes troll bullshit, sometimes earnest bullshit...but always bullshit. I don't think there's a variant of the conflation between faith and science that I haven't heard over the years. Yours is a variant of "the promissory note of science". We generally see it in criticism of alleged scientism, and..ofc, how science is totally like religion...faith faith faith faith faith.
Compare this with a less novel concept of faith in contrast. Gods never show their work, they do not produce results..and have solved precisely zero of these mysteries of the universe....and yet people to continue to grant them credibility. If the thing religious people are doing is "faith"..you can use the word faith all you like to describe science or confidence in science...but it;s painfully obvious that you're still talking about two things that are as different as night and day.
This is a semantic game, not a profound comment on the nature of science or it's relationship to faith, or our relationship to either.
I am the Infantry. I am my country’s strength in war, her deterrent in peace. I am the heart of the fight… wherever, whenever. I carry America’s faith and honor against her enemies. I am the Queen of Battle. I am what my country expects me to be, the best trained Soldier in the world. In the race for victory, I am swift, determined, and courageous, armed with a fierce will to win. Never will I fail my country’s trust. Always I fight on…through the foe, to the objective, to triumph overall. If necessary, I will fight to my death. By my steadfast courage, I have won more than 200 years of freedom. I yield not to weakness, to hunger, to cowardice, to fatigue, to superior odds, For I am mentally tough, physically strong, and morally straight. I forsake not, my country, my mission, my comrades, my sacred duty. I am relentless. I am always there, now and forever. I AM THE INFANTRY! FOLLOW ME!
