RE: Separation of Science and State
November 17, 2020 at 9:30 am
(This post was last modified: November 17, 2020 at 9:39 am by The Grand Nudger.)
Chugging right along, with regards to the notion that religion is revealed rather than a product of experimentation, that this is some fundamental difference - this would seem to be laughably false.
Religious experimentation is how we ended up with so many religions. This can be seen in the development of any religion in history as well as the history of religion throughout the world (and back, before that, into prehistory as well). What we see are people arranging and organizing the contents of their normative beliefs about the sacred until they hit on some successful combination. What we see are people seeking out and trying to observe phenomena or produce specific experiences... through all kinds of means.... to discover, reinforce, disprove, or expand on our understanding of these relevant things (real or imagined).
We've gone from spinning in circles to designer drugs. From controlled breathing to sensory deprivation chambers. We've considered a litany of benefit, detriment, means, and mechanism by which we can improve ourselves, our lot in fate, and by which we can create the ideal society.
Granted, the religious may claim that the contents of their beliefs are revealed, but that's an article of faith - not a statement of fact with respect to religions as we can see them and study them. The most generous thing that can be said about that, allowing for it to have happened and all that this would silently propose..is that if any of it were revealed....ever..by anything...all of it is very clearly the product of human experimentation as it exists today.
It would have been strange, very very strange, had we done otherwise. We want our normative content to map to what we believe to be descriptively true and demonstrably useful. It's an existential requirement of both ourselves and a religion that the normative content not be deleterious. We've never stopped experimenting with it, and probably never will.
Religious experimentation is how we ended up with so many religions. This can be seen in the development of any religion in history as well as the history of religion throughout the world (and back, before that, into prehistory as well). What we see are people arranging and organizing the contents of their normative beliefs about the sacred until they hit on some successful combination. What we see are people seeking out and trying to observe phenomena or produce specific experiences... through all kinds of means.... to discover, reinforce, disprove, or expand on our understanding of these relevant things (real or imagined).
We've gone from spinning in circles to designer drugs. From controlled breathing to sensory deprivation chambers. We've considered a litany of benefit, detriment, means, and mechanism by which we can improve ourselves, our lot in fate, and by which we can create the ideal society.
Granted, the religious may claim that the contents of their beliefs are revealed, but that's an article of faith - not a statement of fact with respect to religions as we can see them and study them. The most generous thing that can be said about that, allowing for it to have happened and all that this would silently propose..is that if any of it were revealed....ever..by anything...all of it is very clearly the product of human experimentation as it exists today.
It would have been strange, very very strange, had we done otherwise. We want our normative content to map to what we believe to be descriptively true and demonstrably useful. It's an existential requirement of both ourselves and a religion that the normative content not be deleterious. We've never stopped experimenting with it, and probably never will.
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