I've made this rantette but I feel like a full on rant.
I am a senior engineering student. I have taken a set of courses on physics from simple Newtonian motion through special and general relativity. I have taken two years of chemistry. I have taken courses in currents and circuits, fluid dynamics, thermodynamics, and a lot of courses in materials and environmental engineering. I have taken elective science courses in Geology, anthropology, archeology, and alternative energy. I work in a lab doing research on reinforced concrete. And I have to say this: science is not faith. Science is hard work.
Nothing in science is taken on faith. In a lab, we have our eyes, our instruments, and our minds. We test, we observe, we measure, we repeat ad nauseum. We reserve any judgment until after all the data is in. Only then do we examine the data and form hypothesis and conclusions. Every theory must be corroborated. Everything is suspect. I was lucky enough to take a physics course where we actually had to do experiments to derive the equations for current, gravity, inertia, and other phenomena. Because of this I feel fairly confident in the workings of physics. Not because I read it in a book, or because it was told to me, but because I have seen it, measured it, and confirmed it for myself.
A theist would say I have "faith" that my instruments are working. No. I test the instruments. I calibrate them before I start. I make sure that they are working. If I measure something that I know to be 1cm and it tells me it is 6m across I know I have a faulty instrument and I adjust it. They will tell me I have faith in my senses. My senses provide a reliable way to tell my surroundings. If they stopped doing so I would no longer trust them. I do not trust my eyes just out of faith, I use the input from my other senses and from my continued well-being to corroborate them. If my eyes tell me a pink giraffe is in my living room, but I can't touch or hear it, then I will stop trusting my eyes.
To corroborate and test is not faith. To be able to independently verify is not faith.
Science. Is. Not. Faith.
Your faith in a God is not equivalent to science and the respect we give it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aetj7sX9eog
I am a senior engineering student. I have taken a set of courses on physics from simple Newtonian motion through special and general relativity. I have taken two years of chemistry. I have taken courses in currents and circuits, fluid dynamics, thermodynamics, and a lot of courses in materials and environmental engineering. I have taken elective science courses in Geology, anthropology, archeology, and alternative energy. I work in a lab doing research on reinforced concrete. And I have to say this: science is not faith. Science is hard work.
Nothing in science is taken on faith. In a lab, we have our eyes, our instruments, and our minds. We test, we observe, we measure, we repeat ad nauseum. We reserve any judgment until after all the data is in. Only then do we examine the data and form hypothesis and conclusions. Every theory must be corroborated. Everything is suspect. I was lucky enough to take a physics course where we actually had to do experiments to derive the equations for current, gravity, inertia, and other phenomena. Because of this I feel fairly confident in the workings of physics. Not because I read it in a book, or because it was told to me, but because I have seen it, measured it, and confirmed it for myself.
A theist would say I have "faith" that my instruments are working. No. I test the instruments. I calibrate them before I start. I make sure that they are working. If I measure something that I know to be 1cm and it tells me it is 6m across I know I have a faulty instrument and I adjust it. They will tell me I have faith in my senses. My senses provide a reliable way to tell my surroundings. If they stopped doing so I would no longer trust them. I do not trust my eyes just out of faith, I use the input from my other senses and from my continued well-being to corroborate them. If my eyes tell me a pink giraffe is in my living room, but I can't touch or hear it, then I will stop trusting my eyes.
To corroborate and test is not faith. To be able to independently verify is not faith.
Science. Is. Not. Faith.
Your faith in a God is not equivalent to science and the respect we give it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aetj7sX9eog
