RE: Science, faith, and theists
September 5, 2014 at 1:35 pm
(This post was last modified: September 5, 2014 at 1:35 pm by Simon Moon.)
(September 5, 2014 at 1:21 pm)Michael Wrote: Simon. Just to clarify something, I wasn't talking about material gain when talking about an improved life.
Neither was I.
I was talking about the turn around my friend had from an unhappy addict living on the street, to a happy, complete, self assured human being. The material gains he has are an outgrowth of his being a happy, self-realized person.
Quote:But, yes, how would you test between Hindhu and Christian faith in the lab? Can it be done? I'm not yet hearing anybody say faith can be tested in the lab. It seems to be the one thing we all agree on. I've given three propositions. I'm hearing a lot of objections to those propositions (natch), but I'm not hearing anybody say how they could be tested/falsified in a lab.
The thing you are missing, is that there is no need to test faith, because there is nothing to test. In reality, it looks like nothing more than gullibility and believing things with no good reasons.
Your claim that you and other people of faith get positive things out of it, does not offer a shred of evidence that the thing you have faith in actually exists.
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.
