(May 21, 2015 at 11:30 am)FatAndFaithless Wrote: Again, if theists were to say something like "if our religious claims come into conflict with verifiable, testable, empirical evidence, the religious claim is then discarded", then I suppose that would be..."okay"...
Which interestingly enough, that's precisely what my father told me. Of the few times he would ever speak in front of me, he would rip on creationists and say science trumps the bible on literal claims like that. He's still a Christian, and I actually called him out on the conflict of him being a scientist and a Christian when I was fifteen and telling my parents I didn't believe in God. He said it boiled down to faith and that I "just wouldn't understand."
The thing is, he's the smartest man I've ever met personally. I mean, he has a Ph.D. in organic chemistry for Christ's sake, so he's certainly not ignorant of the principles behind empirical observation. I just can't wrap my head around it, but my parents are so passive about religion that it's literally a non-issue. I do notice he gets a little uncomfortable when I bring up religion, though.
Even if the open windows of science at first make us shiver after the cozy indoor warmth of traditional humanizing myths, in the end the fresh air brings vigor, and the great spaces have a splendor of their own - Bertrand Russell
