It's very irritating to come to my blog and see the advertisement at top for a book proclaiming loudly " GOD: The Failed Hypothesis. How science shows that God does not exist." I haven't clicked on the link, and won't, because its very title indicates to me that it's hogwash.This is something that has bugged me for a while, too - the idea that those with religious beliefs are somehow anti-science, or superstitious nutbars, or illiterate. I have seen it on far too many occasions, and it distresses me to see it on sites like scienceblogs.com or badastronomy.com.
This bugs me on two levels. First, it sets off my bullshit-o-meter in a big way. God is not a scientific concept, and as such science cannot disprove the existence of God. Science has obviated the need for God or gods for many people, and science assuredly has disproven a lot of things people claim in the name of god (e.g. all of the absurdity claimed by creationists), but that's different from disproving God itself.
Science and religion are two completely different realms. Attempting to mix the two yeilds nothing productive, whether it is the aforementioned book that claims to disprove the existence of God, or fundamentalists that fight against the teaching of evolution in schools. Both are completely wrong.
To those who purport to be scientists, who spend their time attempting to disprove God: show me your data. Show me your experiments that disprove God. You can't, because what you're doing isn't science. One can no more use science to disprove God than one can use science to prove the existence of God. If you could, then whatever you are studying is by definition (ie. surpassing all human understanding) not God.
To those who seek to use religion as a cudgel to force schools to stop teaching evolution: who are you to tell God what tools he may or may not use? Quit wasting your time arguing about what you're going to allow God to do, and instead study what He actually did (which was to set the conditions of the universe up right from very start so that stars, planets, life, and intelligence would eventually form - which when you think about it, is even more remarkable than a simple six-day creative burst).
I am a Christian, and both of the groups I mention above piss me off.
I want to end this blog post with a couple of quotes:
"Gravity explains the motions of the planets, but it cannot explain who set the planets in motion. God governs all things and knows all that is or can be done."So, who was the irrational, superstitious, illiterate, fundamentalist whackjob that wrote these words? None other than Isaac Newton, arguably the greatest scientific genius the world has ever known. Consider that the next time you dismiss a Christian as a superstitious fool.
"I have a fundamental belief in the Bible as the Word of God, written by those who were inspired. I study the Bible daily."
4 comments:
Well said! Thanks. I've actually been thinking of posting something like this myself sometime.
I am glad that you said this, as this has been irritating me as well.
Although I have serious doubts about evolution (I use to passionately believe in it, but that is another story) I believe that we should allow everyone to use science to figure out whether or not any theory (evolution, creationism, intelligent design, etc.) holds merit.
This would not only teach people critical thinking skills, but also give them a chance to decide for themselves what to believe based on the evidence of what science reveals.
I am willing to lay my beliefs down for the evidence. So what is all the fuss about?
PS
Should we start a blog roll of space geeks who are religious?
I do not exist. I am a fiction of your wild imagination.
"Science and religion are two completely different realms."
So the bible contains no empirically refutable statements?
So scientific discoveries never force re-evaluations of spirituality, morality, or the human condition?
You can't ignore a collision between the two by claiming it's impossible. It happens all the time.
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