According to The mission of Reasons: To Believe is to show that science
and faith are, and always will be, allies, not enemies.
The basic trouble with this claim is that before science and
Faith can be allies, and not enemies, is that faith must first be
friendly with other faiths before they can seek the friendship
of science.
Consider the Christian faith, the Muslim faith, and the
faith of the Jews. They are all unfriendly to each other. In fact, they
are ready and willing to cut each other’s throats because, to begin with,
they cannot agree as to what will happen to them after their throats
have been cut.
Faith and science are allies, not enemies? No kidding? How come in any
of the religious books – in the bible, or in the Quran, and in the
Talmud – there is nothing there mentioned about the beauty and the
wonders of science? Poch Suzara
2 comments:
Theism and science are most incompatible. One is predicated on faith (belief without and despite the lack evidence) in postulated preternatural phenomena. The other rests on observation of reality, experimentation, and the search for evidence to determine the best explanatory hypotheses. Theism makes untestable, nonfalsifiable claims and ad hoc rationalizations. Those that are testable and falsifiable (eg. prayers are answered) are within the purview of science to confirm/confute, and some of them have already been falsified (eg. lightning is caused by angry sky beings, intercessory prayers for the sick work, extant lifeforms on earth did not evolve from simpler species).
Theism has no epistemology that is known to work reliably. It doesn't have any proven method of knowing/verifying/confirming/falsifying the theistic claims it makes. Science on the other hand IS the most robust epistemic method that humans have come up with. Theism is an avenue toward delusion. Science is the road of disillusionment and enlightenment. Given how theists have no way of knowing whether their claims/dogmas/doctrines/beliefs are true, faith breeds overweening confidence and arrogance. Given how scientific claims can be tested and refuted, the spectre and fact of being wrong inculcates and fosters humility.
Humility in the scientific endeavor has not been enough. The scientific way of thinking endlessly promotes the search of the truth or the values of veracity. All human knowledge is uncertain, inexact, and partial. In science, therefore, the power of thinking is much more reliable, much more awesome, than just being dumbstruck with easy believing.
Thanks for writing. I always appreciate your stand not for divinity but being always on the side of humanity. Poch Suzara
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