Isn't science just a religion?
As a Christian I believe in the ways of the bible and the teachings of God. I get a lot of stick from atheists who think I am stupid because they don't think God exists.
But isn't science a religion in itself? Science can't prove God doesn't exist and there are no scientific theories which can be proved to be indefinite so why all the hate? I am not stupid for believing in God, I just have a different religion.
38 comments
Are you stupid for believing in God? No, but you are as ignorant of science as it seems possible to be.
Are you stupid for believing in God? No, but you are a gullible rube.
Feel better now?
Science is an evil false liberal religion invented by the Pope to undermine the Biblical morals of American Society. True Christians should resist the false pagan god of science for it leads only to sordid sins such as abortion, contraception, homosexuality, socialism, and debauchery.
Science is based on observations of the world around us. It has nothing to do with faith, only with evidence. Religion is based completely on faith and spirituality.
Millions of people believe in both, but that's a secret your fundie pastor probably won't tell you.
After all, if he were to allow you to believe in science, you'd discover things like climate change and fetuses don't really masturbate, and then you might go out and do something unthinkable, like vote for a Democrat.
Science deals only with the natural world. Religions deal with supernatural entities and concepts. Therefore science, by definition, cannot be a religion. Furthermore, science need not be in conflict with religion. The alleged conflict is an invention by biblical literalists, who only make up a small (albeit vocal) percentage of religious folks.
I do not think that you are stupid for believing in god(s), and I certainly don't hate you for asking what appears to be an honest question.
"Science can't prove God doesn't exist"
It is impossible for science to prove the non-existence of something that only exists inside your head anymore than you can prove the non-existence of Allah, Vishnu, Odin, Zeus, etc, etc.
Science deals in the real. Religion deals in the imagined.
Science and atheism are not the same.
Atheism is the default position, that is there is no evidence for any gods. The theist is making the positive claim, there is/are a god(s), it is up to you to provide the evidence.
A religion is faith or belief without evidence dressed up with rituals and priests to make it plausible to the gullible. Cassie may not be stupid but she is certainly gullible.
There is no hate in pointing this out just reason.
Science is not a religion. Science doesn't give a damn if God, or gods, exist, much less what they want. Science is a method for examining the various phenomena of the tangible universe. If it weren't for science, the chances are you'd never have grown up to bother us with your superstitious assholery
Who is the poor Poe calling him/herself Protestant Crusader?
Get a clue PC, your rants are too grammatical and well spelt to be true fundy. You need to use CAPS LOCK and !!!!!1! to make sure you get yourself properly into the religious moron mode to post that crap on here.
what's the purpose of making this false equivalence? why would a theist try to argue that "science is just a religion", unless they somehow felt that "mere religions" were inferior to science, such that comparing the two would be dragging their opposition down to their own level.
in one way, of course, that is the exact truth; science flew us to the moon and religion flew planes into buildings, and so on. but it's a remarkable approach for a theist to take in any kind of debate, for all that.
So you reject *all* science? Sounds like a tough position to be in.
I believe in God and I "believe" in science, because as you said, science does not have anything to say about whether or not there is a god or gods; a belief in the supernatural does not mean that one is obligated to reject observable reality.
One is believing things based on testable, observable evidence.
The other is just believing things.
The similarity you'll notice between the two is not the important part.
"But isn't science a religion in itself?"
No.
Isn't science just a religion?
No, it isn't. It has no doctrine, no deity and no-one worships anything. You're misusing the word "religion" in a way that, as a believer, I find offensive.
Unless you're in the cWoD, no.
And there, it's perhaps just as accurate to say religion is a science, since belief actually does affect reality. It can be tested.
Isn't science just a religion?
No. Science doesn't waste time with gods, hymns, temples, prophets, angels, demons, heaven, hell, rituals, etc. Science actually works.
Where's that Tim Minchin quote from his beat poem Storm ? I don't remember the exact line but he points out that science makes adjustments to its beliefs and understandings when new evidence arises. When does religion do that? (And not when they're dragged kicking and screaming into modernity, like what happened with slavery...)
Cassie, in what way is science a religion? Religion posits a belief system that requires faith. There are many different religions, believing different things, and most claim to be the one, true religion. This is not very logical as some systems are so widely different from others that there is no possibility of a synthesis between them. Even in Christianity there are many denominations that spend a lot of their time condemning other denominations, and in past ages killing each other for having heterodox views - all for the love of the same God.
Science, par contre, does not require belief. It demands proof. That's one hell of a difference right at the start. Scientists to not uphold dogma. A proposition is a theory until proved beyond all reasonable doubt of its veracity. It is not unusual for a theory to be thrown out because is does not match up to the rigorous standards that are constantly applied. There is no infallible deity in scienve. Religion, otoh, accretes and stands on its head to reconcile the irreconcilable.
If you cannot see and understand this great difference, then no one can make you see that science can never, by its very nature, be a religion. In which case, live on in your fundamental confusion and ignorance. Just don't push your views onto those who are not disposed to accept them.
@ Protestant Crusader
How do you bear the burden of embarrassment that your idiotic statements load onto your shoulders? You are pitifully pathetic. Get a life!
Religions have belief in the supernatural, have beliefs that cannot be altered, have sacred texts that never become obsolete and hold things, places or states of mind as sacred. None of this applies to science.
@Canadiest
I'm not sure Erving Goffman would agree; surely the scientific conference (how we present papers etc.) is full of ritual.
No, we don't think you're stupid for believing in god. Like Jefferson said, whether you believe in no gods or a hundred, it neither picks my pocket or breaks my leg. We do think you're stupid (or at least highly misled) if you believe the Earth is 6000 years old or that the entire Earth was flooded, despite the fact that all the evidence we have shows it didn't happen that way. Still, even then the worst we might do is tease you a bit or roll our eyes in the same way we might respond to a person with a really awful haircut.
But you guys aren't content to just go do you're thing and let everyone else do theirs. You want to use the government to force everyone else to believe as you do. When you do that, we push back and show you how you're wrong. It's only "hate" based on your deluded sense of being persecuted because we won't allow you to persecute other people.
No. Science is not just a religion.
No. Science can not prove nor disprove god. And theories change as we learn more. You are not stupid for believing in god. And no you do not have a different religion. You are Christian. You have a different religion than I *I* do (Pagan) but science is not a religion
Science can't prove God doesn't exist
Science also can't prove the Tooth Fairy doesn't exist, so what's your point?
I get a lot of stick from atheists who think I am stupid
Stop saying things like this then.
But isn't science a religion in itself?
Science can't prove God doesn't exist
Science can't prove Thor and Apollo and Kali don't exist either, so better start praying to all of them.
You're not stupid for believing in God, true, But you ARE stupid for saying that science is a religion, and believing that the burden of proof rests with the atheists.
"Isn't science just a religion? "
No science is not a religion. Only religion is religion.
Your problem is you don't understand anything other than religion so you think everything is religion.
"Science can't prove God doesn't exist"
Including the flying spaghetti monster.
A dozen answers explaining the difference between science & religion, and how one is not the other, and Cassie picks the one response that uses the lazy "if you put faith in something it's a religion" line.
*facepalm*
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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