Beyond Belief: Science, Reason, Religion & Surviva

[JBeukema]

Just 40 years after a famous TIME magazine cover asked "Is God Dead?" the answer appears to be a resounding "No!" According to a survey by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life in a recent issue of Foreign Policy magazine, "God is Winning". Religions are increasingly a geopolitical force to be reckoned with. Fundamentalist movements - some violent in the extreme - are growing. Science and religion are at odds in the classrooms and courtrooms. And a return to religious values is widely touted as an antidote to the alleged decline in public morality. After two centuries, could this be twilight for the Enlightenment project and the beginning of a new age of unreason? Will faith and dogma trump rational inquiry, or will it be possible to reconcile religious and scientific worldviews? Can evolutionary biology, anthropology and neuroscience help us to better understand how we construct beliefs, and experience empathy, fear and awe? Can science help us create a new rational narrative as poetic and powerful as those that have traditionally sustained societies? Can we treat religion as a natural phenomenon? Can we be good without God? And if not God, then what?
This is a critical moment in the human situation, and The Science Network in association with the Crick-Jacobs Center brought together an extraordinary group of scientists and philosophers to explore answers to these questions. The conversation took place at the Salk Institute, La Jolla, CA from November 5-7, 2006.

Beyond Belief: Science, Reason, Religion & Survival

 

[JBeukema]

anyone watching?

 

[ST34]

"Is God Dead?"

he can't be dead because he never lived

Can science help us create a new rational narrative as poetic and powerful as those that have traditionally sustained societies?

yes long time of existing of sick culture was very poetic ('philosophy and religion as illness')

Can we treat religion as a natural phenomenon?

no, it is degeneration

 

[Skull Pilot]

when religions that oppress and discourage free thought and speech with the threat of violence are on the rise, it is time to be very afraid.

 

[jan]

I really have no idea why religion and science have to be at odds all the time. If there is a God (which I believe there is) he would have created the science that holds our universe together...so I really don't understand the problem. One doesn't have to exclude the other. It's simply not an either / or type of choice...it's all encompassing.

 

[ST34]

I really have no idea why religion and science have to be at odds all the time... One doesn't have to exclude the other

One have to exclude the other because science is basing on empirical evidence and religion is basing on fictions

 

[jan]

I really have no idea why religion and science have to be at odds all the time... One doesn't have to exclude the other

One have to exclude the other because science is basing on empirical evidence and religion is basing on fictions

My way of thinking is that science is man's way to figure out what God did. Science works from the bottom up. God works from the top down. Either way...at some point they meet.

Even Steven Hawking has said he believes there is order to the universe and that he believes it was made by design. I thought that was interesting to hear such a highly respected physicist say such a thing.

 

[Diuretic]

I really have no idea why religion and science have to be at odds all the time... One doesn't have to exclude the other

One have to exclude the other because science is basing on empirical evidence and religion is basing on fictions

My way of thinking is that science is man's way to figure out what God did. Science works from the bottom up. God works from the top down. Either way...at some point they meet.

Even Steven Hawking has said he believes there is order to the universe and that he believes it was made by design. I thought that was interesting to hear such a highly respected physicist say such a thing.

My way of thinking is that science is humanity's way to find things out. The idea of gods should, like any other unproven assumption, not be up for consideration in the process.

 

[JBeukema]

I really have no idea why religion and science have to be at odds all the time.

Because religion fears science, for it robs them of their delusions

 

[jan]

I really have no idea why religion and science have to be at odds all the time.

Because religion fears science, for it robs them of their delusions

I don't know...but it seems to me that if someone believes in God, they would also believe in everything that He created...which would include science by the way!

I just don't see the problem with it. Even the book of Genesis and the story of creation seems to come in an order that supports evolution. Man came last...from the dust of the Earth I might add!

 

[JBeukema]

I don't know...but it seems to me that if someone believes in God, they would also believe in everything that He created...which would include science by the way!

They have historically opposed any science that contradicts their dogma

 

[jan]

I don't know...but it seems to me that if someone believes in God, they would also believe in everything that He created...which would include science by the way!

They have historically opposed any science that contradicts their dogma

People need to get over the dogma of religion. Religion is man made...and dogma's created to control the masses.

However, I do believe in a Supreme being...I choose to call it God. If we think about creation at it's basis...that first molecule had to come from somewhere. How do Atheists explain that first molecule? I personally can't get around the idea that creation wasn't part of the universe. However, I also believe in evolution as well.

 

[Al Gunn]

I don't know...but it seems to me that if someone believes in God, they would also believe in everything that He created...which would include science by the way!

They have historically opposed any science that contradicts their dogma

People need to get over the dogma of religion. Religion is man made...and dogma's created to control the masses.

However, I do believe in a Supreme being...I choose to call it God. If we think about creation at it's basis...that first molecule had to come from somewhere. How do Atheists explain that first molecule? I personally can't get around the idea that creation wasn't part of the universe. However, I also believe in evolution as well.

How can the first molecule be explained. It can't, but ignorance doesn't equal god. Of course, not for simpletons who have to have it explained for them out of fear.

 

[RetiredGySgt]

I really have no idea why religion and science have to be at odds all the time. If there is a God (which I believe there is) he would have created the science that holds our universe together...so I really don't understand the problem. One doesn't have to exclude the other. It's simply not an either / or type of choice...it's all encompassing.

You will fnd on THIS board that the atheists worship Science and HATE religion. Between whining about being preached to they do the exact same thing in an attempt to convert believers into non believers.

The thread opener is ALL about attacking religion. Check out just about any thread he has started and any in this section and you will find he goes out of his way to attack the religious.

 

[RetiredGySgt]

I really have no idea why religion and science have to be at odds all the time.

Because religion fears science, for it robs them of their delusions

And yet YOU are the one attacking religion every chance you get, exactly who fears WHAT?

 

[editec]

I'm a believer.

I have no problem with science.

There is no conflict between my faith that there's something behind the curtains and what science can tell me about the known universe.

None at all.

I can know that my house has plumbing without knowing the name or the mind of the plumbing contractor who built it, too.

Where most religionous freaks and most militant atheists get into trouble is when they decide to tell you they understand the universe


All of us are clueless about the miracle of being.

Real science understands that it is clueless about being. Real science understands that even if it unravels how it all works, they still cannot answer why it exists at all.

Real faith understands that fact, too.

Bible thumpers and Darwin thumpers are two sides of the same ignorant coin.

 

[JBeukema]

I can know that my house has plumbing without knowing the name or the mind of the plumbing contractor who built it, too.

All of us are clueless about the miracle of being.

\

loaded language

Real science understands that it is clueless about being. Real science understands that even if it unravels how it all works, they still cannot answer why it exists at all.

'Why', in the way you ask it, is not a valid question any more that 'what is the meaning of life'

 

[JBeukema]

The thread opener is ALL about attacking religion.

right...

have you watched all of the conference?

You don't know what you're talking about, you stupid, ignorant prick. Just because your life sucks doesn't mean you have to lash out at people. Talk to your doctor, take some pill,s have some drinks, and either off yourself or shutup. Noone forced ya to come into this thread

exactly who fears WHAT?

Your kind are detrimental to the good of the nation and the species

 

[ST34]

And yet YOU are the one attacking religion every chance you get

no he isn't the one, I am the two

but speaking more seriously, there are many people on this forum which are attacking religion every 'chance' they get

In this argumentation we can see some property which is characteristic for all 'religious' people on this forum - they, in fact have no real arguments so they are using ad personam arguments (or ignore threads of opponents) - they do it because of their stupidity

for them it is hard to understand this simple fact that - their case was lost, is lost, and will be completely lost in future

 

[Bill O'Olberman]

I really have no idea why religion and science have to be at odds all the time.

Because religion fears science, for it robs them of their delusions

And yet YOU are the one attacking religion every chance you get, exactly who fears WHAT?

Well, I do fear the dogma divien zealot fundamentalists that spawn from religions' delusions...




To me the belief that science can explain everything is equally as naive as the belief in a man who is the son of god, born to a virgin mother, and who was resurrected. If someone through their metaphysical/ontological assumptions on the nature of reality choose to have belief/disbelief in god then thats their business.