manchot posts a random sensitive topic that will create great controversy

G

Gizmo

Guest
I believe in three things:
Love, Death and Physics.

In that order.

I think you can explain religion away too easily as a sociological phenomenon developed by primitive cultures to fill the gaps in their worldview that could not be filled by their scientific naivete. You can easily argue a convincing point that the existence of religion does not need the precondition of the existence of a god of any manner.
During the past five centuries science has continued to force religion into retreat, from a position where prior to the Renaissance the global churches held sole ownership of the unknown to where we are today. Modern religions have been forced to retreat to a standpoint of 'but you can`t prove it', which is fair enough because science CAN`T prove the existence or otherwise of a God or Gods, but at every stage another element of their mythology has been destroyed. I fail to see how anybody can believe in the Genesis part of the Bible given our astounding leaps in understanding of the cosmos` past. Fundamentalists, with there approach to modernity of sticking their fingers in their ears and shouting "I am not listening to you, I am not listening to you.." make me shake my head in disbelief.

At alternating times I feel jealous towards and sorry for people with a strong religious belief. It is a source of great strength in times of trouble, and at times of trouble in my life I know that I would have felt much better had I been able to believe in a higher power. But on the other hand I feel truly sorry for people who are unable to comprehend the universe without imposing the existence of God - the beauties of the universe and Physics are so great that to assign them a creator diminishes their worth.

As for evolution, I think it needn`t be a matter of faith, sseeing as Evolution is something that can be measured in a lab, or seen every day on the streets of your home town.
Pigeons used to be brown, Pigeons still are brown in the countryside. In the cites they are Grey - not because they are dirty but because they have evolved a new camoflage scheme over the last two hundred years.
There is a moth in Finland (I think) that used to be White, it laid it`s eggs on a specific white tree. Pollution meant that white tree turned Brown, the moth is now Brown. It EVOLVED a new camoflage system.

Evolution can not only be used to explain existing phenomena, but has been used to predict future phenomena with extreme accuracy. This is the best test available for any scientific theory, once you can predict something will happen and it does, then your theory has great bearing. Genetic engineering is replacing simple interbreeding techniques - what more proof do you need of evolution? You can stick a white dog and a black dog together and say "I think they will have some white puppies, some black pupies, and some black and white puppies". Hey presto, evolution does it`s stuff!

"Jesus died for you, Bill."
"Yeah, but it was a long time ago - forget about it!"
- Bill Hicks
 
G

Gizmo

Guest
The English guy writes...

I read an interesting sociological study which put a conclusive link between religious belief and societal dispersion. It suggested that it is societies where life revolves around dispersed, tightly-knit, local communities which are isolated from neighbouring communities by travel difficulties that are more likely to develop strong religious beliefs.
It painted a strong correlation between the structure of medieval Europe and that of small-town Bible-belt America, with very interesting ramifications.
Urbanised societies, it suggested, were far less likely to follow churches, and were almost certain not be to fundamentalist (although religion still flourishes in many US cities, the fundamentalist drop-off in urban areas is astounding). Religion becomes, therefore, a function of simplicity and isolation encouraged in areas where there is little room for self advancement, and as such the promise of etheral higher rewards for fruitless toil recieve a welcome audience.
 
S

Spiderman

Administrator
Staff member
Wow, this thread seemed to have died :).

Gizmo:
This is the best test available for any scientific theory, once you can predict something will happen and it does, then your theory has great bearing.
Click to expand...
And of course, the best thing about science is trying to "disprove" or break theories, as shown in the Star Wars thread about the speed of light (although usually it means modifying it, not destroying it completely).
 
D

Duel

Guest
Remember this: a fact is merely a theory that hasn't been proven wrong YET. Science is not, and never will be, immutable, as it changes with every new thing we discover. When we twist science to fit us, that's religon...

hoo boy am I gonna get flamed for THAT...
 
H

Hetemti

Guest
Evolution is not necessarily survival of the "fittest." Simply survival of those that manage to survive.

Look at Amizonian birds. (I dare ya.) Some have tail feathers that are three feet long. That's not evolution aiming for the fittest. A long tail wastes energy and matter that could be applied to muscles or brains or Magical card shuffling skills. The reason birds with yard-long tails exist is simple.

1) Long tails did not stop them from banging the ladybirds.
2) Not enough of the long tailed birds were eaten by other forest denizens.

Any genetic defect that does not lead to death prior to that creature's reaching breeding age will spread that defective gene throughout that species' gene pool.

Explain humans? Ok. That's an easy one.

The Monkeys (not the band) were throwing bananas at each other as usual. One was born with a flaw, a faulty gene said that a portion of matter would develop into an excess of brain cells instead of monkeymuscle.

This allowed the lill monkey to do two things.

1) Get chased by the Alpha Monkey.
2) Sneak back and pimp himself amoung the other monkettes while Alpha was running around in circles trying to figure out where the little pipsqueek went.

Now all the monkeygals have kids with the same gene that caused intellegence. Once this spread throughout the ape kingdom, inbreeding between the new, slightly smarter apes will occur. This causes further mutation of the gene, further increasing their intellegence.

All things in life are two-sided.
It's just as easy for a "good" gene, such as intelegence or Magical card shuffling skills, to occur as "bad" genes, such as backwards feet and tendency to inhabit trailer parks.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top