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
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