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July 29, 2007
Posted at 9:00 am by Richard and tagged arthur-c-clark, church, conflict, interpretation, myth, religion, science, technology, war. Popularity: 20% [?]
What is with the resurrected war between science and religion?
I must admit, I used to think that science and religion were natural enemies. How can something that relies on faith not be in direct opposition to a practice which specifically relies on reason and evidence? The thing is, it wasn’t always like that, and to some it still isn’t. Of course, there are those who choose to create conflict, but conflict isn’t necessary. Historically, science grew from the church. The first scientists were clergy, and scientific research was sponsored by the church. The church wanted to understand God’s world, and science was one of the ways they tried to do that.
Before I really began looking into things myself, I thought that the only rational scientific view could be that God (as always, I use the term very loosely) does not exist. But there is so much magic in the universe that we can’t help but feel insignificant in it. Even if the universe does exist due to a cosmic fluke, that’s still pretty darn amazing and if we could ever truly understand that, I think that would be on par with a religious experience.
Arthur C. Clark’s famous quote “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic” seems to be true not only of technology as we know it, but also the natural world around us, which possibly explains why many seem to believe the only option is that this world was created by a “sufficiently advanced being”. As our science advances, we discover more and more things that seem like magic - we continually discover new exciting things that seem completely unreal and magical. The quantum world, for example - even the greatest scientific minds still can’t fully grasp what happens in our world on a quantum level. As time goes on, our science progresses, and we understand these things differently, but that doesn’t make them any less amazing. While I accept that both science and spirituality/religion have limits to what they can explain, they both seem to be striving to understand this same magic.
Can’t science be a path to God? If God exists in all things (as is often claimed), then by understanding the world around us through science, we could begin to understand God. Sure, the God we might find wouldn’t be Yahweh, Allah or Jesus - but some parts of the bible have to be interpreted as metaphor, right? 
Further Reading:
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July 25, 2007
Posted at 9:43 pm by Richard and tagged arguments, biology, discussions, evangalism, evolution, gay-conservative, phillip-e-johnson, science, stupidity. Popularity: 15% [?]
Update: a reply! Supposedly, my comments were blocked by a rule which removes posts with more than two links. Given both my comments only had one link, this seems unlikely.
Just to being with, I’ll just say that in general, I don’t agree with Atheistic evangelism. I get really pissed off when Christians (I only single them out because no one else has ever tried to convert me, but I’m sure they’re not the only evangelists) don’t understand that I have no interest in joining their religion (or any other, for that matter). It is for exactly that reason that I disagree with atheists doing exactly the same thing. I don’t care if we’re right - I’ll happily debate with someone, and explain my position, but I’m not arrogant enough to think that everyone else should necessarily share my views. Before you say “why are you giving these religious people so much respect?” (as I’m sure many Dawkinians might), I would treat peoples political beliefs or choice of ice cream flavours in exactly the same way. “You don’t like rocky road? But what could possibly be better than the mix of smooth sticky marshmallow with crunchy nuts?” … “You don’t like nuts? Well ok, then…”.
I’ve had three discussions/arguments with various Christians/creationists recently, two of which have been quite interesting, and possibly even productive.
That said, blatantly stupid comments still draw my ire - fine - be religious, believe in a personal God. I’ll disagree with you, but it’s still your right. Claiming that “we’re working on it” is not a better answer than “goddidit”, and you’ll get my argumentative juices flowing. Further trying to claim a law professor is somehow an expert in evolutionary biology, and even further that biology is not a natural science is beyond me.
I can’t imagine (note: sarcasm) why the Gay Conservative didn’t post my most recent comment:
Last time I checked, biology IS a natural science.
Secondly, if you want to quote someone reputable about evolutionary biology, an ex-Berkley law professor is not my idea of a credible source… Find me a reputable biologist (or even a reputable scientist in a related field), and I might take more notice…
Did I have a point? Was I too argumentative? Feel free to read through the comments on Gay Conservative’s post, and see if anyone else can get their comments published.
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July 14, 2007
Posted at 10:35 am by del.icio.us and tagged atheism, biology, creationism, design, evolution, feuerback, god, hegal, history, humour, islam, kant, koran, Links, marx, osama, pascal, philosophy, proof, religion, science, sex, stupidity, terrorism, usa, violence, virgins, women. Popularity: 37% [?]
Here are some of the sites I’ve been looking at recently, that I wanted to share:
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June 27, 2007
Posted at 3:53 pm by Richard and tagged creation, god, humour, life, science. Popularity: 13% [?]
God is sitting in Heaven when a scientist says to Him, “Lord, we don’t need you any more. Science has finally figured out a way to create life out of nothing. In other words, we can now do what you did in the beginning.”"Oh, is that so? Tell me…” replies God.
“Well,” says the scientist, “we can take dirt and form it into the likeness of you and breathe life into it, thus creating man.”
“Well, that’s interesting. Show Me.”
So, the scientist bends down to the earth and starts to mould the soil.
“Oh no, no, no…” interrupts God,
“Get your own dirt.”
(via Vanessa Byers)
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Posted at 10:48 am by del.icio.us and tagged bible, charity, creationism, feminism, fsm, god, history, humour, intelligentdesign, jail, Links, map, moses, paranoia, parishilton, religion, science, uk. Popularity: 32% [?]
Here are some of the sites I’ve been looking at recently, that I wanted to share:
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