Reconciling Science With Faith

[dog_man86]

I'm personally an athiest and my main reason (besides disagreeing on certain values) is that I can't reconcile faith with science. I would really like to hear how different people do this, obviously there are many people who believe. How do you deal with seeming contradictions between your faith and science?

[Beta69]

Why can't you reconcile faith with science?

[dog_man86]

quote:Originally posted by Beta69:

Why can't you reconcile faith with science?

There seems to be too many contradictions and things that don't go together for me to be able to believe in a god.

[dog_man86]

Can you reconcile them, if so how do you do it?

[Elephantitis Man]

I don't utilize faith at all. To me, it's a useless word. By having faith in something, you concede that it cannot be accept on it's own merit. It need something more, somthing extra...faith.

For those that would say "LOL. You have faith in science don't you?! Everyone has faith in something!"...no. I make inductive assumptions that I can trust peer reviewed, analyzed, and reasonable science. These assumptions can be refuted by evidence to the contrary. I am not committed to them in life or death. If presented with solid evidence of the contrary, I would change my inductive assumption of whatever matter is being challenged and refuted. It's the way logic works.

Faith is different. In matters of faith, it is often considered virtuous to hold on to faith in spite of solid contradictory evidence. Faith is the surrender of reason.

That is why science and faith cannot be reconciled. Science is based on reason, and faith is rejection of reason. You either have to ignore science (reason) and be 'faithful' (which, like I stated earlier, is foolishly attributed by many to be an act of virtue when it is actually an act of ignorance), or you can ignore faith and be scientific.

[dog_man86]

quote:Originally posted by Elephantitis Man:

I don't utilize faith at all. To me, it's a useless word. By having faith in something, you concede that it cannot be accept on it's own merit. It need something more, somthing extra...faith.

For those that would say "LOL. You have faith in science don't you?! Everyone has faith in something!"...no. I make inductive assumptions that I can trust peer reviewed, analyzed, and reasonable science. These assumptions can be refuted by evidence to the contrary. I am not committed to them in life or death. If presented with solid evidence of the contrary, I would change my inductive assumption of whatever matter is being challenged and refuted. It's the way logic works.

Faith is different. In matters of faith, it is often considered virtuous to hold on to faith in spite of solid contradictory evidence. Faith is the surrender of reason.

That is why science and faith cannot be reconciled. Science is based on reason, and faith is rejection of reason. You either have to ignore science (reason) and be 'faithful' (which, like I stated earlier, is foolishly attributed by many to be an act of virtue when it is actually an act of ignorance), or you can ignore faith and be scientific.

How do you explain people like my chem professor who are doctors of science and also christian missionaries or something similar to that?

[The_Rabbi]

Easy: God created everything, and science explains how everything God created works.

[dog_man86]

do you feel the need for proof that god exists?

also, I kind of feel like religion is a method of social control. Does anyone else feel like that?

[smallpox champion]

quote:Originally posted by The_Rabbi:

Easy: God created everything, and science explains how everything God created works.

That's one way of putting it, but once certain people assume God did something, they are no longer curious of how it works specifically.

For example, people are glad that evolutionary biology is understood, because it lead to the further development of medecine.

[The_Rabbi]

quote:Originally posted by dog_man86:



also, I kind of feel like religion is a method of social control. Does anyone else feel like that?

I kind of feel like society is a method of social control. I kind of feel like it's for a good reason. What's your point?



[This message has been edited by The_Rabbi (edited 05-11-2006).]