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Absolutely in agreement. Very much like the scientific method, no?
Yes, indeed. The foundational concept of science is that empirical evidence must be the ultimate judge. Going into an experiment, one's religious faith, expectations, prejudices, and preferences must be set aside (to the greatest extent humanly possible) so that if the data conflicts with your theory you can actually LEARN something (in contrast to simply saying that the data must be wrong because my personal preferences/holy book/etc. already indicate what the correct answer must be).
Scientists generally have a love/hate relationship with data that conflicts with their expectations. It's bothersome because it means you are wrong, but it's exciting because it means you might be on the verge of learning something new.
This is hilarious. Practice makes perfect. And you are the one who used the metaphor of someone banging on a piano being as valid as someone being taught to play. I really don't know whether you are taking argument - winning to whole new lengths of torured rationalisation or just winding us up in a sort of lugubrious dead-pan manner.
I do enough. The trick is not making any mistakes, which defines what and who I am. Perhaps if your mental abilities were greater, you wouldn't make any either.
Mercury Cougar, I will respond to you later on when I have access to a computer. You know I don't take anything standing down. Especially from the likes of you. So prepare to be demolished. That is all.
We're still waiting for your brilliant riposte of Truth, which you will post to the internet from a computer, while sitting in a room heated, cooled, and lighted at the touch of a button, while in the kitchen your prepackaged meal cooks in a microwave, and you have clean hot and cold running water and access to a flush toilet in your bathroom, and your television provides entertainment for you from the background.
All these things and countless others provided to you through the advances and discoveries that science has made. No need for a moldy old tome of superstitious twaddle. No need for a supreme being. Just plain old good science, which you happily use every day while bleating about how lame it is, and how your god is the answer to everything.
I find myself frankly underwhelmed and un-demolished by you at this point.
Science is the soundest method for finding out facts. It has given better answers than 'God did it'. As per the thread.
As for the matters of taste, behaviour and morality, that should be down to personal inclination with a bit of reasoning applied and it always was, religion claiming that it came from God as a method of enforcing authority, much like the 'this is office policy' that I recall from my last job where the bosses couldn't find any better justification.
If science cannot answer all questions then the holy books cannot answer any of them. The bad thing is that religion takes speculation and guesswork and pretends that it does answer the questions.
The choice is yours - believe on evidence or believe on faith?
It's true books can't talk or answer questions themselves. I'm not even a "book alone" believer. However the varied traditional religions (Which for this purpose means discounting Protestantism, Bahai, Sikhism, and other newer religious movements) have studied and debated humanity or reality much longer than any scientific society in existence.
I know I know citing tradition is "fallacy." However I'm not saying because something is a tradition it must be right, I'm not as into the whole "I'll only believe what I have no choice to believe" thing, but I do think traditions that really last despite changing of society often do have value. Or at least they tell us something about humanity and society.
If I want to know how to make a widget, cure a disease, or find a planet than science is what I'd want. If I want to know why I'm here or doing things or how I should live I'm not going to look to science. I'm going to look to people who have really looked at those things.
From the definition below, it's clear that there's nothing wrong with science, as long as the end result of it is true. But, even scientists aren't 100% that all their science is actually science.
Definition of SCIENCE
1 : the state of knowing : knowledge as distinguished from ignorance or misunderstanding
2 a: a department of systematized knowledge as an object of study <the science of theology> b: something (as a sport or technique) that may be studied or learned like systematized knowledge <have it down to a science>
3 a: knowledge or a system of knowledge covering general truths or the operation of general laws especially as obtained and tested through scientific methodb: such knowledge or such a system of knowledge concerned with the physical world and its phenomena:natural science
4 : a system or method reconciling practical ends with scientific laws <cooking is both a science and an art>
Origin of SCIENCE
Middle English, from Anglo-French, from Latin scientia, from scient-, sciens having knowledge, from present participle of scire to know; perhaps akin to Sanskrit chyati he cuts off, Latin scindere to split — more at shed First Known Use: 14th century
Without wishing to decry your faith, I have to remind you that it was science which discovered those galaxies and religion did not discover a single one of them.
The answers given by religion are to be questioned using reason. Claims of divine authority are just a way of quashing question.
With all respect thats not true !!
the holy quran (words of god that brught to us by his prophet mohammed ) said alot of scientific facts 1500 years a go.. facts that the world discovered recently in the 20 century .
For example :
*The science of modern cosmology, observational and theoretical, clearly indicates that, at one point in time, the whole universe was nothing but a cloud of ‘smoke’ (i.e. an opaque highly dense and hot gaseous composition).
This is one of the undisputed principles of standard modern cosmology. Scientists now can observe new stars forming out of the remnants of that ‘smoke’
God has said in the Quran 1500 years a go :
“Then He turned to the heaven when it was smoke...” (Quran 41:11)
P.S : prophet mohammed could not write or read .. so if it was not a real word of god then how could he know that ?? Category: The Scientific Miracles of the Holy Quran - The Religion of Islam
Not what I am saying at all. Clearly being right is the goal and what we “rather”.
The fact is I already know I am wrong, that is the point.
I do not know where or about what, but I already know I am. You are too. Everyone on this forum is. Unless you think someone is perfect and is right about everything then something they are thinking is wrong somewhere.
The trick is to find out where you are wrong and weed those things out. You may never be perfect and right about everything, but you can tend towards that ideal goal.
I find coming on to forums helps me weed those things out, with the help of others on those forums. Of course the issue is the more things you weed out, the harder it is to find more things so like any drug the “buzz” is harder and harder to achieve.
Gaylen did sum up what I was saying quite well with the line "I'd rather be wrong and find out that I am wrong, than think I am right and never find out that I am actually wrong.". This is exactly what I mean. By accepting you are wrong about something, even if you do not know what those somethings are just yet, you are one step on the path to finding out you are wrong, rather than thinking you are right and never discovering otherwise.
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