It seems to be a popular thing these days for some members of the scientific community to once again cry out from the rooftops that "There is no God! Churches do horrible things! Bah, humbug!" They say that we'll all find true happiness as athiests. Science will solve all our problems and give us hope.
1) Belief in the Divine, a Higher Creative Power, in whatever form you prefer, is not the same as belief in a particular religion.
2) Science has yet to disprove the existence of said Higher Creative Power. Absence of proof is not proof of absence. Science has not yet reached some endstate, in which there is nothing left to discover. Further, theoretical and quantum physics are beginning to suggest that there may be, according to some physicists, a Higher Power behind this wild Universe we inhabit.
3) Yes, religions (and the people guiding them) have often been responsible for great wrongdoing. However, let's examine some of the accomplishments that are a result of the Age of Enlightenment, Science, and the Industrial Revolution: nuclear weapons; massive worldwide pollution and the resulting assortment of health issues (i.e. cancers); global climate change; the twin evils of communism and capitalism; various other methods of mass killing previously unavailable, with all new horrors on the horizon; the basic alienation of humanity from itself and our world, with all of its attendant problems. Very few of the miracle cures science promised for our ills have ever shown up, nor is there any great reason to believe they will. In the capitalist West, the only moral code remaining to the majority is "might makes right", "efficiency and profit rules" and "he who dies with the most toys wins". Seems to me we have just exchanged one set of problems for another.
4) I would posit that a religion is an attempt by a group of people to explain the larger, or macro- workings of the world they inhabit. It usually has a set of beliefs and a creed of some sort. In what way, exactly, does science differ from a religion? It attempts to explain the world, based on the technology/observations available to it. It has a set of beliefs it works within. To me, science is just another religion.
5) These scientists believe that religions are the great demoralizers, as far as I can see. How demoralizing is it to be told you are just a clockwork organism, a random collection of molecules that just happened to come together by some bizarre chance and form consciousness, and that there is, in fact, no higher power or purpose in the Universe? It is bleak and cruel, in my opinion. And I believe there is plenty of evidence they are wrong.
What I feel these people, these missionaries of Science, are guilty of is sloppy thinking. Religions have done bad things. Okay. They also do a lot of good. Feeding the hungry. Building homes for the homeless. Finding people work. Providing a sense of community and social contact. Giving people hope.
Where, in this day and age does it say that you have to belong to, condone and support a religion that does things you do not approve of? If you don't like what your church, temple, mosque, synagogue, or coven (or whatever...) is doing, CHANGE IT. Or go somewhere else. For Pete's sake, its not rocket science or brain surgery. Find like-minded individuals and create a religious body in your own images. Make it a reflection of your values and beliefs. Be the change you want to see in the world.
2 comments:
Personally, I'm very anti-religious. It's not that I don't think that religions have positive facets; it's more that religious people tend to want to shove their religious beliefs down my throat!
As George Carlin liked to say, if you want to believe in a religion, fine. But keep it to yourself. Don't subject me to it.
I tend to be not all that different. I just don't see these scientists, with the books they are writing, as any different then any other pushy, aggressive missionary...they're just peddling Science & Athiesm. Science has been every bit as damaging, if not more so, then the religions they decry. Nor does one have to follow a particular religion to believe in some sort of Creative Power, a distinction I suspect is lost on them.
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