[UA] What Do You Beleive?

[Liam Astley]

From: "Epoch" <msulliva at wso.williams.edu>
Subject: Re: [UA] What Do You Beleive?
> Because (feel the big, flamey generalization coming
> on) atheists hate to think that they actually believe in something

hmm. not to get into some rolling debate on religion, which i'm sure is only
beaten in the "how sick are mailing lists of this subject" stakes by the gun
control debate, but i don't think you're being fair to atheists there. i
think my views could be best summed up by a bit from John Gribbin's
introduction to "In Search Of Schrodinger's Cat";

"...one Christmas I was asked by the BBC to appear on a radio program as a
kind of scientific counterweight to Malcolm Muggeridge, who had recently
announced his conversion to the Catholic faith and was the principal guest
at the time of this festival. After the great man had had his say,
emphasising the mysteries of Christianity, he turned to me and said 'And
here's the man who knows all the answers, or claims to know all the
answers'. In the limited time at my disposal, I endeavoured to respond in
kind, pointing out that science does *not* claim to have all the answers,
and it is religion, not science, that depends essentially on absolute faith
and conviction that the truth is known. 'I don't *believe* anything', I
said, and was about to expand on this philosophy when the program came to en
end. All through the festive season, I was greeted by both friends and
acquaintances with an echo of those words, and spent hours explaining that
my lack of absolute faith in anything did not prevent me from leading a
normal life making use of such reasonable working hypotheses as the
likelihood that the sun won't disappear overnight..."

the way i see it, science is a process, and religion is an explanation.
science isn't about "beliefs which arent contradicted". you can do an
experiment, and it works. religion is about the stuff that you can't prove,
or even be aware of except in the abstract half the time, and therefore
relies on faith in its truth.

all IMHO, of course.

> [1]  Yes, I know, I know, I'm being a mean, rotten, horrible bastard.  I'm
> sorry to all the perfectly legitimate atheists out there -- you're on the
> receiving end of all the bitterness that intellectually snotty college
> students have built up in me.  :P

jerks are jerks, whatever their philosophies. i find it irritating myself
when i see people trying to score points on religions to make themselves
seem clever. but then i get irritated by people saying "24-7" as well, so
what do i know  :)



liam
 --
www.dogzilla.co.uk


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