The flip side of the hierarchial society is the security that it provides. People often prize security over liberty. Remember the saw that in America everyone is equally free to sleep under bridges at night? Even in a free society, my freedom is dependent on the willingness of others to accept a restricted life. Most people are employees, and employees is only another form of servant. If leisure is the basis for culture, then the many still serve the few. My cheap goods comes from factories where some Chinese worker is putting in long hours for little pay.
But you must consider the materialist’s usual argument that we can exist nicely bu supposing that nothing is known except what science tells us.
**Belief **indeed.
The scientist operates by faith in science. The atheistic scientist merely refuses to acknowledge that faith permeates human mental operations of all kinds. Which makes the non-atheist more intellectually honest, and thus more credible from the viewpoint of the true scientist.
This is only true in practice, not in principle. The reason that science has nothing to say about the supernatural realm is because, to date, there exists no compelling evidence that any such realm exists. For what it’s worth, there is fledgling science of the mind that does attempt to study the states of the brain associated with spiritual (for lack of a better word) experience. But it does this without carrying along the various bits of metaphysical baggage that have historically come with the discourse of spirituality.
No, I neither claim that I know if any religion is true nor that they are untrue. If you claim they are all facts, which religion is right?
How should I know which one is true or not? Every religion claims it is true. No one can prove his religion is the true one even though everybody thinks he can.
I found Chick’s website, and my Firefox security add-on (WOT - it’s free) glowed orange, so even it knew he’s offensive. Why people spend money on his stuff is amazing, in many ways to me North America is the weirdest place. But it’s completely wrong for you to accuse me of slinging dirt at the Church, I quoted reputable media, which reported that in Australia three sections of the Church apologized for what happened. To prove it, here’s the Archbishop’s apology - perthcatholic.org.au/about-us/index.cfm?loadref=48
You start by saying religion doesn’t change with evidence, and then immediately say it does with your God is red/blue remark. Which is it?
– Matt 23, paraphrased in The Message.Science cannot find evidence of the supernatural because it is outside the realm of science. Other means are used such as metaphysics and philosophy. We have plenty of evidence for the supernatural. What we do not have are empirical proofs, but then we do not have empirical proofs for other things now don’t we?
On a side note: I just noticed that it’s the same Archbishop Barry Hickey who supports the healer Adam Ames. Adam Ames claims that Jesus(among others) appeared to him and dictated his life to Ames. There are three Books called “Through The Eyes Of Jesus” which describe the life of Jesus “according to his own words”.
Are you not assuming that reality contains only those things you can see. But reality itself disappears if you were to zoom in on it to the maximum amount you could imagine. That fistful of dollars you are looking at now becomes something you cannot see, measure nor understand when it is looked at at a magnification far beyond the tiniest particle or theory about strings. Magnify a string, what is it… nothing? nothing I can talk about or understand anyway.
Only for the entirely supernatural. If the supernatural has, or is meant to have, a natural effect then science can investigate. For example, the various scientific studies have looked at the effect of intercessory prayer.
NOT belief: confirmation. It’s more than a sacrament
**Belief **indeed.
The scientist operates by faith in science. The atheistic scientist merely refuses to acknowledge that faith permeates human mental operations of all kinds. Which makes the non-atheist more intellectually honest, and thus more credible from the viewpoint of the true scientist.
. Scientists test certain predictions based on previous discoveries. For example, if relativity is true, then we should observe light from a star bending as it passes near the sun because of the sun’s gravity. An eclipse happens, light is observed curving, thus the idea that space is curved by gravity is strengthened. There is nothing of faith about it.Are you saying that wage earners in a capitalist society are equivalent to slaves? If so, you are wrong. Your Chinese factory worker may not be rich, but he can look for a better paying job elsewhere, he can go home at night and do what he wants, he can marry and raise a family that belongs to him and not to his owner, all privileges a slave lacks. How well off would he be without a factory job? He’d be jostling the others under the bridge for sleeping room.
:tiphat: Right on!
Have you researched the John Jay Study by any chance? If not you should.
Come on, rossum; everybody knows Thor prefers goats. It’s written in the Eddas.
so what. Did the universe have a BB. Is the point and place of the BB the origin point of the universe, and the centre.
My point was that by definition religion is not supposed to change, and it’s an even bigger problem on the religious person’s side when their religion simply evolves as new evidence comes along to refute older claims. And no scientist thinks that there’s anything science will not eventually be able to explain. Why can’t you put your trust in science that’s working on the problem rather than putting your faith in a superfluous unfalsifiable hypothesis?You start by saying religion doesn’t change with evidence, and then immediately say it does with your God is red/blue remark. Which is it?
I got the impression you want science to use some objective measurement scale to prove how much your partner loves you and how much you love your children, and until it can then to you love is just a worthless opinion. Whatever, scientists don’t think like that. They know that all the important things in life – love, curiosity, wonder – are irrational. What would be the point of being alive otherwise, we’d just be robots going through meaningless repetitions, without purpose.
Some atheists give the impression they haven’t got a clue how to party, just as some religionists can lose the whole point of their religion. Jesus got really angry about this stuff – “Do you have any idea how silly you look, writing a life story that’s wrong from start to finish, nitpicking over commas and semicolons? … Snakes! Reptilian sneaks! Do you think you can worm your way out of this?”