Religious Poll

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by The Third Man

The climate change fiasco should allow you, a thinker, to come to another conclusion regarding science visa vis religion. They are far more similar than not.

You need to explain more deeply. Science can only look at facts and attempt to explain. Any scientist worth his salt knows that today's pet theory may be tomorrow's best joke. If that happens, any good scientist looks at the new evidence and starts over again, trying to put the pieces together.

With religion it's just the opposite. You start with a "Holy Scripture" which by its very nature cannot be proven or disproven, and then attempt to come up with facts that agree with your ideas.

The fact that there are some people who think that way about scientific theories reflects on them, not on the nature of science itself, and they are in the minority. The Scientific Method, which you call 'Dogma' in an attempt to equate it with religion, simply requires that everything be tested and tested again, and that nothing be believed until the facts are all in. The fact that the facts are never all in is something that scientists have to live with.

Faith, on the other hand, relies on the absence of facts, and requires believers to ignore any evidence to the contrary.

Any scientist who acts like a believer runs the risk of not being a scientist for long, and most know it. Any believer who acts like a scientist runs the risk of not being a believer for long, and most are afraid of it.