Saturday, June 26, 2010

“I know too much Science to believe in God”

If you are like me, there are times that you only think of what to say
when its too late. At the time of this conversation, I was frustrated
with the Science Faith debate, or rather non-debate. The problem, 
especially in the University setting,   is not  that Christianity has been
debated and  found wanting, but rather it is that it ridiculed and
dismissed without debate.

It feels a bit like not being allowed to speak and at the same time not
being allowed a  lawyer.  Meanwhile the prosecution has free range. 
In my frustration I missed an opportunity to say something.

What I would say now to this young man is “Well no, actually you do
not know enough Science to make a statement like that”. The point is
that just like the question “what is love”, the existence of God falls
outside of the scope of what Science can answer. What repeatable
experiment can you perform  to prove God's non- existence?  Most of
the so called contradictions that Science throws up are matters of
interpretation of the data, which flow out of the  (often hidden)
presuppositions that are imposed on the said data. 

By the way you can be convinced that you are loved, but it defies
Scientific proof. Let's see. Null hypothesis - the wife loves me. 
Experiment,  enter newly cleaned  kitchen with muddy boots.  If
the wife really loves me she will tolerate my behaviour.  Experimental
data: 99 times out of 100 the wife got mad, sometimes really mad. 
Reject the null hypothesis!

4 comments:

  1. First post of First post!
    _ Largo

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  2. I'm so glad that you decided to undertake this exercise. I look forward to reading your thoughts each day, and perhaps offering some feedback whenever I have something useful to add.

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  3. Hi Carnap72,
    Thanks for the comments. I am not promising to write ever day just "some of the things" I write day by day. I don't always write useful things either :-)

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  4. P.S. Doing it again, thinking only afterward what I should have said. I get the order wrong its (a) engage brain then (B) open mouth! But I wanted to say you can get notifications by entering your email in the email subscript box p.

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