Re: Science is a religion
Ted Leung spots a couple of posts (here and here) that make an interesting assertion:
science is the modern world's new superstition
This is truer than many people would like to admit, especially highly educated folks. I saw this a lot when I was an undergraduate. There were various members of the faculty at MIT that would loudly proclaim their understanding and mastery on various aspects of natural science. I always viewed this with some suspicion, and I always appreciated the professors who would get to a certain point and say "and we just don't understand how it works here"
Very much the case. Watch coverage of various "hot button" political issues that look to science for their backing arguments (from any side of the spectrum; this seems to be an equal opportunity thing) - and watch for arguments you might call "Scientific Argument by Assertion", or "My Expert is better than Your Expert".
Comments
Science Is Not a Religion
[jam41] June 12, 2004 16:14:05.000
Codswallop. Science is a process; a highly effective process for understanding how the world works. Scientific illiteracy is the problem.
[George Paci] June 12, 2004 16:59:18.000
Another highly effective process for understanding how the world works is to read things before commenting on them.
Science fulfils religious needs
[Peter Kleiweg] June 13, 2004 7:37:38.000
There are people who claim that science is "just" a religion, that whether the world was created in six days, or it took a bit longer, is purely a matter of believe. Those people don't understand what science is.
However, science does surely effect us as a religion does. Science is about discovering the facts of nature. NATURE IS WITHOUT MEANING. Nature just is. Facts. But we, common people, learn about the facts that science discovers through stories. "The Universe was created in a Big Bang." "We are made of Stardust, atoms that were forged in the Furnace deep within the Stars." These STORIES CREATE MEANING, just like biblical stories. Schroedinger's Cat acts in our minds as a mythological figure just like the Snake of Paradise.
Most of our history, science and religion were not regarded as two different things. Astronomy and astrology were one. It is only now that science has advanced this far that we think differently, that science and religion are at conflict. But there has been no fundamental change since the time science and religion were one.
Who needs science?
[Lothar Schenk] June 14, 2004 9:16:10.011
Ordinary people don't need science (and never did). What they want is explanations. Preferably such explanations that excuse them from changing their ways.