Religion: Does It Do More Harm Than Good? (3 Viewers)

[Not-That-Bright]

the fact remains that science continues to kill millions of people and has killed millions of people.

Without science many of those people and many others - never would have even existed. What you are presenting is a straw man argument and no one here thinks it's very good

 

[katie_tully]

Without science, hot-shot wouldn't be able to come on this forum and dribble shit.

Damn you science, damn you.

 

[Not-That-Bright]

True that's one of the problems with the information age, with it came the 'misinformation' age - not only is information 100000000x more accessable than ever before, so is the bullshit that people like hot-shot want to spread.

 

[Mountain.Dew]

this is getting WWWWWWWWWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYY off topic: there should be a seperate thread for a 'religion vs. science' debate.

anyway, i dont believe science has created the bomb, or nuclear missiles, or any war-like machinery. it was merely human exploitation of the information and theory science has obtained. human greed lead to the bomb, or nuclear missiles, tanks, guns, etc...

anyway, science in essense is about understanding, to question, to examine, to make judgement on our lives and the world around us. it just so happens that humans have used this information for their betterment --> and at a cost as well. including humans.

from memory, i think marie curie was constantly exposed to nuclear radiation when she was studying radioactive elements, so that we could understand them better. that is a human cost.

remember, we always must learn from mistakes. human cost is just one of those mistakes, and through experience, and learning from those mistakes, we improve and we are more cautious, leading to a better quality of life. if it wasnt for the "millions of people" as HotShot said, we wouldnt have the quality of life that we have today.

this doesnt disguise the fact that religion itself has caused many millions of deaths as well. think crusades, think jihads, think inquisitions, think witch hunts, think protestant vs. catholic wars, think the gulf war, iraq war, think terrorist attacks. many many have died because they didnt conform to a certain religion. think about protestants vs. catholic --> both denominations are so similar, yet people still fight over small small differences.

more to come...

 

[withoutaface]

Science has:
a) lead to the saving of many lives, through the use of medicine.
b) greatly improved the quality of life for most of the world's population.

 

[Captain Gh3y]

I don't understand why there needs to be any "Religion vs Science". As a Christian studying science-related courses at university, I don't feel any conflict between science and religion. As a protestant, I think the Roman-Catholic Church provides a good example of what happens when religion attempts to hold back science; people are naturally inquisitive, naturally ask quesitons and think about things.

So when the church made Galileo 'take back' his ideas about motion and astronomy, by the next few generations people would realise he was correct and the church had to accept it. One particularly important thing with this case is that there isn't anything in the Bible I'm aware of that says "Aristotle's views of motion and astronomy are not to be questioned". I'm willing to bet the Koran also does not say "Thou shalt be hunter gatherers".

So in my opinion trying to hold back science is like sticking your fingers in a boat with hundreds of holes in it, ie. stop one person from doing research and it will just be done somewhere else. I think one of the obvious things separating us from the animals is this intelligence and awareness of the world around us (which ironically is in line with the Bible's explanation of Original Sin causing self-awareness, rather than opposed to it) so that from using sticks as tools all the way through to nanotechnology is just a consequence of our large brains and inquisitive nature, and the consequences (good or bad, weapons or medicine) come as part of being human.

 

[Mongke]

the fact remains that science continues to kill millions of people and has killed millions of people.

youre just a troll, admit it!

 

[dilroy]

If it wasn't for science you wouldn't be able to build a large flat screen like the ones you see at the vatican, or build them bloody surround sound speakers you got at them churches and mosques, or the top level security to protect the Vatican VIPs, if it wasn't for science you wouldn't have the weapons to aid in your religious conflicts, or aid to heal those in the aftermath of a religious conflict... most importantly without scientific theory, people would still be stupid enough to believe there is some kind of bullshit supreme being aka God/Allah... oh wait people still do believe it.

 

[crazyhomo]

the fact remains that science continues to kill millions of people and has killed millions of people.

over one billion saved

 

[soha]

at my islamic college i study many sciences
science is encouraged and a big part of our religon and life
just not big bang and evolution lol

 

[Not-That-Bright]

at my islamic college i study many sciences
science is encouraged and a big part of our religon and life
just not big bang and evolution lol

But evolution goes along with all other sciences, if you reject evolution then you reject the way we came to the answer of evolution... which rejects ALOT of sciences :/

 

[soha]

But evolution goes along with all other sciences, if you reject evolution then you reject the way we came to the answer of evolution... which rejects ALOT of sciences :/

leave me be and have some chi
if we reject blah we reject bladee blah blah
um no...

 

[Not-That-Bright]

I'm sorry it's just that there's so many different branches of science which all support the theory of evolution, that if you were to just reject the theory of evolution you would have to also disagree with the way in which those sciences came to their conclusion... which would leave you with very little science :/

 

[soha]

I'm sorry it's just that there's so many different branches of science which all support the theory of evolution, that if you were to just reject the theory of evolution you would have to also disagree with the way in which those sciences came to their conclusion... which would leave you with very little science :/

well there is many branches of science that stem form islamic science
which is study of the heart mind soul the human body
science of the universe
science of interpretation of the quaran...and a whole heap of stuff i cant translate
to you it may not be science
but we refer to it as science...

 

[Not-That-Bright]

well there is many branches of science that stem form islamic science
which is study of the heart mind soul the human body
science of the universe
science of interpretation of the quaran...and a whole heap of stuff i cant translate
to you it may not be science
but we refer to it as science...

Yea that's cool - but with what I call science (aka modern naturalistic science) your dismissal of evolution means that you're dismissing a whole bunch of other science... so it's just an odd claim to say you're doing science and rejecting evolution... it's like me saying i'm 'doing Islam' but rejecting jesus as a prophet... then u say 'but jesus as a prophet is backed up by everything else in islam and to reject him just doesn't follow with a belief in islam'..

Best analogy i could think of

 

[PaleReflection]

I don't understand why there needs to be any "Religion vs Science". As a Christian studying science-related courses at university, I don't feel any conflict between science and religion. As a protestant, I think the Roman-Catholic Church provides a good example of what happens when religion attempts to hold back science; people are naturally inquisitive, naturally ask quesitons and think about things.

So when the church made Galileo 'take back' his ideas about motion and astronomy, by the next few generations people would realise he was correct and the church had to accept it. One particularly important thing with this case is that there isn't anything in the Bible I'm aware of that says "Aristotle's views of motion and astronomy are not to be questioned". I'm willing to bet the Koran also does not say "Thou shalt be hunter gatherers".

So in my opinion trying to hold back science is like sticking your fingers in a boat with hundreds of holes in it, ie. stop one person from doing research and it will just be done somewhere else. I think one of the obvious things separating us from the animals is this intelligence and awareness of the world around us (which ironically is in line with the Bible's explanation of Original Sin causing self-awareness, rather than opposed to it) so that from using sticks as tools all the way through to nanotechnology is just a consequence of our large brains and inquisitive nature, and the consequences (good or bad, weapons or medicine) come as part of being human.

So you're a Christian now?

 

[davin]

well there is many branches of science that stem form islamic science
which is study of the heart mind soul the human body
science of the universe
science of interpretation of the quaran...and a whole heap of stuff i cant translate

keep in mind the definition of science:

The observation, identification, description, experimental investigation, and theoretical explanation of phenomena.
Such activities restricted to a class of natural phenomena.
Such activities applied to an object of inquiry or study.

with science, you can't not accept part of it because it doesn't fit your pre-decided beliefs...you work with what science proves, and what science predicts.
to ignore big bang and evolution is to also ignore biology, geology, astronomy and chemistry, to name 4 right offhand

 

[Not-That-Bright]

Biology, Astronomy, Geology (and other earth sciences), Physics, Palaeontology, Chemistry, Physical anthropology........... If evolution is wrong then all these other sciences are wrong. That's not to say that it's impossible, just that if you want to believe that you'd want to have some pretty damn good evidence.

 

[davin]

dang, how'd i forget paleontology?

though the one think i'll grant....physics isn't reliant on it.....physics really is like pure math

 

[HotShot]

Biology, Astronomy, Geology (and other earth sciences), Physics, Palaeontology, Chemistry, Physical anthropology........... If evolution is wrong then all these other sciences are wrong. That's not to say that it's impossible, just that if you want to believe that you'd want to have some pretty damn good evidence.

yeh not necessarily. chemistry doesnt really involve evolution to such extent. It being used to prove evolution though. u got it the other way round, these sciences are being used to prove evolution,

astronomy = ?