originally posted in:Secular Sevens
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Personally, I find the idea of simultaneous support for both religion and science wholly incompatible. Here's my thought process:
- Scientists support the [url=http://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/overview_scientific_method2.gif]scientific method[/url].
- Faith-based religion conflicts with the scientific method, as religion skips/ignores steps in the scientific method.
- One cannot support the scientific method while simultaneously supporting faith-based religion.
One cannot truly support both science and religion; you're compromising your support in one or the other.
Thoughts? Explain your position.
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Albert Einstein had some thought provoking words on this: "Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind. A person who is religiously enlightened appears to me to be one who has, to the best of his ability, liberated himself from the fetters of his selfish desires and is preoccupied with thoughts, feelings and aspirations to which he clings because of their super-personal value. It seems to me that what is important is the force of this superpersonal content ... regardless of whether any attempt is made to unite this content with a Divine Being, for otherwise it would not be possible to count Buddha and Spinoza as religious personalities. Accordingly a religious person is devout in the sense that he has no doubt of the significance of those super-personal objects and goals which neither require nor are capable of rational foundation ... In this sense religion is the age-old endeavor of mankind to become clearly and completely conscious of these values and goals and constantly to strengthen and extend their effect. If one conceives of religion and science according to these definitions then a conflict between them appears impossible. For science can only ascertain what is, but not what should be..."