originally posted in:Secular Sevens
[quote]It's not either use the scientific method or you can't ever.[/quote]
No, but it nevertheless has fundamentally different epistemological underpinnings.
[quote]We use faith in more things than religion and those are accepted.[/quote]Not by reasonable people.
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So when you make friends or get a girlfriend you go through the scientific method to see if you like them and trust them?
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If you mean I implicitly judge by things like whether or not I enjoy their company, then, yes, of course. Everybody does. People don't assume that they'd like a random person they see on the street, they spend time with them and then find out.
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I'm pretty sure you determine if somebody is compatible as a friend/girlfriend based on a number of observations/deductions you make on your own, which is basically a scientific analysis. You don't have to write the crap out on paper to say "This guy's a dick, I don't like him."
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And so in my lifetime when I have observations and experiences, it is deemed unacceptable for me to make these same determinations for the reasoning of my faith and religion?
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lol, what happened? Was your mother sick, but then you prayed real hard and she got better? Or do you just get this warm feeling whenever you think of the big guy?
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Edited by Winy: 9/16/2013 11:29:54 PMYeah, because you are presupposing a conclusion prior to the events, thus approaching them with a personal bias.
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What? It's not like I'm living off my parents beliefs and it's not like my parent's are forcing us to have our beliefs. My oldest brother was an agnostic for a long time from high school and on and now he is converting back to the Catholic faith based on his own experiences (he is now 30). My second oldest brother considers himself Catholic but is scientific and questions a lot of the Church but he still has belief because of his own choices. I grew up questioning my own beliefs and what the Catholic Church teaches but I have enough experience and happenings in my life along with observations and careful thought to decide if this is what I want my beliefs to be. We don't just hear "God is real" and then suck off the Church. We are human beings, not sheep.
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Edited by Winy: 9/17/2013 12:16:52 AMI never accused you of being some sort of religious nutjob. But under circumstances in which a person who is more liken to the idea of there being a God searches for reasoning or evidence suggesting that is the case, they would analyze the information with a bias. Not saying this applies to you, but the situation you presented seemed applicable. I really don't care that you or people you know maintain a degree of scientific thinking alongside your religious beliefs. This is not uncommon nor do I find it glaringly problematic. The question was whether or not science and religion are fundamentally compatible, which they are not. An individual exhibiting a purely scientific epistemology would not be able to come to the conclusion that a God existed because there is not scientific evidence suggesting that is so, and, as I explained earlier, the question is absolutely meaningless in a scientific environment. A scientist is fully capable of maintaining a belief in God, but this does not somehow negate the above point. Scientists obviously don't apply their complex forms of analytical reasoning to every concept they encounter because, in some cases, they do not find it necessary. Religion is a system under which a person can make this exception, yet still retain scientific methodologies in other areas. Cognitive dissonance explains why this can happen.