lamont
Contributor
OHGoDive:
What really annoys me is this characterization of the debate.
My position is, and always has been, that science is basically orthogonal from the theological or the philosophical.
There are certain statements which I believe to be scientific fact which I will argue are true. The light that left the Andromeda galaxy that we see in the night sky with our naked eye left 2.5 million years ago. The universe was once, about 12-18 billion years ago, a hot plasma of about 3000K an expanded and cooled. That genetic evolution can explain the origin and evolution of life on Earth, etc.
I also think that certain arguments are wrong, including the "thermodyamic" proof that evolution is false, the "blind watchmaker" argument, and the proof of god's existance as a First Cause.
My assertion is simply that scientific observation or deduction cannot prove or deny the existance of God. And I believe that people of actual Faith should not have an issue with this. Maybe God blows on the dice a little bit, I can't disprove it, but God does it in such a way that there's no statistical evidence that it has happened (God is apparently crafty that way).
Framing the debate in terms of "god exists! does not!" removes a middle ground where it actually is possible for people of Faith and those without to come together with some amount of understanding. Which is entire problem with discourse in the USA these days (and probably the world).
And I stated earlier that I don't believe that science can be applied religiously and I also extend that to philosophically. Several hundred years ago it was believed that science proved that the universe ran like "clockwork" which made self-determination and other non-mechanistic philosophical ideas somewhat out of vogue. Now, a lot of people try to abuse quantum mechanics to pull philosophical notions out of the measurement problem. And my point is that people should stop trying to abuse science to do what it cannot. Science does not contain the answer to the mysteries of life, the purpose of life, the value of life, the existence of God, the answer to philosophical mysteries, etc. Keep your God and your Philosophy out of my Science, and I'll keep my Science out of your God and your Philosophy. They are not two great tastes that taste great together, they are immiscible like oil and water.
