What Will It Take? Mini-Blog #1

          One important distinction between science and religion is what it takes to change each. While virtually all religions have different sects, all teaching slight variations of the religion as a whole, the main doctrine of each has not changed since its beginning. For instance, the Bible still teaches Noah's Flood as it always has. The Qur'an still teaches that Muhammad visited Heaven and flew with the archangel Gabriel to Jerusalem in one night. Mormonism still teaches that Native Americans are actually descendants of the Lamanites, an ancient tribe of Israel. These are religious teachings that have been unchanged since each respective religion was created. These teachings are taught as truth every day, even in the face of overwhelming evidence that they are completely untrue. Religion never changes, and this is a terribly disturbing thought. On the other hand, science is in a constant state of change. This change is what has brought humanity out of the dark ages and into the realm of intellectual liberation. The realm of curing diseases, understanding the universe, learning of human origins, saving our planet, making our society free and equal. Scientific progress is fueled by evidence and critical thought, something most religions seem to admonish. Indeed, religion has been a tiresome roadblock, standing steadfastly in the way of human progress for centuries. When Galileo tried his best to infect us with the knowledge of heliocentrism (the fact that our solar system's planets revolve around the sun), the Catholic church found him guilty of heresy and condemned him to house arrest for the rest of his life. Galileo was correct, of course, but it was not until hundreds of years later, in 1992, that the Catholic church finally acknowledged their hideous mistake and apologized. Sadly, this mistake was only one instance of many. When it comes to truth, science holds the monopoly over religion, and it always will.
          So my question to any person of faith is what will it take to change your mind? Many people of faith admit that nothing will. I need not ask people of science what it would take to change their minds, because the answer is evidence. One of the most important distinctions between science and religion is what it takes to change each. For science, it is evidence. For religion, it is nothing. This is a truly disturbing fact. A fact that poisons minds, closing them forever from accepting difference. From accepting change. From accepting truth.

--Corey S.

"God was invented to explain mystery. 

God is always invented to explain those things that you do not understand."
Richard Feynman --American physicist, awarded Nobel Prize in 1965

 

 "Science can destroy religion by ignoring it as well as by disproving its tenets. 

No one ever demonstrated, so far as I am aware, the nonexistence of Zeus or Thor - but they have few followers now" Sir Arthur C. Clarke --British science fiction author and inventor