I wish I could be religious

apeZ

apeZ

apeZ

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Just been thinking about this earlier. I wish I was religious.

I'm not, because everything I've learnt in Science has steered me away from the 'God' question and I'm the kind of person to make jokes about it too. Every time I look for an explanation of some sort in the world, Science has an answer. There are a few exceptions such as:

'Why did the Big Bang happen/What caused the Big Bang?' or even 'What went on before life and matter was created?' - I know Hawking and other Physicists are still trying to explain this.

'Why do we do what we do (Yes I know, electronic impulses in the brain, blah blah...) and what makes us what we are?' - I suppose this touches on the idea of a 'spirit'.

Sometimes I wish I could just forget science and ignore it all, and embrace religion. I don't know why I can't, I guess I just have a crave for knowledge and full understanding of the world and the universe, but damn, it gets complicated. I know religion isn't perfect, but to an 'outsider' like me, it seems so much simpler and you don't really have to worry about death either...

I swear I'm not trolling, nor justifying religion/non-religion, this is just something I wanted to throw out there and see what people think. Share your ideas.

Another thought just popped into my head: Do you think that by reducing life, the universe and everything to a bunch of scientific equations and complex mathematics that we remove the beauty of life itself?
 
mankind has yet to find out why a duck's quack doesn't echo in a cave -- but every single other sound in the world does!!

recordings of a duck's quack echoes. A duck's quack does not echo. Look it up! no-one knows why in the entire world!!

I reckon it's god, having a laugh.
 
apeZ said:
Every time I look for an explanation of some sort in the world, Science has an answer.
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I cannot say the same for myself.

Another thought just popped into my head: Do you think that by reducing life, the universe and everything to a bunch of scientific equations and complex mathematics that we remove the beauty of life itself?
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Yes - but I think your question is slightly flawed since I don't think it is possible to reduce life to a series of equations. From the personal perspective, the most science can do is attempt to explain the how the 'stage' might have been constructed - I'm far more interested in enjoying the story that takes place on it :)
 
1) Science and religion are not mutually exclusive.

2) Science /is/ beautiful, it's as beautiful as the world and the universe it tries to describe.

3) You don't need to belong to a particular religion to have faith in 'something beyond'.


I like to describe myself as an agnostic humanist. I am sat fairly comfortably on the fence with regards religion, however the exact questions you posed (What kicked off the Big Bang? Why? What was there before?) lead me to think it'd be narrow minded not to consider something 'other', whatever that may be.

I also felt a strong pull and desire to be strong in my faith, I went to church throughout childhood and teens and was even part of a 'youth preaching team' however, I never /felt/ it, or /got/ it. I wished I would, but I never did. Took me ages to stop feeling guilty for it.
 
Nitefly said:
Now there, I would strongly disagree :D
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Why?

Science, which is only the pursuit of knowledge, is what lead us to discover everything we know so far about the World and Universe.

Without the pursuit of knowledge, we might know absolutely nothing about anything other than our immediate surroundings, and the direct effect we have upon them.
 
Nitefly said:
Now there, I would strongly disagree :D
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EDIT: there's also the analogy of music, which I know you can appreciate, Nitefly: before you knew how to play an instrument, didn't some music sound magical? And when you learned to play those songs, did the beauty diminish?
 
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Interesting points.

sara, I see your point too. There is beauty in discovery, in seeing new planets, stars, finding out about new creatures, new lands. Why, then, do we turn to maths and try and 'explain' this beauty with numbers and figures - can't we just admire the beauty of it and leave it as it is, if that makes sense? Perhaps I'm straying too close to the question of 'why do we want to know?'...

Is Science a more 'valid' explanation than Religion when it comes to the Universe because it is more detailed? Surely they are just two different ways of explaining exactly the same thing?
 
apeZ said:
Is Science a more 'valid' explanation than Religion when it comes to the Universe because it is more detailed? Surely they are just two different ways of explaining exactly the same thing?
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They are not necessarily two different ways of explaining something. Some people believe they are simply two different perspectives explaining the same thing.

Religion and science really don't have to be mutually exclusive.
 
Can I ask the people that believe that a theistic religious belief is compatible with science, why they think that is so?
 
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sara said:
Why?

Science, which is only the pursuit of knowledge, is what lead us to discover everything we know so far about the World and Universe.

Without the pursuit of knowledge, we might know absolutely nothing about anything other than our immediate surroundings, and the direct effect we have upon them.
Click to expand...

I am of course, half joking. It can only be described as a beautiful when viewing it from a distance or when standing on the feet of 10,000 giants (thank you google scholar).

I have had the fortune of isolating genes from Plasmodium falciparum (the bug that causes malaria if you didn't know) and causing their expression in a plant to produce a viable crop, which may be subsequently synthesised to produces a drug used to treat glaucoma (a disease of the eye). Thus the drug which is expensive to synthesise can in theory be grown by seed in poor countries across the world, offering a cheap solution to eye disease. Now, that sounds pretty cool - at least I think so!

The reality is that it was immensely boring and infuriating. It took the best part of the year and a lot of blood, sweat and tears - experiments failed for 'no reason', yeast cultures simply died spontaneously, expression cassettes were inexplicably inserted the wrong way into vectors... an endless list of frustration!

So yes, the end products of science and the knowledge you gain from it are beautiful yes, but really the science is largely the experimenting and the investigation itself, if we take science to be a process. I thus compare science to recording a song - both are frustrating and it is only generally the end product that anybody really cares about.

I would agree that knowledge gained by science and the subsequent possibilities are beautiful yes. But the actually nitty-gritty of science...? A galactic no! :D
 
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