3 ms·

Actually not. In church you are supposed to have faith. Not so much so in science.

jimjimjim 9y ago
Why? If you are meant to question education, why not question pastors/vicars/preachers/televangelists/people of the cloth/faith healers/popes/bible thumpers/bishops/fire and brimstone merchants and Archdeacons? why the double standard?
- whiddershins 9y ago
  The whole point of Christianity is faith. At least that's a very widespread interpretation with an educated basis. If you aren't factoring that in to your comment, it comes off a little like you are trolling or being facile. Accepting the literal truth of the resurrection of Jesus Christ as a point of faith is arguably the only working definition of a "Christian."
  - jimjimjim 9y ago
    sigh, not trolling. why not question everything? If you have faith, why do you need to have churches? why don't churches start "red teams" to debate the Word. so that people can be reassured by the certainty of the teachings to bolster faith?
    - babyrainbow 9y ago
      >why not question everything? Because the point of belief is not finding truth (Doubt it ever was), but finding peace, comfort and may be a sense of community and togetherness..
      - secstate 9y ago
        Right. And the point of science is the exploration of demonstrable facts. Belief and knowledge are two separate domains, and never the twain shall meet.
    - whiddershins 9y ago
      The content of religious texts and the nuance of interpretation is debated heavily by tons of religious people. It's simply that if you believe more or less in the texts but don't have faith in that one fact, your beliefs are more in line with Jews or Muslims who believe Jesus was a prophet, but aren't so sold on the literal resurrection/savior/son of god/messiah aspect.
    - anigbrowl 9y ago
      A lot of hardcore evangelicals are actually not in favor of churches and prefer bible-reading peer groups, although these serve a similar function and are just as conformist, or more, than churches. I don't feel like digging up references for this right now. Follow some fundamentalist Christians on FB if you want to have a look into a very different reality tunnel.
ableton 9y ago
This is not historically accurate. For example, Newton was both an insanely awesome scientist and devoted theologian. Similarly Galileo said "God is known by nature in his works, and by doctrine in his revealed word". There is a large movement called "apologetics" in the Christian world which sees faith and reason and science as mutually compatible. Ravi Zacharias is one of the great Christian thinkers of today who explains this well. I think the real thing is that most people just don't really care about science, Christian or no. Many atheists take the word of scientists with as much blind faith as christians take the word of their pastor.
- babyrainbow 9y ago
  > Many atheists take the word of scientists with as much blind faith as christians take the word of their pastor. Can't agree more with this. This is exactly why there should be a stage available to ask all kinds of questions without fearing shaming.
- Oletros 9y ago
  > Many atheists take the word of scientists with as much blind faith as christians take the word of their pastor. Any example of that?
  - secstate 9y ago
    I think the problem is less that atheists take the word of scientists at their word, so much as people assume that because something is common, it is either safe, or true. It's the weird intersection of knowledge and belief. Here in coastal communities many people are still allowed to do "overboard discharge," or dumping raw sewage into the ocean. The understanding being the ocean is so big we couldn't possibly hurt the ecosystem. Here in Maine, there have actually been many deeply flawed scientific studies that justified these policies as scientifically true. Now, of course, we know how fragile the ocean and, indeed, any ecosystem is. But common belief is that science has shown that dumping your shit in the ocean is environmentally okay and that is used to justify a convenient action. Even though the action hardly passes the (literal) smell test.

Why? If you are meant to question education, why not question pastors/vicars/preachers/televangelists/people of the cloth/faith healers/popes/bible thumpers/bishops/fire and brimstone merchants and Archdeacons? why the double standard?

whiddershins 9y ago
The whole point of Christianity is faith. At least that's a very widespread interpretation with an educated basis. If you aren't factoring that in to your comment, it comes off a little like you are trolling or being facile. Accepting the literal truth of the resurrection of Jesus Christ as a point of faith is arguably the only working definition of a "Christian."
- jimjimjim 9y ago
  sigh, not trolling. why not question everything? If you have faith, why do you need to have churches? why don't churches start "red teams" to debate the Word. so that people can be reassured by the certainty of the teachings to bolster faith?
  - babyrainbow 9y ago
    >why not question everything? Because the point of belief is not finding truth (Doubt it ever was), but finding peace, comfort and may be a sense of community and togetherness..
    - secstate 9y ago
      Right. And the point of science is the exploration of demonstrable facts. Belief and knowledge are two separate domains, and never the twain shall meet.
  - whiddershins 9y ago
    The content of religious texts and the nuance of interpretation is debated heavily by tons of religious people. It's simply that if you believe more or less in the texts but don't have faith in that one fact, your beliefs are more in line with Jews or Muslims who believe Jesus was a prophet, but aren't so sold on the literal resurrection/savior/son of god/messiah aspect.
  - anigbrowl 9y ago
    A lot of hardcore evangelicals are actually not in favor of churches and prefer bible-reading peer groups, although these serve a similar function and are just as conformist, or more, than churches. I don't feel like digging up references for this right now. Follow some fundamentalist Christians on FB if you want to have a look into a very different reality tunnel.

ableton 9y ago

This is not historically accurate. For example, Newton was both an insanely awesome scientist and devoted theologian. Similarly Galileo said "God is known by nature in his works, and by doctrine in his revealed word". There is a large movement called "apologetics" in the Christian world which sees faith and reason and science as mutually compatible. Ravi Zacharias is one of the great Christian thinkers of today who explains this well. I think the real thing is that most people just don't really care about science, Christian or no. Many atheists take the word of scientists with as much blind faith as christians take the word of their pastor.

babyrainbow 9y ago
> Many atheists take the word of scientists with as much blind faith as christians take the word of their pastor. Can't agree more with this. This is exactly why there should be a stage available to ask all kinds of questions without fearing shaming.
Oletros 9y ago
> Many atheists take the word of scientists with as much blind faith as christians take the word of their pastor. Any example of that?
- secstate 9y ago
  I think the problem is less that atheists take the word of scientists at their word, so much as people assume that because something is common, it is either safe, or true. It's the weird intersection of knowledge and belief. Here in coastal communities many people are still allowed to do "overboard discharge," or dumping raw sewage into the ocean. The understanding being the ocean is so big we couldn't possibly hurt the ecosystem. Here in Maine, there have actually been many deeply flawed scientific studies that justified these policies as scientifically true. Now, of course, we know how fragile the ocean and, indeed, any ecosystem is. But common belief is that science has shown that dumping your shit in the ocean is environmentally okay and that is used to justify a convenient action. Even though the action hardly passes the (literal) smell test.