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Science and religion are belief systems and therefore share some commonalities but the radical difference is that science is based on testable hypothesis, where
by gomox 6y ago
Science and religion are belief systems and therefore share some commonalities but the radical difference is that science is based on testable hypothesis, whereas religion is just religion.
To say they are "absolutely equivalent" is a massive stretch.
- feralimal 6y agoDo you personally test any scientific claims? Or do you personally take them on faith?
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- ben509 6y agoLike any student, I did basic chemistry and physics and we tested various claims in the lab. Nobody personally tests all claims, even professional scientists have to accept some prior claims until they have some reason to believe they're incorrect. Trust is necessary for science to extend beyond the efforts of an individual, but trust isn't the same thing as faith.
- maeln 6y agoThere is a big difference between something being able to be tested to see if it is actually true and something that is impossible to test. Want to understand and test the veracity of some theories on electricity, gravity, medicine, etc, you can ! And a lot of those can be even tested at home with simple experiment. You can sometimes even find something new, or that one theory is wrong. Want to test if god exists ? If heaven or hell exists ? If following some rules will grant you access to heaven ? You can't. There is no experiment that you can replicate that will prove any of those claims. You can try to find your own, in many way is is also scientific, but there is many religions and people have been trying to prove many of those theories for eons without any advancement. Comparing science and the belief in scientific theories as similar to a religious faith is just wrong if you stop and think about it for more than 5 minutes.
- joshuahughes 6y agoWorth pointing out that there was an important caveat that the GP included... "Science... BASED ON TRUST AND WITHOUT PERSONAL VERIFICATION is absolutely equivalent to religion."
- feralimal 6y agoThank you!
- adambyrtek 6y agoI think you're confusing "trust" with "belief". Trust (and reputation) is the foundation of human society and doesn't have to be related to religion. You get on a plane based on trust in the science and engineering that makes them fly, not because you personally verified every single component. Personal verification simply doesn't scale.
- ntsplnkv2 6y agoPeople don't trust science at random just because a book says trust science. They trust science because they drive in a car, can video chat across the world, can play games with their friends on a screen, have devices that cook for them, automatically clean for them, etc. You don't need to verify quantum theory to understand that you have a computer in front of you. That's not blind faith.