Explaining Faith So That Even David Marshall Can Understand ;-)
David
Part of the problem is that you are extracting these issues from their real world application and in a sense making them irrelevant. Let's apply the faith vs reason to real life instances:
Labels: "Faith"
Peter Boghossian, "Faith Based Belief Processes Are Unreliable"
This is a must see video! You can skip to 9:00 to hear Dr. Boghossian's talk if you wish. I love his passion! I love what he said about delusions at the 26:00 mark: "We are forced to conclude that a tremendous number of people are delusional. There is no other conclusion one can draw..." At 33:00 he utilizes the Outsider Test for Faith! And at 38:30 he says, "The most charitable thing we can say about faith is that it's likely to be false." I honestly think that sometime in the future there won't be such a thing as an informed Christian, especially an informed Evangelical. An informed Christian will become an oxymoron. In fact, it's already here.
Labels: "Faith"
"The less evidence you have...the more faith you need"
Labels: "Faith"
Plato's Cave Allegory and Faith
Labels: "Faith"
Faith And Evidence According to Dr. Matt McCormick
Labels: "Faith"
Jerry Coyne On Justifying Science
We justify science rather than faith as a way of finding out stuff not on the basis of first principles, but on the basis of which method actually gives us reliable information about the universe. And by “reliable,” I mean, methods that help us make verified predictions that advance our understanding of the world and produce practical consequences that aren’t possible with other methods. Take a disease like smallpox. It was once regarded as manifestations of God’s will or displeasure; indeed, inoculation was opposed on religious grounds—that to immunize people was to thwart God’s will. You can’t cure smallpox with such an attitude, or by praying for its disappearance. It was cured by scientific methods: the invention of inoculations, followed by the use of epidemiological methods to eradicate it completely. Scientific understanding advances with time; religious “ways of knowing,” even by the admission of theologians, don’t bring us any closer to the “truth” about God. We know not one iota more about the nature or character of God than we did in 1300, nor are we any closer to proving that a god exists! Link.
Labels: "Faith"
Quote of the Day, By Victor Stenger on Science vs Religion
Religion is a belief system based on bullshit. Link.I received my copy of Stenger's newest book yesterday, God and the Folly of Faith: The Incompatibility of Science and Religion.On the back cover I have a blurb that reads:
A tour de force. Among the published atheists trying to bridge the gap between scientifically minded people and people of faith Stenger is the best. I consider this book to be his best yet. I think it'll probably be a classic.His book should be available shortly. Get it! Don't miss it. You can read all I said about it right here.
Labels: "Faith", "Quote of the Day"
The Major Reason Why I Am a Skeptic
Labels: "Faith"
Debate: PZ Myers and Greg M. Epstein on Religion
Labels: "Faith"
Christian Professor Dan Lambert's Definition of Faith
Labels: "Faith"
On Feeding One's Faith in the "Conceivably False"
Labels: "Faith"
What's Wrong With Randal Rauser?
Labels: "Faith"
*Sigh* On Faith Again
Labels: "Faith"
An Open Challenge to Christians About Faith
Labels: "Faith"
Michael Shermer and Ken Miller debate the compatibility of science and faith
If no empirical claim is made that science can address, then there is little more to be said on the matter. If specific claims are made in the name of God and religion then let's hear them and put them to the test.
Until then, I believe that it is time to step out of our religious traditions and embrace science as the best tool ever devised for explaining how the world works, and to work together to create a social and political world that embraces moral principles and yet allows for natural human diversity to flourish. Religion cannot get us there because it has no systematic methods of explanation of the natural world, and no means of conflict resolution on moral issues when members of competing sects hold absolute beliefs that are mutually exclusive. Flawed as they may be, science and the secular Enlightenment values expressed in Western democracies are our best hope for survival. Link
Labels: "Faith"
What's Faith Got to Do With It?
Labels: "Faith"
Faith is Irrational
Labels: "Faith"