Science is cool and there is no getting around that. It’s also hard work but that’s how it should be. Here is a video taken from the crumbling Titanic that shows how cool it really is.
See it while you can. The Titanic is going the way of all things, which after so many years is not at all surprising.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WkvDswV40c
While I don’t care for wholesale exploitation of the wreck (you know, selling trinkets for cash), this is a part of history. Hopefully something can be preserved in some form.
The other day I heard someone say “Scientists challenge and contradict God” (not an exact quote, I’m paraphrasing) and I thought to myself “What unmitigated bullsh**” (that one is a direct quote). It was in church, I heard it during the homily and I was with the kids. Not a good time to let celebrant know he’s talking nonsense. He was trying to talk about having humility and doing it badly. Forgivable, it’s not easy to speak in front of a lot of people.
I’ve never seen or read about anyone challenging God. What I have seen people challenge other people understandings. I have even seen and read about people behaving badly. It’s not the same thing. How can you challenge God anyway? I mean, didn’t these people read about Job?
People should be encouraged to challenge ideas and frameworks. It’s not disrespectful, it’s called learning.
Evan says:
Many scientific experiments/studies yield results that contradict generally-accepted interpretations of the Bible. This leads [religious] people to believe that scientists are purposely looking for a way to disprove the existence of God with their experiments.
Publishing results that put these commonly-held beliefs (e.g., the belief in a “young earth” that has always contained all the species that are alive today) is often viewed as a direct challenge to God. This is not true. It is really a challenge to someone’s interpretation of the Bible (for the Bible does not list the age of the Earth/universe).
I am not religious (I have not been to church since I moved out of my parents’ house), but I’m just explaining the viewpoint of someone who would make that asinine statement.
August 31, 2010 — 8:47 am
Jan Dembowski says:
I do understand (as much as I can) what people get upset about. I just think it’s absurd to think that people can document God without leaving room for interpretation. People are fallible.
When scientists publish their findings, some people go nuts. Take the theory of evolution as an example. It is an attempt to explain something through observation. It’s not a “the bible is wrong” statement, it’s a theory. And yet people go bats talking about it and blame a scientific premise on all the evil in the world.
That’s just plain ignorant and many of the people raising this as a problem do know better. That doesn’t mean people can’t use science to justify their own warped views. But those people count as nuts too.
August 31, 2010 — 9:46 am
Evan says:
Heh, “Publishing results that put these commonly-held beliefs”
should read… Publishing results that contradict these commonly-held beliefs…
August 31, 2010 — 8:51 am
Jan Dembowski says:
Noted! But I’ll leave it in place along with your correction. 🙂
August 31, 2010 — 9:47 am