The crazy things people believe, and how religion goes horribly wrong

Writing about web page /mmannion/entry/dinosaurs_and_humans/

Science cannot disprove or prove the existence of a higher power, that can only be found and believed through faith by people.

This is where religion goes horribly wrong…

What exactly do you mean by “found”? That’s clearly the principle underpinning the system of knowledge endorsed by many christians. Do you mean “found” in the same sense that one finds and holds onto any other thing in the world? For example, finding a nice shell on the beach, or finding a feeling when encountering that shell. If not, then get another word, you’re abusing language. If it is the same “found” then you’d better have a good story as to how you can find something as abstract and imperceptible as God, given that christians then go on to invest the God thing with infinite powers, intension and extension beyond any other thing. Perhaps you have another system of knowledge? Perhaps you can find God through logic? Go on, have a go, if you think you’re the next Leibniz

You see the problem is that modern christianity is underpinned by a slippery and devious efacement of epistemology . And yet it employs all kinds of dubious epistemologies all of the time. What then is the consequence? If you abuse epistemology, using whatever system of evidence serves your purpose at any given time, without rigorous investigation, and then go on to make massive claims about the nature of things, anything is possible. Following the example of that shoddy philosophy, anyone can believe anything: creationism or fountains of sherbert and a thousand virgin girls awaiting the martyr.

The punchline: be careful what you wish for.

Robert O'Toole : 19 Jan 2007 13:06 |  Tags: Belief Christianity Creationism Epistemology |  Comments (0) |  Report a problem