Underhand
09-24-2004, 13:02
You, the kind-hearted soul who is reading this. Could you post this in the thread "My problem with Atheism" in the backroom of the tavern please?
Over the past few days I have been following the debates in the tavern on religon and science, and as an agnostic who aspires to become a scientist (or at least something along those lines) one thing puzzles me. Much has been made of the idea that one must have faith to believe that God doesn't exist and that the current scientific theories are correct. This assumes that those who accept the scientific explanations of such things as creation and evolution believe that these theories are completely accurate. This I think is a fallacy, for today's theories are just that: theories. People have been dead wrong in the past, therefore why should we assume that our ideas now are correct? Won't they just be usurped by fresh, new ideas that seem to fit the facts better? I believe that this will happen, but that that is no reason to give up on the whole idea of attempting to explain the universe through scientific means. Theories are put forward, lauded, and then demolished all the time. Few scientists believe that we will keep the same explanations forever. Thus I refute the idea that it takes faith to accept scientific theories about creation and the like, since I and many others of a scientific persuasion do not have faith in theories, they are merely stepping stones on the way to a greater understanding.
Over the past few days I have been following the debates in the tavern on religon and science, and as an agnostic who aspires to become a scientist (or at least something along those lines) one thing puzzles me. Much has been made of the idea that one must have faith to believe that God doesn't exist and that the current scientific theories are correct. This assumes that those who accept the scientific explanations of such things as creation and evolution believe that these theories are completely accurate. This I think is a fallacy, for today's theories are just that: theories. People have been dead wrong in the past, therefore why should we assume that our ideas now are correct? Won't they just be usurped by fresh, new ideas that seem to fit the facts better? I believe that this will happen, but that that is no reason to give up on the whole idea of attempting to explain the universe through scientific means. Theories are put forward, lauded, and then demolished all the time. Few scientists believe that we will keep the same explanations forever. Thus I refute the idea that it takes faith to accept scientific theories about creation and the like, since I and many others of a scientific persuasion do not have faith in theories, they are merely stepping stones on the way to a greater understanding.