I concede that every story of creation is as valid as the scientific one. I concede that we may never know.
I propose
however that religion will never get us closer to the truth and yet science
might well get us there eventually.
I propose that nothing we do, science or religion, can or
ever will show us the whole truth of the creation of the universe because we
are incapable of knowing it.
My
belief or hope, is that the external force/being/Creator which is the unknowable
option I choose to go with is pleased that we are finding out more and more about
how creation (in its widest sense) works. But all we are doing is akin to discovering
the rules (grammar and syntax) of writing. It tells us what some of the rules
are but those rules don’t and can never tell us how the idea of writing was
created or why it was created and tells us only a fraction of the essence of
the person who was the writer.
I see
neither as good nor bad . People can use science in a bad way but science as a
concept corrects itself over time. It tests and changes.
Yes
it should do, Alex, but we are becoming so skewed by money and politics that it
has become very hard to go against the grain that the establishment has decided
is correct. In theory, theory and practice are the same, in practice, they’re
different. Look at how the establishment scientists lied about Cv19 – money and
politics do not the best interests of the majority bring.
Religion
however is easier to use for bad. And it doesn’t correct itself over time it
becomes engrained entrenched and open to fanatics.
Well
some religions correct or alter over time. What was the reformation if not a
democratic correction of Christianity? And the practices and teachings on
morality of the C of E for example have changed massively since WW2 such that
it is now hardly any different from liberal secular society at large.
I don’t
decry religion I just don’t think it necessary. I DO think anti authoritarian
thinking is anti religious thinking.
I agree, in that all forms of closed-minded certainty
of thinking is religious. Religious behaviours (unshakable acceptance viewpoints;
the out-casting of heretics; forms of words/mantras that show you’re part of
the group; songs; symbols; etc) do not require supernatural belief.
If religion
was taught as if “there might be a god” I would find it more acceptable than
the certainty that is communicated.
Teach
religion as a possible world view rather than a definitive world view and I
would be more comfortable.
Religion
IS taught in this way Alex in the vast majority of schools including,
ironically, C of E schools. All (most) religions are taught side by side along
with humanism in Religious Studies GCSE and A Level for example. That was even
true in 1983 when I took Religious Studies A Level. One paper was Christianity
(it was a Cathedral School after all) and one was a comparison of the beliefs
of the main religions.
If spiritual
studies compared the trials of Aphrodite or Tom Brown or Oliver Twist or Harry
Potter to those of Joseph with equal vigour to understand human dilemmas, then
I would approve.
Religious
stories have value like all stories but that doesn’t mean they are true. But it doesn’t mean they aren’t true either.
The values
can be true whilst the stories are not.
I agree in the same way that the values can be true as
well as the stories. Indeed the stories can be true but the values wrong. We’re back to choosing which unknowns we prefer again.
Coercion is
convincing children and the vulnerable to hold opinions that are potentially
false.
Who gets to decide which views are potentially false? And
why do THEY get to do their supposedly benign coercion?
ALL views are ‘potentially’ false, in that we may and often do change our mind
as to their veracity over time.
The truth IN
the value of the stories should be discoverable and able to be witnessed.
Whereas The truth OF the story is irrelevant and should not be taught or
defended with threats of sacrilege or blasphemy.
It’s dangerous to dismiss the personal testimonies of
many people over millennia simply because you don’t like the implications of
what they’re saying.
If the human
race was reduced to few mating pairs and all books and technology was
destroyed. Then eventually the exact same science and technology would be
rediscovered with the same scientific laws.
But we would
not have the same religions with the same stories although we may rediscover
the same human values needed to survive.
So what?
This
simply means that we are incapable, however high a pedestal we hubristically
put ourselves upon, of comprehending fully what the God/External Force/External
Being is. Therefore, we will always see different glimpses of it creating
differing ideas/religions.
Imagine an express train passing through a small country station at 90mph. The
passengers will see it as a blur only. Even if they try to see the detail they
will only be able to see a small fraction of the detail of the whole and between
them, the passengers will see many different fragments of detail. When describing
the station, they will all give differing accounts of their little fragment which
are true but only in part; none can accurately describe the whole.
For all we know, time as we experience it, may be totally different for that external Being. i.e. the laws of physics etc we have may not be the same outside our
universe.
And even if we were to discover the same values, this could simply show that
the spark/values put in us by the creator Being can only be extinguished by that
creator, not by us.
Every
argument against coercion and authoritarianism is an argument against belief in
a religion being the gospel truth!
We should
educate enough that children can challenge religion not just believe it.
We
should educate enough that children can challenge religion and science and
political ideology and literary criticism and all accepted norms across society
not just believe it. Providing that this challenge means to rediscover the purpose
and value of these things and alter them only as much as is necessary to improve
them; not just automatically gainsaying or ripping-up everything that’s gone
before.
I think you
said Carl Sagan said something similar very recently.
Sagan
was an avowed atheist; the scientific method and reductive materialism was his
religious behaviour. And there is much to be said for it but not to the
exclusion of all else.
I rest my
case
Your
case rests on looking to how religion operated in the past or the most extreme
forms of religion today. The religious issues you rail against don’t exist to
all intents and purposes (certainly not in Christianity) in the UK any more;
(Islam is a worrying issue I grant you) i.e. in the Christianity of the UK, the
beliefs & teachings you don’t like are seen far more in the breach than in
the observance.
When the only tool you have is a hammer, everything becomes a nail. This is an erroneous way to think.
It's religion AND science, not either/or. Each of us must take the parts of both that we need to make a foundation upon which to live.