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- Newsgroups: sci.physics
- Path: sparky!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!darwin.sura.net!uvaarpa!murdoch!kelvin.seas.Virginia.EDU!crb7q
- From: crb7q@kelvin.seas.Virginia.EDU (Cameron Randale Bass)
- Subject: Re: Religion & Physics Don't Mix
- Message-ID: <1992Nov16.072757.29064@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU>
- Sender: usenet@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU
- Organization: University of Virginia
- References: <74353@hydra.gatech.EDU> <1992Nov16.025934.14280@reks.uia.ac.be>
- Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1992 07:27:57 GMT
- Lines: 45
-
- In article <1992Nov16.025934.14280@reks.uia.ac.be> gustin@evs2.uia.ac.be (Emmanuel Gustin) writes:
- >Okay, science can't tell us anything about religion; a God you can subject
- >to scientific study is not a God but a part of nature. The other way
- >around is possible; because if God knows everything, He could tell us
- >something we don't know, and if he is all-powerfull, the He can show his
- >powers, doing the impossible. And most religions tell us He did...
- >However, then we COULD make a scientific study about His existence,
- >implying that God is part of nature, and thus cannot act against nature's
- >laws. So all this logic adds up to nothing. My hasty conclusion: whether
- >you believe God exists or not, logic won't help you to convince anyone.
-
- To make this much stronger, 'All-powerful' and 'all-knowing'
- is a concept outside of science. One cannot determine such a
- concept within science.
-
- >More important: Science can't accept religion as a part of its structure -
- >nor superstition of prejudice. But religion has to accept logic and
- >science, and many religious people have no trouble with that - what the
- >pope tried to show when he apologized for the Galilei trial. Theology is
- >based on faith but is not a purely mystical affair. As G.K. Chesterton
- >made father Brown say when caught fake priest: attacking Logic is bad
- >theology. People can't (at least not forever) believe in something that is
- >clearly not true. Thus mixing religion into science is *impossible*, but
- >mixing science into religion is an *inevitability*.
-
- Religion has to accept nothing. Do you honestly think that the
- Jains base their belief in reincarnation on *logic*? There is no
- logic that explains basic facts of existence that must be
- assumed.
-
- Also, 'clearly not true' is in the eye of the beholder.
-
- >Yes, I know there are lots of people who refuse to mix some science in
- >their religion - creationists and others. But don't blame religion for
- >this; it's bad science AND bad theology. It is true that religion is
-
- It is perfectly consistent theology. It is *not* science.
-
- dale bass
-
- --
- C. R. Bass crb7q@virginia.edu
- Department of Mechanical,
- Aerospace and Nuclear Engineering
- University of Virginia (804) 924-7926
-