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Americans becoming less religious due to conservative politics

I think this is one of those situations where the scientists and philosophers and religious are all on the same page, but speaking different languages. It's entirely possible that a God created the universe, said "these are the rules" and then innately tasked humanity with unraveling and unpackaging those rules in an effort for greater, deeper discovery and understanding. I do think some people see science as humans trying to play God, but I can see a scenario where that was the idea all along. I'm not particularly spiritual, but I find that more plausible than any religion I've ever been exposed to.
 
Deadbolt said:
I think this is one of those situations where the scientists and philosophers and religious are all on the same page, but speaking different languages. It's entirely possible that a God created the universe, said "these are the rules" and then innately tasked humanity with unraveling and unpackaging those rules in an effort for greater, deeper discovery and understanding. I do think some people see science as humans trying to play God, but I can see a scenario where that was the idea all along. I'm not particularly spiritual, but I find that more plausible than any religion I've ever been exposed to.
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Deism. Welcome to the Enlightenment.
 
Junebug said:
I think I understand generally where you are coming from, although your statement about a "creator" has me a little confused. I was under the impression you were an atheist, but maybe I'm misremembering/misinterpreting.

In any event, my problem with science and those with a scientific viewpoint isn't with science as such. Science as such is well and good. It's when science says "we've figured it out (or are on the way) and therefore there is no room for God" that the problems start. First of all, only someone with no sense of the history of science would think that we have or will be able to truly figure anything out once and for all. It was barely 100 years ago that scientists believed in the ether and maybe less that, if memory serves, we had a raisin pudding model of the atom. It is incalculably hubristic to think our picture of the world will survive even the next 100 years, much less in perpetuity. Second, even if, one day, we were able to decipher an accurate theory of everything, taking the next step and concluding "and therefore there is no room for God" is, and always will be, a philosophical/theological statement, not a scientific one. And, if based on a theory of everything, it is bad philosophy at that.

Anyway, even if you don't respond, thanks for engaging this far.
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I am indeed an atheist. It was just a hypothetical, where, assuming there is a creator, it wouldn't want to make it blatantly obvious that it exists because it would remove the whole faith aspect of religion.

This is a probably a topic for another thread, but I always assumed that was why I couldn't expect God to spawn a Lamborghini Gallardo in front of my house when I ask him to prove his existence to me.

There are certainly things that we will never be able to know, whether we know about them yet or not. I'm sure that eventually, we will reach the limits of what we can reliably detect, observe, and measure and at that point, we can't say that god doesn't exist in those gaps. You can believe that he does, and I can believe that he doesn't.

Assuming that humanity is a going concern, I don't believe that we will reach that point for quite some time and we will all be dead so we won't have to agonize over it. We will already know the outcome.
 
if time began at the moment of the big bang, there would have been no time for god to have made the universe
 
To me it seems science does a great job of explaining what is happening, but does nothing to address why it is happening. For example we know exactly what gravity is and the effects it has. We have no understanding of why it happens, or how the laws of gravity were established.

Why is where god plays a role in my life, and what is where science plays a role. They both can exist happily together.
 
I think he is saying that animals see no need to ask the question 'Why'. Humanity almost demands that we do ask that question. Searching for the why is what makes us different. Monkeys make tools, solve problems, observe their surroundings. Humans are the only being on this earth that asks 'Why'. It is a pretty important question, I fail to understand why anyone would actually willingly choose to ignore the 'Why' question. The root of that answer is the foundation to everything.
 
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WFcatamount22 said:
To me it seems science does a great job of explaining what is happening, but does nothing to address why it is happening. For example we know exactly what gravity is and the effects it has. We have no understanding of why it happens, or how the laws of gravity were established.

Why is where god plays a role in my life, and what is where science plays a role. They both can exist happily together.
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The example in your first paragraph is patently false.
 
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