I don’t talk about my religious beliefs much because that’s how I think religious beliefs should be. Still, I was pulled into a theological debate with two atheists who said they just wanted to know what I believe. How could a guy be smart AND believe in God? I made my point that I think there is a probability that a god-like entity existed or exists. Once it was made clear that I was not saying Jesus founded America or any other nonsense, one said there was probably a god and the other said there was possibly a god. They clarified for me their definition of atheist as someone who rejects religion, not someone who rejects the idea of a god. That is, apparently, an anti-theist, which was a new word for me and if theist ever shows up in scrabble, I am so rocking that triple word score with it.
Still, one of them is sending me links to atheist talk shows and sites and wikis. I liked one called Iron Chariots despite the snide, smug language used on it because it listed arguments and counter-arguments. Here are some of them and my thoughts which will hopefully shed some light on why I believe.
Before we start, I want to talk about the word “believe.” It’s not some fucking trap. It’s just a word. Even the most hardcore atheist person believes. Even if they say “I only believe in things I see with my own eyes” or “I only believe in science” or “I only believe on provable, repeatable results (and MythBusters episodes)”. This stuff is said because they’re worried about some slippery slope argument that ends with me going “AHA! You believe in Gah-ahd! Neener neener neener!” No. Here’s how I tried to explain it.
Me: You believe a Diet Coke has 0 calories because it says so on the label. You trust the label and have no scientific knowledge of it.
Atheist: No. I know Diet Coke contains 1.3 calories because I read that on a website.
You see the problem? Every time you get convinced of your own knowledge, you are denying that you are just believing someone else. He was just believing the website instead of the label. Again, it’s not a trap. If your friend told you he had Cheerios for breakfast you would… believe him. It’s a normal thing to believe.
Still, some people have trouble with that word because they say it carries eons of religious oppression. Fine. I’ll use the word trust instead of believe. And I’m going to use Snagglepuss instead of God for the same reason. I trust in Snagglepuss’s existence.
Note: I’m going to tell you why in small words. Language was invented to communicate. Using a ten dollar word when a ten cent word will do impairs communication. There’s a bunch of reasons to use big words, but few of them deal with communicating.
Science is a Faith
“Science is a faith is a statement that reflects a straw man or equivocation fallacy propagated by apologists to attempt to discredit "belief" in science as being no more sound than belief in God. Science does contain philosophical underpinnings which are unprovable, which thus require "faith" in the epistemological sense. However, science distinguishes itself from purely faith-based beliefs in the same way that philosophy does; by the application of logic. Science also goes one step further by adhering to demonstrable, repeatable experiments and empirical data.”
That says “Science is a faith is what theists use to say that belief in science is like belief in God. Science does require faith, but science uses logic, experiments, and data.” So when you take away the big words, it is just agreeing with the argument that science is a faith, but it says science is better because you can reason science and get repeatable results. So when I drop a ball, it accelerates towards the earth at the same speed every time because gravity. (Fun fact, using because like that is now accepted and because is a preposition, too!)
This website has real balls admitting science is a faith even as much as they are, but the problem with their reasoning and repeatable results is they only exist within the sphere of science. It’s self-referential. Science is right because science says so. It only works for stuff science knows and it isn’t permanent, just temporary til the next scientific discovery gets us closer to the truth (we hope). Note that atheists have no problem using this argument as Bible is right because Bible says so. Here’s an example.
Q: How much does a kilogram ball weigh exactly the same as 1,000 gram balls?
A: Yes
Except it’s not. Not really. (And if you want to get on me about saying the word “weigh” when talking about mass, you can fuck off now because I’m not interested in semantics) The kilogram is a thing, a little weight. And it’s been absorbing air molecules and losing mass in washings for 120 years. So today’s kilogram is a different weight than yesterday’s kilogram. So 1,000 gram balls would not weigh a kilogram logically. But in science, they do because science is self referential. There’s no standard for the gram. It’s defined as 1/1000th of a kilogram (don’t ask why it’s not the other way around, there’s French history in the reason). So the end result is that a kilogram isn’t a kilogram and a gram isn’t a gram and 1,000 grams are not a kilogram. Not in the real sense of the words. But it is provable in science. It “adheres to demonstrable, repeatable experiments and empirical data.”
So, yeah, science is a faith. You trust scientists. You trust doctors. If a guy in a white coat at a hospital comes up and says “Your father is dead” you don’t respond “Prove it” and start slapping the corpse. If you did, the doctor would lock you up and tell your family you were crazy. And they would trust him because you don’t need proof when you have faith.
I’m going to go play at Gymboree with my kid, but here’s the other articles I liked because I believe them or see a glaring hole in them. Maybe I’ll go into more detail on them later.
http://wiki.ironchariots.org/index.php?title=Argument_from_design (this one has multiple arguments)
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