[thechat] rationality is not enough (was: New Year's Resolution)

[Joe Crawford]

On Sat, 4 Jan 2003, Tony Crockford wrote:
> > Surely religion and science attempt to answer different
> > questions. Science
> > answers 'how?' questions and religion answers 'why?' questions.
>
> I'm surprised no-one brought up quantum physics, which to me seems a lot
> like a religious science...

well, our understanding of things at that scale (really really
really small) has helped us do things like grab power from atoms
(fission, fusion) - which are practical and reproducible and very
-non- religious aspects of quantum physics.

in many things, quantum physics /tries/ to answer questions, but not
with the same kind of certainty that we get when looking at, say,
how a particular bacteria interacts with penicillin, or the motion
of the moon in relation to the earth.

it's a matter of degrees of certainty, here in the now.

i'll say again that religion addresses matters of faith - faith and
certainty I think.

scientists are always looking for the best guess which matches the
evidence we have before us. certainty is for philosophers and theologians.
:-)

	joe
--
Joe "ArtLung" Crawford
San Diego California USA: http://artlung.com/