Science must destroy religion

[Poindexter]

I am hopeful that the necessary transformation in our thinking will come about as our scientific understanding of ourselves matures. When we find reliable ways to make human beings more loving, less fearful, and genuinely enraptured by the fact of our appearance in the cosmos, we will have no need for divisive religious myths. Only then will the practice of raising our children to believe that they are Christian, Jewish, Muslim, or Hindu be broadly recognized as the ludicrous obscenity that it is. And only then will we stand a chance of healing the deepest and most dangerous fractures in our world.

https://www.samharris.org/blog/item/sci ... y-religion

[Glacier]

I like Sam Harris. He's smart, honest, knowledgeable, but I think he has a few assumptions around topics of free-will and religion that aren't quite right. He wrongly assumes that science and religion are at odds with each other even though modern science stems from religious thought. There are many different religious and many different religious viewpoints within each religion so of course you're going to find some religious people who conflict with the science of the day, just as you will among non-religious people among whom you also find many diverging views of science and reality.

Destroying religion will not further the advancement of science any more than criminalizing marijuana eliminates crime.

[Gixxer]

[Healthyskeptic]

http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/God_of_the_gaps


Science has destroyed the strongly held belief that this vengeful God, X, caused the volcano to blow, or the river to flood, or the fire,or the sea storm, or the baby to die.

The more we learn, the more 'He' shrinks.

Or maybe you still want to believe prayers are answered. Try that at any burn unit, a spinal rehabilitation centre or over a child with one genetict disorder or another.
Here's a list of some of them. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_genetic_disorders

Good luck, religion!

[zzontar]

Or maybe you still want to believe prayers are answered.

Maybe there's more to it than praying for the lottery numbers and saying prayer doesn't work when you don't win.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/artic ... ers-power/

Participants who were asked to pray about a topic of their choosing for five minutes showed significantly better performance on the stroop task after emotion suppression, compared to participants who were simply asked to think about a topic of their choosing. And this effect held regardless of whether participants identified as religious (70 percent) or not.
Why? The authors tested several possible explanations, but found statistical support for only one: people interpret prayer as a social interaction with God, and social interactions are what give us the cognitive resources necessary to avoid temptation.

[Healthyskeptic]

Most young children play pretend games and interact with their stuffed animals, dolls, or other special toys as if they were alive. According to Marjorie Taylor and her colleagues at the University of Oregon, by age seven, about 37% of children take imaginative play a step farther and create an invisible friend. Source: Psychology Today.

We are ALL evolved from primates who lived in fear of being eaten by something larger, fiercer. We evolved to attribute an agent to the wind, the rustling in the tall grass, something spooky up there making the lightening.

Congrats, zzontar, you've proven Michael Shermers point. We are the descendants of suspicious, paranoid primates.

[Healthyskeptic]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmXlEvum6PQ

Michael Shermer's short discussion of our primitive ancestors.

[zzontar]

Most young children play pretend games and interact with their stuffed animals, dolls, or other special toys as if they were alive. According to Marjorie Taylor and her colleagues at the University of Oregon, by age seven, about 37% of children take imaginative play a step farther and create an invisible friend. Source: Psychology Today.

Are you saying that this must be equally bad and we shouldn't allow children to do these things?

[Healthyskeptic]

Really? Really?

Humans imagine a lot of things. Starting from infancy probably. Time for our species to grow up and face reality.

[Healthyskeptic]

The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one.

George Bernard Shaw
Irish dramatist (1856 - 1950).

[Healthyskeptic]

That Webb and Mitchell Look Comedy sketch about Church.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=si_21P1wxqc

[zzontar]

Really? Really?

Humans imagine a lot of things. Starting from infancy probably. Time for our species to grow up and face reality.

At what age do you think kids should not be able to use their imaginations, or do you think they shouldn't be able to use them at all?

[Healthyskeptic]

Yeah, that was my point.

[Glacier]

The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one.

George Bernard Shaw
Irish dramatist (1856 - 1950).

Drunks are less happy in general than those who don't imbibe. Just sayin'.

[JayByrd]

No Christian believes that God answers all prayers, so "try that in a burn unit" isn't much of a litmus test, at least not for a believer. There's also much more to prayer than asking for something.

And yes, the more we learn, the more we become convinced of our own supremacy. One of mankind's less appealing traits IMO, but it's our reality.