The Black Vault

"It appears to me (whether rightly or wrongly) that direct arguments against christianity and theism produce hardly any effect on the public; and freedom of thought is best promoted by the gradual illumination of men's minds which follows from the advance of science." -- Darwin

"If we believe absurdities, we shall commit atrocities." -- Voltaire

"I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation, whose purposes are modeled after our own - a God, in short, who is but a reflection of human frailty. Neither can I believe that the individual survives the death of his body, although feeble souls harbor such thoughts through fear or ridiculous egotism." -- Einstein

"Faith means not wanting to know what is true." -- Nietzsche

"I cannot believe in the immortality of the soul. No, all this talk of an existence for us, as individuals, beyond the grave is wrong. It is born of our tenacity of life – our desire to go on living . . . our dread of coming to an end." -- Edison

"The Bible is not my book nor Christianity my profession. I could never give assent to the long, complicated statements of Christian dogma." -- Lincoln

"Religion is a byproduct of fear. For much of human history, it may have been a necessary evil, but why was it more evil than necessary? Isn't killing people in the name of God a pretty good definition of insanity?" -- Arthur C. Clarke

"Religions are all alike – founded upon fables and mythologies." -- Thomas Jefferson

"Say what you will about the sweet miracle of unquestioning faith, I consider a capacity for it terrifying and absolutely vile." -- Kurt Vonnegut

"Religion is based . . . mainly on fear . . . fear of the mysterious, fear of defeat, fear of death. Fear is the parent of cruelty, and therefore it is no wonder if cruelty and religion have gone hand in hand. . . . My own view on religion is that of Lucretius. I regard it as a disease born of fear and as a source of untold misery to the human race." -- Bertrand Russell

And yet we see science and technology fail everyday, and they have not been able to disproove the existance of God.

greeney2 wrote:And yet we see science and technology fail everyday, and they have not been able to disproove the existance of God.

I don't see it as the job of science to disprove anything. That would most likely be impossible.

That aside, would you elaborate on what you meant by "And yet we see science and technology fail everyday" for me?

You seem to be taking the premise that science is so absolute and exact, they provide the proof needed to decide if God exists or not. That is really one of the foundations of Atheism, they rely on science, or lean twards scientists who did not believe in God publically, so that give them credence to that belief. That has been presented many times here, and caused considerable debate and arguments. Truth is, many scientists, or other highly educated people in fields of exacting professions such as science do believe in God. Also that science does fail, and it fails everyday, so the idea of Science used for your spiritual decisions in life, may not be as exact as you may feel. They may be logical, but they may not be sufficient to conclude existance or the non-existance of God.

greeney2 wrote:You seem to be taking the premise that science is so absolute and exact, they provide the proof needed to decide if God exists or not. That is really one of the foundations of Atheism, they rely on science, or lean twards scientists who did not believe in God publically, so that give them credence to that belief. That has been presented many times here, and caused considerable debate and arguments. Truth is, many scientists, or other highly educated people in fields of exacting professions such as science do believe in God. Also that science does fail, and it fails everyday, so the idea of Science used for your spiritual decisions in life, may not be as exact as you may feel. They may be logical, but they may not be sufficient to conclude existance or the non-existance of God.

You have no idea what my position or motivation is at all. You are just jumping to conclusions instead of putting in something more thoughtful.

You brought the idea of science up, I just commented on it, which I thought was thoughtful.

greeney2 wrote:You brought the idea of science up, I just commented on it, which I thought was thoughtful.

That is incidental to the topic. Re-read the title.

This is not about science versus religion per se. Those quotes are worthy of consideration and discussion no matter who said them, whether Stephen Hawking or the Pope.

So I'd prefer to move past knee-jerk reactions and hear some real input on the perils of belief. If it helps assuage any insecurity about your own beliefs, try to consider the subject in light of dangerous extremism eg. Islamic terrorism.

In other words, I am not singling out christianity specifically. I was hoping for something a bit broader in scope and more concerned with the human mind / condition, similar to your own thread on the religious significance of events.