🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <74455@hydra.gatech.EDU> cegtitd@prism.gatech.EDU (Tim Dodd) writes:
>|There's nothing hard to understand, and nothing particularly religious,
>|about faith.  Most of you probably believe that your Significant Other 
>|isn't cheating on you.  Why?  Have you engaged private detectives?  Have
>|you designed double-blind experiments to test your hypothesis?  No; you
>|just trust them, and recognize that this kind of personal trust, rather than 
>|scientific skepticism, is what's called for in a relationship.
>|
>|Religion simply asks for this kind of trust in one's god.  
>
>But these are 2 very different kinds of "faith".  You *know* that your
>S.O. exists, and the question as to whether or not he/she is cheating on
>you is testable.

Testable, but normally not tested; that's my point.  Insisting that your 
S.O.'s veracity or monogamy be subject to scientific standards of proof would
be considered inappropriate or even hostile behavior, even by scientists.

>|In Catholic theology, for instance, it is asserted 
>|that the existence of God can be proved by reason alone.  
>
>I was not aware of this aspect of Catholicism.  Is this an official position
>of the Church, or just something that appears in the writings of one or
>more Catholic theologians?  

An official position, if memory serves.

>In any case, it is not enough to assert that
>the existence of God can be proved by reason.  One must *do* it, and so far
>no one has.  

No one's proved it to *everyone's* satisfaction, tho' of course many have 
tried; but plenty of people have converted to one religion or another based 
on what seems to them to be good evidence.  

The argument cuts the other way, too: there is no universally accepted
proof of the *nonexistence* of all gods; yet atheists exist, and feel that
their beliefs are rational.

Neither the believers nor the atheists have a *scientific* basis for their
beliefs.  Which is as good a reason as any not to argue for or against the
existence of God/gods in sci.physics; perhaps the discussion should be
taken to e-mail.