🚀 go-pugleaf

This entire discussion about whether religion & physics mix has provided
abundant evidence that they do not mix.  Those who have been advocating
the converse view illustrate by their very arguments that such a mix
is impossible.

It is true that there are many scientists who are religious.  It is also
true that there are many religious people who are scientifically minded or
at least take an interest in science.  However, there are two very different
modes of thought in operation here.

When a person is thinking scientifically that is what I will call "rational
mode".  In this mode of thought, the sole object is to acquire the truth.
What do we mean by "truth"?  An assertion is judged "true" if it accurately
reflects the nature of reality.  How do we decide if a statement is true?
We devise an empirical test and let reality tell us if the statement is
accurate.

Religious thought is typified by "mystical mode".  In this mode of thought,
it is recognized that there exists a level of "truth" or "reality" to which
mere rational thought does not have access.  Mystical thought acquires
"truth" through revelations of various sorts.  The fundamental "truths" of
religion are not subject to empirical verification because they are defined
in a manner which precludes even the possibility of such testing.

It is not possible to mix these two modes of thought.  Mysticism does not
intrude into science because if it did so, what remained would not be science.
(This doesn't stop some people from trying, though!)  Imagine a paper on
the first detection of the top quark.  The paper describes in great detail the
experimental set-up, the procedures followed, presents the results of
all measurements, etc.  The conclusion of the paper says something like:
"The alert reader will have noticed that nowhere during the course of the
experiment did we see any evidence for the top quark.  However, we know
that they were there because God told us so."  How come we never see a paper
like this in _Physical Review Letters_?

On the other hand, honest theologians admit that God cannot be found through
the use of reason.  A "leap of faith" is required to believe in God.  The
act of taking this leap is mystical by definition, and cannot be rationally
justified.

These two modes of thought are mutually exclusive.  Neither can encompass
the other:  they cannot be mixed.  You can think mystically or rationally,
but you cannot do both at the same time.  People who call themselves
"religious" and "scientific" are not being completely honest.  You can
be religious *or* scientific; you cannot be both simultaneously.

Tim
-- 
Tim Dodd, Research Scientist, Georgia Tech:  cegtitd@prism.gatech.edu