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From: pindor@gpu.utcc.utoronto.ca (Andrzej Pindor)
Subject: Re: Question
Message-ID: <CyAu3o.AFK@gpu.utcc.utoronto.ca>
Organization: UTCC Public Access
References: <28c.137.1046.0N15DBB2@htp.com> <38and7$b9q@seralph9.essex.ac.uk>
Date: Wed, 26 Oct 1994 21:23:48 GMT
Lines: 30

In article <38and7$b9q@seralph9.essex.ac.uk>,
Butler J M <butljw@essex.ac.uk> wrote:
>............
>Lay people (non-scientists) who belive in science but not God believe in
>atoms and yet have never seen one (on its own that is) and yet they don't
>have the knowledge with which to go looking for one. So how can they have
>knowledge in science and disbelieve in God. They too are irrational. To
>those kind of people science is incomprehensible and yet they belive in
>it and not God. Very irrational!
>
There is some similarity, I agree, but there is also a big difference.
People for whom atomic science is incomprehensible and yet believe in atoms
may (although certainly not all) understand that the facts about atoms
are established using the scientific method - reproducible experiments and
logical reasoning and that these facts are falsifiable - new experiments
and new theories may provide a different picture of the reality. In contrast,
the facts about God the believers accept come from a 'divine inspiration'
of one sort or another and are not falsifiable. There is nothing wrong with
it, do not read the above as putting down the belief in God. I simply want
to make clear this distinction

>JB (budding scientist & religous realist)
>

Andrzej
-- 
Andrzej Pindor                        The foolish reject what they see and 
University of Toronto                 not what they think; the wise reject
Instructional and Research Computing  what they think and not what they see.
pindor@gpu.utcc.utoronto.ca                           Huang Po
