Is it really hard to understand God?

I had a thread a few days old in ATS discussing creation and evolution, the debate went on and on, mostly it was Evolutionists picking at my responses and argueing whether relevant or not. Point being, i dont think you can ever win that debate, there is never a real answer untill you die..

My question, why are so many people against the idea? They replace God with Science as an answer..
Im posting here hoping to get an answer that doesnt involve flaming

Hi Fennek,

I guess I should state up front I'm not particularly Christian or even religious for that matter. On the other hand, I'm not really anti-religious either.

I think, especially in the U.S., people can get the impression of religion being shoved down their throat. I grew up in the Bible belt and I never could accept the easy belief that came to so many of my family and neighbors. It's not enough for me to merely believe in some superior being, I have to understand why I should hold those beliefs.

In the context of the evolution debate, I think many Christians sort of set themselves up for failure. I've always viewed evolution as a theory of development, whereas Christiantity speaks to ultimate origins. I won't call Christianity a "theory" since it doesn't really operate at the level of a scientifc perspective, nor does it have to. It's not clear from the Christian scriptures, for example, that Genesis should be read as even a mythological account of the world's creation. It most certainly can be read that way, but I think at the time that Genesis was compiled, (around 600-500 BC, during the Babylonian captivity) that these stories were meant to express the pride and uniqueness that the hebrews had in their god, that stood above all other gods.

So, I think a hebrew at that time would have shrugged their sholders about having learned the mechanism of evolution, since they weren't writing Genesis as a pre-scientific description of the world's origin. I know that intelligent design theory is supposed to be more nuanced attempt than the straight, creation based theory noted above, but ultimately their force of persuasion for religious minded people spring from the ultimate, creative capacity they attribute to God.

I don't think very many scientists, if they thought carefully about the matter, would hold that science can provide foundations for the sorts of questions that poets, theologians, ethicists, artists, and a variety of other human ways of knowing and grappling with out existence put forward. On the other hand, I'm not sure religion has a particular monopoly on these questions either.

Originally posted by fennek77
My question, why are so many people against the idea? They replace God with Science as an answer..
Im posting here hoping to get an answer that doesnt involve flaming

Since I have been able to think on my own, I have wondered (as most) the meaning of life and the concept of God. I came to accept that there is a God (or a God-like something), aside from all dogma that is in religious texts. The idea of thought and consciousness and just looking out at nature made me feel 'inside' that there is a God, despite me not having a one-on-one conversation with God. I did research to find the closest thing that I could find to what I believed, and Deism was what I found. I would not say I am a Deist, but it is the closest definition to my feelings on God based on non-dogma reasons. I was born into Christianity, but I do not accept all of the damnation and fear stuff. This does not mean I do not accept anything in the Bible or other religious texts. If I could go through the Bible and remove all of the fear statements and damnation statements and just keep the pure feeling (love) statements of life, I would. Probably sounds wrong to most Christians, but I don't think God would want us to only believe in God based on fear...rather it should be based on love. But that is just my current opinion. All in all, I believe in God not based on what I am told to believe or based on what science may say does not exist, but just based on how I feel on the inside.

In the realm of science though, I did recently read Bernard Haisch's book 'The God Theory' which tries to connect science and God (there are other physics related God theory books as well). The concept interested me a lot and I liked most parts of the book. The idea of 'creation through subtraction' that is in the book really hit me hard....I was always wondering how anything can be created from nothing and this helped solve that riddle for me (at least one theory of many I am sure). So, this is at least one person that is trying to tie together God and science.

I am not sure why people cannot accept the possibility of God and science being hand-in-hand. I can understand someone saying 'I don't know.' But if someone says there is no such thing as God, then they are denying at least one possibility that they cannot prove to be wrong....but I guess we cannot prove to be right either. Follow your inner feelings and your heart. Right now my ‘inner feelings’ says there is a God.

Originally posted by fennek77
I had a thread a few days old in ATS discussing creation and evolution ...

I bet that was fun.

My question, why are so many people against the idea? They replace God with Science as an answer..

This may not be the answer you want, but the biggest reason why is because the idea requires them to not believe their own senses. It requires them to dissregard what is seen in favor for what they can not see. It requires them to disregard measurements they can see, for that which can not be measured.