Why do Atheists put so much faith in science?

I'm not a christian or any religion, but I find it funny that "atheists" put so much faith into science (pretty much like a religion with more books involved I guess). But it seems like lots of times the things we thought were true today are being proven wrong tomorrow.

I remember growing up and there were 9 planets, then I was told there were more planets, then all the sudden i was told that one of those planets might not be a planet at all. lol

In 200 years everything you know today might be proven wrong. So you might be preaching a fairy tale as truth just like the other religious folks preaching their fairy tales. At least the religious folks tales pretty much stay constant.

I don't have any solutions, just making an observation thats all.

Science gave us automobiles, planes, medicine, the internet, electricity & more.
Religion gave us...

Scientific Method:

systematic observation, measurement, and experiment, and the formulation, testing, and modification of hypotheses."[3]

*

You may want to reread the last part again.

Things change as we learn more over time. It is quite the opposite of taking a book about legend, published by past emperors in control, and saying it is infallible.

There will always be some fraud, abuse a pathological science in the world, but for the most part, it is trying to get out of the "belief" system.

reply to post by mayabong

At least the religious folks tales pretty much stay constant.

That's because science is dynamic... it knows how to admit when it has made a mistake and it can work to fix that mistake by searching for new information to fill the gap. Religion is static and unchanging because it refuses to admit when it is wrong. It doesn't evolve or adapt to new discoveries (e.g. some people still believe in Young Earth Theory even though the evidence against that theory is tremendous), therefore it keeps people stuck in the dark ages.

Science might not be 100% right all of the time, but it is based on repeatable experiments and verifiable data which is used to support arguments and conclusions. Einsteins equations will work EVERY SINGLE TIME. Now the underlying theories based around those equations may be wrong (e.g. our understanding of space-time and gravity might not be rock solid), but nevertheless, those equations will always work despite how our understanding of those equations changes.

I put no faith in science, instead, I try to put understanding in its current state to the best of my ability.

I am under no illusion that half the stuff I understand about our collective understanding is probably if not a far cry from the actual truth, then a flat out falsehood...hense why I personally want science to continue on challenging things, including its own understandings.

Thats sort of the point of scientific progression. to keep challenging itself through observation and testing until false things are shed from our understanding and we can understand with a clearer picture what the nature of the universe we live in is.

The benefits of having a hyper-scientific society gives us many benefits also, technical upgrades, conveniences, etc...the more we understand something, the more we can have it work for us.

reply to post by mayabong

Actually you're right about the ever changing information, if you read any volumes of encyclopedia from 70+ years ago you can guarantee that most of the pages will be different. What about the useless crap they make you write out at in class at school? Yeah i am talking about Geography and the pages of global warming and the time wasted on revision and its not just global warming there are more examples that i don't remember.. Don't just blame this on Atheists i am sure people are wasting their time with this crap weather they have a religion or not.

ETA: Blame the government, they decide what you need to learn and what information is available.

reply to post by ChaoticOrder


I agree, don't get me wrong I love science. Had microscopes and chemistry sets ever since I was like 6, just don't put all my faith into "this is how reality is".

To me it seems like science is actually proving what some of the eastern religions have been saying all along. That the world is an illusion and your thoughts create what is going on. String theory, Quantum physics.. etc.
So it might be that Atheists are actually behind the curve by depending on science as a solid fact.

To be clear I don't worship any beings with 6 arms or any of that stuff, but I can take certain snippets that I find are interesting. I can even find like one sentence that I like from the bible, forgot what it was though.

I realize that maybe I should have put this in the metaphysics forum......... but hey

Originally posted by mayabong
I'm not a christian or any religion, but I find it funny that "athiests" put so much faith into science (pretty much like a religion with more books involved I guess). But it seems like lots of times the things we thought were true today are being proven wrong tomorrow.

I remember growing up and there were 9 planets, then I was told there were more planets, then all the sudden i was told that one of those planets might not be a planet at all. lol

In 200 years everything you know today might be proven wrong. So you might be preaching a fairy tale as truth just like the other religious folks preaching their fairy tales. At least the religious folks tales pretty much stay constant.

I don't have any solutions, just making an observation thats all.

edit on 26-4-2012 by mayabong because: (no reason given)

Well, yeah, at least scientist/science are willing to admit they are WRONG when it is proven... if anything in the bible is ever proven wrong, the religious who believe it will never/rarely admit it because "the bible is perfect."

Originally posted by pirhanna
Science gave us automobiles, planes, medicine, the internet, electricity & more.
Religion gave us...

Population control, taking people's money in exchange for nothing, lying to people, umm...

Originally posted by Parksie
reply to post by mayabong

 

Actually you're right about the ever changing information, if you read any volumes of encyclopedia from 70+ years ago you can guarantee that most of the pages will be different. What about the useless crap they make you write out at in class at school? Yeah i am talking about Geography and the pages of global warming and the time wasted on revision and its not just global warming there are more examples that i don't remember.. Don't just blame this on Atheists i am sure people are wasting their time with this crap weather they have a religion or not.

ETA: Blame the government, they decide what you need to learn and what information is available.

edit on 26-4-2012 by Parksie because: (no reason given)

The big thing that Atheists do preach is the theory of evolution as fact pretty much. I choose to have no opinion on the matter really. While I tend to lean that way a bit, for all I know tomorrow they can find something that blows that theory out of the water. Who knows? (maybe they'll find an ancient dna laboratory, I dont know) I guess my point is to watch what you are preaching as fact when it comes to science, cause you might be laughed at a couple decades later.

Originally posted by ReadyPower

Originally posted by mayabong
I'm not a christian or any religion, but I find it funny that "athiests" put so much faith into science (pretty much like a religion with more books involved I guess). But it seems like lots of times the things we thought were true today are being proven wrong tomorrow.

I remember growing up and there were 9 planets, then I was told there were more planets, then all the sudden i was told that one of those planets might not be a planet at all. lol

In 200 years everything you know today might be proven wrong. So you might be preaching a fairy tale as truth just like the other religious folks preaching their fairy tales. At least the religious folks tales pretty much stay constant.

I don't have any solutions, just making an observation thats all.

edit on 26-4-2012 by mayabong because: (no reason given)

Well, yeah, at least scientist/science are willing to admit they are WRONG when it is proven... if anything in the bible is ever proven wrong, the religious who believe it will never/rarely admit it because "the bible is perfect."

Classic! Science is great it has brought us more in 50 years than religion had in over 2000 years!

reply to post by mayabong

I agree, don't get me wrong I love science. Had microscopes and chemistry sets ever since I was like 6, just don't put all my faith into "this is how reality is".

I completely agree. It's clear that science has an extremely long way to go, and it's also clear some people put way too much "faith" into the CURRENT state of scientific knowledge. In fact, some people do treat it almost like a religion. And the reason they actually do that is because they feel as though they are at "war" with religion and so they need to pick a side (science) and defend that side with everything they've got. They put no where near enough consideration into the fact that science is often incomplete and wrong in certain areas. They argue certain points as if it were gospel, just like religious people argue points from the bible as if it were the gospel truth.

That isn't at all how science should be. They should not fear new discoveries which contradict or undermine the scientific establishment. That's what religion does; it viciously fights anyone who would wish to question their beliefs. Science is now becoming more like a religion because it's not about embracing the unknown and delving into unmapped territory, it's about making discoveries which confirm previous discoveries and therefore solidify their beliefs. They are scared to think they may have been wrong because they are treating it like a religion rather than the dynamic adaptable tool it should be.

From what I understand, in science their will always be a few that will go through the scientific process and reveal the accurate information.

Unfortunately, their are more and more "scientists" that have an agenda, whether its intentionally lying because their employer wants a certain outcome or they just want to fabricate their beliefs (in this instance the one that comes to mind is the hockey stick chart that would give the same results no matter what data was input)

Many religious people will never understand science. One big flaw is that they think that once something is established it should never be changed under any circumstances because that is how religion operates. That is not the case.

The thing that makes science superior to religion is that it does change information when something is tested and observed to be better or more fitting to the test results.It does correct itself when it is proven to be wrong.

But science is not perfect and doesn't claim to be, unlike religion.It does make mistakes. But when it is shown to be wrong it will correct itself. Unlike religion.

The only way religion changes is if a group of people decides that they don't want to worship their deity in the established way, the only way they can change it is if they split off from the main group and go off somewhere and worship on their own.

According to religion, religion never changes and is always perfect.

reply to post by mayabong


I'm not atheist, but I tend to agree with an atheist more than I do a religious person and I'll tell you why.

A spiritual person has nothing to fear by science . Science is absolutely amazing and as far as I can tell , all our modern medicines have come from things shamans already knew .. (herbs, harmony with nature ) the mind body connection is more and more being upheld by science.

“All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree. All these aspirations are directed toward ennobling man's life, lifting it from the sphere of mere physical existence and leading the individual towards freedom.”Albert Einstein

"The Native Americans [are] one of the richest, most incredibly beautiful cultures ever created on the face of the earth... these people, in many ways, hold the key to our success."-Billy Corgan

Religion is so wrong in the sense that it tries to define the universe in a box ..... it tends to put black and white thinking and finite rules where they just don't apply

reply to post by mayabong


Hold on now, I'm a science NERD and I'm not Atheist. The problem isn't with evidence, it problem is Theists and Atheists have different worldviews and presuppositions with which to interpret the evidence. Example:

When archaeologists finds a T_Rex femur bone still with soft marrow and red blood cells the Theist will say: "See, this disproves Evolution!" The Atheist will look at the same evidence and say "Wow, what process made it possible for that marrow and red blood cells to last for millions and millions of years?"

We all have the exact same evidence, different worldviews and presuppositions determine how we interpret that evidence.

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Originally posted by pirhanna
Science gave us automobiles, planes, medicine, the internet, electricity & more.
Religion gave us...

Exactly.

Also, IMHO science is fundamentally atheistic. I know there are lots of religious scientists, but scientists must believe that natural laws are more important than magic/miracle in shaping events. Scientist must believe that they can test their hypotheses without magic/miracle mucking-up the results very often.

reply to post by XLR8R


How was this off topic?