Why God's in a class by himself.

by Big Dog 4 Replies latest social current

  • Big Dog
    Big Dog

    We all the debate that has been raging here lately I thought I would post this article that appeared in the LA Times, I thought the author did an excellent job of analyzing the issue.

    Why God's in a class by himself

    By Michael Shermer, MICHAEL SHERMER is the publisher of Skeptic magazine, a columnist for Scientific American and the author of "The Science of Good & Evil" and "Science Friction" (Henry Holt/Times Books). INTELLIGENT DESIGN creationism resurfaced in the news last week after President Bush's remarks were (mis)taken by IDers to be a solid endorsement for the teaching of ID in public school science classrooms. (Bush's science advisor, John H. Marburger III, said that "evolution is the cornerstone of modern biology" and "intelligent design is not a scientific concept.")

    One magazine reporter asked for my opinion about whether one can believe in God and the theory of evolution.



    You can believe in God and evolution as long as you keep the two in separate, logic-tight compartments. Belief in God depends on religious faith. Belief in evolution depends on empirical evidence.

    This is the fundamental difference between religion and science. If you attempt to reconcile religion and science on questions about nature and the universe, and if you push the science to its logical conclusion, you will end up naturalizing the deity because for any question about nature — the origins of the universe, life, humans, whatever — if your answer is "God did it," a scientist will ask: "How did God do it? What forces did God use? What forms of matter and energy were employed in the creation process?" and so forth. The end result of this inquiry can only be natural explanations for all natural phenomena. What place, then, for God?

    One could argue that God is the laws and forces of nature, which is logically acceptable, but this is pantheism and not the type of personal God to which most people profess belief.

    One could also argue that God created the universe and life using the laws and forces of nature as his tools, which is also logically fine, but it leaves us with additional scientific questions: Which laws and forces were used to create specific natural phenomena? How did God create the laws and forces of nature? A scientist would be curious to know God's recipe for, say, gravity or for a universe or a cell. For that matter, it is a legitimate scientific question to ask what made God, and how was God created? How do you make an omniscient being?

    Finally, one could argue that God is outside of nature and therefore needs no explanation. This is also logically consistent, but by definition it means that the God question is outside of science, and therefore religion and science are separate and incompatible.

    Bottom line: Teach science in science classes and religion in religion classes.

  • stillajwexelder
    stillajwexelder

    Bottom line: Teach science in science classes and religion in religion classes.

    I second that

  • tetrapod.sapien
    tetrapod.sapien

    nice. i love Shermer. i read him every month in SA, and own a couple of books. he's doing a good thing for america, and at least one canadian.

    cheers,

    TS

  • georgefoster
    georgefoster

    I agree, creationism is based on a belief system and can be taught in church. But, at least acknowledge that the science of evolution and the origin of the universe is full of holes.

  • Satanus
    Satanus
    One could argue that God is the laws and forces of nature, which is logically acceptable, but this is pantheism and not the type of personal God to which most people profess belief.

    No, but spermer himself puts up no argument against it. He just dismisses it on the grounds of what others think. I bit of a reversal in using what is popular about god positively.

    You can believe in God and evolution as long as you keep the two in separate, logic-tight compartments.

    Yes, obviously what he is determined to do, as if you let them into the same box at the same time, you get, you guessed it pantheism. Bet shermer has nightmares about that. Don't know why. It's a fairly benign god, this universe. It creates atoms for eons of use, then shreds them at the end, each atom the same as the other.

    S

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