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I've always thought that the biggest difference between religious people and atheists is that we're willing to just say "I don't know".
I don't know if there was something before the universe, how it'll end or if there will be something after, or if we're in some kind of simulation, or whatever else. But I'm willing to leave it at that and I don't feel the need to point to some deity to fill in the gaps of my knowledge.
Years ago I ordered a bunch of science books, On The Shoulders of Giants, The Selfish Gene, Not Even Wrong, The Big Bang Origins of our Universe, and some others while on a deployment in the military and when I opened my big bundle my boss "made fun of me," by saying something along the lines of, "Y'all think you're so smart, but you need so many books and I just need one." Referring to his Bible.
The irony being that the more I read, the more I realize I don't know, and the more he reads, the more certain he becomes. So yeah, "I don't know" is my fucking motto these days because I don't know shit.
Got my undergrad in physics and commissioned as a Lt. The first taught me how little I actually know. The second taught me how little everyone else actually knows. But damn, some of them are confident in it
Nothing more humbling than telling a professor about your very niche undergrad research and they know more about it off the cuff, lol. What did you end up going to grad school for, I'm curious? My undergrad was physics but I ended up falling into coding.
The government wouldn't release me for any degree I wanted, so I haven't gone yet. My plans got derailed because I either applied to a program outside my career field, or I didn't have a background related to a masters in my career field. Perfect catch 22. Currently trying to get accepted to an electrical engineering program. But it's tough after being away from school for so long
In my person interactions, the religious conservative folks seem to care most about having clear answers for things. Once they “know” something, they’re good, and they will repeat it confidently to anybody else who asks. If they particularly like the answer, or it is financially or personally beneficial to them, they might just make it part of their core identity.
Of course, not all conservatives are like that, and progressives are not completely immune to it. It’s a problem with the irrational human mind, after all.
Science = ouch, pain in brain hole (science man scary)
Jesus done it = easy, make brain hole feel good
This is my first time reading "brain hole", and I do not like it.
You’re welcome
I've never understood why people so often keep the two separated. Like, if you already believe in a god, why not interpret things like physics and chemistry as how your god set the world up to run? I totally get that religion is complex and divisive, but at an individual level, it seems like such an easy "problem" to resolve.
Because often enough, results in science contradict religious belief. Heliocentric model, for example.
I think a big problem is many people aren't wired to appreciate the difference between knowledge and belief. Knowledge and science are the realm of the empirical. Belief is about the unknowable.
Something that can be known cannot be believed, and something that can be believed cannot be known. That separation should be complete, so belief and knowledge never conflict.
I get where you're coming from on this.
For example: why not believe that "god" used physics and science to create all of this. Gently manipulating everything as it developed to create humanity and the universe the way they wanted it to be?
The religious issue with this idea is that it undermines the very idea of their belief. God created the heavens and the earth. Period. God didn't create a bunch of stuff then shape it to become the heavens and the earth.... No, he thought it, and it happened.
The difference being that in a more reasonable interpretation, using physics and whatnot to create everything, would be a slow and not very profound process. Under the premise that God basically snapped his fingers and poof, earth... That's incredible. Impossible by any other measure.
By inviting a more measured approach, you diminish the perceived power of God, making the entire concept less awesome (in the sense of inspiring awe), and wondrous. This is the root of faith. Speaking more generally "my Deity can do all this with the snap of a finger, we are nothing compared to them"
By putting people into this subdued mindset of being so much less powerful than God, you can basically exert full control over them "in the name of our Lord". You really only need to convince them that what you want them to do is "the will of God" and they'll be mentally servile to whatever it is.
That's the root of religion. Control. Not eternal salvation. Not saving your soul from damnation. Not doing good for goodness sake.... Control.
Simply, making god seem less wondrous, even by a small amount, makes people less malleable to suggestion, for what God "commands" of them.
It could have been dog.
The Personal Confusion Fallacy or Personal Incredulously Fallacy - if I don't understand it, it must be false.
I don’t get this meme. But I guess god works in mysterious ways 🙃