The average joe on the street is blissfully ignorant about most aspects of science, yet he is far more likely to "believe" in it than in religion. Why?

Because people can point to substantial evidence and say it is science. You can't really convince an atheist God exists no matter what you show him/her. Look at those who only believe in Darwin's theories.

(03-12-2009 11:41 AM)smotmon Wrote:  The average joe on the street is blissfully ignorant about most aspects of science, yet he is far more likely to "believe" in it than in religion. Why?

Science (from the Latin scientia, meaning "knowledge"). It can be backed up. Where religion can't be backed up and it is faith based.

Hello,

I agree. However, most individuals seem to accept scientific ideas without thinking about them; if we do this with regard to religion we call it ignorant blind faith. For example, no one has observed a quantum singularity yet we believe they exist because they are scientific constructs and seem to "fit in" comfortably with our current understanding of the universe; we tend to believe what seems counter-intuitive or impossible which seems a lot like blind faith.

(10-07-2009 12:58 PM)smotmon Wrote:  Hello,

I agree. However, most individuals seem to accept scientific ideas without thinking about them; if we do this with regard to religion we call it ignorant blind faith. For example, no one has observed a quantum singularity yet we believe they exist because they are scientific constructs and seem to "fit in" comfortably with our current understanding of the universe; we tend to believe what seems counter-intuitive or impossible which seems a lot like blind faith.

And that is exactly it "we believe they exist"; which is different to saying "They do exist". Science can be challenged and is constantly challenged and updated. The same can't be said of religion; it is the same old rhetoric that it was 2,000 years ago. The more we go forward the more religion gets boxed into a corner.

So we agree that belief in science, at least for the layman, has similarities to belief in religion. My point was not whether one or the other is right, but whether they both require some degree of belief in what we cannot absolutely know.

(10-08-2009 02:31 PM)smotmon Wrote:  So we agree that belief in science, at least for the layman, has similarities to belief in religion. My point was not whether one or the other is right, but whether they both require some degree of belief in what we cannot absolutely know.

But.... we can 'absolutely know' certain things. Others are under investigation. I don't think you can have faith in science; science is about what can be proven. Religion is just about faith. Of course there are those out there that do have 'faith' in science; as people do have 'faith' in religion. But faith is about not delving deeper, just accepting what your brain wants to accept.

I can understand why you might say that it takes faith to believe in science. More and more, you hear about science research that is so contradictory. There is no "absolute" when it comes to human science research. I guess that's why there is also some controversy regarding Professor Nutt and his findings.