Religion Works Too

[ysabetwordsmith]

I read this article in which Stephen Hawking argues against the afterlife.  Okay, he's a smart guy.  I admire him greatly.  But he's a smart science  guy; he doesn't have nearly the same credentials in terms of researching religion.  (Consider that it's a poor idea to take the Pope's advice on science.  I'm not sure it's a better idea to take Hawking's advice on religion, for similar reasons.  It's not his field.)  He argues that science will win against religion "because it works."

Science is a relatively recent human discovery.  Religion seems to go back to the origin of human artifacts that we can interpret, and possibly farther.  Science exists in some but not all human cultures.  Religion exists in all known human cultures, and when people try to stamp it out, it regenerates.  When it comes to decision-making, if there is an apparent conflict between science and religion, considerably more people will decide based on religion even if the practical effects of doing that are negative.  I like science a lot.  But I don't think it's fair to imply that science works and religion doesn't.  Certainly it's possible for religion to malfunction, as anything can in a flawed universe.  But when something has been around for 50,000+ years throughout an entire species, that pretty much has to fit some  definition of "it works."

You can have the most awesome metric toolkit in the world, but it's not going to be a lot of use on standard machinery.  Some tools generalize well across disciplines; others don't.  This is not to say that the tools of science are never useful in religion, or vice verse; but it does mean you need to know your tools and both fields before understanding what will swap and what won't.

Comments

[ankewehner.livejournal.com]

The "it's been around for a long time" argument doesn't make particularly much sense to me, either.

War and racism/considering everybody not in one's own "group" not fully human have been around for a long time, too.

[msstacy13.livejournal.com]

Hmmm...

oddly enough,
science hasn't done much to defeat war and racism,
either...

[ankewehner.livejournal.com]

What I meant is that I don't think war and racism should be defended "because they have been around a long time", so using "it has been around a long time" does not work as an argument in favour for religion to me.

Seems to me (never having studied te topic in depth) like both religion AND science have been used to justify racism and further wars.

[msstacy13.livejournal.com]

But observing and saying that something works isn't actually an endorsement of it;
only a recognition the fact that it works.

It was once believed that science would eradicate infectious disease,
but the thing is, infectious disease works. As horrible as it will often be,
infectious disease, like religion, is part of our evolution,
and part of what we are.

[msstacy13.livejournal.com]

But observing and saying that something works
isn't actually an endorsement of it;
only a recognition of the fact that it works.

It was once believed that science would eradicate infectious disease,
but the thing is, infectious disease works. As horrible as it will often be,
infectious disease, like religion, is part of our evolution,
and part of what we are.

[trinker.livejournal.com]

...science *can* eradicate infectious disease where the vectors can be addressed. Measles and whooping cough are making a comeback because of human quasi-religious factors, not a failure of science.

[msstacy13.livejournal.com]

Barring re-introduction,
Smallpox has been eradicated,
but polio and HIV, as well as influenza, the common cold and the obesity virus
demonstrate that infectious disease itself is adaptable.
While individual infectious diseases might be eradicated,
and infection rates reduced,
infectious disease will never be eradicated.

[trinker.livejournal.com]

Seen the latest news on HIV?

The problem is the metacategory "infectious disease".

And it's another bedamned strawman argument.

[zeeth_kyrah]

They do the job of enforcing cultural survival, though.

[msstacy13.livejournal.com]

Yes, they work...

We may not be happy with how or why they work,
but, still, they work...
and science has pretty well closed ranks with religion
to help them work...